Daily Recovery Readings - June

[bluidkiti]

June 2

Daily Reflections

THE UPWARD PATH

Here are the steps we took. . . . .
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 59

These are the words that lead into the Twelve Steps. In their
direct simplicity they sweep aside all psychological and
philosophical considerations about the rightness of the Steps.
They describe what I did: I took the Steps and sobriety was
the result. These words do not imply that I should walk the
well-trodden path of those who went before, but rather that
there is a way for me to become sober and that it is a way I
shall have to find. It is a new path, one that leads to
infinite light at the top of the mountain. The Steps advise
me about the footholds that are safe and about chasms to
avoid. They provide me with the tools I need during the many
parts of the solitary journey of my soul. When I speak of
this journey, I share my experience, strength and hope with
others.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Some more things I do not miss since becoming dry: wondering
if the car is in the garage and how I got home; struggling to
remember where I was and what I did since my last conscious
moment; trying to delay getting off to work, and wondering how
I will look when I get there; dreading the day ahead of me.
I'm quite sure that I don't miss these things, am I not?

Meditation For The Day

You cannot believe in God and keep your selfish ways. The old
self shrivels up and dies, and upon the reborn soul God's
image becomes stamped. The gradual elimination of selfishness
in the growth of love for God and your fellow human beings is
the goal of life. At first, you have only a faint likeness to
the Divine, but the picture grows and takes on more and more
of the likeness of God until those who see you can see in you
some of the power of God's grace at work in a human life.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may develop that faint likeness I have to the
Divine. I pray that others may see in me some of the power of
God's grace at work.

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As Bill Sees It

Without Anger, p. 153

Suppose A.A. falls under sharp public attack or heavy ridicule, having
little or no justification in fact. Our best defense in these situations
would be no defense whatever--namely, complete silence at the public
level. If in good humor we let unreasonable critics alone, they are apt
to subside more quickly. If their attacks persist and it is plain that they
are misinformed, it may be wise to communicate with them privately in
a temperate and informative way.

If, however, a given criticism of A.A. is partly or wholly justified, it may
well be to acknowledge this privately to the critics, together with our
thanks.

But under no conditions should we exhibit anger or any punitive intent.

<< << << >> >> >>

What we must recognize is that we exult in some of our defects.
Self-righteousness anger can be very enjoyable. In a perverse way we
can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us;
it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority.

1. Twelve Concepts, p. 69
2. 12 & 12, pp. 66-67

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Walk in Dry Places

Why admitting we're wrong is right
Right action
Sometimes it's painful or almost impossible to admit that we've been wrong. This means we'll probably go on making the same mistakes until we're forced to face the truth. Why does this happen?
The problem lies with what we call the EGO in our Twelve step program discussions. We commit ourselves in defending this ego at al times, especially around people who seem to put us down. Far from being a minor correction, any admissions of wrong feels like total defeat, at least in our warped way of looking at things.
We can release ourselves from this bondage simply by coming to see that admitting and facing our wrongs is essential to growth. A store manager who overstocks a certain item "admits" the mistake by putting the goods on a clearance sale and getting rid of them. We can cut any loss in the same way by admitting a mistake and going on to a better course of action.
I'll not plan to make any mistakes today, but I'll hold myself in readiness to admit them if they occur. This is no threat to my ego. I am much more than my mistakes.

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Each Day a New Beginning

I have come to realize that all my trouble with living has come from fear and smallness within me. --Angela L. Wozniak
We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are. We fear that we are inadequate to the task before us, fear that another woman is more attractive, fear that the friends around us are bored by our presence.
Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement with the experiences we are given to grow on. When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure: failure to take all we can from life; failure to be all that we can be. Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves. When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind.
I will not fear whatever looks like trouble today. Nothing I can't handle, in fact, nothing I can't grow from will come my way today. My inner strength can see me through.

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Keep It Simple

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.---Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us want to be happy. We just don't know how. We aren't sure what happiness is. We've learned the hard way that some things we wanted didn't make us happy. We're learning that happiness comes when we live the way our Higher Power wants us to live. That's when we’re honest. When we do our best work. When we are a true friend. We make happiness; we don't find it. Sometimes we don't even know we're happy. We're too busy with our work, our recovery program, our friends and family. We need to slow down and know that when we do what we need to, happiness comes.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know that I'm most happy when I listen to You and do Your will. You know better than I do what makes me happy.
Action for the Day: What parts of my program am I most happy about? Today I'll think of these and enjoy myself.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 10 - To Employers

I well remember the shock I received when a prominent doctor in Chicago told me of cases where pressure of the spinal fluid actually ruptured the brain. No wonder an alcoholic is strangely irrational. Who wouldn’t be, with such a fevered brain? Normal drinkers are not so affected, nor can they understand the aberrations of the alcoholic.

p. 140

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Four - "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."

First off, they can be told that the majority of A.A. members have suffered severely from self-justification during their drinking days. For most of us, self-justification was the maker of excuses; excuses, of course, for drinking, and for all kinds of crazy and damaging conduct. We had made the invention of alibis a fine art. We had to drink because times were hard or times were good. We had to drink because at home we were smothered with love or got none at all. We had to drink because at work we were great successes or dismal failures. We had to drink because our nation had won a war or lost a peace. And so it went, ad infinitum.

pp. 46-47

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Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn
whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
--Helen Keller

I came to this program to save my butt and found out it was attached
to my soul.
--Anonymous

"How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on
the inside of us."
--Park Cousins

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the
only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have
sought and found how to serve."
--Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

"What we do in these rooms is we share our experience, strength, and
hope. The worse it gets, the more we laugh and the better it gets,
the more we cry. We call it Alcoholics Anonymous."
--thanks to Norm A. for this wonderful quote

In this world, nothing is permanent except change.
--American Proverb

All things change, and we with them.
--American Proverb

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

TIME

"Everything one does enough of
eventually generates its own
interest and one then begins to
believe in it. "
--Alan Dunn

I never thought that I could stay sober. For years I tried to abstain
with no success. It was not the act of stopping that was different ( I
could stop three times in one week!). It was staying stopped.

Then a man said, "Try stopping for twenty-four hours. If that proves
too long, try stopping until the morning or for one hour or even for one
minute . . . If the cravings gets too severe, call me but don't take that
first drink!" My abstinence began in periods of twenty-four hours.
Life is made up of days and we live in periods of twenty-four hours, so
I live a day at a time. I was successful. I am successful. Today I have a
number of years that are based on the simplicity of "don't drink today
". I believe in it. I believe in me. And it gets better.

Lord of time, thank you for giving me the simplicity of days, hours and
minutes.

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You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3

He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his
mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the
Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of
what Jesus Christ our Savior did.
Titus 3:5-6

You aren't alone in your trials and struggles. God is your help and
strength in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

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Daily Inspiration

Sometimes it is better to remove things from your "to do" list rather than adding to it. Lord, give me the courage to say no to the things that cause me to feel overwhelmed.

Imagine that you were paid for every kindness and charged for every unkindness. Would you be rich or poor? Lord, I often pray for material wealth. Let me not neglect my soul by now praying for the ability to build my spiritual wealth also.