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May 13

Daily Reflections

THE EASIER, SOFTER WAY

If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 72

I certainly didn't leap at the opportunity to face who I was, especially
when the pains of my drinking days hung over me like a dark cloud.
But I soon heard at the meetings about the fellow member who just
didn't want to take Step Five and kept coming back to meetings,
trembling from the horrors of reliving his past. The easier, softer way
is to take these Steps to freedom from our fatal disease, and to put our
faith in the Fellowship and our Higher Power.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

In A.A. we find fellowship and release and strength. And having found
these things, the real reasons for our drinking are taken away. Then
drinking has no more justification in our minds. We no longer need to
fight against drink. Drink just naturally leaves us. At first, we are
sorry that we can't drink, but we get so that we are glad that we don't
have to drink. Am I glad that I don't have to drink?

Meditation For The Day

Try never to judge. The human mind is so delicate and so complete
that only its Maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different,
actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different
circumstance, influenced by such different sufferings, you cannot know
all the influences that have gone to make up a personality. Therefore,
it is impossible for you to judge wholly that personality. But God
knows that person wholly and He can change it. Leave to God the
unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God to teach
you the proper understanding.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may not judge other people. I pray that I may be certain
that God can set right what is wrong in every personality.

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As Bill Sees It

"Privileged People", p. 133

I saw that I had been living too much alone, too much aloof from my
fellows, and too deaf to that voice within. Instead of seeing myself as
a simple agent bearing the message of experience, I had thought of
myself as a founder of A.A.

How much better it would have been had I felt gratitude rather than
self-satisfaction--gratitude that I had once suffered the pains of
alcoholism, gratitude that a miracle of recovery had been worked
upon me from above, gratitude for the privilege of serving my fellow
alcoholics, and gratitude for those fraternal ties which bound me ever
closer to them in a comradeship such as few societies of men have
ever known.

Truly did a clergyman say to me, "Your misfortune has become your
good fortune. You A.A.'s are privileged people."

Grapevine, July 1946

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Walk in Dry Places

Who's to blame?
Personal responsibility.
Unless we're unusual, we've probably accepted the widespread practice of blaming certain individuals and groups when trouble occurs. Most likely, we'll also have people whom we blame for our own difficulties: unloving parents, careless teachers, unfair bosses, and others on an endless list.
However accurate it may be, such blame-placing does nothing constructive. It really serves only to reinforce our bitterness and resentment, thus assuring that more of the same "injustices" will come to us.
The real truth is that we have no complete explanation for the world's individual and social wrongs. While certain individuals are admittedly guilty of wrongdoing, it often turns out that they've also been victims of cruelty or neglect. Our goal, as people committed to a spiritual way of life, is to reise above all blame placing while striving for improvement in our own treatment of others.
Though I may read and hear much to the contrary, I'll resist the notion that certain people or groups must be held accountable for the world's problems. I'll focus my attention, this day, on improvement in my own life.

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Keep It Simple

Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.---Harry Emerson Fosdick
Hate is like an illness. It steals our hope, our love, our relationships. Hate puts distance between people. Hate can give us a false sense of power. Do I use hate to make myself feel important?
Our program tells us to let go of hate. Hate and sobriety don't mix. Hate doesn't let us connect with our Higher Power.
Ours is a program of love and respect. We're taught that if someone treats us wrong, we still should be respectful in our response. Why? Because we're changed by our actions. If we act with hate, we become hateful. If we act in a respectful way, we become respectable.
Prayer for the Day: Hate is the drug of those who are afraid. Higher Power, help me to be free from hate today.
Action for the Day: It's self-centered to hate. Today, I'll read pages 60-62 of Alcoholics Anonymous(Third Edition) about being self-centered.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Your sense of what will bring happiness is so crude and blundering. Try something else as a compass. Maybe the moralists are right and happiness doesn't come from seeking pleasure and ease. --Joanna Field
We think we know what will make us happy. Seldom do we readily accept that painful moments are often the price tags for peaceful, happy times. Nor do we appreciate that happiness lives within each of us; never is it intrinsic to the events we experience. Because we look for happiness "out there" and expect it gift-wrapped in a particular way, we miss the joy of being fully alive each passing moment. How distorted our sense of happiness was before finding our way to this program! How futile our search!
The way still isn't easy every Step we take, but those fleeting moments when we can get outside of ourselves long enough to be fully attentive to the people in our lives, we'll find happiness. We'll find it because it's been there all the time. It flows between us when we open our hearts to give and to receive compassion. Being truly there for another person is the key which unlocks the gate holding happiness back.
I will let someone in today and feel the rush of happiness.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterward

One of the many doctors who had the opportunity of reading this book in manuscript form told us that the use of sweets was often helpful, of course depending upon a doctor’s advice. He thought all alcoholics should constantly have chocolate available for its quick energy value at times of fatigue. He added that occasionally in the night a vague craving arose which would be satisfied by candy. Many of us have noticed a tendency to eat sweets and have found this practice beneficial.

pp. 133-134

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Three - "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."

Therefore, we who are alcoholics can consider ourselves fortunate indeed. Each of us has had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better. So it is by circumstance rather than by any virtue that we have been driven to A.A., have admitted defeat, have acquired the rudiments of faith, and now want to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to a Higher Power.

pp. 37-38

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"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers."
--Jewish Proverb

"When it comes to love, Mom's the word."
--unknown

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have
trouble."

Laughter, like a drenching rain, settles the dust, cleans and brightens
the world around us, and changes our whole perspective.
--Jan Pishok

A big part of my "conversion" has been full acceptance of myself,
warts and all.
--Mary Zink

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

ARGUMENTS

"Argument is the worst sort of
conversation."
--Jonathan Swift

Why did I argue so much? Why do I argue so much? Usually it is
because I feel threatened, angry, discounted or I am wrong and I do
not want to admit it.

Today I need to remember that discussion is the better path to follow.
I need to hear and understand what the other person is saying and
from where they are coming. For too long I have argued, fought and
produced enemies - today I wish to embrace the spiritual path of
serenity and reconciliation. Also, I do not want to hurt anymore.
Arguments hurt me. Arguments hurt others. I should, push and scream but
inside afterwards, I hurt. My program today allow my ego to be balanced and
restrained. I try to think before I speak. I consider before I react.
However, when I do get into arguments and say hurtful and painful
things that I do not mean, I am brave enough to say I am sorry.

May the God of peace, love and acceptance be seen in my
relationships.

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"The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD,
endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands."
Psalm 138:8

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we
will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not
be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you
wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9

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Daily Inspiration

Our goodness is one of God's many gifts to us. Lord, may I humbly appreciate my good qualities and give thanks to You through my actions.

The value of each gift God gives us is doubled when we share it with someone else. Lord, may I freely give without expectation of something in return even though I know Your constant generosity.