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Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - January
January 1
Step by Step “FOREWORD TO SECOND EDITION Figures given in this foreword describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955 “Since the original Foreword to this book was written in 1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest printing voiced the hope ‘that every alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already,’ continues the early text, ‘twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities.’ “Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Foreword to the Second Edition,” p xv. Today, when tradition prods us to think in terms of new beginnings and resolutions, the history of AA as measured in the years between 1939 and 1955 assures us of a new start – if we work toward and apply the steps and principles of the program. In the years since this foreword, the number of recovering alcoholics has multiplied by more than 10 times. If the program has worked for that vast a number of people, why, then, can’t it work for me? It can, and if I have failed in the past, it is because I failed the program and not that the program failed me. On this day when we are encouraged to let go of the old and ring in the new, my recovery somehow appropriately begins with the hope that I, too, can be in that number of recovering alcoholics. So let the new begin. And our common journey continues. Step by step.– Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ A NEW BEGINNING The new is but the old come true; each sunrise sees a New Year born. ~ Helen Hunt Jackson ~ We know that a totally new life can begin on any day of a year, at any hour of the day, or at any moment of an hour. That new life began the moment we decided to surrender and admit to a powerlessness over a substance or an impulse. It began when we accepted the fact that we needed help and could receive it simply by asking. Many of us used to choose New Year’s Day as a time for making good resolutions and swearing off bad habits. When we failed, we simply shrugged and said, “Maybe I can start tomorrow, next week— or next New Year’s Day.” We were always going to “turn over a new leaf.” Now, in recovery, we no longer depend on doing it all alone. We know we can stay abstinent only by sharing with fellow members. Let me remember, each day in recovery is another milestone. I no longer have to use a calendar. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be happier. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~ At the start of this new year, we look back at what has been and we look forward to the future. Our path has been filled with healing and hope. Rewards have come to us each day. Now, looking toward the year ahead, we can’t know much of what will happen, but we can recommit ourselves to our healing and sober path. We can have renewed comfort and optimism that we will not be alone and that we will be able to handle whatever comes our way. The start of a new year is a good time to make lists of the things we fear, the things we hope for, and the things we are grateful for. These lists serve as a kind of snapshot inventory of our attitude toward the world and our relationship with our Higher Power. They point a direction for us today and for the year ahead. We can put these lists in a safe place until next year when we will bring them out as a reminder of where we were and a measure of how far we’ve come. Today I once again turn my life and will over to the care of God. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ God does not require that we be successful, only that we be faithful. ~ Mother Teresa ~ It’s probable we have never equated success with faith. Being successful meant accomplishing worthy goals and receiving the expected praise. We may have even considered that relying on faith to help us was a cop-out. Fortunately, so much about how we interpret life has changed since joining this journey through recovery. In Step Three we learn that God wants us to have faith. We are coming to see, in fact, that acting as if we have faith begins to feel like faith. Coming to believe that God’s only expectation is that we turn within for guidance makes every circumstance far less threatening. Practicing faith promises that we will begin to feel successful in all our experiences because we are walking through them peacefully, trusting fully that God is at hand. Believing in God, being truly faithful, can be the greatest success of our lives. I can be faith-filled today if I turn my life and my will over to the care of God. I will remind myself of this every time I get in the “driver’s seat.” ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ It helps if I do a little at a time When I realized I had an addiction, I felt guilty and defective. I wanted to shake off the problem right away. At first, I couldn’t stay sober for long. I’d relapse and feel guilty and weak for having failed. I couldn’t see that I was making progress. Nowadays, I have a better perspective on the process—both on the downward and the upward spirals. I can see that it took some time for me to develop an addiction, one day at a time. And it took some time to feel so miserable that I really wanted to get clean. Likewise, it will take some time—one day at a time—to begin the changes that make for recovery. It’s no fun to live with these problems, but I am slowly accepting the fact that change does not happen overnight. The most important thing I can do is to work at making some change each and every day. Today I will do just one thing to help my recovery progress. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Man, like the Bridge, was designed to carry the load of the moment, not the combined weight of a year at once. ~ William A. Ward ~ When trouble tumbles down on us, we are easily overwhelmed. We see problems facing us in the future, and mountains of work to do. We look at the past and see the pain and struggle of addiction. Looking at all this, we might feel despair. We can’t handle it. We want to run. Our thoughts begin to spin; we feel caught in a whirlwind. We feel we will break. Then, softly, we hear the words of our Twelve Step program: “One day at a time.” We find we can slow down and take a moment to let the peace of our Higher Power touch us. Now we can take one small step at a time We can begin the task before us — doing the next right thing. By slowing down and taking action, we stop the spinning and find calm. We find that, like the bridge, we can handle the stress of the moment. And one day at a time, we can find serenity. Today help me to stay focused on life, one moment at a time. Help me to hear the soft voice of recovery. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. ~ Step One ~ A prayer is a humble and heartfelt communication with a power greater than yourself. A prayer can admit a weakness, communicate a need, or convey praise and gratitude. Prayers can unburden your heart, give you strength and courage, and deepen your faith and trust in a Higher Power. Use the following prayer as you work on your understanding and acceptance of Step One. Step One Prayer Higher Power, I am powerless over my addiction. Addiction has controlled my life and made it unmanageable. It has had a terrible impact on my life and many others. I am ready to let go of old patterns. I am ready to release toxicity from every facet of my life. I am open to receiving and using the tools of the program so I can take greater control of my life. Although I have felt unwilling to change in the past, I feel empowered today. I will no longer deny I have an addiction. Higher Power, I am an addict. I ask for your help today with my addiction. I trust in your power and believe that, through your guidance, you will lead me into a true lightness of living—free at last from my addiction. Higher Power, thank you for listening. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ It is as important to relax our minds as it is to concentrate them. ~ Charles B. Newcomb ~ After a day of activity, our bodies naturally need to slow down. We yawn, our muscles stiffen, our eyes want to close. Yet our minds can be racing at top speed. How do we learn to slow down our thoughts and relax? We first need to realize we don’t have to do it all ourselves. We can ask for help from a book, a relaxation tape, a class or workshop, a movie, or music. And we can learn how to unwind from others. For most of our lives, we learned how to be tense. Now we need to learn how to relax. Just as we didn’t learn our tension in one night, we also won’t learn relaxation in one night. But we can begin tonight to find some methods that will work for us. We can try, a little bit at a time, to become familiar with how it feels to have a more relaxed mind. Tonight can be a beginning. Am I willing to unlearn my tensions? What resources can I use tonight to help me relax my mind? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Living today The beginning of the New Year will often bring back sad memories. This has been the big day for hangovers, coming down, remorse, guilt, and shame. But if we stay with our new purpose—staying clean and staying close to our Higher Power—we don’t have to fear the New Year. God has forgiven our past mistakes and tomorrow is not yet here. If we do what we know is right today, all else will be taken care of. It’s not always easy to do what is necessary today, but it’s impossible to change yesterday or to guarantee what tomorrow will bring. Our year will unfold better by living each day as it comes instead of regretting the past or anticipating the future. Am I learning to live one day at a time? I pray for the willingness to deal with today, instead of being obsessed with the past or the future. My plan for living today is God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Whatever happens at all happens as it should. ~ MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS ~ Newcomer I came to this meeting, but I don’t know if I belong here. I just don’t know. Sponsor We have a saying: “Nobody gets here by mistake.” For many of us, this means that something inside us knows we need help and that we’re in the process of becoming willing to accept it. Some of us are drawn here thinking, at first, that we’ve come because of someone else’s problem; then we discover that we’ve also come for ourselves. Some of us sense immediately that we belong here; some come to this feeling over time; some never feel they belong. Our arriving at the first meeting can seem mysterious until we realize how unlikely it is for a person with no relationship to addiction whatsoever to show up here. Since you can’t decide whether you belong here or not, why not stay? Consider it a gift that’s been offered you, a chance to explore your relationship to addiction. You are entitled to be here. The only “qualification” for membership is a desire to quit our addictive substance or behavior. Unless you cause a disruption, no one’s going to ask you to leave a meeting. Relax, sit back, and listen. See if you identify with any of the feelings that you hear people share, whether or not their specific life experiences mirror yours. If you keep coming, more will be revealed in time. Today, I am where I’m supposed to be. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Without the introduction of a purpose into our lives we would be but dried-up drunks, wallowing in self-pity for the loss of that which we were forced to deny ourselves in order to bring about some semblance of order in our lives. We would be “off the bottle” but not for a moment happy about it — never with any sense of security. We who have found AA have introduced that something into our lives that enabled us, with the Grace of God, to “fix” ourselves. We have not given up anything — we have acquired something; we are no longer frustrated people, because we have introduced into our lives a reliance in a Power greater than ourselves, that we did not have before. That Power has opened up a new way of life, free of worry, fear and frustration. ************************************************ ~ POCKET SPONSOR ~ (Back to the Basics for Addiction Recovery) ~ To earn respect, we must live responsibly. To live responsibly, we must identify and clarify our personal value system, then act on a daily basis in accordance with that value system. Respect is for the respectable. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Serenity Prayer God, grant me The serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The courage to change the things I can; The wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ LIBERATION There exists a mystic power that is able to transform your life so thoroughly, so radically, so completely, that when the process is completed your own friends would hardly recognize you, and, in fact, you would scarcely be able to recognize yourself. It can lift you out of an invalid’s bed, and free you to go out into the world to shape your life as you will. It can throw open the prison door and liberate the captive. This power can do for you that which is probably the most important thing of all in your present stage: it can find your true place in life for you, and put you into it. This power is really no less than the primal Power of Being, and to discover that Power is the divine birthright of all men, women and children. …The Kingdom of God is within you…(Luke 17:21) …Seek ye first the kingdom of God…and all these…things shall be added… (Mathew 6:33) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Clean Slate Grand adventures await those who are willing to turn the corner. ~ Chinese fortune cookie ~ In the film Clean Slate, Dana Carvey portrays a man named Pogue who has an unusual type of amnesia—when he goes to sleep each night, he forgets everything that happened to him before that time. A woman who had once manipulated Pogue asks him, “Can you ever forgive me for what I did to you last week?” In an utterly childlike way, Pogue shrugs his shoulders and answers, “Sure!” Of course he can— he doesn’t have the slightest clue what she did to him! As far as he is concerned, nothing ever happened; his relationship with her is as new as the current day. As you enter this new year, nothing in the past has any power to affect what you do now. You are an entirely new person, different from the person you were. This year has never been lived before, and you have never had the consciousness you now have. You are setting sail on a great ad–venture determined only by how grand you are willing to think. This year, think big thoughts to create miraculous results. I pray to start over. No matter what has happened, I am willing to let today be new. Thank you for the chance to begin again. Today I begin anew. I see through the eyes of innocence. |
January 2
Step by Step “I looked around me at people who seemed happy and tried to analyze their happiness, and it seemed to me that without exception these people had something or somebody they loved very much. I didn’t have the courage to love; I was not even sure I had the capacity. Fear of rejection and its ensuing pain were not to be risked, and I turned away from myself once more for the answer, this time to the drinks I had always refused before, and in alcohol I found a false courage.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 12 (“Freedom From Bondage”), pp 546-47. Today, …”in alcohol I found a false courage.” Whether I am far into recovery or just beginning, the time has come to be done with all that is not true. If I am hinging my sobriety on my spouse or partner not leaving me, keeping my job or convincing a judge I deserve a break from my latest DUI, my motivation to get sober is linked to something that may never happen and, if it doesn’t, my sobriety likely will not last. Whatever the untruths in my life and even in sobriety, the Fourth Step is my road map to honesty – the truth of my own life, my drinking, my recovery. May I not rely on some bottled courage as I set out to find my own truth. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ JEALOUSY Beware of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock meat it feeds on. ~ Shakespeare ~ As we aim toward a lasting and comfortable recovery, we may find that jealousy and envy get in our way. Sometimes they are combined with other enemies of good living like pride, self-will, dishonesty, hatred, selfishness and resentment. Jealousy is a danger in recovery. The kind of thinking that causes jealousy makes us believe that the world owes us much more than we are able to earn by our own best efforts. When we envy others for what they own, for I heir standing in the community, or for the people who care about them, we are on our way to self-pity. This state of mind produces not only jealousy, depression, and an attitude that “life’s not fair,” but also anger against the world. Soon, that jealousy turn against those people most dear to us. I am reminded that the “Big Book” calls jealousy “that most terrible of human emotions.” ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Nothing is predestined: the obstacles of your past can become gateways that lead to new beginnings. ~ Ralph Blum ~ At this doorway to a new year, we look ahead to new beginnings. In some ways, this is like any other day in the cycle of our lives. Some things we know for sure, and other things are yet to be revealed. We can know that again on this day we will stay sober and true to our path of healing and recovery. Still, we look to the year ahead with a sense of adventure. This year will be a continuing flow of experiences, and on this path we deal with each experience with the calm certainty that we are not alone. We know that we cannot control what happens to us, but we can stay true to ourselves. “Keep coming back” is a well-known motto for our life in recovery. We are not perfect, and we don’t expect perfection of ourselves. What we expect is to keep returning to our path. Like any driver or any pilot who continuously reorients his craft as he travels along his route, we look forward to this year, knowing that we will keep returning to the true course we have chosen. It will be an adventure and we will take whatever happens and use it for our growth. Living one day at a time, my pledge is to keep coming back to this path of renewal. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Watching a child acquire language, I realize, again, that naming things demystifies them. ~ Mary Casey ~ Sharing with another woman our fears of starting a new job, ending a relationship, getting into therapy, or even joining a social club will help us keep the fear in perspective. Fears that go undiscussed have a way of growing and overtaking our lives. In time we find that because of our shame about being afraid, we have isolated ourselves from the very people who can help us. All of us are afraid some of the time. Our fears, however, can be managed if we use the tools found in this fellowship. Sponsors, friends, and meetings are the channels for our release from fear. Naming the fear loosens its hold on us. And equally important, we discover that others understand our fear, for they have experienced something very similar. We are not unique. That knowledge makes it easier to reveal another fear, another time. Perhaps the best gift I can give another woman is talking with her about something I fear. Naming the fear will help me. Sharing it will help her because of the bond we will feel. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I see how writing can help Typically I don’t like to write—I’m slow and self-conscious. I tend to worry too much about spelling and grammar and punctuation. I don’t think I write well. But I am learning now to write for myself as part of dual recovery. When I have an upsetting thought—or a helpful one—I write it down. This helps keep my mind clear and gives my fear and pain a place to go. By jotting notes, I make a record of what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling. It helps me get to know myself better and helps me see my progress. I will keep pen and paper handy, at home, in the car, and at work. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Every exit is an entry somewhere. ~ Tom Stoppard ~ When life asks us to give up something we value, we are always given a replacement. Our new treasure may be disguised and hard to comprehend at first, but it will come shining through if we have faith. Life offers us choices: Do we choose to believe that the world is basically friendly — or unfriendly? Do we choose to believe that joy may grow from the depths of pain? Do we believe that life has meaning, that there are lessons to be learned from our darkest days, that growth is possible? Choosing to develop a positive attitude about the changes and losses of life is like opening a window in April after a long winter. Moving through and out of our grief, we begin to feel a sense of hope and direction. We begin to believe that one day, we will come to live without pain as a constant companion. Sometimes an ounce of guts and courage is all we can cling to in the midst of personal storms. Our willingness to keep going is the quiet act of faith that takes us to a place where we feel safe to open up and trust again. Today let me trust that God’s will is for me to ha happy. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town. ~ George Carlin ~ A new year holds promise and provides a “second chance.” A new year also can be a time when you see all that you have yet to accomplish and question your ability to face those challenges. You may think it was hard enough to admit you needed to stop your addictive behaviors and even harder to stay focused on recovery. To know that a new year heralds the continued need to stay on the same path can seem daunting. Make this year different. Resolve to look within you, at what you can and need to do for yourself, and to look outside you, at what you can do for others. While self- awareness is key to your recovery, remember that recovery is both a hand reaching out and a hand being grasped. Recovery does not happen in isolation. One of the strengths of the program is interdependence and fellow-ship. Attending to your needs as well as to the needs of others can provide you with renewed energy to recover from your past, commitment to stay focused on the present, and the ability to foresee a future that holds hope and promise. I will awaken each day to a new beginning—not just for myself, but also for others. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ But where was I to start? The world is so vast, I shall start with the country I knew best, my own. But my country is so very large. I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No, my home. No, my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself. ~ Elie Wiesel ~ How many times have we tried to change things outside of ourselves, like a parent, a loved one, a drinking or drug-using pattern, or a boss? Perhaps we felt if we changed someone or something, we would be better off. But we soon discovered we were powerless to change people, places, or things. All we can change is ourselves. Yet we can’t do that by five-minute overhauls. Nor can we go to bed at night and expect to wake up the next day as the person we always wanted to be. We need to keep it simple as we change ourselves. We need to start slowly. If we imagine ourselves as a big puzzle with many pieces, we may understand we can only see our whole selves by joining together one piece at a time. Did I try to change others today? How can I keep it simple as I try to change myself—just a little bit at a time? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Letting go of results Some of us are familiar with the saying “Plan plans, not results.” For those of us with addictive or compulsive personalities this is a very important message. Our heads can spin so much with the results we plan for tomorrow that we forget what we need to do for a good life today. If we “plan” to have a partner, $5,000 in the bank, and a new home by this time next year, chances are we will blow it. We know from experience that if we take that first fix, pill, or drink we will have nothing at this time next year. Do I know how to plan well? I pray to do the necessary footwork today and leave the results with my Higher Power. The results I will leave to God today are God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ We know the truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart. ~ BLAISE PASCAL ~ Newcomer I’m not sure I qualify to be in this program. I wasn’t that bad—I hear stories that are so much worse than mine. Sponsor There’s a joke about a group of friends standing at their drinking buddy’s graveside with his widow, all of them shaking their heads and saying, “I don’t understand it—he wasn’t that bad.” Who qualifies for a Twelve Step program? The answer doesn’t he simply in the quantities of a substance consumed or in the frequency of an unwanted behavior. More telling is whether or not we have a choice. It’s useful to make a list of times we remember using in spite of intentions not to and a list of times when using took us places we never meant to go, made us do things we never meant to do. Perhaps we’ll recall many such situations, perhaps only a few. The number is less important than our willingness to look back at our memories, and the feelings accompanying them, without censoring ourselves. Something inside us brought us here; it’s up to each of us to take an honest look at what that was. Today, I look honestly at times when I have been powerless over this addiction. I acknowledge the ways it has made my life unmanageable. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Probably in the history of the world no tyrant can be found who welded chains so strong upon his victims as did that “01′ Debil Rum.” Even our most secret desires were controlled by his influence, and our families, our health and our very lives themselves were disregarded when opposed to the demands for a drink. Fortunately for us in AA we still had a freedom of choice of master and when we decided to “turn our will and our lives over to the care of God”, we accepted a new Master, one even more demanding than the first, but with this one vast difference — our chains were now bonds of love. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If you want to get maximum attention make a big mistake. 2) Self-will can get you what you want right now, God’s will can provide what you need for eternity. 3) If the newcomer could see no joy in our existence they would not want it. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE POWER WITHIN But where is this wonderful Power to be contacted? The answer is simple—this Power is to be found within your own consciousness, the last place that most people would look for it. Within your own mentality there lies a source of energy stronger than electricity, more potent than high explosive; unlimited and inexhaustible. You only need to make conscious contact with it to set it working in your affairs. This Indwelling Power, the Inner Light, is spoken of in the Bible as a child. The conscious discovery by you that you have this Power within you, and your determination to make use of it, is the birth of the child. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) This is a marvelous description of what happens when the spiritual idea, the Child, is born to the soul. Walking in darkness, moral or physical, dwelling in the land of the shadow of death–the death of joy, or hope, or even self-respect—describes well the condition of many people before this light shines into their weary, heartbroken lives; and the Prophet rises into a paean of exultant joy as he contemplates the deliverance. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (Isaiah 9:2) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Act Now There are two fatal errors that keep great projects from coming to life: 1. Not finishing 2. Not starting ~ Buddha ~ While living at a farming community, our group planned to erect a new house. For many months, we discussed the plans, and because we did not fully agree, nothing was done. Then one day, one man went out to the building site with a plumb line and began to hammer stakes into the ground. It wasn’t long before the house was built. You can think and talk about a project for a long time, but only action will manifest it. If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never get anything done. Don’t wait until all the conditions are perfect for you to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. Work through my hands to bring about the things that will serve You. I step forward with the trust that Spirit is moving through me to create good. |
January 3
Step by Step “We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals – usually brief – were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period, we get worse, never better.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 3 (“More About Alcoholism”), p 30. Today, conceding to “our innermost selves” that we are alcoholic is the first step in recovery. Without that admission, every attempt to stop drinking is doomed to failure: our private drinking histories are mute testimony to that. But if we can finally admit to ourselves that we are alcoholic, the answer to the next logical question – Why do I have to quit altogether instead of cutting back? – is obvious: alcoholism is a progressive condition that is never cured and, when fed, gets worse. But alcoholism can be arrested, and the only guaranteed method is total abstinence. Today, if I still struggle that the drinking problem I clearly have has progressed into alcoholism, I have to retreat within my innermost self in absolute honesty and, if I acknowledge the obvious answer, AA awaits me, just for the asking. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ GIVE WITH HUMILITY The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good act in secret and have it found out by accident. ~ Anonymous ~ There is one bit of advice that is given in many ways to those of us in recovery. That advice is that we should give to others without looking for any credit for our generosity. To give something for the sheer joy of giving is the strongest step we can take in achieving the humility that is so vital to us. Humility is essential to our spiritual progress, and our spiritual progress is a necessary part of our recovery. The encouragement to serve without seeking praise comes to us in many forms and many places. Ancient wisdom advises us not to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing, and not to “sound a trumpet” to announce a good deed. Let me learn to give without seeking credit. This is a humble act. It will result in the uplifting reward of humility which is vital to my spiritual growth. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises. ~ Andre Maurois ~ Conflict is not bad; it is necessary. In any good, intimate partnership, the two people reveal themselves to each other. As they reveal themselves, their differences sometimes are interesting and enjoyable and sometimes create conflict. A good conflict is open and honest and without ego. When one person reveals his or her thoughts, the other person listens and hears them as a genuine expression that must be taken into account. The simple act of listening is usually most important; agreement isn’t always necessary. Most of the time, a person just wants to be heard. Agreement is required when there is only one path that can be chosen. Then, the wisdom of two loving and honest people can lead to a mutual agreement that often turns out to be better than either individual path. The true, unique nature of any intimate partnership only takes shape through genuine conflict and resolution. Crises faced and resolved become the foundation for continuing and deepening mutual understanding and intimacy. Today I will not avoid conflict but will face it with honesty and an open heart ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Happiness consists of a solid faith, good health, and a bad memory. ~ Clare Boothe Luce ~ Resentments are guaranteed to hinder our growth. We can never know full happiness when resentment clouds our vision. Why is it so hard for us to “forget” the small injuries of life? We have never been promised freedom from pain. Many of the lessons we are destined to learn will scuff our egos. But we will know happiness, completely, if we free our minds of resentments. The formula for happiness is simple. We don’t need material wealth, a perfect job, or an exceptional relationship. In fact, it’s possible to know happiness with no job, very little money, and no significant other. Happiness is a by-product of a healthy attitude. And a healthy attitude is one that takes the normal turmoil of life and mixes it with a belief in God’s presence. The result is an acceptance of God’s will and a certainty that, in spite of appearances, all is well. I am in charge of my attitude today. Happiness is a choice I can make regardless of what the people around me are doing. © 1994 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am doing the best I can I expected things to just fall into place once I accepted my problems, stopped using, and got into therapy. But that’s not the case. Even though I’m abstinent now and going to weekly therapy and Twelve Step meetings, my psychiatric symptoms have gotten out of hand. Something is not working or I’m doing something wrong. But actually, that’s not all bad. In the process of figuring out what led up to the relapse, I’ve learned another lesson in recovery: I can’t change myself overnight and willpower alone just doesn’t work. I need to learn more about my dual disorder, as well as how it affects myself and others. I need to learn ways to cope. If I accept myself and this subtle, slow process, I will recover, little by little, one day at a time. I will write out an affirmation that reads: “I am doing the right things. I am doing the best I can.” *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross ~ Time teaches us about the twofold connection of suffering and wisdom. For every loss, we’ve gained something new. We are learning that our pain makes us wise over time, but while we are in its midst we often feel alone and entrapped. We sometimes can make no sense out of our suffering — neither its depth nor its seeming unfairness — and we may even turn our backs on our Higher Power. We’ve only survived the darkness by stumbling through it each day. But in recovery we have gradually allowed ourselves to accept comfort from others, and their words help us in times of desolation. We are learning that some pains can’t be healed, but instead must be endured until they run their course. Sometimes the only hope we have is the deep knowledge that our Higher Power will give us no more than we can handle today. With His help and comfort, we can endure and find peace. Today let me trust that — even though it may feel painful — my recovery has begun. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ If your mental attitude is right, if you face life the right way, if the right spirit is in you, if you put yourself in tune, everything you do… will give you a real sense of pleasure. ~ Orison Swett Marden ~ Start your day with poise and serenity. If your alarm doesn’t go off, you can remain calm. If a traffic jam slows your commute, you can be at peace. If a friend cancels on you, you can be forgiving. You can do all these things when you decide “I will not allow anything to disturb my mental balance or throw my mind out of its serenity.” Facing life with inner strength means not allowing people, places, or things to destroy your harmony with the world. Facing life with peace of mind means you are in charge of your destiny and your recovery. Facing life with understanding and forgiveness means you have built a strong relationship with a Higher Power. Then you can view disruptions to your well-being and purpose as trifling, small incidents that are short-lived. Today you can choose to be defeated by life’s little in-sensibilities, conflicts, and disappointments, or success-fully handle whatever comes your way without disruption to your inner peace. My achievements today will reflect my attitude. I will choose to face life with a serene spirit and calm poise. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Strange feelings. . . . Just a sort of unexplained sadness that comes each afternoon when the new day is gone forever and there’s nothing ahead but increasing darkness. ~ Robert M. Pirsig ~ Just as each day is a new beginning, so is each night also a new start. Each night can be a chance to recharge ourselves after our day’s batteries have run down. Each night can be a chance to start anew on our goals, our growth, our good thoughts. Instead of reflecting on the past events of the day, we can look forward to the moments to come. We can be unafraid of the darkness of the night as we prepare for tomorrow by using positive energy. Although the day is done, tomorrow is yet to come. There are plans to make, places to go, people to see, and projects to do. Tomorrow can begin with hope and strength and energy directed to all our forthcoming events. I can see tomorrow as a new beginning. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Asking how Many days we are tempted to ask Why? Why did this happen to me? Why was I singled out? Why am I not a different person? But the whys lead only to clever explanations and rationalizations of what we do or what we are. The question for us is not Why? but How? We ask how to learn and work our program of recovery; the “how” can give us a deeper understanding of the program. We ask God How? and God provides the strength and guidance needed. “How” will lead to everything needed for recovery and personal growth. “Why” is irrelevant. Am I learning how to live? Higher Power, teach me how to live, love, and learn. Today I will ask how to God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ A man takes a drink, the drink takes another, and the drink takes the man. ~ SINCLAIR LEWIS ~ Newcomer I’ve heard Alcoholics Anonymous members say, “It’s the first drink that gets you drunk,” and Overeaters Anonymous members say, “Don’t take that first compulsive bite.” It seems a little extreme. Don’t Twelve Step programs allow for the possibility of doing things in moderation? Sponsor There are numerous stories of addicted people who started with the idea that they’d have “just one” of whatever it was. Hours, days, or weeks later, they were still in the middle of a binge. Most of us, when we were active in our addictions, promised ourselves repeatedly that we’d be moderate, though we’d already accumulated plenty of evidence that we lacked the desire and the capacity for moderation. Once we started using, no matter how seemingly insignificant the beginning, we were under the control of our addiction. We experienced a craving that no quantity of a drug or repetition of an addictive behavior could satisfy. There are people on this planet who leave wine unfinished in their glasses and food uneaten on their plates. There are people who can do in moderation what people filling the seats at meetings couldn’t stop doing, once they started. But we are not those people. If we’ve suffered from an addiction enough to come here for treatment, why would we want to keep playing with denial? Today, I’m strengthened by accepting my need to take special measures to protect my health and recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ You can’t tell a drunk anything, but you can show him. All too frequently, we cry out on Monday, attend our first meeting on Tuesday and try our hand at Twelve Stepping on Wednesday. With a sketchy conception of what it is all about, with little or no knowledge of the Program, sometimes with the smell of paraldehyde still on our breath, we venture forth to dry up the world and when we fail we wonder why. Remember the 12th step says, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics.” You can’t carry the message before you receive it nor can you give it if you don’t possess it. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real. 2) What you resist persists. 3) Life does not begin at any particular age, but only when you decide to live it. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace! Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ LET GOD HAVE YOUR BURDEN Once you have contacted the Power within, and have allowed it to take over your responsibilities for you, it will direct and govern all your affairs from the greatest to the least, without mistakes. The government shall be upon his shoulder. You are tired, and driven, and worried, and weak, and ill, and depressed, because you have been trying to carry the government upon your own shoulder; the burden is too much for you, and you have broken down under it. Now, immediately you hand over your self-government, that is, the burden of making a living, or of healing your body, or erasing your mistakes, to the Child. He, the Tireless One, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise, the All-Resourceful, assumes it with joy; and your difficulties have seen the beginning of the end. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee… (Psalm 55:22) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Grow with the Flow I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.” ~ Quoted by King George VI of England ~ Two men were walking beside a river on their way to a town downstream when a storm broke, and a flash flood washed both men into the river. One man panicked, tried to fight his way back to shore, and drowned. The other man realized that the torrent was beyond his control and relaxed to the best of his ability, letting the river carry him. To his happy surprise, the river deposited him on the banks of the town he was headed toward, in a much shorter time than it would have taken him to walk. When you come up against a situation you cannot control, trust that the universe is working on your behalf. When we fight what is, we lose our power. The sage capitalizes on the energy at hand and makes it work on his behalf. Help me to remember that You are present in all situations, guiding me home even when I cannot see how. I am always in the presence of love. Everything that happens to me is a part of the plan for my good. |
January 4
Step by Step ” …(O)ur problems were of our own making. Bottles were only a symbol. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We have to!” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 7 (“Working With Others”), p 103. Today, the fights have been many, the injuries deep and some scars permanent. Lies have been bountiful, hurt to myself and others indelible, and the fun ceased long ago if it ever was fun at all. Enough is enough. To continue as is, is a spiral downward into a pit from which there may be no escape; to change course now, hope prevails. Today is the day I begin to answer what exists in my emotional and spiritual psyche that is fueled by alcoholic drinking, and I have grown tired of “fighting anybody or anything.” My hope cannot be in my own will power; it is as mythical as the magical unicorn. Hope now falls on AA and my commitment to honestly and diligently working its steps and principles. There, I have no reason to fight anyone and anything – other than my own resistance to surrender completely. Today, enough is enough; I surrender. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ HELPING OTHERS Gratitude should go forward, rather than backward. ~ Bill W. ~ When we realize how much the Pro-gram and others have helped us, it becomes our responsibility to help others. Our Twelfth Step suggests we carry the message to those who still suffer. Many of our fellows are also suffering in recovery. We need to remember to help those who may need our Fellowship as well as those in our Fellowship. Life is no longer a dead end without hope. With the gifts we have received from the Program, we are able to help others. Our spiritual progress is easily measured by our positive actions. We are only asked to be helpful and leave the results to our Higher Power. Bill W. said, “If you carry the message to still others, you will be making the best possible repayment for the help given you.” I want to give back what I have received by sharing the Program with others. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Be patient with everyone| but above all with yourself. ~ Saint Francis de Sales ~ The path of healing and recovery sets challenging standards. We are asked to “turn our will and our lives over,” to be “searching and fearless” in our moral inventory, and to make amends to all those we have harmed. Many of us have lifelong habits of over- criticizing ourselves and condemning ourselves for who we are. When we face challenging standards, we can’t meet them perfectly. This is a program of progress, not perfection. If we are not seeking to attain perfection, then, we need to deepen our understanding of what we are seeking. The answer is in the slogan “Keep coming back.” It’s a slogan usually applied to the idea of continuing to return to meetings, even if we don’t see our way clearly at first. But it also applies to meeting standards. We don’t seek perfection; we seek to keep coming back to the Steps of recovery because it is a given that we will keep falling off them. It is only when we stop returning to the Steps that we get seriously off track. Today I will be patient with my progress on this healing journey. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Each of my days are miracles. I won’t waste my day; I won’t throw away a miracle. ~ Kelley Vickstrom ~ It’s so easy to forget to be grateful for our many blessings. We may take our freedom from the compulsion to drink or use for granted. Having learned to monitor our behavior and change it when necessary, we seldom treasure this skill as an asset. The rut of complacency claims all of us at one time or another. And our complacency can lead us to the stinking thinking that’s only a step away from drinking or using or some other compulsive behavior. Having sponsors point out our complacency may irritate us, but it may also save our lives. Practicing gratitude will keep us aware of the small and large miracles that we have experienced on this recovery journey: We remember where we were last night (thanks to the clear vision of abstinence). We have reconciled with family members. In fact, we are walking miracles, and God has a plan for the rest of our lives. Let’s be ready for it. I will try to be attentive to every moment of today, knowing that each experience is part of the miracle of my life. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am no longer denying my feelings I used to use chemicals all the time to forget my feelings—loneliness, anxiety, dread. Anytime I had strong or painful feelings, I promptly got high. In fact, I tried to make sure I was high much of the time, to make sure no painful feelings could creep in. Now in dual recovery, I am changing. I am practicing living with my feelings—some of which I still don’t want; many of which I didn’t realize I had. Sometimes I still get overwhelmed. But in a way, I’m grateful for my emotions. As painful or frightening as they are at times, I am getting to know myself better and I like who I am learning to see. I will keep a “feelings log” today. I’ll jot down my strong feelings and note any people involved. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Draw from others the lesson that may profit yourself. ~ Terence ~ Our Twelve Step program offers us the best education in the world, free of charge. Everybody in recovery has something to teach us, if we’ll listen. Each of us has a unique set of experiences and background, problems and solutions to share. From each other we can learn about recovery, and about the world, too. We can hear what it’s like to live on the streets, even if we didn’t lose everything to addiction. We can learn how others got their families involved in a Twelve Step program of their own. We can learn about the problems we may encounter at work, how to avoid them, and how to solve them. We can hear from someone who has been there, rather than through relapse, how it feels to be addicted to another substance. The experience of others gives us a rare chance to broaden our horizons. We can learn how it feels to be a member of a minority, how to love ourselves enough to combat hatred, how to triumph from adversity. Most important, by listening to others with respect and love, we can learn to truly value other people, even those who are different from us. Today help me appreciate the teachings of my Twelve Step program. Help me continue to learn. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ You cannot weave truth in a loom of lies. ~ Suzette Haden Elgin ~ Before you admitted you were powerless, you may have created a false reality that enabled you to see yourself as you wanted to be and validated the lies you fabricated. The worse your addiction became, the more lies you may have told and the more you repressed the truth—until eventually the lies became the truth. Honesty is not simply the absence of lying, but the commitment to truthfulness. The program teaches you the difference between being honest and being rigorously honest. Admitting you are powerless over your addiction is being honest. But rigorous honesty means living each day with total awareness of what is true and what is untrue, and speaking always to the truth, no matter how painful. As you go to meetings, be inspired by the honesty of others. As you work with your sponsor, learn how to view your past actions and behaviors with an objective eye. As you read and reflect upon the teachings of the Big Book, gain a greater understanding about the importance of honesty with yourself and others. As you follow the Steps, seek total honesty with yourself. As you connect with your Higher Power, learn how honesty can lead to forgiveness. Today I will be honest with myself and with others. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Happiness is not pleasure. Happiness is victory. ~ Zig Ziglar ~ Many people believe happiness is measured in material terms: a house, money, lots of clothes. Others believe it’s found in enjoyable moments: a sunset, dinner with friends, a walk in the woods. Although happiness is all these things, it’s also the feeling we get when we have achieved something we’ve longed for and worked hard for. Happiness can be a personal victory. To be victorious doesn’t mean we have to win. It can mean we’ve gone beyond an expected outcome and gained more than we hoped for. There have been times when we’ve experienced victory: passing a test, buying our first car, graduating from college, landing a job, living on our own. But all victories don’t have to be big. They can be as small and insignificant as losing a few pounds, going a few hours without a drink or other drug, not arguing with a family member, or taking an hour for ourselves. Big or small, our victories are our happiness. Each one shows us we can do what we set out to do. Each helps build confidence in our abilities and is a boon to inn self-esteem. With each victory, we can be assured there will be another. I can be happy for all my victories. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Learning new ways Once we make a connection with our Higher Power, the ongoing problem is to hold on to it. Repeatedly we slip into our old ways of thinking and behaving. If not curtailed, eventually these will lead us back to that first fix, pill, or drink. We need only a word, thought, or familiar situation to get caught up again in an old habit. We have to discover (and rediscover) that the old way of life has become impossible and the new one essential. We do this—and do it again—by praying, meditating, and working the Twelve Steps of recovery. Am I living the program? Higher Power, help me avoid being smug and complacent in my new life. Remind me that old ways of living have become impossible for me. The new ways of living that I will cultivate today are God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Later is now. ~ ROSEANNE BARR ~ Newcomer I guess I do have some addiction problems, but right now is a terrible time for me. I know you’d like me to be more involved, use the program more, but I need time—there’s something else I have to deal with first. I’ve tried talking about it at meetings, but no one really has much understanding of my particular problem. Sponsor I do respect the fact that there are pressing problems in your life and that you are going to have to face them. Addiction is, in one sense, a response to underlying issues we all have to deal with. And in addition to our inner problems, many of us enter recovery in the midst of some crisis—serious illness, separation, overdue taxes, even homelessness are situations some of us have had to face while newly recovering. I agree that your problems are real ones. But putting off recovery is not likely to help you with them. It may make things worse. While I may not be able to help with the specifics of your situation, I can be here to share my experience, strength, and hope as a person in recovery. Recovery is the foundation of my life today. I make it my highest priority, and as time goes on I find the help and strength I need to resolve everything else I have to deal with. If you, too, have the willingness to face your addiction and show up for your recovery, I’m willing to be here. Today, I let go of all obstacles to recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Pride in ancestry has kept many alcoholics from the humbleness that is a prime requisite of success in our pro-gram. The deeper one is in his cups, the greater is his remorse for his condition — not because of his descent to the level of the animal, but because of his betrayal of his noble family traditions. Ancestry is good only when it in-spires living up to its traditions. When it becomes a throne built on other men’s accomplishments it is nothing. We alcoholics should be reminded of Voltaire’s words when he said: “He who serves well has no need of ancestors.” Let us think less of our ancestors and more about what kind of ancestors we will make. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) We never obsess about anything good. 2) Insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting different results. 3) Self-will cannot be overcome by Self-will. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Today’s Thought I am but one, but I am one; I can’t do everything, But I can do SOMETHING; What I can do, I ought to do, What I ought to do, God helping me, I WILL DO. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ A NEW BIRTH The prophet Isiah speaks of the “Name” of the Child and if we know something of Bible symbolism, we know that we are now going to learn something fundamental, for in the Bible, the name of anything means the character or nature of that thing. A name is not merely an arbitrary label, but actually a hieroglyph of the soul. We are given no less than five names of qualities of the Child. First Isiah says that the name of the Child is Wonderful. The word wonderful used here requires careful scrutinization. As employed in the Bible, it implies a miracle—just that, and nothing less. The Bible repeatedly says that miracles can happen, and it gives detailed and circumstantial accounts of many specific cases. Moreover, it says that miracles always will happen if you believe them to be possible, and are willing to recognize the power of God, and to call upon it. As soon as the Child is born in your consciousness, the miracle will come into your life. This does not mean simply that you well become resigned to your present circumstances, or that you will then be enabled to meet the same difficulties with a higher courage or a clearer brain. It means the miracle. But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ May I Feed You? Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth. ~ Katherine Mansfield ~ Waiting for the airplane to take off, I was happy to get a seat by myself. Just then, a flight attendant approached me and asked, “Would you mind changing your seat? A couple would like to sit together.” The only other available seat was next to a woman with both arms in casts, a black-and-blue face, and a gloomy aura. No way am I going to sit there, was my immediate thought. But then a deeper, quieter voice spoke, “Opportunity.” I took my new seat and discovered that Kathy had been in an auto collision, and she was on her way for therapy When the snack of nuts and juice arrived, it did not take me long to realize that Kathy would not be able to feed herself. I considered offering to feed her but resisted, as it seemed too intimate a service to offer to a stranger. But then I decided that Kathy’s need was more important than my discomfort. I offered to help her eat, and although she too was un–comfortable about accepting, she did. The experience was exhilarating, and she and I grew close in a short period of time. By the end of the five-hour trip, my heart was fully alive, and the time was infinitely better spent than if I had just sat by myself. I was very glad I had reached beyond my comfort zone to sit next to Kathy and feed her. Love always flows beyond human borders and dis–solves the fears that keep us separate. When we stretch to serve another, we grow to live in a larger, more rewarding world. Help me move beyond the small self so I can connect with the hearts of others. When I give love to another. I feed my own soul. |
January 5
Step by Step “There is a solution. Almost none of us like the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had to come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 2 (“There Is a Solution”), p 25. Today, if I cannot or am not ready to surrender to a spiritual being and experience, let me begin or renew my sobriety and recovery by looking to my peers who have not only sobered up but have undergone a personality and an emotional overhaul. If I cannot understand that something good can be stronger than me is similar in comparison to alcohol being more powerful than me, let me understand that the process of recovery is an evolutionary one and that the spiritual concept of the program is not a prerequisite to begin the process. Let me believe today that the spiritual awakening or experience promised me by the program may yet to be, if it hasn’t already and if I do not recognize it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ MUSTS Not what we would, but what we must, makes up the sum of living. ~ Richard Henry Stoddard ~ “We must do the things we must” is frequent advice in the Program. Each Step is evidence of what our founders did in order to achieve abstinence and keep it going with serenity and security. All of the musts” implied in the Steps and frequently mentioned throughout the Big Book are also spiritual. We will find the importance of “must” in the favorite quotes from that book. The Steps aren’t based on the theory of “thou shalt not.” They are based on the theory that “thou shall.” That’s why we say “there are no musts” in our Program. Fortunately, those Twelve Steps we work require positive action. They tell us what we can do in order that each of us can live a joyous, happy, and free existence. “Must” appears many times in the Big Book, along with a few “absolutes.” This doesn’t refer to my requirements for working the Program. It just lets me concentrate on what I can do, not on what I can’t ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~ Hal Borland ~ In the midst of winter, the short days and the long nights may seem to last forever. But we know that the turn of the cycle is inevitable. Every winter is followed by spring. When we feel depressed and discouraged, we may not feel optimistic about anything. We may not see the path from here to a place where life feels brighter and warmer. That is when we must remind ourselves that all things eventually change. We do find life beyond our current problems. We do regain our energy and our joy in life. All pain is finite. It has its beginning and its end. Our path may require us to learn to endure and live with some pain. Some Native Americans’ training for youth included fasting and solitary journeys that strengthened them and showed them how to deal with shortage and difficulty. Life must contain dark times, and when we learn that we can carry on until we find light, we have something permanent to fall back on. While we may feel pessimistic, we can remind ourselves that it is only a feature of our current mood, not a permanent state. Today I live in the knowledge that spring is eternal. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ It is important that we plan for the future, imperative that we accept an outcome unplanned. ~ Molly McDonald ~ We sometimes feel confused over how to live just one day at a time while making strategic plans for the future. It seems contradictory to try to do both. Yet that is what a healthy recovery means. Goals help direct our attention. They give us needed focus. They give us enthusiasm for making the most of our recovery. But just as we need goals to strengthen our resolve to move forward, we need willingness to let God be involved in our effort and, even more important, in charge of the outcome. God’s role and ours, though related, are in fact quite separate. In our rush to move forward we sometimes forget to turn over the reins when our part is done. We are learning the joys of living one day at a time. We are letting God be responsible for the outcomes of our endeavors. Each day in recovery gives us more time to practice doing only what we need to do and leaving the rest in God’s hands. I must let God take charge of the outcomes of my efforts today. If I do, I will be cared for in the most loving fashion. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am learning to ask for help Some months before I finally got diagnosed (accurately) with a dual disorder, I knew I had a problem—maybe two problems. I could see that using chemicals wasn’t helping my intense and disturbing moods. In fact, chemicals were becoming a separate problem. Yet I was afraid (ashamed?) to talk to anyone. I couldn’t ask for help, not for a long time. Just by entering recovery, but especially by going to therapy and Step meetings, I’ve come to see that asking for help is a very good thing. It means I know something is wrong and that I can’t fix it alone (Steps One and Two). Asking for help suggests that I’m willing to trust a power greater than myself (Step Three). I will ask a recovering friend to call me tonight to ask me how I’m feeling. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Making prompt amends is the fresh air of each new day. ~ Sandra Little ~ Today brings us a new hill to climb and a new view from the top. Taking time to reflect about our daily journeys is a challenging adventure in self- discovery. Looking down, we see our past trials and difficulties as lessons to learn from. Letting go of old baggage as we end our day will give us a bright window to open onto tomorrow. Completing a daily inventory creates a good foundation for living peacefully. Honestly acknowledging the things we have done or said to hurt ourselves or others enables us to say, “I’m sorry” and to begin each day with a clean slate and a peaceful heart. As we empty ourselves of regret by making amends to ourselves and others, we make room for the love and comfort of our Higher Power. Today help me take inventory and make amends where I need to. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ We should think seriously before we slam doors, before we bum bridges, before we saw off the limb on which we find ourselves sitting. ~ Richard L. Evans ~ Sometimes you may feel as if you are at war with yourself and others. Conflict is created by the simple fact that you made the decision to no longer engage in your addiction. So it is not unusual to resent those who seem to have it all together. Such feelings can build into self-directed anger or anger toward others. Acting upon your anger rarely leads to any good. You may say things that cause others to distance themselves from you, or make poor decisions that take considerable effort to undo. You may lash out at yourself in ways that disrupt your sense of serenity and put your recovery at risk. What matters most is not the situation you are presented with, but the way you handle it. Rather than lash out in anger, ask, “What can I do to create greater harmony within myself?” You can achieve greater peace and serenity by talking through your anger with a trusted friend, sharing your feelings at a meeting, and using prayer and meditation to calm yourself. “When one door closes, another opens.” Today I will see everything as a positive opportunity for learning and growth. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away. ~ Job 11:16 ~ Many of us have painful memories we carry with us like pictures in a wallet. We keep these memories alive through feelings generated by those moments. Why are we so attached to unpleasant memories? It’s difficult to let go of memories, no matter how unpleasant. Sometimes they’re a reminder of the past, but more often we clutch them because we’re afraid to feel pleasant feelings today. Because the program is working in our lives, we have fewer painful times now. That may not be comfortable, so we invent new pain or dredge up the sludge of the past. As ugly as it may be, it’s still familiar. Tonight we don’t have to look back. We don’t have to feel misery or pain because it’s familiar. We don’t have to drag out that wallet and look at the images of unhappy times again. Tonight we can leave those spaces in our wallets empty, ready to be filled with new moments to remember. I can try to make some new moments to remember. I don’t need to look back anymore. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Being able to be wrong We had to compete with everyone, some-times subtly, sometimes less subtly. We al-ways had to be right; to be wrong seemed unbearable. We could never seem to bring ourselves to say simply, “I was wrong.” We were afraid of what would happen to us if we did. Our egos were very fragile; we were never as strong as we had led ourselves to believe. We came to discover, however, that real strength comes from being able to be wrong and from being willing to change our ways of thinking and living. Can I face being wrong and learn from it? Higher Power, help me realize each day that it is okay to be wrong, that real communication with other people depends on my being willing to see other points of view, and that being teachable is a divine quality. Today I will handle being wrong by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Life is not made up of yesterdays only. ~ CARL JUNG ~ Newcomer I heard a bunch of jargon at the meeting I went to last night. I didn’t understand any of it. What does “ninety in ninety” mean? Sponsor I can understand your bewilderment at unfamiliar program phrases and customs. In the beginning, it may feel as if we’re participating in a culture that’s new to us. I’m glad I can help, and if I’m not here to translate, almost anyone you see at a meeting would be happy to explain unfamiliar expressions. “Ninety in ninety” is an abbreviated way of saying, “Go to ninety meetings in ninety days.” One of the strongest suggestions this program makes to newcomers is to attend a meeting every day for at least the first three months. Intermittent attendance, a few meetings here or there, won’t provide enough information about whether we belong here or not. Ninety days of meetings can make it clear. At first, it may sound like a lot. But when we think of the time we have given to our addiction—pursuing it, trying to control it, acting on it, feeling sick and guilty about it- then an hour or an hour and a half doesn’t seem like too much of a commitment. Meetings create a sense of belonging to a community and a solid basis of support over time. It’s such a good use of time: an hour in a room with my peers gives me a reserve of strength and hope for an entire day. Today, I am part of a community of people in recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Living all the days of our lives, living them to their utmost; putting all our life into them; getting all the life that each day has to offer; this truly is living at its best, at its fullest. Every day, then, will be fully lived — a grand succession of experiences both pleasant and unpleasant (for life is made up of both), and without the one the other would not be recognized or appreciated. Live each day as though it were your last day on earth. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If you can’t get what you want, learn to want what you get. 2) FEAR: False Expectations Appearing Real 3) When the horse dies, dismount. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Sanskrit Proverb Look to this day, For it is life, The very life of life. In its brief course lies all The realities and verities of existence, The bliss of growth, The splendor of action, The glory of power. For yesterday is but a dream, And tomorrow is only a vision. But today, well lived, Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness And every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ YOUR COUNSELOR The prophet Isaiah also calls this Child “Counselor.” A counselor is one who gives guidance. If you are worried because do not know whether to take some important step, to accept a business offer, to sign an important document, to enter upon a partnership, to resign your position, to trust someone, to say something, the Child will be your Counselor. In the third place the prophet reveals to us who the child really is. It is no less than god Himself, “The Mighty God.” And truly the mystic Power that transforms, and transmutes, is God Himself, always present with you, and always available. … the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10) Read John 14:10-17 ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Be Firm If you come to a fork in the road, take it. ~ Yogi Berra ~ I was struck by an unusual ad in the classified section of the local newspaper: “Dodge truck for sale. $5,000 firm or best offer.” Was the price firm, or was the seller willing to negotiate? Apparently he couldn’t make up his mind. Life will support us in our decisions, but we have to make a decision around which the universe can gather. Often it is better to make a wrong decision than no decision. If you make an error, you can either correct it or learn from it; in either case you will move ahead. If you make no decision, you will likely remain just where you are. A friend of mine had an inspiring bumper sticker on her washing ma–chine: Sin Boldly. I loved it! The message, as I understood it, was an advisory to live life with conviction and a whole heart. Be fully whatever you are. The Bible tells us that God “spews the lukewarm out of His mouth. ” If you are in life, then be fully in life. Don’t sit around wondering what you might do until it is too late to do anything. Will Rogers said, “You might be on the right track, but if you are sitting on it, you are going to get run over.” Live by choice, not self-protection. Be active rather than reactive. Make a stand for your truth, and your truth will make a stand for you. Support me to walk my talk. My power comes from being what I am. |
January 6
Step by Step Today, I cannot take for granted the vital lifeline that the support of an AA home group and other program members are in my own recovery. As such, I need to determine that I am attending enough meetings to bolster my recovery or, if I am limited by whatever restraints to make the meetings, that I have a strong enough social network through the program to carry me through. Working toward any goal, and maybe especially so if the goal is sobriety, can be more difficult if I am working alone. That difficulty is weakened when I have the support of others working toward the same goal but, in the process, I need to be willing to be honest in sharing my own history, what I have gained in the program and on which steps I need more work. Today, I need not be in self-imposed isolation, even in recovery, and I have to recognize the importance of peer and group support and acceptance. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ KINDNESS Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, help to make earth happy. ~ Julia A.F. Carney ~ No act of kindness is ever too small to serve a good purpose. Oceans are made possible by little drops of water. Beaches are formed by tiny grains of sand. Slowly but surely, small efforts combine to help, encourage, and. lead others to an ocean of success. Small acts make large contributions to our spiritual growth. Newcomers to our Program are advised that they can rid themselves of hatred, envy, resentments, and dislikes by using little acts and words to create a great turnaround in behavior. For instance, we are told, “Start forgiveness by praying for those you think have harmed you.” This small act of prayer removes powerful negative emotions and replaces them with the wonder of serenity. I shall try to be a little kinder and a little blinder to the faults of those around me. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ Berthold Auerbach ~ We need ways to express what we have experienced. Expression gives form to our experience and allows us to move on. Music taps into our deeper self and evokes feelings that we may not otherwise have access to. It conveys what is otherwise inexpressible and opens a channel to the spiritual world. Some men love to make music, and all of us can listen to it. When asked to describe how we make contact with our Higher Power, some men have said that it’s mainly through music. The great religious traditions of the world all use music: hymns, bells, chanting, drums. But we don’t necessarily need religious music to make conscious contact with our Higher Power. A good song on the radio can do it. Today I will let music speak for me of things I cannot say in plain words. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ … [A]ll shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. ~ Julian of Norwich ~ Why are we prone to exaggerating the seriousness of the circumstances in our lives? Perhaps it’s because we lived for years barely on the fringe of sensible choices. We reacted hysterically to all manner of experiences, the mundane as well as the momentous. Our reactions could turn any situation sour. At long last we are learning a new behavior, but it takes practice. As we learn to rely on a Higher Power to help us handle our experiences, we begin to grow in peace and the belief that all is well. Even when we are tormented by a decision, we can have faith that our Higher Power will lead us where we need to go. Our part of the bargain is to ask for help and to be open to guidance. I will know peace today because I will trust my Higher Power’s guidance in the situations I face. All will be well if I do my part. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I want my family to accept me When I first got sick my family didn’t know what was happening. They got angry. They implored, “What’s wrong?!” They said “Straighten up!” They didn’t know how difficult their demands were. They didn’t know about addiction or mental illness and that both need treatment and support. I think they were very afraid, for me and for themselves. Of course, I didn’t know the whole picture at first either. But through treatment, I am learning a lot about my illnesses and about myself. I am slowly coming to accept the way I am right now and my road to recovery. I believe that the more I accept myself, the more others will accept me. I will pray for willingness to accept my family, as they are, and ask my helpers to bring us closer together. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Every man is the architect of his own fortune. ~ Sallust Crispus ~ When we were drinking or using, our loved ones grieved for us terribly. Just as our addiction damaged us, it also hurt those we love. Now that we are in recovery, we can make amends to those we’ve harmed, but we can’t heal them. This they must do on their own, in their own time. We are not responsible for another person’s behavior, but we are responsible for our own. We got help from many sources, but for each of us, recovery is a personal triumph, our own achievement. No one could make us start, and no one could make us stop. We did that ourselves, and we did it by concentrating only on our own lives. This we must continue to do Now we have the best of both worlds: the help and support we need to make progress in our programs, and the wonderful feeling of achievement and self-respect that comes from recovery. Today help me neither blame others for my problems nor credit them for my triumphs. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Morning. New day. Joy of birth. ~ Deng Ming-Dao ~ Just as there is an air of mystery to night, with sunrise comes the joy of possibilities. What lies ahead? Too many people start the day with little appreciation for the amazing miracle of a new dawn. They rarely live in the present moment. Like them, you may start a new day overloaded with commitments or plagued by the same old feelings of doubt or insecurity. You may begin the day haunted by ghosts of the past or phantoms of the future. A Chinese parable tells the story of a wise man who challenges villagers to move a mountain together—a task that requires everyone to move a small amount of dirt and pebbles each day. Even after many hours of labor, he says, the task will be so grand that it will take generations of villagers to accomplish. Rather than refuse to work or devise ways to speed up the project, the villagers choose to move the mountain. In performing the task, time means nothing to them, nor does reaching the goal. Rather, it is the task itself, and the ability to focus on that task, that is most important. I offer a prayer giving thanks for the opportunity to experience a brand-new day. I ask for the strength to fully live in each moment. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ So every faithful heart shall pray to Thee in the hour of anxiety, when great floods threaten. Thou art a refuge to me from distress so that it cannot touch me; Thou dost guard me in salvation beyond all reach of harm. ~ Psalm 32 ~ It’s difficult to focus on the present when our minds are thinking of events yet to come. We may be so obsessed with an upcoming happening that we forget to stay in the present. Perhaps we’ve been asked to speak at a meeting. Or maybe we have a big test tomorrow. Or maybe we have some plans days from now for a party, a family get-together, or a trip, that are already sending us into a whirlwind of tension and anxiety. To stay in the present, we need to ask for help. Our Higher Power can help us with our anxiety about a future event, whether the event will happen five minutes, five days, or five years from now. Tonight and tomorrow will happen, no matter how much anxiety we have. But future events may turn out a little better if we take some serenity from our Higher Power with us. Is an upcoming event causing me a lot of anxiety? How can I use the program to help me let go of this anxiety? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Accepting powerlessness There is nothing negative in the First Step of the program, where we admit that we are powerless over our addiction and our lives. Powerlessness is not weakness; it simply recognizes that power is an attribute of God, not humans. We are powerless in and of ourselves. But when we look to the one who has all power, we can be set free—no longer bound by an addiction that does not love us. Have I tapped the source of all power? Higher Power, help me to joyfully accept my powerlessness over my addiction, knowing that this will set me free. I will accept my powerlessness today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ It’s not what you were, it’s what you are today. ~ DAVID MARION ~ Newcomer I get the general idea of “ninety meetings in ninety days.” But aren’t there any exceptions? Some days, like on the weekends, I have time to go to more than one, but later in the week, when I’m exhausted from work, I’d sometimes rather go to a movie or go to bed early. Sponsor No one takes attendance; no one expects perfection. But why deprive yourself? In this program, we stay away from addiction a day at a time. At the beginning of recovery, especially if we’re going through a process of detoxification, twenty-four hours can seem endless. Going through a whole day of early recovery on our own may be bewildering and anxiety-producing. Why “white-knuckle it” when help is available at a meeting? Anticipating a meeting at the lunch hour or at the end of a workday gives me a kind of safety net. Knowing throughout the day that I’m headed for a place where recovery is the top priority can help me through hard moments—I anticipate the meeting, instead of my preferred drug or compulsive behavior. Some of us prefer to begin the day with an early-morning meeting that helps us face the hours ahead calmly. Each new day offers us new challenges, new opportunities for our addictions to flex their muscles. Going to a meeting can strengthen our spirits and help ensure our continuing recovery. Today, I further my recovery by going to a meeting. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Let us stop and think about our room here on earth. We have occupied it all our lives; we have free heat and light. From the windows of this room we can look upon the grandest of nature’s landscapes if we so desire but it also looks upon poverty, slums and filth, if that is what we have eyes for. How can we pay for our Room on Earth? Only by serving our fellow men, the children of the Landlord, “and inasmuch as ye did it unto these, ye did it unto Me.” If you do less you are not worthy of your Room on Earth. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Most ( )A people spend more time deciding where to have lunch than in choosing a sponsor. 2) What starts out bad can’t end up good. 3) Insanity is the seeming inability to learn from past mistakes. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ To Be Prayer O Lord, I ain’t what I ought to be, And I ain’t what I want to be, And I ain’t what I’m going to be, But O Lord, I thank You That I ain’t what I used to be. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ YOUR FATHER The fourth name the prophet Isaiah speaks of is that of Everlasting Father. As Jesus so clearly pointed out, God is our Father, not merely our Creator. But we have to establish our own consciousness of this fact. In the fifth place, we receive what is perhaps the greatest name of all, “The Prince of Peace.” Think what perfect peace of soul, if you could attain it, would actually mean to you. If you had real peace of soul, do you suppose that your body could be ill? Given real peace of soul, how easy it would be to find your true place in the world. How quickly and efficiently you could perform your work. Once you have attained true peace of soul, you have made it possible for the Child to teach you new things, utterly beyond the compass of your present understanding. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever (Isaiah 9:7). In view of the fact that the weaker souls, the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the depressed, should find it impossible to believe that such good tidings could be true, the prophet clinches the matter with the definite assertion: . . . The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:7). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Limitbusters Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ “May I speak to you for a moment?” the older woman asked the young hunk on the beach. “Well, I was hoping to have some quiet time,” he replied. “I won’t bother you—I just need to tell you something.” “Okay.” She pulled her beach towel next to his. “I need to talk to you because I am afraid to,” Beverly confessed. “I feel too shy to speak to good-looking men who are younger than I am. When I saw you today, I wanted to talk to you, but I felt anxious. So I had to do this to break my sense of ‘I can’t.’” The man thanked Beverly for her honesty, and the two engaged in pleasant conversation. Then she excused herself and walked away, stronger than she was when she approached him. Fear tells us that we are small, powerless, and separate. Love affirms that we are great, creative, and connected. Which voice do you choose to be your guide? The way to dissolve a limit is to step right up to it and look it in the eye. When we shine the light on the darkness, we see that the thing we ran from had power over us only as long as we kept it at a distance. When we face what frightens us, we discover that we are bigger than it is. We can do anything we choose; we were not born to live in fear, but in love. I am free as God created me. I am bigger than fear. I step forward and live in the light. |
January 7
Step by Step Today, I will invoke the Program’s oldest of mottoes and “Take It Easy.” If I am new to recovery, I will not become impatient and possibly disillusioned with the program if its promises are not soon enough for me. If I am well into recovery, I will not be overwhelmed by the responsibilities that sobriety requires and take each of those obligations in their proper priority and in the time they require. I will not push myself if I am not fast enough to get to the next task I want to achieve, and I will not expect too much of either myself or anyone else. Today, I will do what is expected of me by others and myself, but I will do it in the time required of the Higher Power. Adversely, I will not do anything today with the impatience that I wanted it done yesterday. To do that risks disillusionment with myself and the program, and recovery doesn’t allow for either. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. *********************************************** ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ WANTING GOD God becomes directly and actively concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. ~ Norman Vincent Peale ~ In writing about the Twelve Steps in the magazine Guideposts, Norman Vincent Peale stated, “Quite suddenly I saw that the power in (those steps) could be tapped by anyone wrestling with a power stronger than self. The Twelve Steps are a channel through which we can direct our appeal to the one Power that can lift the burden from us no matter what that burden is.” The Twelve Steps can be successfully applied to solving problems caused by any obsession or dependency. Regardless of age, background, or any other difference among members, the Steps lead to admit-ting and accepting a need, finding a Higher Power, turning problems over to God as we understand Him, pinpointing defects of character, making amends, reducing our defects, and learning to find God’s will for us by prayer and meditation. I am learning to let God further into my life. *********************************************** ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama ~ The word compassion means literally to suffer with someone. We normally use the word more broadly to mean empathize, or feel, with a person. Moving out of the prison of our own self-centeredness, we grow in the ability to see the world through the eyes of others. We grow wiser and more effective in our own lives because we aren’t limited to one outlook. We learn to forgive ourselves and suddenly we are much freer with our forgiveness of others. There is a generosity of spirit in compassion, and the most generous attitude comes when we can act compassionately with someone we don’t especially like. Even though we may not choose a particular guy to be our best friend, we can accept and honor the hard times he has had and we can put ourselves in his place to see what his challenges have been. Nothing is more admirable than a strong man acting generously and compassionately toward another human being. Today I will strive to be generous with compassion and to see the world as someone else sees it. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ We are giving birth to ourselves. Let’s be mid-wives to one another through this difficult, yet exhilarating, process. ~ Dudley Martineau ~ Helping each other survive the traumas of our lives strengthens us. We can’t be overwhelmed by any experience if we rely on each other for support as we walk through it. What lucky women we are. Having the courage to take advantage of opportunities transforms us. Where do we want to take our lives? Who do we want to become? The decisions are many and exciting. The counsel of our friends can guide us, but which doors we open is up to us. Most of us experienced the pain of our lives alone. Revealing to someone else what our lives were like was far too scary. How could they possibly like us or accept us if they knew who we really were? Now those days are gone forever. Our decision to get help, and thus give help, is giving every one of us the new life we deserve. My rebirth gives me opportunities to share my good fortune with others. I will be attentive to everyone today. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am letting go of old friends and making new ones I didn’t want to give up my old using friends. Most every day we would show up at the same place to keep each other company and get high. We trusted each other. We understood each other like nobody else (except others with psychiatric illness). I still miss the old crowd and sometimes I want to visit them. But I don’t. That would make it too easy to use again. I feel lonely at times, but I’m trying to let them go and slowly make new friends now—sober and stable ones. Given the way I used to live my life, that’s not easy. But there are a couple of people I can relate to these days. I will just have to give it some time. I will pray for the willingness to make friends; I will pray for courage. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ One way to become enthusiastic is to look for the plus sign. To make progress in any difficult situation, you have to start with what’s right about it and build on that. ~ Norman Vincent Peale ~ Beginning our days with a positive mental outlook is a great depression- chaser. Simply lifting our heads and looking up and out instead of down will make us feel better. Although we can’t spend all our time staring at the sty, we can train ourselves to look for the best in ourselves and others. Even in the middle of difficulty or pain, we have choices. We can choose a gloom-and-doom attitude and endlessly replay the thoughts that accompany it. Or we can step back and find the one good thing. We may be blinded with pain. The situation may appear hopeless, utterly bleak. But recovery guarantees that we are equal to it, that in our pain there is at least one good thing. We are the masters of our fate. We can change even the most difficult situations with an attitude of hope and positive expectation. Approaching each day with a hopeful heart will give us a different approach to our troubles. Today help me find the one good thing. Help me let go of fear and negativity. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ You have been under attack from the enemy, he has tried to steal your money, your marriage, your home, your children, your job, your peace, your joy, your love and today we declare “no more” and today we declare that we are on the road to recovery. ~ Doug Dickerson ~ The road of recovery offers some smoothly paved sur-faces, but often it has obstacles such as potholes and downed limbs. It is a bumpy, unpredictable path that can challenge your commitment and drain you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. At times you may feel your strength so depleted that you want to give up. And you may come across those who sense your near-defeat and tempt you to travel an easier route. You have been down that road before! A road filled with those who wanted your companionship because you were as sick and wounded as they were. Those who said you did not have a problem. Beware of those who will try to distract you. Know that there will be times when you move forward and times when you experience setbacks. The path that offers the greatest challenge is often the one leading you in the right direction. The road to recovery will offer challenges to my strength. Today I accept these challenges and know that the more I work the program, the better I will become. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. ~ Old proverb ~ Many of us believe prayer has to be scheduled—a once-in-the-morning and once-at-night routine. Yet few of us remember prayer is merely a conversation with our Higher Power. We can pray anytime and as often as we’d like. Prayer in the morning is a wonderful way to open the day. Yet do we continue to keep the door open by renewing our conversation with our Higher Power? Do we turn to our Higher Power during times of stress, joy, sadness, or peace? We may be so busy in our daily tasks that we forget to keep that door open. Tonight the door is still open. Our Higher Power is still there to listen. We can share our feelings of the day as though we were talking to a close friend. We don’t have to prostrate ourselves before our Higher Power. All we have to do is start talking. Then we can close the door with prayer, knowing we have with us the good, warm feelings that faith brings. And as we finally lay down to sleep tonight, we can say goodnight to our Higher Power and give thanks for the day. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Finding balance Let’s not forget to play. Our new way of life is a serious matter, but it is not intended as a punishment; nor do we need to repent and suffer for the rest of our lives. Our new way of life is intended to produce growth. But growth takes work. And work needs play for balance. If we forget to play and be joyful, our life will become imbalanced and we will suffer needlessly. Have I found some balance in my life? Higher Power, help me remember that all living things need balance: let me laugh, let me play, let me grow. My plan for playing today is God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Fortunately, time, rather than intelligence or study, eventually helps us see the other side of things. ~ ANNEMARIE COLBIN ~ Newcomer I don’t think these meetings do enough. Some people come in with their health in terrible shape. Someone should be evaluating them! I think I should be getting vitamin B shots. I’m angry that such important things are being ignored. Sponsor You may very well need extra vitamins; nutrition sounds like something you might be ready to look into. You may want to see a doctor, a nutritionist, or both. I support you in your desire to get help with the ways you have neglected your health. And I understand that you feel angry at not being taken care of. One reason that this program works for me is that it respects my decision to seek help, if and when I choose to, from the people and institutions I trust. It doesn’t get into the business of dispensing medical advice, diets, vitamins, or exercise plans, any more than it tells me where to pray, how to earn a living, or whom to vote for. The group doesn’t hire experts to come tell us how to run our lives, and we don’t have to be covered by insurance to come to a meeting. Each of us here is an expert on just one thing: our own experience of addiction and recovery. You might say that we’re specialists! Today, I appreciate the gift of my experience. I add one new thing to my knowledge of how to take care of my health—physical, mental, and spiritual. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ One day you were a weak, hopeless sot; then came a day when you were clear eyed and sober. You are certainly aware that you could not, of yourself, accomplish this miracle—for it was truly a miracle. This did not happen because you were selected by wild chance. You were chosen because you possessed the qualities that made you suitable for the work the Higher Power needed done. To say that you lack the ability to “carry the message” is to question the wisdom of God. There is work here that you were born to do. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Self-will run riot. 2) If you don’t want what we have, we will cheerfully refund your misery. 3) FEAR: Forget Everything And Run. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Prayer for the Hurried Lord, slow me down. Ease the pounding of my heart by quieting my mind. Steady my hurried pace. Give me, in the con fusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tension of my nerves and muscles. Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep. Teach me to take minute vacations by slowing down to look at a flower or a cloud, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing speed. Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Lord, slow me down. Inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my great destiny. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ YOUR LORD A great deal of confusion seems to exist in many minds concerning the precise avenue through which realization and harmony are to be attained. The only solution is to contact the divine Power that dwells within your own soul; and to bring it to bear upon the various difficulties in your life, taking them in due order, that is, attacking the most urgent first. The real remedy for every one of your difficulties is, as we are on every page of the bible, to find and know the Indwelling Presence. Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee (Job 22:21) This, then, is the task, and the only one—to find, and consciously know, your own Indwelling Lord. You see now how the confusion disappears, and the perfect simplicity of the whole thing emerges once you realize this fact. ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Finally Made Something What should it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul? ~ Jesus Christ ~ As a boy, my idol was baseball star Mickey Mantle. Along with millions of other kids, I dreamed of playing centerfield for the Yankees, slamming home runs over the fence to the tune of a huge crowd’s roar of adoration, and winning the Most Valuable Player Award. Several years ago, I saw an interview with Mickey Mantle after he had come out of the Betty Ford Clinic. I was stunned to learn that my hero had succumbed to a long and grisly bout with alcoholism. The interviewer asked the former star, nearing death due to liver damage, “How would you like people to remember Mickey Mantle?” With great humility, he answered, “I would like people to think that I finally made something of myself.” Finally? I couldn’t believe my ears! If anybody had ever made anything of himself, I thought, it was Mickey Mantle, the most loved and respected athlete of an entire generation. The Mick was the king. Yet, through his eyes, all his stardom was for naught in the face of his losses to drink. To Mickey Mantle, overcoming his alcoholism was a far greater achievement than all the home runs he’d ever hit. All worldly glory pales in comparison to spiritual awakening. Mickey Mantle mastered his lesson of a lifetime when he graduated from the Betty Ford Clinic. No matter what accolades we achieve in the outer world, it is our inner life we need to come to terms with. Although he had all the laurels a man could dream of, Mickey Mantle found peace only when he found himself. Should you be tempted to trade inner peace for worldly glory, re–member the Mick. It’s what’s inside that counts. Help me remember where my true peace lies. I am a spiritual being. I nourish my spirit and I am fed. |
January 8
Step by Step ” …(W)e spent three or four hours formally going through the Six-Step program as it was at that time. Complete deflation. Dependence and guidance from a Higher Power. Moral inventory. Confession. Restitution. Continued work with other alcoholics.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Personal Stories,” Ch 10 (“He Sold Himself Short”), p 292. Today, the program’s original steps still serve to simplify the purposes of what later would become the 12 steps. “Complete deflation” is the goal of the first step – “admitted we were powerless” – and “Continued work with other alcoholics,” the marching orders of the 12th step. In between, we find and concede to a higher power from which we seek the strength and honesty to admit our faults to ourselves and someone else, and then make amends – restitution – for those wrongs. Today, if 12 steps seem too high to climb for now, “Keep It Simple” and look to the original six steps. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ SMILE AGAIN Tis easy enough to be pleasant When life flows along like a song. But the man worth while Is the man who can smile When everything goes dead wrong. ~ Emily Wheeler Wilcox ~ We can truthfully, gratefully, and humbly say, “because of my recovery program, I can smile again.” An addictive substance wipes smiles from the faces of men and women who become addicted. With honesty and thankfulness, we can say that the worst problems we face in recovery would have been a lot worse if we were still using. In our new lives, even when everything goes dead wrong, we have learned to weigh any disaster against what it would have been like if we were still using. We are always aware that, if we smile while sharing with another, the hurt can become a lesson, and they, too, can smile again. Recovery assures me that, while into each life some rain must fall (and sometimes it’s a torrent), behind the clouds the sun is still shining brightly. Bright days always come. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Lead us from the unreal to the real world. ~ Hindu invocation ~ In pursuit of pleasures and escapes during our active addiction, we created a bubble of unreality around ourselves. Stepping into the bubble was exciting; it carried us off into gambling, or erotic and romantic pursuits, or shopping, or drugs and alcohol, or the codependent thrill of scooping other people out of their troubles. We used a whole system of half-truths and self-deceit to allow the bubble to exist. It led us to become more self-centered and more grandiose as we tried to force the unreal world to exist in reality. Now, as we live in freedom from our addictive and codependent behaviors, we continue to peel back the layers of unreality. We no longer fight with reality as it is, or try to shape and mold it to fit our desires. We see more clearly by living more honestly. One of the benefits of our new life is that we feel clearheaded. Life seems simpler now, and we feel a peace of mind that we could not have even imagined in the past. May I continue to see and accept reality as it is given. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Learning stamps you with its moments. ~ Eudora Welty ~ We never stop learning. We absorb information every waking moment. And while we sleep, we process what we encounter during the day. The conclusions we reach about these daily lessons will likely be based on the perception that dominates our lives. Do we perceive our experiences as for our good or for our undoing? Since learning is ongoing, we are fortunate to have a more positive context within which to interpret our experiences. Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as other Twelve Step programs, offers us a set of guidelines to live by, which helps us interpret every moment. We can anticipate what lies ahead, or we can dread it. What we learn from each experience reflects our attitude. Our commitment to the Twelve Steps determines it. I will soak up the day like a sponge. My education is within my control. How lucky I am to have this program! ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ If I take meds, I can’t use drugs My psychiatrist said I needed to stop using all drugs and alcohol and take a psychiatric medication. She said that if I did, my symptoms would diminish. I wasn’t sure if I believed her. Why should her medication take care of my symptoms better than my street drugs? I wanted to get better—and maybe medication could help—but I was afraid to give up my drugs. Eventually, I got up the courage to tell all this to my support group. Several of them admitted that they were taking prescribed psychiatric medication. They all agreed that it was tough to get clean and sober, but that medication acted on the body differently and really did work better than street drugs. Well, was I glad to hear this. It made it a lot easier for me to believe my doctor, get clean, and give medication a try. I will ask my support group and my doctor to help me get abstinent and then stay stable. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ There is an end to grief, if we have the courage to accept our personal goodness and our ongoing right to happiness. ~ Justin Langley ~ Making peace with our losses takes time and trust. When we were living in the pain of our addiction we acted in ways that were heartbreaking to our selves and others. But now we have a new choice: we can walk the road of self-forgiveness and stop punishing ourselves for past deeds, or we can decide that we don’t deserve to feel good, that clinging to our pain, guilt, and self-loathing will somehow make up for some of the damage. Believing our wrongs are too great to be righted leaves us in a perpetual state of mourning. It’s a risk, but we can choose to believe that change is possible, not all at once but slowly, one day at a time. Believing that God loves us and wants us to be happy gives us the courage to make amends and face our past head on. When we take the leap of faith necessary to grieve and let go of the past, we take back our best selves, and the lives we were meant to live. Today give me the strength and the courage to grieve my losses. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Health—what my friends are always drinking to before they fall down. ~ Phyllis Diller ~ You may question your resolve or need to stay sober when nearly every day new research credits moderate drinking with living longer and other positive outcomes, such as reducing or preventing diabetes, rheumatism, bone fractures and osteoporosis, and poor cognition and memory. But what such studies often fail to mention are the negative effects of drinking, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and mental impairment. While it may be tempting to use such studies as an excuse to drink, you know your behaviors do not reflect those of a moderate drinker. Your recovery depends upon steadfast devotion to improving your overall health and quality of life while remaining committed to your sobriety. Sound health requires daily attention to your spirit, mind, and body. A healthy body requires good nutrition and engaging in a daily exercise program. A healthy mind depends upon a good night’s sleep and exercising your mental capacities through learning and enjoyable activities. A healthy spirit needs a relationship with a Higher Power built and strengthened through prayer, faith, and trust. Today I will focus on abstinence and maintaining a healthy ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. ~ David Lloyd George ~ Taking a risk can be scary. Whether the risk involves a new relationship, asking for a raise, being honest, or changing a behavior, it’s still pretty hard to do. Sometimes we may wish we could approach a risk with only partial involvement, almost as if we had one foot inside a door and one outside. That way, if things get too difficult, we can always run away. But we can’t take a risk unless we commit ourselves to it. And we can’t commit ourselves unless we have faith that no matter what happens, we’re okay. We may feel vulnerable, but we don’t have to feel alone if we remember our Higher Power is with us. Perhaps we took a risk today and are still feeling scared and exposed. Or maybe we’re planning on taking a risk tomorrow and are filled with fear. Remember it’s okay to have feelings of fear, doubt, and insecurity. Tonight I will relax and know I never approach a risk without my Higher Power to guide me. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Dealing with anger Anger has its place, but chemically dependent people tend to let anger run away with them. The old saying “Be angry, but sin not” is a tall order for us. Two sins of anger are revenge and resentment. Either of them mixed with anger has a way of poisoning the angry one, both mentally and spiritually. Since revenge and resentment are killers for us, it is best to turn over to our Higher Power the situations and people we are angry with. How do I deal with my anger? When I feel angry, whether justified or not, I pray that I keep it in check and turn it over. Today I will deal with my anger constructively by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ … that they may solve their common problem… ~ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS PREAMBLE ~ Newcomer When they say we’re here to solve our common problems, I’m really put off. Adults should be able to handle their problems on their own, shouldn’t they? Sponsor We don’t go to meetings to solve our “problems,” but rather our “problem”—singular. Meetings address the problem none of us could solve on our own: the disease of addiction. I can identify with your discomfort at the thought of accepting help from a group of people. I’ve always wanted to think of myself as independent. Talking about what’s bothering me feels like I’m risking my pride, my privacy, and my autonomy. Deep down, though, I care a great deal about what other people think of me. I’m afraid that if they really get to know me, they’ll find out I’m not good enough. I’m afraid they’ll want more from me than I’m capable of giving. I’d rather believe that I don’t need others than risk being challenged or let down by them. I’m not alone in having these fears and resentments of others. Most of us who’ve resorted to addictive substances or behaviors have problems in our relationships with other people. When, through the help of other recovering people, we solve our common problem of addiction, we become truly independent. We’re free of our deadly attachment to a drug. We’re free to acknowledge our connections with other human beings. Today, I add the word “help” to my vocabulary. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ God does not willingly inflict punishment on men. Our pain and our suffering are the direct results of a violation of the Moral, Natural or Civil Law. We who were guilty of overindulgence must pay the price, not FOR our indulgence, but BECAUSE of our indulgence. The consequences must follow as the night follows the day. It is the LAW. We have violated this LAW and we have paid dearly for it, but we do not have to persist in our violations. The body will heal, sins will be forgiven, things will right themselves if, and when, we put our thoughts and actions in tune with the immutable laws of God, of Nature and of man. As sins bring punishment as a natural consequence, so right living brings its own compensations, not as a reward for good deeds done but as a CONSEQUENCE. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) When you accept others, you accept yourself. 2) No decision (right or wrong) is complete until it is fully accepted. 3) When things are going great, sobriety is good. When things are going bad, sobriety is better. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ For Another Day Thank You, dear God, for another day, The chance to live in a decent way, To feel again the joy of living, And happiness that comes from giving. Thank You for friends who can understand And the peace that flows from Your loving hand. Help me to wake to the morning sun With the prayer, “Today Thy will be done,” For with Your help I will find the way. Thank You again, dear God, for another day. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ BEGIN TODAY The first step that the earnest student must take to locate the Inner Light within himself is to settle on a definite method of working, selecting whichever one seems to suit him best, and then giving it a fair trial. Merely reading books, making good resolutions, or talking plausibly about the thing will get him nowhere. Get a definite method of working, practice it conscientiously every day; and stick to one method long enough to give it a fair chance. You would not expect to play the violin after two or three attempts, or to drive a car without a little preliminary practice. Get to work on some concrete problem, choosing preferably whatever it is that you are most afraid of. Work at it steadily; and if no improvement at all shows itself within, say, a couple of weeks, then try your method on another problem. If you still get no result, then scrap that method and adopt a new one. Remember, there is a way out. The problem really is, not getting rid of your difficulties, but finding your own best method for doing it. . . . Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you (John 16:23). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ From the Rooftops If only you could love, you would be the most powerful being in the world. ~ Emmet Fox ~ I walked off the airplane along with hundreds of passengers at 11:00 p.m., drenched in weariness after five hours of air travel. Just then I noticed a young man striding down the jetway wearing a huge wooden sign in the shape of a heart, painted with red letters: “Pam, will you marry me?” I looked ahead to see an attractive young woman waiting for him at the door. This is going to be rich, I thought, as I positioned myself to view this historic proposal. Sure enough, the fellow got down on one knee and asked for her hand in marriage. Although Pam was terribly embarrassed, she uttered a definite “yes,” echoed by a round of applause from the crowd that had gathered. All the tired travelers came to life in the presence of this bold expression of love, and we walked lightheartedly together to the escalator, laughing and talking buoyantly. Can you imagine how the world would be different if we all made such a stand to manifest our dreams? A Course in Miracles1 tells us that all acts are expressions of love, either as skillful statements or calls for love in dis–guised forms. Love is the power that moves the universe, and it is the aching need of our world. If only we stood for love as we have for fear! Practice expressing your love courageously. My friend Jeffrey has devoted his life to giving love. Whenever he sees me, he showers caring upon me through word, hug, and energy. He is one of the happiest people I know. He is a love giver rather than a love seeker. In giving what he wants, he has gotten it all. Give me the courage to express my true caring without fear or reservation. I stand for love, and love stands for me. |
January 9
Step by Step ” …(A)ny alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial. “We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Appendices,” No. 2 (“Spiritual Experience”), p 570. “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” – Herbert Spencer Today, I look to HOW – Honesty, Open-Mindedness and Willingness – to guide me if I continue to struggle with the concept of spirituality even if a spiritual awakening or experience may be little more than a change in personality and which usually comes over time instead of suddenly and with fireworks. If, indeed, a spiritual experience can be a simple improvement in my personality, outlook, perspective and philosophy of life, I can also expect that experience to be assured because, without alcohol, there is going to be some change in my emotional status and personality. It is up to me to employ the steps and traditions to make that change for the better. Deceit, closed-mindedness and a refusal to admit that something stronger than me – alcohol – could defeat me was my spiritual state as a drinking alcoholic. Today, as an alcoholic in recovery, I seek Honesty, Open-Mindedness and Willingness (HOW) out of necessity. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ FUTILITY OF HATRED Hating people is like burning down your own home to get rid of a rat. ~ Henry E. Fosdick ~ Hatred has many ancestors, and it breeds many vicious offspring. It’s easy to hate someone, some thing, or some idea. That hatred gives birth to anger, resentment, envy, impatience, and fear. It soon becomes obvious to the newcomer that, by holding on to hatred, they are also breeding these other negative emotions as well. Like a compulsion or addiction of any kind, hatred always gets worse unless we stop feeding it. When we indulge in hatred, we are unable to justify the savage feelings we experience. So we add anger, fear, and all the rest in order to fill the gap, but it’s never enough. The result is always a need for more hatred, which crowds all the positive areas of our lives with negative emotions. The time I spend on hatred can be better used in working my Program. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ God’s admiration for us is infinitely greater than anything we can conjure up for Him. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi ~ Those of us who look back upon a trail of guilty feelings and shame may find it hard to fathom God’s admiration for us. This whole idea, which comes from a Christian saint who lived eight hundred years ago, turns upside down our ideas of a God who is watching us and counting all the things we have done wrong. But we have been created to have a place here. And we have a right to take our place among all of God’s beloved creatures. No matter how imperfect we are, no matter what we feel guilty about, no matter how low our self-esteem, we are living in the grace of a God who loves us and holds us close, even at our lowest point. We sometimes feel alienated from God. We have difficulty making conscious contact. Even then, we can still know that God carries us through these hard times. Today I will walk in the light of God’s admiration and accept it to the best of my ability. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ I wish I could keep in mind that God can provide, God will provide, and God does provide. ~ Marie Gubbels ~ Relying on God for the guidance to deal with our problems seems much too simple. We probably spent decades looking to alcohol, other drugs, and relationships for the solution to the ache that never left. We didn’t know then that God was waiting in the wings for our prayers. Even knowing it, as we do now, hasn’t prevented us from looking for help elsewhere, time and again. It has never been our nature to keep our lives simple. However, we are getting more practiced at the simpler life since becoming a part of this recovery program. We may need to choose, daily, to believe that God can, will, and does provide for our every need. Because most of us haven’t had a life-changing spiritual experience, we must decide every day to look to God. Fortunately, a moment of quiet and a tiny prayer is all that we need to do. God is never more than a thought away. I will practice my reliance on God at every turn of events today. I believe I will receive guidance and knowledge concerning how to proceed next. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I better accept myself when I am able to accept others Even though I’m working a program of dual recovery for my addiction and a psychiatric illness, I’m still having some disturbing symptoms and I can’t go back to my old job yet. At times, I find myself withdrawing; at times, I feel bad because my recovery is not where I want it to be. Fortunately I tend to feel better about myself when I go to a support group meeting. My fellow members have problems much like mine. They too are working a dual program and recovering. What I find is that as I accept them, I am more willing to accept myself. I will schedule two support group meetings each week as part of my dual recovery plan. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ The smaller the head, the bigger the dream. ~ Austin O’Malley ~ When we were small, we dreamed big dreams. We dreamed of flying to the moon or stopping a mountain lion with our bare hands. Our parents and older siblings humored us, and we knew it. But we also knew we could do these things. As we grew older, we let go of our childhood dreams. We were told to grow up. We were told to be realistic. We were told in so many ways that dreams don’t come true. So many of us stopped dreaming. And we grew up. When we are overwhelmed with pain and problems, resolution may seem as likely as flying to the moon or stopping a mountain lion with our bare hands. But now, with help from our Higher Power and Twelve Step program, we’re starting to believe in miracles again. We’re learning how to recapture our childhood selves, how to let our inner child dream big dreams. We cannot accomplish what we cannot imagine. Dreams give us energy, hope, and the courage to take one more step. Today help me dream. Remind me that I cannot accomplish what I cannot imagine. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. ~ Albert Schweitzer ~ At times you may feel there is no vision to run eagerly toward, no joy to give a sense of purpose, and no desires to fulfill your day-to-day existence. Centuries ago, sages would give of their knowledge and skills, without any thought of personal benefit or financial gain. The message of compassion and selflessness they were teaching was far greater than any riches or personal gain. Their satisfaction came from the knowledge of how their actions gave hope to others. Each time you reach out to another person, you send forth a tiny ripple of hope that grows more powerful with each person it touches. In doing so, you become more capable of seeing that you are not the only one who may be unhappy or suffering. In fact, you may see that your current difficulties pale in comparison to what others are experiencing. Your gift of hope to others is also a gift to yourself. Today I choose to be of use. I will offer help to those who are feeling overwhelmed so they see they are not alone in their struggles. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Later. I’m still young. I’ll think of spiritual things when I’m older. On my deathbed. ~ Garrison Keillor ~ Too often we’ve thought prayer is for the aged, the sick, or the dying. If we are young, healthy, and successful, we may think we don’t need to communicate with a Higher Power. “I’m fine right now,” we may say. “I will . . . later on.” The time to establish contact with a Higher Power is now. From the minute we come kicking and screaming into this world until our last breath, there is a Power greater than ourselves watching over us. This Power guides us, strengthens us, and helps us grow even without our acknowledging it is there. But it is because we don’t acknowledge its presence that we become lost, confused, depressed, angry, hopeless, or unforgiving. Our time to reach out to our Higher Power is not when our bodies stop running. Now is the time to ask for direction, seek knowledge, become open to receiving divine guidance. If we open ourselves now to developing our spirituality, we will open a valuable door to our growth. Can I begin to develop my spiritual beliefs? Can I open my mind and heart to a Higher Power? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Changing You cannot build a house or a life without some foundation. While we were still drinking or using drugs, it seemed our lives could not change. There was no foundation to build on. We had no working principles in our lives. We found we could not become the good things we wanted to become. Until we quit drinking or using, we didn’t know that there was a way we could make ourselves, one day at a time, into the kind of person we could accept. But the Steps and the fellowship make personality change possible. How have I changed? Higher Power, let me be willing to love myself and live myself into a new life, one day at a time, based on honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness. I will seek change today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Which way lay safety? Which way life? ~ JACQUES LUSSEYRAN ~ Newcomer What would be the harm of using in moderation? The rest of the world does it. I have to admit that I feel deprived, even somewhat resentful. Sponsor When I was free to use in moderation, how moderate was I? Was my relationship with certain substances and behaviors easy and comfortable, one that created no problems for me or others? Was it easy for me to stop, once I got started? Was it easy for me to stay stopped, if I chose to? It’s easy to slip back into denial about the seriousness of my problem, once I’ve gotten some momentary feelings of control. Some of us consumed our addictive substances in smaller quantities than others did. Some of us are taller or thinner or shorter or younger; some spent more years in school; some can enjoy strawberries without breaking out in a rash. I can easily point to the differences between me and others; there are plenty! Or I can go to meetings, listen, and see if there are feelings with which I identify. The addictions that call to us will always be there, if we decide to go back to them. For today, there’s no hurry to return to old habits. Let’s keep an open mind, as we go through today without putting our recovery at risk. I look honestly at my previous life and remember what feelings and situations got me here. For today, I give myself the chance for recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ It would be most difficult to contradict the statement that you cannot get sobriety unless you honestly want it. You cannot find a God of your understanding unless you honestly seek Him. It is likewise true that you cannot reap full measure from our Program unless you honestly live it. Self-deception is very hard to recognize for if we recognized it, it would no longer be deceptive. Honesty with ourselves can only be acquired by diligent study of ourselves, our ideals, our ambitions and our motives. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) It’s hard to learn from a mistake you don’t acknowledge making. 2) The best thing you can do is get out of your own way. 3) If you make yourself available, you’ll get what you need when you need it. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The 23rd-1/2 Psalm The Lord is my sponsor! I shall not want. He directs me to go to many meetings. He desires me to sit back, relax, and listen with an open mind. He restores my soul, my sanity, and my health. He leads me in the paths of sobriety, serenity, and fellowship for my own sake. He teaches me to think, to take it easy, to live and let live, and to do first things first. He makes me honest, humble, and grateful. He teaches me to accept the things I cannot change, to change the things that I can, and gives me the wisdom to know the difference. Yea, though I walk through the valley of despair, frustration, guilt, and remorse, I will fear no evil, for God is with me. The Program, God’s way of life, the Twelve Steps—they comfort me. God prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies: rationalization, fear, anxiety, self- pity, and resentment. God anoints my confused mind and jangled nerves with knowledge, understanding, and hope. No longer am I alone; neither am I afraid, nor sick, nor helpless, nor hopeless. My cup runneth over. Surely sobriety and serenity shall follow me every day of my life, twenty-four hours at a time, as I surrender my will to God and carry the message to others; and I will dwell in the house of my Higher Power, as I understand Him, daily. Forever and Ever. Amen. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ NO RESULTS WITHOUT PRAYER There is only one way to make spiritual progress, and that is to practice the Presence of God. Mankind is continually seeking to discover a shortcut but as usual the lazy man takes the most pains in the long run, and having wasted his time in wandering up bypaths, he is ultimately driven by failure and suffering to the realization of the grand truth that there is no substitute for prayer; that is, the conscious dwelling upon the Being of God. If your intuitive nature is well developed, you will seldom need to use formal statements at all. This is excellent—for all who will trouble to climb a ladder when he is strong enough to leap over the wall? But it must not be overlooked that very many people do all their work with formal statements of Truth, and get consistently good results by working in this way. Not through repeating affirmations like a parrot. Those who work like a parrot inevitably make a parrot’s demonstration—they remain in a cage. Of a good worker who used the same phrases many times it was said by a friend: “He constantly uses the old affirmations, but he stuffs them with fresh feeling every time.” The Lord is nigh unto all them that call him, to all that call upon him in truth (Psalm 145: 18) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Your Point of Power Don’t play for safety. It’s the most dangerous thing in the world. ~ Hugh Walpole ~ When popular singer Bobby McFerrin got bored with his performances, he faced a crossroad in his career. After the smash success of his 1988 song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” he set out on a long and grueling concert tour—but then the joy fell out. “I wasn’t being fair to my audiences or myself,” McFerrin confessed. “I wasn’t pre–sent. I wasn’t scared anymore.” McFerrin dropped out for two years, spent quality time with his family, and explored novel musical forms. He came back fresh and imaginative, established the groundbreaking ensemble, Synchestra, performed duets with premier cellist Yo Yo Ma, and went into classical conducting. I attended a most innovative Bobby McFerrin concert, during which I and the rest of the audience waited the entire evening for Bobby to sing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” He didn’t. I have a formula for knowing if a next step is the right one for you: If you feel both excited and scared, that is it. If you’re just excited and not afraid, there is no challenge, no stretching, no initiation; you are still in your safe zone, and growth is unavailable. If you’re just afraid, there is no positive motivation. Why walk through a fear unless there is something you are walking toward? But if you are simultaneously turned on and frightened, do it and watch your growth skyrocket. You owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and your clients to stay on your cutting edge. If your career or relationship is a bore, step back and ask yourself what it would take to make it exciting. Then ask yourself what it would take to make it scary. The intersection of the two answers is your point of power. I pray to follow my spirit and walk past fear to make my dreams come true. Powered by enthusiasm, I step forward to greater things. |
January 10
Step by Step “AA has become a way of life and living for me. It has brought about a revelation of self, the discovery of an inner being, an awareness of God. “I wouldn’t give it up or trade it for anything. And the only one who can take it away from me is me – by taking that first drink.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch 7 (“A Teenager’s Decision”), p 355. Today, perhaps my deadliest enemy is not alcohol or the “contributing factors” that I came up with to “blame” for my alcoholism. Maybe my greatest enemy is myself. If I am fighting an urge or temptation to drink or if I haven’t yet gone into recovery, how I react to either is my decision and responsibility and no one else’s. If a slip is pending or if I continue to drink because I think I’m either not ready to quit or the state of my life makes sobering up uninviting, the consequences are mine and mine alone if I pick up the next drink. Let me look to the Fourth Step to identify the emotional and spiritual weakness or sickness that fuels my self-destruction. Today, I have no desire to give in or give up. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ FIRST THINGS FIRST Heaven is not reached by a single bound. But we build the ladder by which we rise. ~ J.G. Holland ~ The old saying, “Rome was not built in a day,” tells us that every great achievement must have a single beginning and must continue to be built with care. So it is understandable that in recovery we need to be reminded that all good endings depend on a careful, useful, and productive program of progress. Our recovery brings us the best things in life, but we must never be greedy with them. Our appetite for the good things is great, but it should never become so great that we stop tasting each step of progress like we would taste each bite of a good dinner. It is exciting to lose the desire for our addictive substance, but we must always stay alert to overconfidence. Carelessness can tell us, “You’ve got it made; you’re free.” Today, I’ll remember that many a relapse has been a complete and painful surprise. “First Things First” and “Easy Does It” must always be my guides. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave. ~ James A. LaFond-Lewis ~ Fear plays a role in our lives in different ways. Many of us have been so conditioned to deny fear that we don’t even know we are afraid and are, in fact, reacting to it. We may look back on a major life choice and realize we chose one job over another because of fear. Some of us can see in the rearview mirror that our controlling ways rise out of fear, not desire for power. The fact is that until we allow ourselves to know our fears, we will react impulsively to them and cannot respond bravely to them. Our fears don’t give us a license to control those around us. Our fears don’t make our addictive escapes any less harmful. On this path we seek to know our fears, to call them by name so we can be smart in dealing with them. Sometimes we may use our fear as wise guidance to avoid danger, and other times we may choose to bravely step into the circle of our fear and face it down because we do not want to be irrationally ruled by it. Today I will open my eyes to see my fears and then choose wiser, braver responses to them. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ To stop behaving in a certain way is to risk the unfamiliar. ~ Jan Lloyd ~ Old patterns grip us so tightly! Even when the behavior pinches us painfully, we are loathe to give it up. Its familiarity makes it tolerable, knowable, somewhat manageable, and far less scary than trying something new. However, we are truly the luckiest women alive because now we have a training ground where it is safe to try new behaviors. We can discard old, self-defeating patterns in the safe environment of these Twelve Steps. We are on this recovery path because each of us wants a new life. We have grown sick and tired of the old ways that no longer work. And we have come to believe that change is possible if we look for it in the right place. This is the right place! At any meeting we can see other women who, like us, are trying on new behaviors and meeting with success. We are role models for one another, and every time one of us tries a new response to an old situation, we are all heartened and stretched a bit. We know that what another can do, we can do too. I am in the right place today to let go of the old and try the new. My support is all around me. I will not fear. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I will give the Twelve Step fellowship a fair chance I went to a Twelve Step meeting—as my counselor suggested—and I didn’t like it. It felt so different from my support group. The Step meeting seemed formal and I felt uneasy when people talked about God and a “higher power.” On the other hand, maybe I overreacted. I know I don’t like doing new things. I know I’m not eager to face my problem with chemicals these days. To tell the truth, I did hear some helpful comments about being willing and staying abstinent. Maybe I need to follow the facilitator’s suggestion—take what I like and leave the rest. Maybe I could get some help there after all. (And if this meeting doesn’t work out, there are other Twelve Step meetings to try.) As suggested for newcomers, I will give my Twelve Step meeting five more chances. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Live by faith until you have faith. ~ Peter Boehler ~ A little faith is better than no faith. We need not be free from all doubt to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher Power. No one of us has complete faith, perfect faith. We know only that our sobriety depends on our belief in a Power greater than ourselves. Clearly, we didn’t fare so well on our own. Our drinking and drugging controlled us. Now that we admit we are powerless over addiction, we need to find something more powerful than ourselves. We have much to gain; we know this from seeing people at meetings who believe in a Higher Power. We know of the serenity and calm that can come from such belief. We’d like that for ourselves, too. It’s tempting to try and carry all burdens alone. But with all that heavy baggage strapped to our backs, everyone else passes us by, free and light from having left their burdens with a Power greater than themselves. We can find that freedom, too. Today I’ll spend a moment in conscious contact with my Higher Power even though my faith isn’t perfect yet. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love. ~ Hubert Humphrey ~ In the past, the people you called friends may have been those with whom you drank or drugged. Their excessive caregiving may have directly or indirectly encouraged you to keep drinking or using. They may have lied for you, made excuses for you, or did everything they could to protect you from the consequences of your actions and behaviors. However well-meaning such actions were, you understand now that these friends were not helping you. The program teaches that unhealthy friendships are with those who continue to drink or drug, those who are codependent or enablers, and those who do not want you to change. By continuing to associate with such people, you run the risk of relapse. The program uses the slogan “Stick with the winners” to promote the role healthy friendships can play in maintaining abstinence. The winners are those who can and will offer the highest level of support in recovery. Begin today by thinking about each of these special people and how your life is better because of them. Take time to reach out to the friends you have made in the program. Healthy friendships are like angels sent from my Higher Power. Today I will remember that I need to cherish these friendships always, for they are blessings in my life. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Great Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked in his moccasins for two weeks. ~ Sioux Indian prayer ~ How many times do we see someone who dresses or acts differently? How do we usually react to such a person? Do we stare or make a comment to someone next to us? Meetings are excellent places to come in contact with those who come from different backgrounds. Do we greet each person we meet with care and attention, or do we pass judgments and make jokes? Our Higher Power has given each of us a diverse background and personality. Some of us have known incredible hardship or handicap. Some of us have limited education. Some of us live in crowded spaces. But some of us have had opportunities. Some of us have an educational degree. Some of us live in large homes. Yet is there any one of us who is better than another? If we are prone to judge or criticize, tonight we can decide to take a first step toward silence. Remember that education and economics do not make someone better. We are the same, no matter how much, or how little, we have. I can learn not to judge others. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Seeking growth We are where we are for a reason. As long as that reason remains, we remain where we are. If we aren’t where we think we should be, working the program will help us get to where our deepest self longs to be. This is growth. And growth is work. We must be willing to do the simple things that our new under-standing asks of us. We are never given more than we can handle, and the loving help we need along the way is always available. But we never get this help in advance, only as we need it. Am I seeking growth? Higher Power, help me want to grow and be willing to do the simple things, day by day, that add up to big changes. I will seek growth today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ The war is over. ~ SAYING HEARD AT MEETINGS ~ Newcomer I’m trying to understand the First Step, and I’m really stuck on that word “powerless.” I’m not weak; I don’t want to be called powerless. It really insults my intelligence. Sponsor Let’s take a look at this part of the First Step together. It doesn’t simply say, “We admitted we were powerless.” Far from it. It says that we were powerless over something. We recognized that a specific substance or behavior had proved stronger than our determination not to consume it or engage in it. Choosing recovery does not mean that we are weak, but it does offer us an opportunity to surrender. Accepting the truth that we have an addiction is an easier way for us to change our addictive behavior than continuously fighting with it. When I resist, my enemy just seems to get stronger. So instead, I accept that there are some things I can’t control. That acceptance becomes a source of enormous power. Today, I empty my hands and let go of my weapons. I admit that addiction has played a role in my life. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Alcoholism, or compulsive drinking, is incurable. We have seen too much evidence of the fact to believe differently—yet, occasionally, some of us get the idea that we are exceptions to the rule. Then the Rat Race begins all over again. We are alcoholics. We must admit it and accept it as one of those things we cannot change. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) FEAR: Forgetting Everything’s All Right. 2) Willingness is the key to acceptance. 3) Our spiritual possibilities are unlimited when we willingly decide to live them. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ This I Believe Tomorrow is yet to be, But should God grant me another day, The Hope, Courage, and Strength Through the working of the Twelve Steps and Serenity Prayer, I shall be sufficiently provided for to meet my every need. This I believe. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ PERSISTENCE BRINGS RESULTS Prayer is the one thing that can make a change in your life. If you will go direct to God in simple, affirmative prayer, you can heal your body, bring peace and harmony in your life, and make well-being a reality. Sometimes discouragement sets in when the answer does not come immediately but God is working on the unseen plane and our part is to be persistent. Persistence in prayer is an expression of our faith, for by our persistence we are affirming our belief that God will make his answer plain. …men ought always to pray, and not faint (Luke 18:1) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ One Frog Per Hand Never try to catch two frogs with one hand. ~ Country wisdom ~ I remember a television entertainer who balanced spinning plates on thin wooden sticks. At first his act looked easy as he added one plate at a time to the array. Then his job became tense and hilarious as he tried to keep all the teetering plates spinning without let–ting them fall and crash. Many of us try to do so many things at once that we don’t get any of them done well. Instead of expanding with creative joy, we succumb to “Management by Emergency.” We say yes to more than we can handle and then spend most of our time putting out fires. We take on so many projects that we cannot give any of them the attention they deserve, and we leave ourselves overworked, exhausted, ineffective, and sometimes ill. When my mother was in the hospital awaiting surgery, she was very unhappy. Her biggest complaint was that no doctor would give her quality time; her physicians would rush in and out and treat her like an item on an assembly line. The day before her surgery, I went to visit her, and she was beaming. “I saw the nicest doctor today!” she exclaimed. “He sat down with me, drew me a diagram of what he was going to do, and answered all my questions patiently. Now I feel peaceful.” To be a true healer, teacher, minister, parent, or business person, you will gain more in the long run by giving your clients quality attention. To be successful, no matter what your vocation, you must be fully present with what–ever you’re doing. Life is best lived one wholehearted moment at a time. I want to live a quality life. Let me say yes to what belongs to me and let all else go. My presence is the present. I give my whole heart, and I find true reward. |
January 11
Step by Step “The last three years of my drinking, I drank on my job. The amount of will power exercised to control my drinking during working hours, diverted into a constructive channel, would have made me President, and the thing that made the will power possible was the knowledge that as soon as my day was finished I could drink myself into oblivion. Inside, though, I was scared to death, for I knew that the time was coming (and it couldn’t be too remote) when I would be unable to hold that job. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to hold any job, or maybe (and this was my greatest fear) I wouldn’t care whether I had a job or not. I knew it didn’t make any difference where I started, the inevitable end would be skid row. The only reality I was able to face had been forced upon me by its very repetition – I had to drink; and I didn’t know there was anything in the world that could be done about it.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 12 (“Freedom From Bondage”), p 548. Today, remembering when I drank on the job, then fear that I would be “caught” and lose it and, ultimately, not caring if I did. And I remember the thought that got me through those long working days – I could go home and drink myself into literal oblivion. And I could do it all over the next day. I need to remember so I don’t forget the helpless, hopeless and pathetic creature I had become and that my early time in the program required some tough, tough work not only to sober up but also to care again. Today, the power of a drink after work holds no power anymore, only disdain and disgust that it will plunge me back into that yesterday if I allow it. Today, I won’t allow it. The harsh and painful memories of my yesterday serve me well today not to go back there. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ OPTIMISM The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears that this is true. ~ James Branch Cabell ~ Optimists say that there are far more successes than failures in recovery. Pessimists say the opposite. The Program says that anyone in recovery is a success. The Program never fails, but individuals do because they give up too easily and too quickly. When we decide to work closely with others, we have already declared that we will be optimistic about succeeding. During our excessive years, we suffered all the pessimism we ever again want to suffer. When we gather at a meeting, we are former pessimists who join in being optimists about winning. The irony is that this makes us winners. Two people were served hamburgers for lunch. The pessimist muttered, “What a small dab of meat,” while the optimist exclaimed, “What a big bun they serve here.” ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Any one thing is “hitched to everything in the universe.” ~ John Muir ~ Some days our lives seem to be in chaos. We may feel flooded with too much: too much work, too much pain, too much to learn, or too many problems to handle. On days like this, we can begin to see past the chaos and feel hopeful about dealing with the future because we can turn to our Higher Power. All things are part of a larger whole in the universe, and all things are connected. We are never completely alone. There is comfort and security in knowing that we can rely on our Higher Power. We only have to do a small part today. The universe will continue to work its way toward a natural solution to today’s problems. Today I will concentrate on simply doing one small part of what needs to be done. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Make lists; take action. ~ Connie Hilliard ~ Our responsibilities can seem overwhelming if we let them pile up in our minds. Worrying about what needs to be done rather than doing it feeds our fear of inadequacy. We came into recovery certain that we didn’t measure up, but if we use the program we can conquer those fears. Focusing on “first things first” gets us moving in the proper direction. That slogan, coupled with “keep it simple,” can change how we respond to every challenge. We feel overwhelmed because we look at the whole, rather than at the individual tasks that need specific, manageable bits of attention. This program and these Twelve Steps were created to help us stay clean and sober. But they can do so much more. They are a blueprint for handling every minute of the day, every person we encounter, every task that deserves our attention. Nothing piles up if we follow the guidance of the program’s architects. I will not be overwhelmed if I keep it simple today. Doing one thing at a time is all that’s expected. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to think twice about using I can’t stop thinking and I can’t sit still. I’m tired of TV and radio. The next appointment with my counselor is two days away. Right now I don’t much care what he said about mixing alcohol with meds. I can’t stand the way I’m feeling. I have to relax. I want a drink. But if I have one drink, I’ll probably have another. If I have two, I’ll have a dozen. I might wake up in detox again. I might have a setback. Maybe a drink isn’t the best thing for me after all. When I have strong cravings, I will stop whatever I’m doing for two minutes and think about my options. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ The butterfly becomes, only when it’s entirely ready. ~ Chinese proverb ~ Entirely ready? Do we ever feel entirely ready to do anything? This takes some spiritual support. Once, we put things off as much as we could, as often as we could, whenever we could. Action was not a very familiar concept in our lives. Promises — those came more naturally. In a promise there was no demand involved. In time, broken promises became a trademark of our lives. But not today. Today, we can make a commitment and keep it. Each day we act more responsibly, more consistently, and get more things done. As we move through stages of becoming entirely ready, we need to stay more constantly in touch with our Higher Power. Because we are so easily threatened by the changes that happen in recovery, we need help to feel secure. We want the gifts we’ve been offered and can only have them if we keep working, and keep growing in trust. As we continue on the road of recovery, we feel more and more ready. As we come to accept that our program is based on progress, not perfection, we gradually find ourselves transformed, spiritually. We are becoming entirely ready. Today grant me the courage and the patience to accept the sometimes slow process of change. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. ~ Abraham Maslow ~ Worry prevents you from living in the present and causes you to fret about what has already happened or what might happen. Too much worrying can exaggerate situations and drain you of the energy you need in the present. To cure worry, learn to distinguish between facts and fantasies. For example, you may be worried your sponsor will end your interactions because of a disagreement you had. Ask yourself, “Is that a fact?” The answer will help you figure out whether your worry is based on fact or fiction. Then consider actions you can take. Ask, “What can I do about this right now?” Rather than worry your sponsor will walk away from you, talk to your sponsor so you can resolve any differences. Develop similar plans of action for other worries so you can stop looking backward or peering fearfully ahead. It has been said, “Yesterday’s a cancelled check, tomorrow’s a promissory note, but today is cash. Spend it wisely,” Seek out those things that you can change and let go of your worries about that which you cannot control. I have the power to make my worries gigantic or to shrink them. Today I will take action to live fully in the present moment. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ The first thing I had to conquer was fear. I realized what a debilitating thing fear is. It can render you absolutely helpless. I know now that fear breeds fear. ~ Byron Janis ~ The future can be scary, especially if we try to predict what will happen. Sometimes we may even go further, not only predicting what may happen but also anticipating our reactions to those events. If only we knew what will happen, then we wouldn’t have to be afraid of the future. If we’re not careful, we will allow every fearful feeling to overtake us until the fear extends into other parts of our lives. Fear can be like a hidden trap, catching us whenever we try to go anywhere or do anything. We cannot see, hear, or touch fear, but we can give it so much power that it almost has a life of its own. We can get rid of the traps fear has set for us. We can do that by having faith in our Higher Power. We can have faith that our way has been prepared for us, faith that we are safe wherever we are. I can cut the ties with which fear binds me. Without fear, I will only feel the safety of faith. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Changing our attitudes Our prayer is, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We say this prayer at least once a day because although we must accept the things we cannot change today, they may, in fact, change tomorrow. This seems to be a paradox, yet once we truly and completely accept something, it begins to change. While the objective fact remains unchanged, our attitude toward it and our relationship to it has changed. It is with our attitudes toward people and things that we must learn to live. Am I changing my attitudes? Higher Power, help me live fully today, neither forward nor backward, but here and now. The attitude I will work on today is God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Let the counsel of thine own heart stand. ~ APOCRYPHA ~ Newcomer I’ve told one or two old friends that I’ve started going to meetings of a Twelve Step program. One of them is very dubious about it. When I talked about being addicted, she said she’d never thought of me as having a serious problem. Maybe she’s right—she’s known me for a long time. Sponsor It’s ultimately our own deep discomfort that tells us we have a problem. Our friends, our families, and even our doctors may have told us that they want us to get help—or they may have said that they don’t believe we have a serious problem. Do they know the whole truth about us? We may have hidden our addiction from them. They may not be adequately informed about what addiction is. Or they themselves may be in denial, in order not to have to look at their own relationship to addiction. Friends who aren’t facing a life-and-death disease may not understand that what I’m doing here is saving my life. They may think that I’m exaggerating my problem or that I’m simply caught up in a trend. Such opinions appeal to me at times, when I’d rather not have to face what I know to be true in the depths of my being. We can’t let others “vote” on our decision to enter recovery—it’s up to us to know our own truth and respect it. Today, I own my need for recovery. I don’t argue about it, with myself or with others. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ We brought nothing into this world and shall take nothing out. We are in the process of living a lifetime, one day at a time. It is therefore reasonable that we should gather as much of the richness of living from each day as we possibly can. Does it make you feel good all over when you spend a buck or two on some poor devil? Then don’t deny yourself this dividend of living. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If you really want to stay sober, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. 2) FEAR: Fornicate With Everything And Run. 3) You are right where you are supposed to be. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Beatitudes Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteous- ness’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ GOD IS LIFE The first main aspect of God is Life. God is not just living, nor does God give life, but God is Life. Where God is, there Life is. When you are sick you are only partly alive. When you are tired or depressed or discouraged, you are only partly alive. Few people express God in an adequate way because they lack the sense of life. Joy is one of the highest expressions of God as Life. Actually it is a mixture of Life and Love, and the Bible says, “the sons of God shout of joy”. When we realize our divine sonship, we must experience joy. Joy always has an expansive effect, just as fear has a contracting effect. When a person says, “I can’t”, there is a retraction. You could not imagine a person saying, “Yes, I can”, with a shrinking gesture, or “No, I can’t”, in an optimistic or forthright way. The body always expresses the thought: and the thought of Life heals and inspires, whereas thoughts of fear and death contract and destroy. Realizing divine Life heals the sick. Animals usually respond quickly, and the plants very quickly indeed, because they do not have that strong sense of personal egotism that most human beings do. They never make up their minds that they cannot get well or that “sickness is sent for a good purpose”. Neither do they give away to discouragement because they have not been healed faster. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight Wisdom, and Knowledge, and Joy ….. (Ecclesiastes 2:26). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Unbeatable Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another. ~ Madonna ~ One of my favorite movie characters is played by Gene Wilder in Stir Crazy. Harry is a man who is perpetually happy, and nothing that anyone says or does can remove his joy. Thrown in prison for a crime he did not commit, Harry is the object of the prison officials’ campaign to break him into the mold. After the guards hang Harry by his wrists for several days, they return to find him with a big smile on his face. “Thank you!” he exclaims. “You’ve finally solved my back problem!” Next, the officials toss Harry into the hot box, a tiny tin enclosure in the sweltering sun. When they extract him, he begs, “Oh, please, could you give me just one more day was just starting to get into myself.” Finally, they throw Harry into a cell with Grossburger, a 300-pound crazed murderer who even the most hardened criminals avoid like the plague. When the guards return, they find Harry and Grossburger on the floor laughing over a game of cards. Harry just chose joy, and let all else revolve around his choice. No one can take away your happiness unless you give it to them. People may say all manner of things about you or try to hurt you, but unless you choose to be hurt, they cannot rob you of your good. They are making choices that determine their happiness, just as you are choosing yours. When we feel hurt by another, we are only hurting ourselves. It is said that “offense is something you can only take but never give.” Experiment with finding blessings wherever you go. Quickly you will discover that using a vision of perfection is far more empowering than one of loss. In love you are unbeatable. I pray to see life through Your eyes, that I may fully reap the gifts of love. My happiness depends on me. I choose joy now. |
January 12
Step by Step Today, in the throes of all the demands at work and in my personal life, I strengthen my resolve to my recovery by remembering how I got here – and why. I must ask myself honestly if I have experienced the fundamental change in emotion and psyche that is required in recovery. I must not permit any of those destructive influences of my yesterdays to sabotage today and, probably, tomorrow. I must acknowledge any subconscious seed that might be planting a slip or relapse. And if that seed exists, I know I’m in trouble with the first three step. Those steps – of total admission, surrender and submission of all I cannot control – are the building blocks of my recovery. I must be on guard if I feel a crack in any of them. Today, I am an alcoholic, and I cannot – and do not want to – drink. Sweet and simple. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ OPTIMISM The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears that this is true. ~ James Branch Cabell ~ Optimists say that there are far more successes than failures in recovery. Pessimists say the opposite. The Program says that anyone in recovery is a success. The Program never fails, but individuals do because they give up too easily and too quickly. When we decide to work closely with others, we have already declared that we will be optimistic about succeeding. During our excessive years, we suffered all the pessimism we ever again want to suffer. When we gather at a meeting, we are former pessimists who join in being optimists about winning. The irony is that this makes us winners. Two people were served hamburgers for lunch. The pessimist muttered, “What a small dab of meat,” while the optimist exclaimed, “What a big bun they serve here.” ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Any one thing is “hitched to everything in the universe.” ~ John Muir ~ Some days our lives seem to be in chaos. We may feel flooded with too much: too much work, too much pain, too much to learn, or too many problems to handle. On days like this, we can begin to see past the chaos and feel hopeful about dealing with the future because we can turn to our Higher Power. All things are part of a larger whole in the universe, and all things are connected. We are never completely alone. There is comfort and security in knowing that we can rely on our Higher Power. We only have to do a small part today. The universe will continue to work its way toward a natural solution to today’s problems. Today I will concentrate on simply doing one small part of what needs to be done. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Make lists; take action. ~ Connie Hilliard ~ Our responsibilities can seem overwhelming if we let them pile up in our minds. Worrying about what needs to be done rather than doing it feeds our fear of inadequacy. We came into recovery certain that we didn’t measure up, but if we use the program we can conquer those fears. Focusing on “first things first” gets us moving in the proper direction. That slogan, coupled with “keep it simple,” can change how we respond to every challenge. We feel overwhelmed because we look at the whole, rather than at the individual tasks that need specific, manageable bits of attention. This program and these Twelve Steps were created to help us stay clean and sober. But they can do so much more. They are a blueprint for handling every minute of the day, every person we encounter, every task that deserves our attention. Nothing piles up if we follow the guidance of the program’s architects. I will not be overwhelmed if I keep it simple today. Doing one thing at a time is all that’s expected. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to think twice about using I can’t stop thinking and I can’t sit still. I’m tired of TV and radio. The next appointment with my counselor is two days away. Right now I don’t much care what he said about mixing alcohol with meds. I can’t stand the way I’m feeling. I have to relax. I want a drink. But if I have one drink, I’ll probably have another. If I have two, I’ll have a dozen. I might wake up in detox again. I might have a setback. Maybe a drink isn’t the best thing for me after all. When I have strong cravings, I will stop whatever I’m doing for two minutes and think about my options. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ The butterfly becomes, only when it’s entirely ready. ~ Chinese proverb ~ Entirely ready? Do we ever feel entirely ready to do anything? This takes some spiritual support. Once, we put things off as much as we could, as often as we could, whenever we could. Action was not a very familiar concept in our lives. Promises — those came more naturally. In a promise there was no demand involved. In time, broken promises became a trademark of our lives. But not today. Today, we can make a commitment and keep it. Each day we act more responsibly, more consistently, and get more things done. As we move through stages of becoming entirely ready, we need to stay more constantly in touch with our Higher Power. Because we are so easily threatened by the changes that happen in recovery, we need help to feel secure. We want the gifts we’ve been offered and can only have them if we keep working, and keep growing in trust. As we continue on the road of recovery, we feel more and more ready. As we come to accept that our program is based on progress, not perfection, we gradually find ourselves transformed, spiritually. We are becoming entirely ready. Today grant me the courage and the patience to accept the sometimes slow process of change. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. ~ Abraham Maslow ~ Worry prevents you from living in the present and causes you to fret about what has already happened or what might happen. Too much worrying can exaggerate situations and drain you of the energy you need in the present. To cure worry, learn to distinguish between facts and fantasies. For example, you may be worried your sponsor will end your interactions because of a disagreement you had. Ask yourself, “Is that a fact?” The answer will help you figure out whether your worry is based on fact or fiction. Then consider actions you can take. Ask, “What can I do about this right now?” Rather than worry your sponsor will walk away from you, talk to your sponsor so you can resolve any differences. Develop similar plans of action for other worries so you can stop looking backward or peering fearfully ahead. It has been said, “Yesterday’s a cancelled check, tomorrow’s a promissory note, but today is cash. Spend it wisely,” Seek out those things that you can change and let go of your worries about that which you cannot control. I have the power to make my worries gigantic or to shrink them. Today I will take action to live fully in the present moment. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ The first thing I had to conquer was fear. I realized what a debilitating thing fear is. It can render you absolutely helpless. I know now that fear breeds fear. ~ Byron Janis ~ The future can be scary, especially if we try to predict what will happen. Sometimes we may even go further, not only predicting what may happen but also anticipating our reactions to those events. If only we knew what will happen, then we wouldn’t have to be afraid of the future. If we’re not careful, we will allow every fearful feeling to overtake us until the fear extends into other parts of our lives. Fear can be like a hidden trap, catching us whenever we try to go anywhere or do anything. We cannot see, hear, or touch fear, but we can give it so much power that it almost has a life of its own. We can get rid of the traps fear has set for us. We can do that by having faith in our Higher Power. We can have faith that our way has been prepared for us, faith that we are safe wherever we are. I can cut the ties with which fear binds me. Without fear, I will only feel the safety of faith. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Changing our attitudes Our prayer is, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We say this prayer at least once a day because although we must accept the things we cannot change today, they may, in fact, change tomorrow. This seems to be a paradox, yet once we truly and completely accept something, it begins to change. While the objective fact remains unchanged, our attitude toward it and our relationship to it has changed. It is with our attitudes toward people and things that we must learn to live. Am I changing my attitudes? Higher Power, help me live fully today, neither forward nor backward, but here and now. The attitude I will work on today is God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Let the counsel of thine own heart stand. ~ APOCRYPHA ~ Newcomer I’ve told one or two old friends that I’ve started going to meetings of a Twelve Step program. One of them is very dubious about it. When I talked about being addicted, she said she’d never thought of me as having a serious problem. Maybe she’s right—she’s known me for a long time. Sponsor It’s ultimately our own deep discomfort that tells us we have a problem. Our friends, our families, and even our doctors may have told us that they want us to get help—or they may have said that they don’t believe we have a serious problem. Do they know the whole truth about us? We may have hidden our addiction from them. They may not be adequately informed about what addiction is. Or they themselves may be in denial, in order not to have to look at their own relationship to addiction. Friends who aren’t facing a life-and-death disease may not understand that what I’m doing here is saving my life. They may think that I’m exaggerating my problem or that I’m simply caught up in a trend. Such opinions appeal to me at times, when I’d rather not have to face what I know to be true in the depths of my being. We can’t let others “vote” on our decision to enter recovery—it’s up to us to know our own truth and respect it. Today, I own my need for recovery. I don’t argue about it, with myself or with others. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ We brought nothing into this world and shall take nothing out. We are in the process of living a lifetime, one day at a time. It is therefore reasonable that we should gather as much of the richness of living from each day as we possibly can. Does it make you feel good all over when you spend a buck or two on some poor devil? Then don’t deny yourself this dividend of living. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If you really want to stay sober, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. 2) FEAR: Fornicate With Everything And Run. 3) You are right where you are supposed to be. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Beatitudes Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteous- ness’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ GOD IS LIFE The first main aspect of God is Life. God is not just living, nor does God give life, but God is Life. Where God is, there Life is. When you are sick you are only partly alive. When you are tired or depressed or discouraged, you are only partly alive. Few people express God in an adequate way because they lack the sense of life. Joy is one of the highest expressions of God as Life. Actually it is a mixture of Life and Love, and the Bible says, “the sons of God shout of joy”. When we realize our divine sonship, we must experience joy. Joy always has an expansive effect, just as fear has a contracting effect. When a person says, “I can’t”, there is a retraction. You could not imagine a person saying, “Yes, I can”, with a shrinking gesture, or “No, I can’t”, in an optimistic or forthright way. The body always expresses the thought: and the thought of Life heals and inspires, whereas thoughts of fear and death contract and destroy. Realizing divine Life heals the sick. Animals usually respond quickly, and the plants very quickly indeed, because they do not have that strong sense of personal egotism that most human beings do. They never make up their minds that they cannot get well or that “sickness is sent for a good purpose”. Neither do they give away to discouragement because they have not been healed faster. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight Wisdom, and Knowledge, and Joy ….. (Ecclesiastes 2:26). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Unbeatable Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another. ~ Madonna ~ One of my favorite movie characters is played by Gene Wilder in Stir Crazy. Harry is a man who is perpetually happy, and nothing that anyone says or does can remove his joy. Thrown in prison for a crime he did not commit, Harry is the object of the prison officials’ campaign to break him into the mold. After the guards hang Harry by his wrists for several days, they return to find him with a big smile on his face. “Thank you!” he exclaims. “You’ve finally solved my back problem!” Next, the officials toss Harry into the hot box, a tiny tin enclosure in the sweltering sun. When they extract him, he begs, “Oh, please, could you give me just one more day was just starting to get into myself.” Finally, they throw Harry into a cell with Grossburger, a 300-pound crazed murderer who even the most hardened criminals avoid like the plague. When the guards return, they find Harry and Grossburger on the floor laughing over a game of cards. Harry just chose joy, and let all else revolve around his choice. No one can take away your happiness unless you give it to them. People may say all manner of things about you or try to hurt you, but unless you choose to be hurt, they cannot rob you of your good. They are making choices that determine their happiness, just as you are choosing yours. When we feel hurt by another, we are only hurting ourselves. It is said that “offense is something you can only take but never give.” Experiment with finding blessings wherever you go. Quickly you will discover that using a vision of perfection is far more empowering than one of loss. In love you are unbeatable. I pray to see life through Your eyes, that I may fully reap the gifts of love. My happiness depends on me. I choose joy now. |
January 13
Step by Step “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.” – Step One Today, every journey has a starting point, and the road to recovery begins with Step One. Today, I have no doubt that I am powerless over alcohol and that it makes my life unmanageable. If I find even a small grain of reluctance to fully admit my powerlessness over alcohol, I wonder if I am willing to lose more to drinking or if I refuse to lose any more. If I answer that I could risk not losing anything more, I have not given Step One the gut-level honesty it requires. If I answer I cannot or will not give up anything more to alcohol, I have taken a productive First Step. Today, I admit I am powerless over alcohol and, in surrendering, my life can begin to become manageable again . And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ BE POSITIVE Two men look out through bars. One sees the mud, the other the stars. ~ F. Longbridge ~ When we tell ourselves we can’t progress, we are making sure we never can. We need to remember that success breeds success. A feeling of “I can do it” meant success in the important action of finding a Higher Power. After that, we could turn over our problems to that Higher Power. That accomplished, we could recognize our shortcomings and the release of their pos-session of us. Then we could make amends to those we had harmed. We continued to pray and meditate, and finally could give of what we had in serenity and security to others who suffered our problems. Recovery places the accent on the positive side of involvement and effort. A negative approach creates a feeling of being a loser which causes extra problems in itself. Today I will say only positive things, or I will say nothing at all ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. ~ Henry David Thoreau ~ To have a dream takes courage and a bit of hope. A dream guides us, even if we haven’t let ourselves bring it to consciousness. How often do we stop to ask what our dreams are? Do we even know what we want? This path is about becoming the best men we can be. It’s more about who we become than what we achieve. So it inspires us to create dreams for our development as men. When we take a few moments to reflect on the kind of men we want to be, we create reference points, or beacons, to move toward. This gives us a way to measure our actions and our choices. Do our actions take us in the direction we want to go, or do they take us off course? Are we growing into the men we want to be, or have we forgotten to follow our beacons? In my actions today, I will keep my dreams in mind and choose my course with confidence. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ The divided self exists in all of us. ~ Marie Lindquist ~ One gift of sobriety is the growing awareness that we are complex, whole women, more than just our dark side. Defeated, we came into this program of recovery certain that our lives would be forever fraught with problems. Little in our experience made us proud. Surviving our hateful, painful, and confusing lives was our proudest achievement. The moment we admit our powerlessness over our drug of choice and over other people, a fresh start commences. Becoming willing to let a Higher Power influence our lives gives us a chance to glimpse the brighter side of our being. We discover it was there all the time. We’ll always have both sides, the dark and the light. We’re human. Nevertheless, we tend to strengthen the part of our “self’ that calls to us loudest. Which side we hear is up to us. I am a complex woman. I have the next twenty-four hours to live as I choose. What actions will pleasure me most? ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am learning about “good” drugs For a long time, I thought a “good” drug was one that was strong, cheap, and easy to get. It was a very “good” drug if it got me high fast and kept me high for a long time. Now, in recovery, I see drugs differently. I am learning that a good drug is prescribed for me by a doctor (especially a psychiatrist who knows addiction and recovery) and purchased at a pharmacy. A good drug helps me cope with my psychiatric illness, it does not get me high. Such a drug is best called a medication. Unlike street drugs, if I have any problems with my medication, I can call my doctor for assistance. At my next dual recovery meeting I will share my old and new understanding of good drugs. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ Many of us can probably recount the details of the “last straw,” the turning point, the moment we began the journey on the road to recovery. Up until then all roads, however different, led downhill. For some of us the descent was steep, rough, and swift; for others, long and winding across years of denial, the pain just under the surface. But today we are on the brink of recovery. Maybe it still looks like the bottom, but now we’re looking up. And that’s what counts. Part of looking up involves enthusiasm for life’s smaller offerings. We relish the little things we once overlooked: apple-picking with children on an autumn afternoon; planting seedlings in the spring that, come summer, will yield flowers; the joy of going to sleep with a contented heart. Enthusiasm breathes hope into our resolve to begin a new sober life. Life looks better in sobriety and it will be better. Enthusiasm can be a key. Today help me greet my recovery with gratitude for all that has happened and enthusiasm for all that can be. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ~ Leo Tolstoy ~ You may not only be an alcoholic or addict, but also an adult child of an alcoholic. Because of the dysfunction in your childhood home, the focus was not on your growth out of childhood but on the problems of your parents. You were usually taught to assume adult responsibilities well in advance of adulthood. As a result, you may be overwhelmed by feelings of confusion, fear, and insecurity. While you are living in an adult’s body, you have the unanswered emotions of a child. There are many resources available, including Al-Anon as well as Adult Children. Both self-help groups follow the Twelve Steps of AA, dealing openly and honestly about how the drinking or chemical dependencies of others affected you. These groups teach your five basic rights: to be free from the past, to learn a new way of life, to express feelings, to develop self-esteem, and to ask for help. Adult Children groups offer you a new way of life. Your feelings can be validated by hearing what others have to share, and you can learn how to express your feelings in a safe environment. Today I will begin or continue to attend meetings that help me to recover from the negative effects of my childhood. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied. ~ Herophilus ~ If we have ceased an obsessive behavior, we may think we are now healthy. Yet we may not be paying enough attention to our needs for sleep, good food, and exercise. We may also be ignoring our spiritual and mental health needs by not taking time to meditate or communicate with others. Taking away an obsession doesn’t mean we’re cured. Instead, the work is just beginning. Now is the time to structure our days and nights to include time to be alone, time to listen to ourselves, and time to listen and talk with others. We are now in the process of rebuilding ourselves into better people. We need to work on our outer appearances and our inner healthiness. Good nutrition, plenty of rest, a balance of exercise and play, meditation time, and a balance between work hours and home hours is needed for our best health. We can take the first healthy step toward building a better self. Higher Power, help me look at my health. Can I identify areas that need improvement? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Seeing the beauty We can see our Higher Power in so many beautiful things in this world: the reflection of light in the running brook; the spectrum of colors in the oil spot on the street; the stubbly grass peeking out of the snow like morning whiskers; hail popping like kernels of corn; the music of rain; the face of a child; the face of an elder. Some of us see our Higher Power most clearly in the light of another’s eyes or in acts of unselfish kindness and know ourselves to be part of it. With clean, sober eyes we can see this beauty. Can I see the beauty all around me? Higher Power, help me see the beauty all around me today and to realize that I, too, am beautiful in your eyes. Today I will look for the beauty in God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ The day is a gift of the universe. ~ KATHLEEN CULVER ~ Newcomer I don’t want to disappoint the people who count on me, but I’m afraid to promise that I’ll stick to this recovery stuff forever. I don’t know if I can do it. Frankly, I feel suffocated by the idea of never using anything ever again, of going to meetings for years—I can’t imagine spending my whole life in recovery. Sponsor The span of a whole life is impossible to imagine. We have no idea how long we’re going to live, what unforeseen things will take place in our lifetime, or even how a small choice we make today may in some way change the person we grow to be tomorrow. If I try to imagine doing anything “forever” or “for my whole life,” I’m overwhelmed. Fortunately, no one here is asking me to promise that. The program suggests only that we get through one day—today—without using an addictive substance. Yesterday is over. Tomorrow is not here yet. My whole life is now, and now is all that need concern me. Sometimes even a twenty-four-hour period feels overwhelming, so I break it down into hours and go through the day an hour at a time. Some days I’ve even had to think in terms of just one minute at a time. Using substances we’re addicted to comes naturally to us; a day in which we choose recovery instead is a highly successful day. I let go of yesterday and tomorrow. I choose recovery for today. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ In Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount he quotes Christ as saying “BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT, EVEN AS YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT.” Our first reaction is that that is impossible. Christ either did not say this or else He did not mean it. If He didn’t say it then the Bible is inaccurate. If He did and did not mean it, then Christ drops below Divine stature. No, He said and meant it. For man to aspire to less is a direct rejection of His order. To cry that we are circumscribed by human limitations is to deny the God in us which makes all things possible. We probably will never arrive at that state of perfection but we can, one day at a time, strive to attain that goal. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Suicide is such a long term decision, while living has so many more variables. 2) You are heading towards a slip when you remember the good times more than the bad. 3) Learn by others’ mistakes. You will never live long enough to make them all yourself. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Tollerance Prayer Lord, give me tolerance toward those whose thoughts and ways, in the Program and life, conflict with mine. For though I would, I cannot always know what con-stitutes the Absolute Truth. The other person may be right, while I may be all wrong, yet unaware. Lord, make my motives right, for only this can ease my conscience when I sometimes err. Lord, give me tolerance, for who am I to stand in judgment on another person’s mistakes? No one knows better than my inward self how many little blunders I have and can make. Life is full of stones that somehow trip us, and meaning not, we stumble now and then. Lord, give me tolerance, for only You are rightly fit to judge my fellow travelers. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ GOD IS TRUTH The second main aspect of God is Truth. God is not truthful but Truth itself, and wherever there is Truth, there is God. There are many things which are relatively true at certain times and places only: but God is absolute. Truth at all times and in all circumstances. As soon as we touch God, who is Absolute, relative things disappear. To know the truth about any condition heals it. Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). You should realize God as Truth when you want information on any subject, or if you suspect that you have to deal with deceit. If you believe that someone is trying to deceive you, claim that divine Truth dwells in the person concerned, and is expressed through him. If you realize this clearly enough he will then speak the truth. When you have to transact any important business such as signing a lease or a contract, spend a few minutes realizing divine Truth and if there is any thing you should know, it will come out. Of course, people may not have any desire to deceive you and yet for some reason you may not be given the whole story. I know of several cases where serious misunderstandings were prevented because somebody realized God as Truth and so all the facts were brought out. I know also of cases where intentional dishonesty was frustrated in the same way. ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Time to Be Free Lovers make a fool of time. ~ Anonymous ~ When one of Albert Einstein’s students asked him to explain his abstruse theory of relativity in a way that anyone could understand, he answered, “A day spent with a beautiful woman seems like a moment; an hour at a job you hate feels like an eternity.” Einstein was teaching that our experience of time is determined by the consciousness we are in. Since time is an illusion invented by the human intellect, it is entirely pliable, expanding or contracting to reflect the thoughts we are holding at the time. We always have enough time to do what needs to be done. Thoughts of “not enough time” are born of fear and a consciousness of lack. The ego fabricates the belief in lack of time as a sleight of hand to move us away from peace. If we make peace our first priority, all things that need to be taken care of in time will be handled. We are always free in this moment. It is only when we haul the past or future into the now that we feel bound. Practice surfing on the energy of the now. If you become seduced by past or future thoughts, remind yourself that all is well right now. Handle whatever is before you, and leave the rest for another time or another way. When we live in love, miracles happen that defy the laws of time. Ultimately, time becomes irrelevant, and, as Jesus stated, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Prisoners are colloquially described as “doing time.” If you are a servant of time rather than letting time serve you, you are a prisoner. Break free of your watch, and bask in the glory of the present moment. Bring more activities that you love into your world, and you will be a millionaire of time. Help me to move beyond time and celebrate the glory of the present moment. I live in the timeless kingdom of love. |
January 14
Step by Step “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” – Step Two Today, I tried it my way, and it didn’t work – frequently. But what “power” if not me? If I cannot believe in either a religious or secular “god,” can I believe that the greater power is as simple as my own self-awakening to the powerlessness that I have admitted in Step One? If I can, I must accept that the phrase “restore us to sanity” implies I am insane. Am I? If I define insanity as expecting or hoping for a better outcome of repeat behavior that has always led to the same outcome, then, yes, I am insane. Today, the power greater than myself can be as simple as my own awakening to my powerlessness, and I can hope that same power can pull me from the insanity of the myth of a better outcome of conduct that has always led to disastrous results. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ SERVICE Love is the forgetting of oneself in the service of another. ~ R Ainsley Barnwell ~ Any act of “carrying the message” can serve a useful purpose, whether or not we see the results. Our home group carries the message and observes the Fifth Tradition. If we maintain an attitude of being of service with love, we can work wonders at any time and every moment of a day. Through our Twelve Step Program, we become aware that we have the opportunity of being an example of happy, joyous, and free living without the crutch of our addiction. This “face” we present can be a positive model for anyone who comes in contact with us. If we confine our activities to only those persons who seek our help, we might miss the chance of influencing someone who isn’t the direct target of our “service of love.” Today I will use the gifts my Higher Power and the Program have given me to be of service to others. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day. ~ O. A. Battista ~ As fathers, we have a strong drive to provide for our loved ones. Many of us had fathers who were absent from our daily lives, often because they were working so much. Now, we also may find ourselves so dedicated to making a living and getting ahead that we don’t spend much time with our children and all those whom we love. We try to make up for it by giving generous gifts or providing them with many comforts that we didn’t have ourselves. When we get so taken up with our work, we may justify it by saying we are doing it for our families. The truth is, nothing is as valuable as the time we spend together. Children are certainly richer and happier with the nurturing presence of their father than with extra material comforts. We always need to seek a balance. Doing well in our careers has its place, but it isn’t the most important thing in life. I will keep my urge to provide for my loved ones in balance with simply spending time with them. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ We are not unlike a particularly hardy crustacean. . . . With each passage from one stage of human growth to the next, we, too, must shed a protective structure. ~ Gail Sheehy ~ Our passage into a new stage of development was initiated by our desire to stop using chemicals. The values we lived by while using chemicals no longer fit us. We need to shed our old skin and grow a new one that reflects our current world- view. We are now, and always will be, in the stage of becoming, of trying to fulfill our changing dreams and aspirations. What we can accomplish at one stage of life is different from what we can handle at another. And yet an overall design is being shaped by all our endeavors. The more willing we are to shed yet another skin, the more centered, stable, and spirit-filled we’ll become. Do my actions fit my values? As I outgrow my values, I will release them. I will relish my growth today and celebrate my new skin. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am grateful for my abstinence It’s scary to remember what life was like when I was still using. Only now can I see how much I was acting out, how out of control I was, and how afraid I was of facing my problems. Once I got clean and sober, I could hold my head up again. I knew better where I was at and my psychiatrist could diagnose the somewhat hidden problem in my life—emotional illness. And because I was abstinent, I had more strength to face this new challenge in what has become my dual recovery. I will write out two ways abstinence has helped me in recovering from my emotional or psychiatric illness. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and adventure to discover our own special light. ~ Mary Dunbar ~ All of us are gifted. Every person has a gift that can bring great joy and light to those who encounter it. Our task is to stand in the sun and create a climate that will develop and nurture our gift. Sometimes we are afraid to let ourselves believe we have anything special to offer or contribute to the world. We think of ourselves as plain and untalented, with no gifts or special potential. But if we believe we are limited, we act in a limited way. We take few risks and follow few paths that might develop our special talents and gifts. In recovery we are learning to love ourselves and trust ourselves in a whole new way. Now anything is possible. To fully believe in our talents, we need only step from the darkness into the sun. We will take this first step, trust enough, and start believing that, yes, we do have special gifts. Today let me he aware of my deep and unfilled desires, dreams, and wishes, which is the first step on the way to accepting my gifts. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ I think we fall in love with people who have something to teach us. And sometimes that is a hard lesson and sometimes it’s a safe and loving lesson. ~ Mary Bradish ~ Love can make you feel strong and sure, confident in the knowledge that someone has “got your back.” Other times it can make you feel weak and vulnerable, particularly when you need to give openly and honestly. Unhealthy relationships involve disharmony, mistrust, and a lack of understanding and support. Partners in a healthy relationship understand and support each other’s needs and seek harmony in their shared companionship. Love, like life, has its ups and downs. Things get out of balance, causing anxiety or indecision. Ask yourself, “What do I need to learn from what I’m feeling right now?” You may discover you are not the cause of the upset or your feelings are not based on your current relationship, but on the threads of past relationships that unraveled. Even though love’s emotional expression can change from time to time, the existence of love will not. Love is a constant, no matter what form it takes in your life. Today I will understand and accept the form love takes not only during the easy times, but also when times are hard. I will seek out serenity and be open to whatever lessons I am being taught. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ The doors we open and dose each day decide the lives we live. ~ Flora Whittemore ~ We often hear the phrase, “When one door shuts, another opens.” It means everything has a beginning and an end. When our travels on one path are completed, another path lies ahead. It’s not easy to feel a door close. Relationships, friendships, careers, and lives end. Although we may not understand why a door closes, it’s important to remember our Higher Power has everything to do with it. By the same token, we may not understand why certain doors open, revealing opportunities we may have longed for. Again, our Higher Power feels we are ready to pursue that new experience. The doors that opened and closed today helped prepare us for our experiences tonight. The doors that opened and closed tonight will help us grow toward tomorrow. We are not mice in a maze, randomly pursuing paths for a reward of cheese. We are children of our Higher Power, guided towards our chosen goal through the many doors we open and close along the way. Have I learned there is a reason for everything in my life? Can I trust that my path has been prepared for me by my Higher Power? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Being true We believe we can become beautiful people, free of addiction. With belief in a Power greater than ourselves, our Twelve Step program, and the fellowship, we don’t have to stay where we were. Our purpose in life is to stay sober and clean. Our Higher Power knows our true purpose in life and will help us. Our Higher Power knows what we are capable of becoming, although others may misjudge us. Am I staying true to my purpose? I pray that I may see the good within me and remain true to my purpose. I will honor my true purpose today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ The truth can he spoken only by someone who already lives inside it. ~ LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN ~ Newcomer Some of the expressions people use to talk about recovery sound sickeningly sweet to me. On my first day, someone I’d never seen before said to me, “Welcome to our fellowship.” It makes my skin crawl when they say that kind of thing. And all those slogans! They make me wonder if people in recovery can think for themselves. Sponsor I can identify with you. In early recovery, I felt uncomfortable when people reached out to me. I had been impatient and cynical for a long time; I was suspicious of positive statements and looked down on people who made them. My habit of finding fault came in handy when somebody challenged my old ways of thinking. It was easier to criticize others than to look at myself. It’s funny: when I was active in my addiction, I rarely complained of how tedious and repetitive my life had become. I had surrounded myself with people who enabled my addiction. I must have sounded like a broken record as I justified my addiction in spite of the consequences. Today, my focus is no longer on likes and dislikes. Instead of dismissing people without really looking or listening, I can go deeper and see what’s true for me in whatever they are saying. In recovery, free of the need to make snap judgments, we can begin to listen in a new way. Today, I listen without judging. I cultivate respect and tenderness for others and for myself. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Within our ranks we have many faiths and creeds. All of us seek and find our Power greater than ourselves in our own way and give Him a personality according to our own understanding. Yet withal, we abide in peaceful toleration and respect the faiths that we each have found. Even those of us who are still groping in uncertainty and doubt are gradually acquiring faith. Tennyson once said, “There is more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the Creeds.” Here we don’t care WHAT you believe, we only ask that you believe. Have some anchor, so that when the waves of alcoholic thinking start again to roll, you will be moored to something substantial enough to enable you to ride out the storm. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Turn it over; don’t overturn it. 2) If you want to feel better, clean house. If you want to get better, find God. 3) FEAR: Frantic Efforts to Appear Recovered ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ A Beginner’s Prayer Lord, I want to love You, yet I am not sure. I want to trust You, yet I am afraid of being taken in. I know I need You, but I am ashamed of the need. I want to pray, but I am afraid of being a hypocrite. I need my independence, yet I fear to be alone. I want to belong, yet I must be myself. Take me, Lord, yet leave me alone. Lord, I believe; help me with my unbelief. O Lord, if You are there, You do understand, don’t You? Give me what I need, but leave me free to choose. Help me work it out my own way, but don’t let me go. Let me understand myself, but don’t let me despair. Come unto me, O Lord, I want You there. Lighten my darkness, but don’t dazzle me. Help me to see what I need to do, and give me strength to do it. O Lord, I believe; help me with my unbelief. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ GOD is LOVE The third main aspect of God is Love. God is not loving but Love itself, and it would probably be true to say that of all of the seven main aspects, this is the most important one for us to practice. There is no condition that enough Love will not heal. The Bible deals with the nature of God, and as the Scripture develops, the idea of God becomes clearer until toward the end it says, ….God is Love: and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God, and God in him (I John 4:16). By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:35). Where there is fear there cannot be love. The best way to rid yourself of fear is to realize divine Love. If you love God more than you love your microbe, your sickness, your grievance, your lack, or your fear, you will be healed. We have all heard many stories of exceptional people who were able to go among wild beasts in the jungle without being hurt, and there are many other histories on record of people who passed through extraordinary dangers of other kinds quite unscathed. To realize God as Love is the remedy for fear. Divine Love never fails, but the important thing to realize is that divine Love must be in your own heart and cannot operate from outside, so to speak. When your prayers are not answered it must be because you have not fulfilled the conditions of the law times in a hundred, it is because you are lacking in a sense of love for all. Practice love every day and watch your thought, and watch your tongue, and watch your deed, that nothing contrary to love finds expression there. ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Forge a New Destiny The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~ A t a restaurant, I noticed a couple enjoying what looked like some very tasty garlic toast. When I asked the waitress for an order of the same, she answered, “I’m sorry, sir, the garlic toast comes only with the dinner.” “Would it be possible to order some as a side order?” I persisted. She looked puzzled. “I don’t know if that’s ever been done, sir.” “Then perhaps this is our opportunity to change history and create a new destiny,” I suggested. She smiled, went into the kitchen, and soon re–turned with a dish of piping hot garlic toast—an historic day for the Grosvenor restaurant! We can transform our lives by changing the way we think about possibilities. We are prone to picture our future as an extension of our past. But we have no guarantee at all that our future will be anything like our past. The nature of a consciousness shift is the release of an old belief sys–tem, replacing it with a new and grander one. Just when you think you know it all, life comes along and says, “Here, let me show you a bigger universe!” Thank God we do not know it all; if we did, we would be in big trouble, for most of what we know has made us small. Be grateful that the universe is willing to take away your impotence and replace it with magnitude. Lead me to a destiny that outshines my history. I am willing to release my expectations based on the past, and know a better future. I open my mind to the new and the better. I live in a universe far grander than I can imagine. |
January 15
Step by Step “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” – Step Three Today, for the alcoholic stumbling out of the fog of an extended drunk, there could be a problem with the use of the word “God” with a capital “G” and the reference to Him with a capital “H.” “God” and “Him” smack of religious connotations, a potential turnoff to the person new to the Program. But recovery is a spiritual, not religious process, and the God referenced here could be the “power” evoked in Step Two – and that power stronger than ourselves could be something as simple as our awakening to the reality that we could not sober up on our own. But Step Three requires another action – surrendering to something unseen but which, by sheer faith, is stronger than us. Step Three leads us to the admission that we are powerless over what we cannot control and have come to believe in a power greater than ourselves – and then entrusting ourselves to the care of that stronger power. Today, my decision is to turn my will and my life over to that force that I trust – on sheer faith – will handle me better than I ever could. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ ANGER I was angry with my foe. I told it not. My wrath did grow. ~ William Blake ~ Anger is a common defect in our attitudes and personalities. Like all other character defects, anger grows more harmful the longer it is contained within ourselves. Unless we expose it freely for others to see, it can consume all our good intentions. We must “get the monkey off our backs before it reaches for our throats.” How can we possibly make peace and form worthwhile relationships unless we bring anger into the open by working Steps 4, 5, 6, and 7? Letting go of hidden anger and returning to a stable state of mind is the first step in finding a comfortable peace with life. We find that “letting it all out” through the Steps is the way to become free and happy. We continue to take daily personal assessments of our spiritual growth by monitoring our anger. When I become angry, I’ll count to ten and deal with my anger in an appropriate way. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~ Hope and freedom and the right to dignity as a man are very personal things for every one of us in recovery. Regardless of our race or creed or ethnic origin, we are alike in that we are walking this healing path out of subjugation to addiction and codependency. Today is the birthday of a heroic man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who dedicated his life not to his own self-interest, but to peace and the right of all people to be free. He spoke to all people who have struggled under a yoke of pain and trouble. We must accept disappointments along our path. They are inevitable. We strive hard to achieve a goal and it may slip from our fingers. We fall in love and lose the one we love. In the midst of disappointment we may doubt whether we can handle it. But life goes on. We take our setbacks and ask, what do I need to learn from this? We don’t lose sight of our long-term objective to become the best kind of man we can be and to live in line with our spiritual principles. That is the path to our personal freedom and dignity. Today I am grateful that those who have gone before us have shown us the path. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Blaming someone or something else doesn’t help me to grow as an individual. ~ Chris DeMetsenaere ~ It is not unusual to meet women in recovery who have survived harrowing childhoods or brutal marriages. Many of us have lived troubled lives and felt powerless to change the circumstances. If we continue to focus on those times, however, we will grow far less than we deserve. What has happened has happened. We can’t redo the past. Hanging on to it in order to blame other people for our failures and shortcomings builds a barrier to growth. With our minds on the past, we are not actively and consciously involved in the present, and this moment is all we have. It’s understandable that we want to blame others for our circumstances. Although we know that taking full responsibility for our lives is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity, many of us still fear others’ expectations. Being fully responsible, we will quit blaming others and make the amends we need to make. We will learn to pause before acting or responding to others. I will feel empowered today if I accept responsibility for my every thought and act. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I don’t have to blame myself I know myself enough to know that when I make a mistake, even a small one, I can be hard on myself. With a dual disorder, I am more apt to make mistakes and so am more vulnerable than ever. All too often I feel shameful, guilty, defective. I get scared at how much I dislike myself at times. Fortunately my therapist has helped me deal with these strong feelings. I am learning that (a) I am not to blame for my dual illnesses; they are caused by imbalances in brain chemistry and perhaps by some early nurturing problems—neither of which I’m responsible for. (b) I am responsible for my recovery, (c) Making mistakes is not a bad thing. Mistakes are one of my many teachers, (d) The more I accept this, the easier it is for me to accept my situation and take my struggle in stride. I will look at a recent mistake to see what I can learn from it. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ A faithful friend is the medicine of life. ~ The Apocrypha ~ When a friend loses a job or a loved one, we hurt, too. We wish there was something we could do, really do to help, something that would ease the pain. It hurts us to see our friends upset and frightened. But our head tells us there’s really nothing we can do except stand by and offer support. One thing we can do is simply be there when they need to talk and listen when silence is best. We can let them know that our relationship is the same, that we don’t feel any differently. We can offer our time, when needed. And we can let them grieve and be angry without criticizing them. We need to remember that the important thing is our friend’s pain, not our own. Sometimes we hurt so badly for others that they end up feeling they must help us. In our hurry to stop the pain we often try to over-control the situation and demand that a friend race through the process of grief. We might try to push him or her into action that isn’t right. Now that we can see this pattern, we try to avoid it. And we can remember that a friend needs respect, not interference. A friend needs love, not pampering or care- taking. A friend needs support, not babying. Sometimes all a friend needs is someone to listen. Today help me put aside my tendency to “fix” things, and simply be there to listen. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ The Horse and the Mule Traveling together, a horse sported a fine coat and a magnificent saddle with ornate decorations, while a mule was burdened with a heavy load. Its coat was matted and filled with burrs. “Oh how I wish I could be as beautiful and graceful as you are ” the mule told the horse. “I wish, too, that I was as unburdened and carefree.” A few days later, a great war broke out and the horse went into battle, while the mule carried supplies. During a skirmish, the horse was gravely wounded and lay dying upon the ground when the mule came upon him. It was then that the mule realized, that in being himself, he had fulfilled his purpose and been kept safe. The moral of the story: Be secure in who you are. You may look at others and what they have, and wish you had the same characteristics or were in the same place as they. Ultimately, how you feel about who you are deter-mines your level of self-esteem. Even though there are things you want to change about yourself, these things make up who you are today. No matter what your defects or imperfections, accept who you are in the present moment. Today I will appreciate who I am and what I have. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ What was completely forbidden for me to do would be to kill myself. . . . If I were to commit suicide, I would be throwing God’s gift back in his face. ~ Dr. Raymond A. Moody ~ Many of us have had suicidal thoughts at one time or another. We hear at meetings how others have tried suicide in the past. We may have tried it ourselves or our lives may have been touched by the suicide of someone we knew. We may now find that living a clean, sober, spiritual life is overwhelming. Sometimes we may feel like giving up. That’s when we need to call someone. Talk it out. Or get to a meeting and be honest with the group about our feelings. There are people who care. Our friends and our peers are God’s human messengers, ready to give understanding to those in need. If a friend of ours felt down on life, wouldn’t we want to help? Now is the time to open ourselves up to caring and love from another human being. Do I think about giving up? Who can I open up to for caring and love? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Sharing feelings Many of us just did what other people did: We took drugs. But we felt so different from “normal” people. Why? Because of the way we did drugs and because drugs were so unfulfilling for us. It’s a joke among us recovering addicts that we tried so hard to look normal. Non-addicts didn’t know our torment, didn’t know that we lived in another world. While high, we felt moments of euphoria and false well-being. When the drugs wore off, we suffered centuries of misery. Both are feelings that “normal” people did not experience. In the fellowship, however, we share all our feelings because we know that we are among friends, we know that we are finally home. Do I share my true feelings with others? Higher Power, I pray for the willingness to see my true feelings more clearly and to share myself with my fellow addicts. The feelings I will share today are God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Very little is needed to make a happy life. ~ MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS ~ Newcomer I’m having a horrible day. I have way too much to do. This morning I felt overwhelmed, but I went to a meeting as you told me to. Instead of making me feel better, the meeting made me feel worse: I got upset at what someone shared and started to cry. Now I have a headache and I can’t concentrate on what I was supposed to do. How will I ever get this stuff done? Sponsor What you experienced at the meeting was not to blame for your sadness. More likely, whatever triggered your tears was already inside you, waiting for something to release it. Most of us who are in recovery have a lot of stored-up grief. Tears are beneficial and cleansing. There are days like this, when we feel sad, distracted, overwhelmed. Some days—especially in early recovery- are unexpectedly emotional. On such days, we may have to accept that it’s enough simply to breathe, eat three meals, drink water, and abstain from using our drug of choice. And, yes, to go to a meeting. Meetings remind us that when an alcoholic stays sober, an overeater eats moderately, or a perfectionist knows that he or she has done enough, a significant victory has been achieved. For those of us living with addiction, one day without addictive behavior is a precious step forward on our journey. I am willing to revise my goals for this day. I give myself the gift of keeping it simple for one day of recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Looking back at our ambitions and aspirations we can recall many things we wanted and which we thought would make our lives complete. Some of them were impossible; they were the offspring of childish dreams, and later on, alcoholic wishing. Some of those things were possible for others but unattainable for us with our limited abilities. We can now accept the fact that those things were not for us and wouldn’t have been good for us if we had had them. Some of them we obtained and wished we hadn’t. Their realizations were nothing compared to our expectations and the more we got the more we wanted. Ambitions were never realized because the more we advanced the more the horizons receded. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Accidents aren’t planned—slips are. 2) There are no fatal decisions, as long as you don’t pick up that first fix, pill, or drink. 3) You used to be good at being bad. Now you’re going to get good a being good. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ God, Help Me Live Today God, more than anything else in this world, I just don’t want to be sick any more. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (people, places, and things), The courage to change the things I can (my attitudes), And the common sense to know the difference. God, help me please to stay clean and sober this day, even if it’s in spite of myself. Help me, Lord, to stay sensitive to my own needs and the things that are good for me, and to stay sensitive to the needs of others and the things that are good for them. And if You please, Lord, free me enough of the bondage of self that I may be of some useful value as a human being, whether I understand or not, That I may carry my own keys, maintain my own integrity, and live this day at peace with You, at peace with myself, and at peace with the world I live in, just for today. God help me during this day to demonstrate that: It is good for me to love and to be loved. It is good for me to understand and to be understood. It is good for me to give and to receive. It is good for me to comfort and to allow myself to be comforted. And it is obviously far better for me to be useful as a human being, than it is to be selfish. God, help me please to put one foot in front of the other, to keep moving forward, and to do the best I can with what I have to work with today, Accepting the results of whatever that may or may not be. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ GOD IS INTELLIGENCE The fourth main aspect of God is Intelligence. When you clearly realize that this is an intelligent universe it will make a major difference in your life. In an intelligent universe there cannot be disharmony because all ideas must work together for the common good. Neither can there be any lack. An engine which has been intelligently designed does not have any unnecessary parts and neither are any essential parts lacking. It is especially important to realize that God is Intelligence because it sometimes happens that when people outgrow the childish idea that God is just a magnified man, they go to the opposite extreme and think of God as a blind force, like gravity or electricity. This means that they have lost all sense of the Love and Fatherhood of God, and such an idea is very little better than a subtle form of atheism. God is not a person in the usual sense of the word, but God has every quality of personality except its limitation. The Human mind cannot imagine personality which is not limited, but this difficulty arises from the limitations of the human mind itself, and, of course, this does not affect the nature of God. The Bible says, in effect, whatever you think I am, that I will be to you: and this means that if we attribute to God every quality of an infinite, intelligent, loving personality, God will be just that to us. So we may say that we believe in a personal God. Children and young people respond very readily indeed to a prayer for expression of Intelligence through them. If you are interested in a young person at college, pray several times a week that Intelligence will manifest through him and you will be surprised to find how his progress in his studies will increase. Remember also the wonderful fact that when you work for a person the result will be with him for the rest of this life. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! . . . (Romans 11:33). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Great Spirits Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. ~ Albert Einstein ~ I saw a film of a meeting held by civil rights workers who were planning to go into the South in the early 1960s. A leader informed the group that three of their colleagues had just been killed by racists. He warned them that their lives would be in danger should they choose to continue their mission. “If any of you wish to change your mind, I will understand,” he calmly informed them. After a long moment, one woman in the back of the room stood and began to sing a Negro spiritual. Soon everyone in the room rose and sang with her. All of the workers went to the South. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is one of my heroes. I respect him because he relied on the power of God, truth, and love rather than falling back on base instincts. Even more important, he walked his talk. Rather than sending other men off to war, he marched in front of his troops. Rather than making a particular person or group the enemy, he singled out fear and prejudice as the enemies to be overcome. He went to jail rather than compromise his integrity. He lived his vision and died with great courage. He didn’t just talk about world transformation. He lived it. Although you and I may not take upon ourselves the breadth of his mission, the same challenge calls to us. We must live what we believe and not give in to fear. We must act on our principles rather than simply talk about them. And we must find ways to join, not separate from, our brothers and sisters. It is fitting that our country honors a man such as Dr. King. As we live our own ideals, we honor the cause for which he lived and died. Give me the strength to walk with integrity; help me to live what I believe. I am here for a mighty purpose. I change the world by following my truth. |
January 16
Step by Step “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” – Step Four Today, if not one of the most intimidating of the 12 Steps, one of the most gut-wrenching. In even hoping to take this one on productively and honestly, I must be certain that I have exercised Steps One, Two and Three to the best of my ability because, if I haven’t, the consequences of taking the Fourth could be devastating. In beginning my moral inventory, may I have the wisdom to ask my Higher Power for the courage, strength, honesty and objectivity to be as searching as I can. And let me remember that the Fourth asks for a moral accounting, not an immoral one, and of myself and not of another person. And making it objective is the reason I should take it with a sponsor or, at least, someone I trust unconditionally. Today, my inventory will be “searching” and, however intimidating, “fearless.” And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ BEING GRATEFUL Two kinds of gratitude: the sudden kind we feel for what we take, the larger kind we feel for what we give. ~ E.A. Robinson ~ A wise man once said that gratitude is the “memory of the heart.” Every person in a 12 Step Group rediscovers that “memory of the heart.” The feeling of gratitude is found again in a fellowship of caring, sharing, friendship, and companionship that aims directly at recovery from whatever has possessed us. We are grateful, not only for escape from the torture of addiction, but for our freshened outlook on life as a whole. We actually learn to be grateful for that addiction, for without it we would never have come to know the pure joy of getting clean and sober with those who understand because they are fellow sufferers wanting to stop suffering. That kind of gratitude goes beyond being thankful for the release from our addiction. I have no reason for complaining “Why me?” for the pains unless I also exclaim “Why me!” in response to the many wonderful things that come to me in recovery. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Failure is an event, never a person. ~ William D. Brown ~ At times we have wondered if there is hope for us. But, in fact, we can all succeed in finding peace of mind. We can all achieve self-respect. The most financially successful man may be proud of his achievement but it doesn’t satisfy him. By the same token, a major failure doesn’t define a man. When we understand that our actions aren’t who we are, we will not feel trapped by a failure and we can pursue the greater prize of becoming a better man. Today we may be troubled by a recent failure or haunted by an old one. We are embarrassed about it and feel we have lost the high regard of our friends. This failure can propel us into greater wisdom and stronger understanding of how to live a life with value. Today I will take the spiritual leap away from basing my self-esteem on what I do toward basing it on who I am. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ We’re not here to lose our sense of humor. ~ Richie Berlin ~ Being too serious is habit-forming. However, many aspects of our lives are serious and need to be addressed. Our disease, for one, is very serious. Working the Twelve Step program to the best of our ability is serious too. So are being honest and loving with friends, taking responsibility for all of our behavior, and being willing to change. But we can get in the habit of being too serious in many areas of our lives where a lighter touch is called for. Cultivating laughter, so it too can become habit- forming, benefits us immeasurably; however, this may not be easy. Our family of origin taught us that some things were funny and other things weren’t. If we were laughed at rather than encouraged to see the humor in situations affecting us, we may find it hard to be comfortable with anyone’s laughter. But we can work on this. We can begin by spending time with people who laugh and see the humor in situations that affect them. Our families were our earliest teachers; we can pick some new teachers now. The more often I laugh today, the lighter my spirit will feel and the healthier my emotional life will become. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am making changes When I woke up this morning I wanted to pull the sheets over my head and go back to sleep— fitful sleep crowned with a nightmare. Yet what hit me harder were my unresolved problems— the ones I fell asleep worrying about last night. But instead of going back to sleep (instead of doing the first thing that came to mind like I used to do), I sat up in bed and called my support person. I told her how worried I was, how I really wanted to go back to sleep, but how I had enough resolve to make a call. We talked a little while and sure enough, I felt better— especially when I realized that I had done something new. With that boost, I promptly got up, got dressed, and ate breakfast. I will take a risk today and try one new approach with an ongoing problem. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Create in me a clean heart, God; and renew a right spirit within me. ~ Psalm 51:10 ~ Recovery isn’t the end of addiction; it’s the beginning of a new life. When recovery is new to us, we may focus only on what we’ve given up — the social life, friends, and lifestyle we once had. We may look back through rose-colored glasses, remembering only the excitement and freedom of active addiction. Our new life can seem pretty tame, pretty boring. And we haven’t yet replaced our old friends with new ones, or our old lifestyle with a new one. So, looking back, we see losses instead of gains. But, bit by bit, we begin to recognize how much better this new life can be for us. We’ve lost excitement, but gained peace and serenity. We thought we were free, but now we know we were enslaved by addiction. We thought we had a spiritual life, but now realize we were spiritually bankrupt. We thought our lifestyle was good, but now know it was destructive and deadly. But that’s in the past. Once, we were dying a day at a time. Now, we’re learning to live a day at a time. Today help me see my old life as it really was. Help me be grateful for the changes I’ve made. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Surely this must be an ancient proverb: If the situation is killing you, get the hell out. ~ Hugh Prather ~ Imagine you have embarked on a mountain hike. Although it is a winter day, the conditions are right for your climb. But as the hours pass, it begins to snow and the temperature drops sharply. You can barely see the path before you and have a hard time maintaining your footing. In addition, your clothing is soaked, you are starting to shiver, and your hands and feet are growing numb. What do you do? Before you joined the program, you may have believed that your addiction was under control. No matter how bad things became, you may have told yourself or others, “I can stop any time I want.” But now you are more aware of how addiction took away your ability to make good choices. You can choose prayer and meditation to let go of fear and resentment. You can go to meetings and draw strength from others. You can follow the Twelve Steps in all that you do. You always have the choice to turn your life over to a Higher Power, rather than stay on a dangerous path. In all circumstances, I will remember that I have the choice to follow a path that keeps me safe and free. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Let everyone sweep in front of his [or her] own door, and the whole world will be clean. ~ Goethe ~ Taking care of ourselves rather than trying to control others may be difficult. Our character defects may lead us to believe we should take responsibility for the actions of others. Sometimes we may feel we know how a spouse, co-worker, or friend should act. We may even go so far as to tell someone what he or she should do or do it for them. Tonight we can reflect on our actions of today. Did we cover up another’s behavior, or tell someone what to do, or take control of something that was not our responsibility? We need to realize that taking charge of another’s life is not beneficial to anyone. Focusing on another’s life keeps us from looking at ours. Doing for others what they should be doing for themselves takes away valuable lessons for growth. What would happen if everyone in a classroom were the teacher? Who would listen and learn? Who would mature and grow? The teacher in our lives is our Higher Power. Let us respect our instructor and let our Higher Power do the guiding while we grow. Help me listen and learn and let go of controlling others. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Sharing our sobriety We cannot give away something we don’t have. And since the people closest to us forced us to see our inadequacies, our inability to love, most of us resented them. Although aware of the problem, we hated having it shown to us regularly. We were empty and scared. And there was no hope in sight, so we blamed our problems on those around us. But by coming into the program things change: First we get hope; then we get strength and experience to share with other alcoholics and nonalcoholics. We learn that in order to keep what we’ve been given so freely, we must give it away. Do I share my sobriety with others? Higher Power, help me be ever aware of the source of all the good things I’ve been given, and show me each day how to share them with others. Today I will share my sobriety with God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise…. And breathe the air and leave plenty after me, And am not stuck up, and am in my place. ~ WALT WHITMAN ~ Newcomer I’ve been told to make program calls, but I hate bothering other people, and I don’t like them bothering me. I can’t bring myself to ask people for their telephone numbers in the first place, and though a few people have offered me their numbers at meetings, I haven’t used them. How can I make phone calls to people I don’t know? Especially when I don’t really have anything to say other than that I feel terrible and don’t know why! Sponsor New recovery is a little bit like starting to walk after having been paralyzed. In recovery, we’re moving muscles that we haven’t used before. It’s uncomfortable. It’s work. But because we want to get better, we need to stop making excuses. I follow suggestions and use the tools of the program. I let go of my self-centeredness and see that making a program call is a gift: it offers someone else the opportunity to share his or her recovery. I recognize, too, that in the adult world, people can tell me when they aren’t available to talk; I don’t have to figure it out for them! I can be honest about where I’m at today, too—I don’t have to have my act together before I make a program call. Today, I allow others to further their own recovery by sharing their experience, strength, and hope with me. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ We are definitely what we think—as a man thinketh, so is he. The trick for all of us is to cull out of our thinking those thoughts that are injurious to us and to retain those that are beneficial. We conceive our own thoughts, we give them birth, we nourish and sustain them—they are our brain children. Our lives become intertwined with them, and their influence on us and our behavior is enormous. The thoughts we have must be purely conceived, carefully trained, well disciplined and encouraged. In so doing we surround ourselves with a group of brain children whose influence on our lives brings the happy results we can hopefully expect. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Mistakes are our teachers. 2) You have got to get out of your way. 3) If you want to get maximum attention make a big mistake. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ O God of Our Understanding This is the dawn of a new day in the Program. I shall thank You, my Higher Power, for last night’s rest, Your gift. Yesterday is gone, except for what I have learned from it, good or bad. Today I have the same choice, a Divine privilege which swells my heart with hope and purpose. This is my day, the purity of a new beginning. I will receive from this day exactly what I give to it. As I do good things, good will be done to me. It is my gift to mold into something everlasting and to do those things which will affect the people around me in an ever-widening circle. The worthiness of this effort rests entirely with me. This is my day for love, because I know that as I love, I will be loved. Hate and jealousy cannot exist in the presence of love. I will be sustained by this miracle of Your creation and this day will be lightened by my love for others and especially love for my fellow travelers in the Program. Today I will do my best without thought of failures of the past or anxieties for the future. When this day is ended, I will have no regrets. On retiring I shall thank You, my Higher Power, for this wonderful day. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ GOD is SOUL The fifth main aspect of God is Soul. Soul is that aspect of God by virtue of which He is able to individualize Himself. The word individual means “undivided.” Most people seem to think it suggests separateness but actually individual means undivided, and God has the power of individualizing Himself without, so to speak, breaking Himself into parts. You are really an individualization of God. Only God can individualize Himself in an infinite number of units of consciousness, and yet not be in any way separate, because God is spirit. Matter cannot be individualized. It can only be divided. So your real self, the Christ within, the spiritual man, the I Am, or the divine spark, as it is variously called, is an individualization of God. You are the presence of God at the point where you are. Man may very well be compared to an electric light bulb. The electric current is present in all parts of the circuit, but it shines forth, or one might say, figuratively, becomes self-conscious, in the bulb. So divine Mind becomes self-conscious in you. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? (John 10:34). When you are called upon to perform some task or undertake some responsibility that seems too great for you, realize that you are one with God and the task will become “our business” instead of “my business”. ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Don’t Shoot the Screen It’s hard to defeat an enemy who has an outpost in your own head. ~ Sally Compton ~ When motion pictures became popular, a group of cowboys went into a Montana town to watch their first movie. Upon viewing a scene in which a band of Indians was kidnaping a young pioneer woman, a cowboy in the back of the theater stood up and furiously fired a barrel of bullets at the screen. The film stopped, the lights came on, and the audience laughed to behold a blank screen with six bullet holes in it. We are equally fooled if we attack the movie of our life playing on the screen of our mind. If you fight, hurt, or retaliate against those who do not support or agree with you, you are wasting bullets. Your efforts to prove yourself to others are as useless as shooting the screen. We “hire” everyone we meet to represent something we believe about ourselves or our world. We can thank those who challenge us, for they help us discover the self-diminutive beliefs lodged below the surface of our conscious awareness. The way to transform our world is not to struggle to manipulate people or events, but to upgrade our thoughts and our consciousness so we attract people and events that demonstrate love rather than fear. If you know your worth, you do not need anyone else to confirm it, and if you do not recognize your value, you will not gain it by getting others to approve. If you don’t like the movie you are watching, don’t bother shooting the screen; instead, change the movie or better yet, turn on the light. Help me remember that my inner world is where real change occurs. Show me the truth about myself, that I may manifest love in my relationships. My world reflects the true beauty within me. |
January 17
Step by Step “Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” – Step Five Today: the confession Step. We bring to this one what we uncovered in the moral inventory of the Fourth Step. And it requires admission to three confidants – God, ourselves, and another person. Why? We need the guidance of the Higher Power of our understanding and another person to put our wrongs in a perspective that we may not have because of predictable prejudice. Without bringing to the Higher Power and another person the nature of our wrongs, we risk allowing the guilt, remorse and regret to eat us up. We are asked in the Fifth to admit only the “exact nature” of our wrongs, not our exact wrongs. Some may find admitting only to the nature of their wrongs to be incomplete; a detailed “confession” might be liberating. Today, I “confess” my wrongs not just to myself, but to my Higher Power and to another person. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************** ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ GIVING COMFORT It's better to comfort than to be comforted. ~ Francis of Assisi ~ Our teachers, advisors, sponsors, and fellow members in our Program find many ways to remind us that it is always more blessed to give than to receive, to love than to be loved. Often a newcomer is kindly told at his or her first meeting to "let us love you until you can learn to love yourself." When we give of ourselves, we always get back spiritual rewards. The first eleven Steps of our Program are aimed at building ourselves into better people, worthy of giving. Through those Steps, we learn to admit wrongs, accept challenges, find a Higher Power, turn problems over, inventory ourselves and ask release from shortcomings, make amends, and seek God's will for us. Then we are capable of giving this message to others. The result of this dedication to always present the best of gifts for the benefit of others is self-reward. In comforting, we are comforted. In giving of myself and of the principles learned from the Steps, I am forever reaching to be happy, joyous, and free. ©1990 by Anonymous, Published by Hazelden ************************************************** ~ WALK IN DRY PLACES ~ AVOIDING AA CHAUVINISM Friendliness toward Others The term chauvinism has often been applied to men who are prejudiced toward women. But chauvinism has broader meanings as well. It is a belief in the alleged superiority of one's own nation or group. AA members can develop this peculiar chauvinism in supposing that there is some superiority in having survived alcoholism. In the past, some of us have been particularly critical of non-alcoholics who choose to work in the alcoholism field. We may have relied on the axiom "It takes an alcoholic to understand an alcoholic" when in fact there are many people who have suffered from other problems and can understand our sufferings. Perhaps one of the worst things about AA chauvinism is that it can offend people who could benefit from our principles and could become our allies in the work of helping alcoholics. While we have been highly successful in helping alcoholics, we still have not reached more than a small percentage of those who suffer. Additional breakthroughs are needed in the field of alcoholism, and the vital information might come from a nonalcoholic who empathizes with our suffering and wants to do something about it. Even AA has received some of its best ideas from nonalcoholics. I will know today that membership in AA really means that I've found a rightful place in a larger fellowship: the human race. I'll view the world as a friendly place. © 1996 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ KEEP IT SIMPLE ~ (Daily Meditations for Twelve-Step Beginnings and Renewal) ~ When all else fails, read the instructions. ~ Agnes Allen ~ The instructions for recovery are in our Twelve Step program. Yet, there are times when we feel our program isn't working. At these times, we need to read the instructions. Have you followed the "instructions," the wise words found in The Big Book, The Twelve and Twelve, and other recovery literature? When we do, we recover. It's hard at times, and easy at others. Our problems go deeper than just staying sober. No matter what our problems, our program can help us start fixing them, if we follow the instructions. Don't use alcohol or other drugs. Go to meetings. Talk often with sponsors and program friends. Work the Steps. Think. Easy Does It. First Things First. Listen. Let Go and Let God. One Day at a Time. Prayer for the Day Higher Power, tell me which instructions to read today. If I'm headed for trouble, help me out Today's Action I'll read the instructions today. Copyright © 1988 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************* ~ TOUCHSTONES ~ (A Book of Daily Meditations for Men) ~ Wherever I found the living, there I found the will to power. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~ It has been said that addiction and codependency are problems of power. Recovery certainly calls us to admit the limits of our power. Yet, to reach for power seems to come from the deepest part of our nature. If this is so, can it be all bad? Men have used power in many ways for the good of all people. We have been defenders, protectors, and active community servants. At our best, we have taken strong stands for what was right. We need not shun all power, but rather we learn to use it wisely. Our blindness to the limitations of power created great problems in our lives. Then we learned our first lessons about powerlessness. As humble men, we know we can be wrong, but we cannot be passive and still continue to grow. I pray for guidance as I learn to assert my strength and power for the cause of well-being. © 1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Don't believe that winning is really everything. It's more important to stand for something. If you don't stand for something what do you win? ~ Lane Kirkland ~ We love competition. Many of us enjoy it both in our recreation and in our work life. We love to run faster, play harder, stack higher, pound more, sell more, and produce more than our friends and business colleagues. Some of us seem almost to worship competition as a great virtue, above other virtues such as camaraderie, teamwork, fair play, community service, honesty, and generosity. Any good thing can become a bad thing when it's taken to the extreme. Intemperate competition serves our primitive, greedy drive for power. Winning is wonderful—but it is not the only thing we stand for. More important than coming out ahead is coming out with our integrity and self-respect. We preserve our integrity by adhering to the truth as we know it, caring for the welfare of others, and dealing fairly and honestly both at work and at play. No win, no personal advantage is ever worth the price of our character. Today I will enjoy my competitive side while I uphold all the other things I stand for. © 2005 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ EACH DAY A NEW BEGINNING ~ (Daily Meditations For Women) ~ She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself. ~ Anais Nin ~ How aptly these words describe the woman so many of us were. Many activities were not attempted, courses weren't taken, conversations weren't initiated because we lacked confidence. The pain, the constant search for acceptance and love in the eyes and behavior of others, still haunts us. But those days are past. We are daring to be ourselves, one day at a time. Confidence still wavers on occasion, and we may need assurance that we're lovable. Gratefully, we can look to one another for the additional boost we may need to face the day. Being there for one another, knowing that we understand each other's fears as women, offers the strength to go ahead that we may lack today or tomorrow. Today a woman may need me to dare to be herself. I will be there. © 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. ~ Lida Clarkson ~ We all want life to unfold according to our plan. After all, we are certain we know what's best for us. But hindsight quickly reminds us that few, if any, of us had included recovery in a Twelve Step program as part of our life's plan. Yet here we are, and we are now more content than we've ever been in our lives. How did this happen? We have come to accept that God has worked in our lives in spite of ourselves. We have been protected and guided all along the way, even though on occasion we stubbornly attempted to force open doors that were not beneficial to our growth. Fortunately our Higher Power never gave up on us. We will fulfill our purpose with all the help we need when the time is right. Remembering that opportunities come to us when their time is right allows us to wait and trust. My patience will pay off today. I can be certain that what comes to me today is on time. © 1994 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ Medication is part of my recovery I am grateful that both of my long-term illnesses are now in remission. Still, I need daily medication for my psychiatric illness and I feel ashamed. I feel like there's something deeply wrong with me, something that separates me, painfully, from others. It hurts. When I mentioned it to my therapist, she helped. She explained to me that taking medication is like wearing prescription eyeglasses. It's uncomfortable at first, but after a while, it will become a more natural part of my life. Medication will let me see clearly where I am and what I need to do in recovery. I will talk with my support group about the stigma I feel and the strength of my recovery. ©1995 by the author, Published by Hazelden® ************************************************* ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Some days I feel like a tightrope walker. ~ Jeannette N. ~ We all perform a balancing act, trying to keep perspective on what’s important and what is not. Sometimes we fall: crazy drivers cut into our lane; the supermarket line takes forever; the baby’s crying. At those times a minor insult at work or a cross word from a friend is just too much, and we lose our cool — and our balance. During our years of active addiction we were impulsive, living in an all-or-nothing, black-and-white world, completely out of balance. Minor slights became major issues. We were subject to any whim our distorted thoughts cooked up. We’ve had lots of practice being out of balance, so we have to work harder to regain it, but now we have the tools to change. Our program gives us a new focus, reminds us of what’s important in our lives. We’re reminded, too, of our powerlessness over people, places, and things. These ideas are new to us at first. We thought we had to control everything and everyone around us, and so we failed. But now we’re learning how to keep our balance, and recover it when we’ve lost it. With practice, we’ll get better every day. Now, we’re learning how to let go and let God. Today help me remember what’s important. Help me keep my balance. © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ The best six doctors anywhere And no one can deny it Are sunshine, water, rest, and air Exercise and diet. ~ Adapted from a nursery rhyme ~ Exercise can lift a sour mood, soothe anxiety, sharpen mental concentration, ease insomnia, and build confidence. When you combine exercise with healthy eating, maintaining a consistent sleep/rest schedule, and spending time outdoors, you will feel better and stronger. Starting today, resolve to embark on a daily exercise routine. Set aside a specific time of day when you are apt to feel more motivated and energized. Join a health club, walk or jog in your neighborhood, attend a fitness or yoga class, join a recreational sport league, or participate with an exercise video in your living room. Vary your activities to make your exercise routine more challenging and motivating, or engage in the same types of activities to measure your improvement over time. Begin by exercising at least twenty minutes a day, three days a week. If you miss a day, just pick up where you left off. Keep a journal of your progress to provide a visual record for continued inspiration. It has been said that “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” I will use exercise to improve my physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being © 2011 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas. ~ Henry Ford ~ The automobile is just one of many inventions based on someone's enthusiasm to realize a dream. From the persistence came a machine that has since improved our lives by bringing people closer together. Enthusiasm is a catalyst for improvement. If we think back to those times when we've felt enthusiasm in our lives, we'll realize its benefits. Perhaps we secured a job promotion or pitched a no-hitter or completed an intricate quilt. Enthusiasm in the program is also a catalyst for change. If we observe those who truly work their pro-gram with passion, we'll see them making positive changes, gathering a greater sense of self-esteem. Their enthusiasm can be contagious if we open up our minds to their belief that all things are possible. Have I been enthusiastic today? Can I learn from the enthusiasm of someone close to me? © 1986, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation, Author: Amy E. Dean ************************************************** ~ A DAY AT A TIME ~ (Daily Reflections for Recovering People) Reflection for the Day I have been told over and over that I must constantly work to give up my old ideas. "That's easy for you to say," I've sometimes thought. All my life, I have been programmed, computer-style; specific inputs brought forth predictable responses. My mind still tends to react as a computer reacts, but I am learning to destroy the old tapes and literally reprogram myself. Am I fully willing to abandon my old ideas? Am I being fearless and thorough on a daily basis? Today I Pray Help me to take inventory each day of my stock of my new, healthy thoughts, throwing out the old ones as I happen upon them without regret or nostalgia. For I have outgrown those old ideas, which are as scuffed and runover as an old pair of shoes. Now, in the light, I can see that they are filled with holes. Today I Will Remember The Program reprograms. © 1989 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Accepting our limitations Helen Keller said, “Life is a banquet and most of us are starving to death.” Drinking and using sure kept us from seeing the beauty, the bounty in our lives. Since we recognized that we can’t use or drink—and got clean and sober—most of us today can get higher than ever before on the important things like justice, peace, and love. Those of us who seem successful in relationships have at some point learned to accept our shortcomings more than most. Am I learning to accept my limitations? Higher Power, help me accept myself today, with all my defects, knowing that in your time I will gradually change for the better. The personal limitations I accept today are God help me to stay clean and sober today! © 1974, 1998 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ I have had just about all I can take of myself. ~ S. N. BEHRMAN ~ Newcomer I can't sleep. I'm too exhausted to concentrate during the day. At night I'm tortured by thoughts of sickness, death, debts, people I've hurt or who've hurt me. I'm uncomfortable physically, mentally, and emotionally. I bring it up at meetings, but no one takes me seriously. People just say, "It gets better" and "Keep coming back." Sponsor Whether our addictions involve a substance or a behavior, we go through a period of detoxification. Though some things may improve fast, most of us don't heal overnight. Those who say "It gets better" and "Keep coming back" are speaking from experience and compassion. All of us, when we're new, go through some version of what you've just described. In time your body will readjust. Meanwhile, there are things you can do to reeducate your body about when it's time to slow down. You can prepare for rest by dimming the lights, turning off the phone, playing slow music, or taking a warm bath by candlelight. In bed, you can take time to breathe and consciously relax your body, moving your attention very slowly upward from the toes as you picture every part of your body slowing down and letting go. You can do the same with thoughts, and visualize erasing them as they arise. You may still not sleep, but you can commit yourself to not indulging in worry or self-centered fear. Today, I accept that detoxification is part of healing. This, too, shall pass. © 1998 by Joan Larken ************************************************** ~ BIG BOOK QUOTE ~ "If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one's priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer." ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th edition, Into Action, page 87 ~ ************************************************** ~ GRAPEVINE QUOTE OF THE DAY ~ "Let today's troubles be sufficient to today." ~ Indianapolis, Ind., August 1982 ~ From: "Distilled Spirits" AA Grapevine http://www.aagrapevine.org/ ************************************************** ~ ALKIESPEAK ~ It's not a question of finding the right person, but becoming the right person. ~ Anon. ~ Quotes from the book 'ALKIESPEAK' by Andy A. of Australia ************************************************** ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ In our serenity prayer we accept with patience the things we cannot change in full knowledge that all emanates from God and is therefore Good, whether we recognize it as such or not. The courage to change the things we can, knowing full well that we are the instrumentalities through which God works. The knowledge to differentiate between the two is that to which we all aspire. No longer can THINGS drive us to drink, for THINGS are something outside our being and can only enter our hearts and minds if we admit them. Our experience has taught us that our greatest misfortunes were frequently our ultimate good—even our years of drunken torture were a blessing in disguise, for only by this means would we have found our bigger and better way of life. Published by Hazelden ************************************************** ~ POCKET SPONSOR ~ (Back to the Basics for Addiction Recovery) ~ You will be receiving many gifts from people in the programs: gifts of help, time, energy, possibly money, talents, and knowledge. You will never be able to pay them all back. You are not obligated to pay them back. You are obligated to pay them forward by giving away what you have when you can. I appreciate the generosity of others and pay it forward when I am able. Copyright © 2003 – 2010 by Shelly Marshall ************************************************** ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) FEAR: Future Events Appearing Real 2) Live life on purpose, not by accident 3) There are very few decisions that cannot wait 24 hours. Copyright © 2008 by Shelly Marshall ************************************************** ~ ONE DAY AT A TIME ~ PROCRASTINATION Procrastination, more than anything else I can think of, separates those who want to be successful from those who are. ~ Lee Silber ~ I would always intend to start everything 'tomorrow.' As a compulsive overeater I constantly promised myself the diet would start the next day, or if a weekend was approaching, then it would be Monday. When I first found this program I still had the same attitude: I would get a sponsor in good time, I would get a food plan next week, I'd read the Big Book and other program literature when I got a moment. I thought if I just kept going to meetings something will happen. However, I found that procrastination does not work in program any more than it does outside. I no longer wanted to be the member who was constantly sharing what a dreadful week I had with the food and other aspects of my life. Today I have a sponsor, I have worked through all the Twelve Steps — I am still working and living the Steps — I am in good contact with my Higher Power, have a good food plan which I am following religiously, and I have recovery to bring to my shares. One Day at a Time . . . When I make a decision I follow it through with action immediately. ~ Lilian ~ http://recovery.hiwaay.net/meditations/january.html ************************************************** ~ RECOVERY THOUGHT OF THE DAY ~ (From Members of Various 12 Step Programs) Getting Better Says: We are not bad people trying to get good, we are sick people trying to get better. It's not so much about the drinking, as it is the thinking. http://alcoholism.about.com/od/study...ry_thought.htm ************************************************** ~ DAILY READINGS FROM THE AA LODGE ~ (Spiritually of Native Americans and A.A. Literature) ~ The sunshine's bright today, the day is clear, so let your hearts be. The Great Spirit will guide you. ~ Cocooche Seminole ~ True ambition is not what we thought it was. True ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God. ~ Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions pgs. 124 & 125 ~ (Reprinted with permission A.A.W.S.) What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How best can I serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of will. ~ Big Book pg. 85 ~ (Reprinted with permission A.A.W.S.) With each passing day of our lives, may every one of us sense more deeply the inner meaning of A.A.'s simple prayer: God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, And wisdom to know the difference. ~ Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions pg. 125 ~ (Reprinted with permission A.A.W.S.) Great Spirit let us walk humbly in the day you have given us. (Published by the Native American Indian General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous) ************************************************** ~ A CHEROKEE FEAST OF DAYS ~ (Vol. I) ~ Most changes are too subtle to be noticed. The fog, u gv ha dv, that blankets the early morning hangs so thick in the woods that the hills beyond cannot be seen. Then, without us seeing it, it is there no longer. So it is in our relationships with other people. We do not understand the moods and changes that work their silent influence on us when we least expect it. We react to the moods of others like we do in the fog, not realizing what has happened until the silent influence has gone. When our feelings are so in command, it is difficult to change the circumstances around us. All the experiences of a lifetime have influenced our decisions and made us react in a way that destroyed something that may never be rebuilt. When the fog lifts it takes away the veil so that we can see a long way. But the inner-fog hides life and love and friendship—until we change it. I am satisfied….I am not afraid to avow the deed that I have done…..I am willing to bury the tomahawk and smoke the pipe of peace…. ~ SOUWAHNOCK 1833 ~ © Copyright, Joyce Sequichie Hifler ************************************************** ~ A CHEROKEE FEAST OF DAYS ~ (Vol. II) ~ Tender gifts come to us all—gifts from some deep inner space that is priceless and stirs our most creative sense. A beautiful, personal revelation is like touching electricity without its harmful effects. But this is something to be kept in the heart and not talked about to others. If others have never known the touch of a shooting star nor felt the awe of being given spiritual knowledge, their response is incredulity and disbelief—which makes us question our own sanity. Protect the gift, treasure it, love it. The time will come to use it. They are clean to a fault. ..they keep their stock in good order, and are hard working, painstaking people. ~ AGENT THOMAS JORDAN (ABOUT THE NEZ PERCES), SEPTEMBER 6,1881 ~ © 1996 by Joyce Sequichie Hifler ************************************************** ~ A CHEROKEE FEAST OF DAYS ~ (Vol. III) ~ It's hard to be a role model. No matter how hard we try to avoid it, each of us is a role model whether we want to be or not. One person said she could serve as a role model for what not to do, but does that help anyone—herself included? Why is it so easy for us to tell others—especially children "do as I say and not as I do?" When children sort through experiences looking for guidance to embrace the good, what happens if that guidance isn't there? Some complain that sports figures should be good role models. That may be true—but it's even more important for us to be good role models in our own, close families. When we are, the world around us cannot break down the standard we raise. It is for you to make something of yourselves and this can only be done while you are young. ~ SITTING BULL, SIOUX ~ Copyright © 2002 by Joyce Sequichie Hifler ************************************************** ~ ELDER MEDITATION ~ “In our story of Creation, we talk about each one of us having our own path to travel, and our own gift to give and to share. You see, what we say is that the Creator gave us all special gifts; each one of us is special. And each one of us is a special gift to each other because we’ve got something to share.” ~ John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG ~ We are all equally special. We need to focus on what is right for ourselves. As we focus on what is right for ourselves, we will start to see our special gifts. Then we can see how to share our special gifts with others. If we focus on what’s wrong with ourselves, we will not be able to see our gifts. Then we will think we have nothing to give others and we become selfish and withdrawn. The more we focus on our good, the more we see the good in others. The more we see the good in others, the more we see the gifts they have to share. What you see is what you get! My Creator, today, let me use the gifts You have given me. Let me use them wisely. ~ http://www.whitebison.org/ ~ ************************************************** ~ SPIRIT WISE ~ (A Book of Reflections from Elders Spiritual Wisdom) Shawanne, Tenskwatawa (1808) The red people after their mode; particularly that they should not drink whiskey; that it was not made for them and that it is the cause of all mischief which the Indian suffers. Do not meddle with anything that does not belong to you, but mind your own business. Oxford Group, A.J. Russell (1932) The heart must be at leisure from itself; That to share is better than to preach; to lose is really to find; to let go is to be held secure; to surrender all is to possess all things. Ioway, Neumonya (1841) The Great Spirit expects us to feed the poor, our wives and children. Wicked white men kill so many of our warriors and hunters with fire-water, that they bring among us Ron Swenson (Spiritwise@cableone.net) ************************************************** ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Acceptance Prayer God grant me the serenity to accept my addiction gracefully and humbly. Grant me also the ability to absorb the teachings of the Program, which by its past experience is trying to help me. Teach me to be grateful for the help I receive. Guide me, Higher Power, in the path of tolerance and understanding of my fellow members and fellow- man, guide me away from the path of criticism, intolerance, jealousy, and envy of my friends. Let me not prejudge; let me not become a moralist; keep my tongue and thoughts from malicious, idle gossip. Help me to grow in stature spiritually, mentally, and morally. Grant me that greatest of all rewards, that of being able to help my fellow sufferers in their search out of the addiction that has encompassed them. Above all, help me to be less critical and impatient with myself. © 2007 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************** ~ SAY YES TO YOUR LIFE by Ft. Leo ~ (Daily Meditations for Alcoholics and Drug Addicts) ~ CREATIVITY "Creative intelligence in its various farms and activities is what makes humankind" ~ James Harvey Robinson ~ Spirituality means being positive and creative in all areas of my life. This I know to be true. I am part of God's love for the world. Through me, great and wonderful events unfold. Although I am not the Divine, I share God's Divinity. With this knowledge comes responsibility, because things only happen if I make them happen in my life. To simply know I am creative is not enough. Today I work at my life like a carpenter works with wood. I chip away the things I do not want; I smooth the rough areas, and polish the things I want people to see. I accept responsibility for my creativity, and I thank God for it on a daily basis. Teach me to use my life as a tool for goodness, joy, and truth. © 2008 Leo Booth ************************************************* ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ The sixth main aspect of God is Spirit. We know that God is Spirit but what does that mean? Spirit is that which cannot be destroyed or damaged. It is the opposite of matter. Matter wears out, but Spirit does not because Spirit is substance. Herbert Spencer defines substance as that which is not subject to discord or decay. Webster says, "that which underlies all outward manifestation....real, unchanging essence or nature....that in which qualities in here....that which constitute anything what it is". All this can only apply to spiritual things. God is a Spirit: An they that worship him, must worship him is spirit and in truth (John 4:24). You are Spirit. Spirit cannot die and was never born. Your true self was never born and will never die. You are eternal, divine, unchanging Spirit, in your true nature. The whole universe is a spiritual creation but we see it in a limited way. You have sometimes seen a window made of fluted glass, and you know that if you look at the street through this window everything will be distorted. Nevertheless, you know that the distortion arises from your seeing wrongly. Our false vision causes us to know ourselves only from a seeming birth to a seeming death: But this is illusion too. This distorted vision of Spirit is really what we know as "matter." Eucken says, "Reality is an independent spiritual world, unconditioned by the apparent world of sense"—and this is substance. © 1931 by Emmet Fox ************************************************** ~ CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE RECOVERING SOUL ~ (Daily Inspirations) ~ Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. ~ Stonewall Jackson ~ We as a group are privy to knowledge that is rapidly coming to the rest of the world. There is a Spiritual solution to every single problem, question and situation in our lives, because that is what we indeed are, creatures of a Spiritual nature, a Spiritual origin. This is the most important thing that we have learned as a result of working the Twelve Steps. ~ Jeffrey R. Anderson ~ © 2005 John T. Canfield and Hansen and Hansen LLC ************************************************** ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ The Eye of the Beholder Two men looked out through prison bars; one saw mud, the other, stars. ~ James Allen ~ One morning while driving through a rural area, I approached a curve where a peahen was leading a queue of babies across the road. I stopped and enjoyed the beauty of the striking deep blue-green color of the chicks, reflected in the morning light. I took a deep breath and thanked God for the opportunity to start my day with this magnificent display. On the other side of the birds, another car was stopped in the opposite direction. The driver of that car was not so pleased with the display. Obviously in a hurry, she was making scowling expressions as she waited for the animals to cross. As soon as the birds reached the other side of the road, the woman floored the gas pedal and screeched off. Both of us came upon the same scene and interpreted it in entirely different ways. I viewed it as a gift from God, and she saw it as a nuisance. Behold the power we invoke when we filter our experience through perceptual screens. No occurrence has any absolute reality; everyone who observes it will call it something different. We see the world not as it is, but as we are. No event is intrinsically good or bad; it is the eyes through which we see that make it one or the other. Experiment with finding the good in every experience. Even if an event seems to be a threat or a problem, adopt a vision through which it can empower you. When you behold life through the eyes of love, you will find the beauty of God everywhere. I choose to use Your vision today. Help me to see the good in all people and experiences. |
January 18
Step by Step “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” – Step Six Today, depending on the honesty in our Fourth Step, this is an extension of that step and in which we become ready to have our character defects removed. And, incredibly, maybe one of the program’s “easiest” steps because to continue harboring our defects risks significant and possibly insurmountable roadblocks to recovery. Serenity cannot be fully realized if we hold onto selfishness, egoism, fear, regret, resentment. Becoming willing to let go of our defects is simple; the work comes in Step Seven. But, today, I am not only ready but willing and eager to unload the garbage of my soul. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ GOALS OF GREATNESS Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. ~ Shakespeare ~ In our 12 Step Program, greatness comes through humility and gratitude. It is simply a matter of becoming willing and able to work with others toward a goal where each person can be happy in the freedom from addiction. Greatness is becoming a winner instead of a loser in the competition between addiction and making our lives manageable. It all comes from concentration on spiritual progress. Greatness can be ours in many different ways. We can measure the amount of greatness by our own ability and willingness to take the vital Steps in our Program. We can measure the amount of greatness we either are born with, have thrust upon us, or rise to when we surrender to the reality that we have no power over our addiction or obsession. The true measure of greatness lies in my ability to understand just where I am at any point in my recovery. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ The way we see the problem is the problem. ~ Stephen R. Covey ~ Many of us have a mind-set that keeps us on a treadmill. It’s not for lack of effort that our lives reel out of control. We struggle to move forward. We work hard to manage the unmanageable. But with all our busy efforts, we can’t see that we are continuously recycling the same problem over and over. The solution we need may be right before our eyes. Our denial is confusing us; we don’t even know we are denying anything. We cannot solve our problems alone—or even see the problems clearly from the inside. That’s what friends do for us. They reflect back to us what we are missing. That’s why we need to have good talks with others who have walked the same path that we are on. The strongest, most powerful men have wise advisers who show them things they don’t know. They accept the role of seeker and learner because that is the way they enhance themselves. Today I will be open to seeing my problems in ways I couldn’t imagine on my own. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ The expression of praise as thanksgiving, gratitude, and joy is among the most powerful forms of affirmation. ~ Catherine Ponder ~ Praise inevitably has a multiple effect. It positively acknowledges another human being, enhancing his or her well-being, while making us feel good. This offering of love, which is the substance of praise, heals all who share in its circle. We can see the effects of affirmation in the women we admire. We can discern its absence too, particularly among those who struggle. How difficult is it to give small acknowledgments to those we care about? Making a habit of this heals our own inner wounds too. Affirming a friend or ourselves connects us to the spirit residing within. That bond fills in our empty spaces, making us whole and healed. Our security as women grows as we praise one another. I will freely offer my love in the form of praise to the wonderful friends on my path today. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to be aware of my symptoms I need to be aware of my psychiatric symptoms (I’ve certainly had them often enough). For example, I start to feel irritable, drive too fast, and spend more money than I can afford. In a few days, I’m staying up all night reading or cleaning or writing long letters to people I hardly know. Until recently, I couldn’t see what was happening to me (in fact, a manic phase) until I was looking up from the bottom of a well (a depressed phase). Of course, by then it was too late. But now that I am learning more about my illnesses, I believe I’ll be able to see the warning signs sooner and prevent a relapse. I will keep a log of thoughts and feelings that usually precede a psychiatric episode. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Recovery for me has been almost a rebirth. I’m born again as the curious, trusting, honest child I was so long ago — The child I thought la lost forever. ~ Paul D. ~ For many of us that child was just waiting for a chance to find us again. It was only waiting until we could maintain honesty, integrity, and decency. We had to relearn how to live so we wouldn’t hurt that child. We had to learn to choose people more carefully so the child’s trust wouldn’t be betrayed. We had to embark on a new life to protect that child. Little by little we did change our lives. Little by little that child was reborn. As the child learned to trust us it became more a part of our daily lives. We learned to look to that child for the source of our pain and with the help of our inner child. We’re now beginning to heal. In learning to love our child within we are learning to accept ourselves as lovable, forgivable human beings who are ready to step out into the world and take our place in a loving community of others who are also healing. Today help me remember the child within me, and to protect that part of myself in every action I take. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ We must learn to accept… life and to accept ourselves, not blindly and not with conceit, but with a shrug and a smile. ~ Harvey Mindess ~ A Taoist story tells of an old farmer whose livelihood depended upon his one horse. One morning the farmer woke to discover the horse had run away. When his neighbors learned of his misfortune, they asked him what he would do. The farmer said, “I will wait.” The next morning, the farmer heard a great commotion and saw that his horse had returned with two wild horses. A few days later, the farmer’s son was training the wild horses to work on the farm when he was bucked off and broke his leg. Neighbors asked the farmer what he would do without his son’s help, and he replied, “I will wait.” Shortly afterwards, war broke out and the army needed men. But the son could not go off to war because of his broken leg. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and things do not go as you planned. More often than not, things will resolve over time. View everything that comes your way— lilt’ good as well as the challenging—with acceptance of whatever you are given. Today I will adopt a wait-and-see attitude with everything that comes my way. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Children do not know how their parents love them, and they never will till the grave doses over those parents, or till they have children of their own. ~ Edmund Vance Cooke ~ As adults, we may feel we were cheated out of a “normal” childhood because of our parents’ emotional, physical, or spiritual failings. We may think they should never be forgiven for their actions or in-actions when we were young. Yet imagine what our lives would be like today if we did not forgive. We would be bitter, stomping angrily through life with a clipboard in hand, ready to write down the name of the next person who crosses us. It’s time to throw away the clipboard and the names on it—including the names of our parents. The program teaches us to love those who come into our lives, even if we don’t like them. It teaches us forgiveness through our Higher Power. We do not have to like our parents, but we can love them. By the same token, we need to realize our parents love us in their special way. They aren’t perfect—and neither are we. Help me remember my parents did the best they could with what they had. That’s all anyone can really do. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Listening well Learning to really listen to another human being—beyond just his or her words—is critical to good communication. Valuable exchanges between human beings can occur only when each listens carefully to the other and tries sincerely to understand the other person’s meaning. Much anger and frustration with others could be avoided if we truly understood one another. Constant thoughts running through our minds is a form of talking, and we can’t listen to another (including our Higher Power) if we are still talking. Do I really listen? Higher Power, help me be quiet enough within to listen to others today. By trying to understand another, let me learn something about myself. Today I will quiet my mind and really listen to God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something ~ WILSON MIZNER ~ Newcomer I feel impatient. What am I doing at this meeting? The speaker’s concerns are entirely different from mine. He has cancer, and his doctor has told him that he has eighteen months to live. He says that he is not afraid of dying and he wants to die sober. I am impatient; my health is not a problem right now, and I don’t feel like I’m dying. I hate to say it, but what good is this going to do me? Sponsor When I am at a meeting, for the brief space of an hour I have nowhere I have to go, nothing I have to do. I can choose to relax, breathe, still my racing mind, listen. Sometimes a speaker addresses exactly what is on my mind. Other times, I have to listen hard for a feeling I can identify with or a principle I can practice. If I listen intending to hear something that I can take away with me, even if it’s just one thing, I always find that it is there. After listening to someone who is facing illness and possible death, for example, I take away with me the new knowledge that there are recovering people who do not look at personal tragedy as an excuse for using again. Their priorities have changed. Are you willing to reconsider your priorities? Today, I listen without judging. I take responsibility for hearing one thing that relates to my own recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ We admit that for US—whiskey is bad; but whether it is bad for someone else is simply a matter for them to decide. We have no fight with alcohol itself, its brewers, distillers, distributors or retailers. We say its abuse is bad but we do not curse the darkness; rather we tend to positive, constructive efforts to help that individual who is groping in the darkness. For him we light a candle of Hope which becomes a beacon upon which he may set a new course to a peaceful harbor where the weary alcoholic may find peace and rest. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If anyone speaks badly of you, live so no one will believe it. 2) Never mistake activity for achievement. 3) An alcoholic only knows one note on the scale: Me, Me, Me. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Twelve Steps Prayer Power, greater than myself, as I understand You, I willingly admit that without Your help I am powerless over alcohol and my life has become unmanageable. I believe You can restore me to sanity. I turn my life and my will over to You. I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself and I admit to You, to myself, and to another the exact nature of my wrongs. I am entirely ready to have You remove these defects of character. I humbly ask You to remove my shortcomings. I have made direct amends to all persons I have harmed, except when to do so would injure them or others. I will continue to take personal inventory and when I am wrong I will promptly admit it. I seek through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with You and pray only for knowledge of Your will for me and the power to carry it out. Grant me the grace to carry the message of Your help unto others and to practice the principles of the Twelve Steps in all my affairs. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ The seventh main aspect of God is Principle, and this is probably the one that is least understood. What does the word “principle” mean? Consider a few generally accepted principles. “Water seeks its own level”. This is a principle. It is not only the course taken by a particular drop of water in a particular locality. It is true of all water everywhere. “The angles of any triangle always add up to 180 degrees”. It makes no matter what kind of triangle one may consider: as long as it is a triangle, this principle holds. These principles were true a billion years ago and they will be true a billion years hence. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Prayer is answered because God is principle, eternally manifest in the same way. When we pray rightly we bring ourselves into harmony with His law of Being. Prayer does not ask God to change the laws for our temporary convenience, but it tunes us in, so to speak, with divine Principle: If God were to make exceptions because we were in great difficulties, (which, because of His nature, He could never do) we should never know where we stood. If the law of gravity were occasionally suspended without notice, say, because a very important man had fallen off a roof, you know what would happen to the world. Each of the seven main aspects is a distinct quality like the elements in chemistry. A chemical element, as you know, is just itself and nothing else. Oxygen is an element because there is nothing in it but oxygen. Water on the other hand is a compound, a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. There are many attributes of God, such as Wisdom, for example, is the perfect balance of Intelligence and Love. Beauty is the perfect balance of Life, Truth and Love. In any true work of art, you will find that these three aspects are balanced. There are many such relationships and interdependencies—”Thou canst not pluck a flower without the trembling of a star.” ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ For Whom? To have, give all to all. ~ A Course in Miracles ~ Several years ago, I presented a seminar at which attendance was low Although we had planned for a huge turnout, only a fraction of those expected showed up. Disappointed, I complained to my musician friend Michael, “It’s a drag that we only have this number; I’ll just force myself to get through the evening.” “The same thing happened to me once,” Michael answered. “Then I asked myself, ‘Who are you going to give the program for—the people who showed up, or those who didn’t?’” Michael had a point. Why concentrate on the empty seats instead of the full ones? The people who attended believed in me and expected to receive something wonderful. I could not penalize them because others had not met my expectations. At another sparsely attended program, I was preceded by a musical duo who dashed on stage and gave a fabulous, dynamic performance. You would have thought they were performing for 5,000 people in Las Vegas! They did not compromise their presentation because of the numbers; they determined their energy level, not the audience. From them I learned that I need to give 100 percent; what I give to the audience I give to myself. If I give less than all, I steal from myself. It is not the numbers that make a life; it is the content. It is more valuable to touch a small number of people in a quality way than to amass fame or fortune. Give your full presence and integrity to everyone you meet, and your heart will be full. I pray to place quality before quantity. Let me live and act for essence before form. I give all to all, and receive all as I give it. |
January 19
Step by Step “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” – Step Seven Today, Step Four requires a “searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves,” Step Five an admission to God, ourselves and another person the exact nature of our wrongs and Step Six to be willing for God to remove our character defects. Step Seven is the culmination of the gut-wrenching and brutally honest product of the previous three Steps and, in fact, some may be eager to ask their Higher Power to remove those defects. And in asking “humbly,” we do so in absolute honesty, a commitment to purge those demonic forces and for the strength and courage not to reclaim them. An unwritten footnote to this Step: in recovery, we no longer possess the luxury to hold onto a defect we don’t want or aren’t ready to surrender. Today, I’m ready to ask my Higher Power to unburden me of the weight of the shortcomings of my own making. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ PLAYING GOD He was like the cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. ~ George Eliot ~ Ego and conceit are familiar words to all or us. Self-centered and ego-inflated obsessions created the idea within our con- fused minds that we could control everyone and everything. We in recovery refer to that as “trying to play God.” The world’s great men and women credit their successes to the realization that they could not rule all of mankind. Those who never learned went down in disaster, as history proves. The lives of the great remind us that we can make our lives inspiring and leave footprints in the sands of time. We only need to follow their example of choosing to be trusted servants rather than arrogant tyrants. Our Program teaches us that spiritual growth comes mainly from working in a simple manner with others as a team, all with a single purpose. One of the elementary reasons why I am told to work at my conscious contact with my Higher Power is so that I can stop the mistake of trying to play God. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again. ~ Meister Eckhart ~ We have to learn how to let go. It doesn’t come naturally until we have learned how. Letting go is a skill that comes when we see others doing it, and when we practice it. It comes when we accept that we are not completely separate individuals but part of a larger whole. Then we can turn our most vexing problems over to our Higher Power or let others deal with issues that don’t belong to us. Most of us worked hard to gain control of our lives and to manage the circumstances we faced. Becoming selective about what we try to control is a very adult skill that takes time and much life experience. When we can finally let go and stand aside from the things we don’t need to manage, we get the payoff of liberation and peace of mind. Our burden is lightened and only the things that we can handle are left. Today I will take every opportunity to practice the skill of letting go and letting be. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ I walked across an open field at winter’s break as the sun danced on the last few drifts. I imagined my fears would melt one by one as I learned to love myself. ~ Laurel Lewis ~ Fear is as familiar as our image in a mirror. Although we have resolved many of the fears that bound us to old behavior, our original fears may have been replaced by new ones. Why are there so many things to be afraid of? New friends, old relationships, careers, family history, tomorrow . . . Acknowledging our fear is the first step to getting free of its control. Naming the fear puts us in charge. Remembering that we have a loving Higher Power who won’t abandon us, even in the midst of our deepest fear, can help us get through too. But loving our small, scared selves will be the most nurturing of all. Mothering ourselves, in the way we may have longed for mothering in our youth, will carry us through the most difficult times. Fears are part of living. They are neither bad nor good; instead, they can teach us. They can help us learn to love more of ourselves. I will welcome my fears today. They are my blueprint for who I am. God and I will comfort me with love. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I want more freedom My dual disorder has cost me some freedom. Life now feels complicated and cluttered. I have to take meds regularly (not to mention go for med checks), attend treatment several times a week and my Step meeting once a week. At times my disability feels like a cage. While it’s true that recovery takes time, attention, and energy, it takes no more than my addiction did. The more I accept my illnesses and make dual recovery a regular part of my day, the more I can recover. And the more I recover, the more stable and self-reliant I can become, using my new strengths and coping skills. I am reclaiming my life as I rebuild it, one day at a time. I will carefully follow the activities on today’s recovery plan—my path to freedom. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ One could say that I had a happy childhood, although I showed little talent for being happy. ~ Samuel Beckett ~ Our choices in relationships, careers, lifestyle, and expression of feelings and talents are often the result of our upbringing. Has the social climate changed significantly since our childhood? Have our family systems changed? Can we find ways to change old, ineffective behaviors? Recovery offers us the gifts of responsibility and self-forgiveness. Now, as we begin to change, we can let go of the past and its pain. Our ability to change often starts by embracing our inner selves with forgiving, adult arms. In this act, we take responsibility for our own happiness, nurturing ourselves toward the new life we are finding in recovery. We are earning our own love in a whole new way. We respect and honor our physical selves with rest, exercise, and nutritional food. We stimulate our minds with new ideas and experiences. And we send our spirits soaring through conscious contact with our Higher Power. We feel worthy of love, and even have enough to give some away. Now we are learning the talent for being happy. Today grant me the power of self-forgiveness and the gift of hope. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Tell me, did you write the song “I’ll Never Smile Again”? ~ Cary Grant to Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember ~ Some people spend their lives searching for happiness. Others set guidelines to help determine when happiness is achieved. Yet searching for happiness can be elusive, defining it impossible, and setting guidelines conditional. The pursuit of happiness can be one of endless struggle, competition, frustration, and disappointment. Rather than look outwardly for happiness, think about what makes you happy, no matter what you have in life, what your circumstances are, or how you are feeling. Maybe the song of birds brings you happiness. Perhaps your children or your pets make you happy. Maybe having coffee with a friend or engaging in a hobby makes you happy. True happiness is not a feeling; it comes from within. It is the ability to keep an open heart and mind so you can let in those things that help you feel joy. It is the belief that good things can happen and difficult times will not last forever. It is the understanding that simple things— the smell of a fresh-baked cookie, the feel of snowflakes falling against your face, a hug, a beautiful sunrise—can bring happiness, if you are willing to let them in. Today I will think about those people, places, and things that inspire happiness within me. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ And if not now, when? ~ The Talmud ~ It’s so easy to put things off. Sometimes we’re like Scarlet O’Hara, who hoped and dreamed for a better life by saying, “There’s always tomorrow.” But is there always a tomorrow? If we live too many of our days counting on tomorrows, we may find ourselves putting off achievements and growth now. What if tomorrow never came? What if all of our time to do what we wanted was put in the hours left in today? We’d be scurrying around like mice trying to cram as much as we could into this short period of time. But today, not having such a deadline, we believe our time is endless and no goal or task is so important that it can’t be put off. The time to achieve is now. The time to live is now. For as long as we believe tomorrow will come, we’ll be living for tomorrow. If we don’t believe today is the greatest gift we could receive, we’ll never know how to live for today. Everything we want to achieve, to learn, to share can begin today. If we don’t live the best we can right now, then when? Higher Power, help me learn to use my time wisely. Help me avoid putting things off. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Taking it easy Easy does it. Pushing does not help our pro-gram; it only causes more pressure within us. “If it doesn’t work,” we have thought, “get a bigger hammer.” But if we only wait for the opportunity, we will be given the opportunity to work out each of our difficulties. It is better to work out a problem by taking two steps forward and one step back, rather than to push and try to solve it at once, fail, and then stop trying. It helps to remember that we are never given more than we can handle, one day at a time. Have I learned to take it easy? Higher Power, I depend on you for my very breath. Help me realize that the more I depend on you, the more I accept your help, the more I can handle. I will take it easy today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ … I always come to why, to the unfair, painful part of life. ~ MALKIA CYRIL ~ Newcomer Today, I went to a meeting, but I could hardly hear the speaker. She spoke softly, and the fan was making too much noise. During the discussion period, she called on people by name; they must have been her friends. No one noticed me during the coffee break, and I left the meeting feeling worse than when I came in. I thought people in this fellowship were supposed to reach out to newcomers! Sponsor When I was active in my addiction, I “medicated” myself when I felt uncomfortable with other people. In recovery, I have had to learn new skills. Developing friendships, both in this fellowship and in the “real” world, takes time. Some of the people I see at meetings are still coping with problems like the ones I walked in with: shyness, anger, self-centered fear. When I feel lonely, instead of waiting to be rescued, I introduce myself to the person next to me. I sit as close to the front of the room as possible, focus on listening to the speaker, and thank him or her at the break. I put my hand up (high, as if I meant it!) and, if called on, let the group know something about me. If I don’t get called on, I refrain from resentment and plan to keep coming and attempting to share. We can trust that, over time, if we’re willing to reach out to others, people will begin to know us. Today, I do not blame others for my feelings. I take one step toward sharing myself with others. I let go of needing instant results. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ In AA we are truly only concerned with the internal and not the external qualities of the man. What you wear or fail to wear in the matter of clothes is of no consequence. If you are clean inside the outside eventually cleanses itself. Evening gowns and tuxedos are all right for formal affairs but a well dressed heart and mind is for everyday wear and is a greater adornment than silks and jewels. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If you want to know God’s will, spend time with Him. 2) FEAR: Failure Expected And Received 3) Nothing is by accident. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Victims of Addiction O blessed Lord, You ministered to all who came to You. Look with compassion upon all who through addiction have lost their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of Your unfailing mercy; remove from them the fears that beset them; strengthen them in the work of their recovery; and to those who care for them, give patient understanding and persevering love. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE GOLDEN KEY Study and research are well in their own time and place, but no amount of either will get you out of concrete difficulty. Nothing but practical work in your own consciousness will do that. Scientific prayer is the Golden key to harmony and happiness. You need take no one’s word for it and you should not. Simply try it for yourself and see. Whoever you are, wherever you may be, the Golden Key to harmony is in your hand now. This is because it is God who works, and not you, and so your particular limitations or weaknesses are of no account in the process. You are only the channel through which the divine action takes place and your part is first to get yourself out of the way. The actual method of working is simplicity itself. All that you have to do is this: Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is, and think about God instead. This is the complete rule and if only you will do this, the trouble, whatever it is, will presently disappear. It may be big or little, it may concern health, finance, a lawsuit, a quarrel, an accident, or anything else conceivable; but whatever it is, just stop thinking about it and think of God instead- that is all you have to do. The thing could not be simpler, could it? And yet it never fails to work when given a fair trial. . . . with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Shoes Live as if your life depends on it. ~ Werner Erhard ~ The Hawaiian people practice the Eastern custom of removing their shoes before entering a home. At a party I attended, a tai chi student told me, “My master said that you can always tell the level of a person’s consciousness by the way they leave their shoes at the door.” When I left the party, I surveyed the long line of shoes outside the door. Most of them were lined up neatly next to one another. Then there were mine, criss-crossed and strewn out of line. Oops! Heaven is gained or lost not just by dramatic deeds, but by the little acts of daily living. A Zen maxim states: “If you can serve a cup of tea correctly, you can do anything,” meaning that we can use any mundane act as a meditation to create harmony and beauty. The Japanese have an elaborate ancient tea ceremony in which the server must be very present and conscious of every minute act that comprises the ritual. I heard a talk by a man who knew Suzuki Roshi, a master who popularized Zen in the West. “Everything Roshi did was a meditation,” the man recounted. “Once I watched him eat an apple. By the time he had gotten to the core, the apple was clean and sculpted. All sides were perfectly balanced, and there was no waste. It was a piece of art. ” We can make our life a work of art by paying attention to the details of daily living. Let everything be a dance in which we create poise and grace. It’s the highest game there is. I pray to remain conscious throughout my day and bring poetic mastery to all I do. I use my life to remember and glorify the presence of Spirit. |
January 20
Step by Step “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.” – Step Eight Today, a step not to be taken before the Seventh in which we asked our Higher Power to remove our defects of character. Without removal of those defects, common among them anger, resentment and a sense that our actions against anyone are justified, our list and willingness to make amends might be prejudiced, dishonest. The two requirements of this step are a list of ALL people we’ve harmed and a willingness to atone to each individually. It does not and cannot guarantee that our amends will be accepted by every person. And too many of us, taking this step for the first time, learn later that we have omitted from our list of injured parties a very important person – OURSELVES. Today, I ask for humility and strength in naming all those I have hurt and for the willingness to make atonement – to myself as well. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ CHANGE You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now. ~ Joan Baez ~ Our life in recovery brings us a new attitude toward change. We remember the heartbreaking battles we fought as we resisted each new opportunity to change. We held on to old habit patterns even if they produced great pain in our lives. Somehow we found what we thought was a safe place in our addiction and our hopeless condition. Our recovery has opened our eyes to a new world. We know deep in our hearts that our Higher Power wants only good things for us. We understand that change is to be welcomed like each new season. Our Program teaches us that the unknown is not to be cursed, that God is revealed to us at such times. We come to trust our recovery. I know that times of trouble will be followed by times of calm. I now welcome the changes that come into my life as new opportunities. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Half this game is ninety percent mental. ~ Yogi Berra ~ A very large part of any addiction is made up of all the thinking and behavior patterns that go with it. Many addictions don’t involve alcohol or chemicals at all, just the thoughts and feelings of certain behaviors. Codependency is all about unhealthy thinking. Removing addictive substances is just the start of a long process of changing ourselves mentally. This mental transformation is the real recovery. It begins as soon as we enter this program, and we feel the rewards very quickly. We are set on a lifelong process of growth that is “ninety percent mental”: learning to know our feelings and express them well, relating to other people, trusting others and a Higher Power, and developing healthy attitudes. Today I will be aware of my mental recovery and notice how much I have already gained. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ The self is a calm stable center surrounded by a continuous changing sea. Merge with yourself and be ready for any emergent sea. ~ Coretta Scott King ~ Wise ones tell us to be true to ourselves. Being true to ourselves means daring to disagree with a loved one, even when we know it might cause painful tension. It means refusing to go along with the group’s plans if our values are being ignored. It means standing alone, if necessary, in our family of origin if their expectations of us no longer nurture our growth. With the help of the Fourth and Tenth Steps, we are learning who we are. We have recognized our shortcomings, and we have defined the assets that make our lives productive and enviable. Each day we are getting closer to knowing more completely the “inner woman” who is calm and centered. She is unruffled by the activity around her. She is quiet and accepting of the circumstances that have called to her. She is our guide, if we want one. She is our protector, if we need one. She is our voice when we become ready to let her speak. I can be calm and centered today if situations get tense. My “inner self’ will take my hand and give me the words I need. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am responsible for my recovery Some days I want to blame my psychiatric illness on my addiction. Some days I want to blame my addiction on my psychiatric illness. Or I could blame them both on my genes or my parents. In short, I don’t want to face these problems. (Who would?) What I am learning, however, is that although I am not to blame for having a dual disorder (each illness is a no-fault illness), I am responsible for my recovery. No one can take these problems away. They are, indeed, mine. And as much as I wish it weren’t so, I am the one who must deal with them (with lots of support). With the help of my doctor, therapist, or sponsor (or all three), I will develop a formal recovery plan. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ All things pass… Patience attains all that it strives for. ~ St. Teresa of Avila ~ Some days, it seems like our struggles will never end. The pain, the loss, the heartaches, the failures — we can recount them all. Where is the strength to go on? What if we began our day by acknowledging that all things pass? That given time, effort, and patience, we can accept or accomplish most anything? But patience does not mean complacency. On the contrary, each day in recovery requires a new attitude, a new outlook that in time generates its own positive energy for growth and change. We need strength and patience not only in the difficult moments of our new sobriety, but in the easier ones — the days of comfort when things seem to be going almost too well. Soon, we can look back across the months and see growth. As the skills of the dancer or the carpenter increase with time and patience, so do our skills in recovery. As we grow in recovery, becoming ever more patient, we become ever more in tune with our Higher Power and the promise of a new life. Today grant me the patience to live in the moment. Help me be willing to believe that all things pass and I can live better in sobriety. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ The ideal day never comes. Today is ideal for him who makes it so. ~ Horatio Dresser ~ The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. Focusing on your day-to-day life with this philosophy in mind helps keep your mind from wandering ahead to tomorrow, or lagging behind to yesterday. Your mind stays in the present, when you can do the most good for yourself and for others. In the present moment, you can only do things one step at a time. Someone who has been overweight and embarks on a diet sheds pounds one at a time. An author writes a book one word, and one page, at a time. A chef prepares an elegant meal one dish at a time. Someone who is in recovery does not shed the effects of addiction in an instant, but gets better one minute, one hour, and one day at a time. Be mindful of the old saying that a journey of a thou-sand miles starts with a single step. Fully experience each moment that lies ahead today by choosing to take small steps and to savor each precious moment. Whenever I feel like I am getting ahead of myself, I will use the slogans “One day at a time” and “Live for today” to keep my mind focused on the present. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ I came to understand that it was all right to do things for people as long as I did it for the sake of doing it . . . the value being more in the act than in the result. ~ Joanna Field ~ We’ve all heard the sentiment that it is better to give than to receive. Yet we may find it difficult to give to others, whether that giving involves an actual gift or an act of giving of ourselves: caring for someone who is ill, running an errand for someone, giving a back-rub, or extending an invitation to someone who is alone. We may feel afraid to do for others without any expectations of receiving something in return. To give unselfishly exposes our feelings and shows we care. Yet if we can look beyond our fears to the selflessness of our giving actions, there is a great reward: knowing we had the courage to risk giving to someone. The risks we take in giving to others are lessons for ourselves as well as for those whose lives we touch. The gift of giving opens doors to the homes of our souls. Did I take time today to give to others? Can I risk giving to someone close to me? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Avoiding blame It is not uncommon to hear in group, “Why do these things always happen to me?” If these things are always happening to us, the obvious answer is that we somehow bring them on ourselves. We are largely unconscious of what we’re doing (wrong) until, slowly, eventually, we manage to dig ourselves out from the results. (It seems incredible that we actually seek to be hurt, but in a way many of us do so, with regularity.) But blaming others for our problems and indulging in self-pity don’t move us along in our program. Am I still blaming others? Higher Power, help me take responsibility for myself and my actions, because blaming others will only keep me stuck. I will take greater responsibility for myself today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ For sometimes, were the truth confess’d, You’re thankful for a little rest. ~ DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ~ Newcomer I can’t stop thinking about the mess I’ve made of my life. I rush around all day trying to get things done, then I run to a meeting, grab some cookies and coffee, and try to listen. I feel impatient and annoyed at what people are saying. Sometimes I even fall asleep at the meeting. I leave wondering if it’s worth it. Sponsor Mood swings are a signal that something needs taking care of. The slogan “HALT (Don’t get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired)” is a reminder to pay attention to basics. We have bodies that need regular food and rest. When I deprive myself of a meal, I get cranky and depressed. Being overtired is a mood changer for me, too. When I try to revive myself with coffee and sugary snacks at night, I may have trouble sleeping afterward. My spirit has needs, too, that I’m learning to recognize and nourish. For a long time, I was used to masking my anger and loneliness with addictive substances. To change this habit, I allow recovering people into my life. Sometimes speaking to just one other person can break the cycle of isolation that addiction thrives on. But even if we do everything perfectly, we may still fall asleep in a meeting sometimes. We needn’t worry; even if we don’t catch every word, a meeting is a safe place to be. Today, I respect the basic needs of my body and spirit. I nurture my recovering self with food, rest, and conversation with others. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Remember just a short while back, when we took the miracles of the Bible with the proverbial grain of salt? They were to our way of thinking only parables, told in order to impress certain moral truths, or else they were the understandable inaccuracies of uneducated, highly superstitious people of those unenlightened days. We admitted the purpose of those stories was good but as for believing them—well, they were contrary to known scientific fact. You who have been in AA only a short time, how many miracles contrary to scientific facts do you see about you? The halls of every AA meeting are filled with them. Miracles are not only possible—they are commonplace. Like the philosophers of old, we are beginning to believe anything so long as it is incredible. We have seen enough of God to believe anything of Him. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) When you dance with a gorilla, it’s the gorilla who decides when to stop. 2) Cooperate with Grace 3) Nothing Happens in God’s World By Mistake ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ God’s Answer I asked You, God, for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for help that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need for You. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. No, dear Lord, I’ve gotten nothing that I asked for; But everything I had hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered; And I am among those most richly blessed. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ Work by rehearsing everything that you know about God. God is Wisdom, Truth, inconceivable Love. God is present everywhere; has infinite power; knows everything. It matters not how well you may think you understand these things; go over them repeatedly. The rule is to think about God, and if you are thinking about your difficulty you are not thinking about God. To be continually glancing over your shoulder in order to see how matters are progressing is fatal, because that is thinking of the trouble, and you must think of God, and nothing else. Your object is to drive the thought of the difficulty right out of your consciousness, for a few moments at least, substituting for it the thought of God. If you can become so absorbed in this consideration of the spiritual world that you really forget for a while all about the trouble concerning which you began to pray, you will presently find that your trouble falls into new perspective, new relationships, so that it is no longer a difficulty. . . . thou has made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all . . . (Nehemiah 9:6). Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? (Job 31:4). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Rethinking Hell Get off the cross—somebody needs the wood. ~ Dolly Parton in Straight Talk ~ In a Time magazine interview, evangelist Billy Graham admitted he was rethinking hell. “Hell may not be an eternal dispensation,” Rev. Graham noted. “It may just be a sense of separation from God.” The word hell is an old English real estate term meaning “border” or “fence.” If you wanted to keep a cow or pig in captivity, you would “hell” the critter in a stockade. Then the animal is “helled,” or, in its derivative form, “held” in. While many religions present hell as an eternal dispensation, it is not. Hell is a temporary experience that we undergo when we let our heart be ruled by fear. We have all gone through hell in our lives and have come out on the other side. (It is said that religion is for people who are afraid of hell, and spirituality is for those who have already been there.) There is a purpose for hell, and it has nothing to do with guilt or punishment. Hell is a wake-up call, a corrective device. If you begin to stray from your nature as a loving being, you will have a hellish experience to put you back on track. The only value of hell is educational. Once the lesson is complete, you are done with it, and you can get on with enjoying living in paradise, where you truly belong. To fear hell is to be in it already, for love is heaven and fear is hell. To punish yourself is to put yourself in hell for no reason. To love yourself and everyone and everything in your life is to give yourself heaven right now and ensure your place there for eternity. Help me to live in heaven now. Help me to find innocence and forgiveness for myself and all persons and things. I claim my right to live in peace now. I enter heaven by living with an open heart. |
January 21
Step by Step “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” – Step Nine Today, this, the Ninth Step, may be second to the Fourth in the courage, strength, honesty and humility required to carry it out. Each of us, in our drinking days, inflicted some injury on someone else, and the Ninth directs us to apologize and make amends to them. Why? Responsibility and consequences. The rare exception to extending an amend is if doing so would inflict hurt on anyone else, for example, someone who isn’t aware that they were wronged and would suffer if the wrong is admitted. Doing so is not fully altruistic, though. In giving voice and accepting responsibility and consequences of our misconduct, we start the process of reconciliation. But not everyone can be expected to accept our amends on our word. If the injured party has heard it before or if the injury cuts too deep, we must be prepared for rejection. Then, our greatest amend may well be to give truth to our voice by staying sober. Today, my sincerest amend to anyone I have hurt will be my sobriety. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ HONESTY Honesty’s the best policy. ~ Cervantes ~ How grateful we became when we moved out from the shadows of our past. Our Program asked us to be honest. We found that truth shone a bright light on our road to recovery. We could see all the little ways we had shaded the truth to serve our own ends. We could also see the awful pain this truth-twisting had caused us. We discovered there really was no such thing as a half- truth. There is either the truth or a lie. Honesty is the bedrock of a life of recovery. Without honesty we lose our contact with our Higher Power. Without our Higher Power we lose our shield from our addiction. Without our shield we are hopelessly vulnerable to relapse. We are asked to be honest in all our affairs. This means we are careful to think before we speak and to guard against exaggeration. At the conclusion of each day, I review my actions and ask myself if I have been honest in all I have said and done. Honesty in recovery takes practice, so I practice as if my life depends on it. It does. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Where there is great love, there are always wishes. ~ Willa Cather ~ We can always think of ways to improve our intimate partnership, but usually our best ideas are for changes in our partner. We wish we had a more generous attitude from our partner; we wish we had a more agreeable partner—someone who was more fun or who would lose weight—and we want more sexual pleasure. But these ideas are the easy ones to think of. The harder and more effective ideas are those that call for changes in ourselves. We enter into a life partnership to enjoy the relationship. We take pleasure in each other’s lives and we are on the same team. But we don’t walk in the same footsteps because we all need to stand on our own as adults. Intimacy is not the merging of personalities but the bridge between separate people. Once we have our adult separateness, we can be more intimate, more loving, and more generous with each other. Today I will pay more attention to the ways I can be a better partner. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ We do not have to get caught in the middle of other people’s issues. ~ Melody Beattie ~ Learning to respect boundaries, our own and other people’s, eliminates much of the stress that hinders relationships. Accepting the behavior and the opinions of our friends as legitimate for them allows our relationships to teach us tolerance and patience and love. Our journey on this planet is not about “fixing” or controlling others, but about loving them wholly, just as we want to be loved. We need other people. Our humanity is enhanced by our mutual experiences. But we also need to let others learn from their mistakes and their own experiences, rather than to help them avoid what they need for their growth. We hate to see our friends in pain. Our compassion is triggered when trouble trips them. But their journey must be inviolate. We’ll only prolong their struggle by intervening where we aren’t needed. It’s hard to back away when a friend is in trouble. But telling her I love and support her may give her the strength she needs. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I can handle the panicky feelings I know the frightening feeling, I know instantly that something’s wrong. Suddenly I feel hot, dizzy, then chilled. My heart beats fast and hard and I can’t catch my breath. I’m caught off guard and can hardly move. I think I’m going to die— Funny thing. I don’t die. The worst has never happened. Every time I’ve had a panic attack, I’ve managed to catch my breath and get to a place of safety. No passing out, no heart attack. It’s hard for me to believe sometimes, but my higher power is taking care of me. I continue to muddle through and I am grateful. I will think up a brief prayer or affirmation to help me feel safe when I feel panicky. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Sobriety is a big gift box with a hundred little packages inside to unwrap. ~ Oscar Morris ~ Sobriety is its own reward and then some. Sobriety is a condition of openness and receptivity to the treasure of life. It is the ability to view the world through gentler glasses and hear our fellows with kinder ears. It is the ability to see things as they really are, instead of how we’d like them to be. It is a condition of honesty and willingness to be true to ourselves and others. On this day we can look out the window when we get up in the morning. No matter what we see — another building, a yard, even an airshaft — it can remind us that we’re not the same people we used to be. We can look at this world without fear. It won’t bite back anymore. Sobriety is seeing the world with open eyes. It is like seeing a daffodil as though for the first time. It is the gift of learning how to view the world as a friendly and loving place to be. Sobriety is crying without shame and laughing with abandon. It is a gift that wakes us up with hope and puts us to sleep with peace. Today let me cherish my gift of sobriety and not take it for granted. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ … the tortoise is good at nurturing energy, so it can sur-vive a century without food. ~ Chinese proverb ~ The ancient Chinese taught that it was wise to emulate the tortoise because it knew when to withdraw into itself to remain safe and restore its energy. Like the tortoise, you can choose to withdraw from energy drains. Getting caught up in other people’s problems, spending time with negative people, or finding yourself in situations that are far too dramatic can disrupt your serenity. You may think you can help resolve a problem or shift someone’s negative outlook to a more positive one, yet get caught up in a whirlpool of drama or negativity. Many of the people you will meet will be wonderful sources of positive energy, inspiration, hope, and serenity. Others will be Gloomy Guses, Angry Andys, and Negative Nancys. Some meetings you attend may be dominated by people who spend more time complaining than by working the program. Whenever you find yourself around negative people or situations, take a step back. Cultivating a sense of inner peace will help you keep your focus on staying clean and sober. Today I will cultivate a sense of inner peace. I will choose to be around people who inspire me and will attend meetings that keep my focus on my recovery. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ I am bigger than anything that can happen to me. All these things, sorrow, misfortune, and suffering are outside my door. I am in the house and I have the key. ~ Charles Fletcher Lummis ~ So many things seem to loom over us. There’s our addiction to alcohol or other drugs, food, or people. There are our fears of expressing love, of feeling, of being alone, of being abandoned, of being rejected, of failing. There are the miseries of childhood, unhappy relationships, a failed marriage, or death. Sometimes there’s even the world in general—all people, places, and things. Some days just about everything seems ready to swallow us up. Yet nothing has absolute power over us if we have a strong belief in ourselves and a Higher Power. Our Higher Power strengthens us and helps us stay in good condition. The negative conditions we see are not lurking in the shadows, ready to spring upon us at any moment. There are not people “out to get us,” nor traps set to foil our goals. We are secure because of the faith we have in our Higher Power. The only thing in this life bigger than me is my Higher Power. Tonight I can feel safe and secure no matter where I am. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Keeping our motives honest Motives are important in dealing with other people. If we’re frank with someone and that person gets upset, we might think he or she just can’t handle our directness, our honesty. But “honesty” without love is more like brutal frankness. If we want to be confrontational, we have to put up with the consequences. But what is the real reason for being confrontational (“honest”), for pointing out others’ flaws? Are we perhaps afraid that our own flaws will be discovered? Are we protecting ourselves by focusing attention on others? Are my motives always honest? Higher Power, help me see where my motives are selfish or mean or petty, so that I stay honest in my program. Today I will examine my motives concerning God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Get rid of the poisons. ~ M. F. K. FISHER ~ Newcomer I’m trying to take your advice not to get too hungry angry, lonely, or tired, but sleep is still a problem for me. When I get into bed, my mind starts racing. I toss and turn; it’s as if I’m being flooded with adrenaline. Then I’ll pass out for a while, and the dreams I have are horrible—they’re like hallucinations. When I get up, I feel exhausted. Sponsor In the first few weeks of recovery, especially from physical addictions—alcohol, food, drugs, cigarettes—sleep disturbances are likely to occur. Our bodies are still undergoing a process of detoxification and rebalancing. When we feel as if we’re being flooded with adrenaline, that’s probably exactly what’s happening. Night and day may be turned around. Sleep problems vary from person to person, depending on former addictive patterns. Some may sleep a lot, with dreams that feel hallucinatory; others may feel as if they’ve been lying awake for days. When we used our addictive substance or behavior, we were numbing ourselves so that we wouldn’t have to feel certain things. Those feelings don’t go away just because we’ve entered recovery. The extremes you’re experiencing will level off as recovery continues. Bodies have a natural tendency to heal. One morning, you will wake up refreshed, surprised to realize that you’ve had a night’s rest. You can help the process along by avoiding caffeine or heavy eating at night, by drinking plenty of water, and by beginning to add some form of gentle exercise to your day. A walk or some gentle yoga or stretching can do more than you’d think to help your body detoxify and regain hormonal balance. Today, I cooperate with the natural process that is healing my body and spirit. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Next to the God-inspired Program itself, we should be most thankful to our founders that they have resisted the pressure of various “movements” to ally themselves to us. Reform movements are often only against something but AA is always FOR something. We do not resist evil but strive to overcome evil with good. Their forces are negative; ours positive. Their machines stand idle while they strive to eliminate friction; ours run on power sufficient to overcome the friction, and the source of our power is infinite. They say everything bad should be eliminated; we say everything bad is an opportunity, sent to us from God, that we may transform it to Good. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) It’s a selfish program. 2) If you want to know what’s in your heart, listen to your mouth. 3) FEAR: False Expectations Actually Realized ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Every Morning Every morning I will rest my arms awhile upon the windowsill of heaven, gaze upon my Higher Power, and with that vision in my heart turn strong to meet my day. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ SHARING THE KEY In order to “Golden Key” a troublesome person or difficult situation, think, “Now I’m going to Golden Key John, or Mary, or that threatened danger”; then lift John or Mary or the danger into the presence of God and think only of God. There after the person is certain to be in some better, wiser, and more spiritual person. A pending lawsuit or other difficulty will probably fade out without coming to a crisis, justice being done to all parties concerned. . . . O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant (2 Samuel 7:28). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ I’m Off to Be the Wizard If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it? ~ Buddha ~ In the film Willow, a young man in medieval times seeks to be-come an apprentice to the village shaman. Along with two other hopefuls, Willow is tested before an assembled crowd. “If you can answer this question correctly,” the wizard informs the three, “I will teach you the ancient magic.” The elder extends his hand and asks, “In which finger does the power lie?” Each of the first two applicants chooses a finger, and to the groans of the crowd, the wizard shakes his head. Finally, Willow makes his choice and he, too, is rejected. Willow goes off to live a life of adventure and romance; he joins an army, weathers a war, and grows through many fascinating encounters. After a long time, Willow returns to the village, where the wizard asks him, “What did you want to answer when I gave you the test?” “I wanted to say, The power lies in my own hand.’” “That was the correct answer,” the wizard affirms. “Why did you not say it?” “I guess I just didn’t believe in myself enough,” Willow admits. The illusion of the world is that other people have the power to make us into something we are not. The truth is that we are already everything, and no one outside of ourselves has the power to add to, or diminish, our wholeness. In spite of this fundamental reality, many of us have spent a great deal of time chasing illusions that the power rests somewhere other than in our own hearts and minds. Beware of any individuals, organizations, or religions that assert that they have the power to save you or crucify you. People may have worldly power, but that is not the same as spiritual power. In the long run, only spiritual power has any meaning or worth—and you have all of it. Help me remember that the God I seek lives within me, as me. I am the way, the truth, and the life. |
January 22
Step by Step “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” – Step 10 Today, Step 10, the extension of the Fourth, is a reminder that the self-inventory isn’t a one-time shot. Just as the car needs an occasional tune-up, so it goes with our moral fiber. Neglect of the 10th Step risks progress in recovery and consigning us to stagnation. While the Fourth challenges us with self-inventory, we’re commanded in the 10th to “promptly admit” when we are wrong. In doing that, we could be sparing ourselves pent-up anger, resentments, fears, frustrations and thoughts of “revenge,” none of which has a part in recovery. Today, when I am wrong in anything, I’ll admit it and let it go. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ MIRACLES Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not wish to sign. ~ Anatole France ~ Chance is that unplanned and unexpected happening that brings happiness and freedom to us. It is often another name for a miracle. Miraculous good fortune comes to all of us when we work our Program. We accept the miracles of chance (luck) with gratitude. In fact, we help to make our own miracles by constant attention to thinking and behaving to the best of our ability and within our limitations, and by staying open to our Higher Power’s will for us. We make positive efforts to deserve the fortunes of chance. We cannot depend on luck, but must try to become receptive to the good things that happen to us. We accept the fact that, in recovery, miracles happen not to just a few at rare times, but to all of us, often. I am learning in my Program that I must never depend on miracles to solve my problems. But I can create the emotional and spiritual climate within myself for them to occur by working my Program. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope. ~ Bernie Siegel ~ Are we willing to hope? Some of us have adopted an attitude of optimism about the progress of life. We know that many things are unpredictable, but we believe we have the strength to deal with whatever happens. Others of us have chosen the opposite. We dare not hope, protecting ourselves from the hurt of disappointment. But our spiritual growth calls every one of us to believe in the possibilities for recovery and all the promises that go with it. We need to ask ourselves, do I dare to hope? That is what the Second Step challenges us to do. We simply suspend our doubts. We put them on the shelf and hold open the possibility that good things will happen. And if we don’t get what we hoped for, we can deal with it. It is a choice we make. Today I will accept the challenge to suspend my doubts and accept that my life can get better. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ I always have two lists: things I’m happy about and things I’m not. It’s my choice which list I focus on. ~ Anne Arthur ~ Why do we all too eagerly see the glass as half- empty rather than as half-full? It need not be a habit that we are stuck with forever. All of us feel helpless at times to change our vision of life. Discouragement and self-pity become comfortable, and we fear that discarding them will leave us vulnerable. Seeing the glass as half-empty is a sign that our attitude is holding us back. Unfortunately, a bad attitude is seductive. It’s as though we find pleasure, perverse though it may be, in feeling sorry for ourselves. Sometimes we even imagine staying in that place forever. It’s then that we need the warmth of loving friends, and it’s no accident that we are surrounded by them in this fellowship. We may, at first, try to ignore those reaching toward us, but we will soon feel their presence. We can thank God for the inspiration to adjust our attitude. If I reach out lovingly to someone else today, I will not need a nudge from my Higher Power to adjust my attitude. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am learning to let go I had dreams for my life. I envisioned that one day, I would have a family and a house and a good job. I dreamed my dream for a happy life. I never dreamed I would develop a dual disorder and perhaps have to let go of some dreams. But in coming as far as I have in my recovery, I now believe that I have a higher power who truly cares about me and wants me to be happy. And I am learning to trust my higher power. I believe that I can still have a happy life, although it may look different from the vision in my dreams. I will read Step Three and pray to accept myself and my life. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ See who you are. Own who you are. Be who you are. Don’t apologize. ~ Jerry K. ~ At some point in our recovery, we need to admit to ourselves and others who we really are. Looking inside and pondering our shortcomings is not the most comfortable thing the program has asked us to do. In the past it’s been more comfortable to deny them, to look the other way, to sweep the human error element under the rug. But the rewards are great. Once we own our shortcomings, once we tell them out loud to another person, we have taken full responsibility for our-selves — who we are, what we are — and how we have acted. Now we are closer to our Higher Power, who has accepted us all along. Now we can return to the spiritual support that is always available. When we admit who we are to ourselves and others, we are given the gift of self-acceptance and a sense of belonging to the human race. By opening ourselves this way, we enrich our relationships with our Higher Power, ourselves, and our fellow humans. These relationships bring a new sense of belonging and meaning to our lives. Today help me tell myself, my Higher Power, and at least one other person who I really am. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ The most difficult part of attaining perfection is finding something to do for an encore. ~ Author unknown ~ Living life striving for perfection can be as difficult as making a piece of furniture without any wood, nails, or tools. Whenever you set impossible-to-reach goals, create expectations that you will make no mistakes—ever—or constantly demand that you be the very best in all you do, what you may find is that you rarely achieve such things. From time to time you may, but the odds are not in your favor. No one, really, is perfect. Demanding perfection of yourself, while noble, more often than not results in defeat or shortfalls. In fact, often your quests for perfection will lead to mistakes, errors in judgment, or things done in haste. Mistakes are a fact of life. But rather than view them as annoyances that reveal your weaknesses or prevent you from achieving perfection, consider them to be important communicators. Mistakes are valuable guideposts to destinations along your path of recovery and growth. They provide important cautions and help you refocus your concentration. So, there is a value to falling short in your quest for perfection. Mistakes and missteps are what you learn from. Without them, you would not learn how to persevere. Today I will accept that perfection is illusive. Instead, I need to strive to be the best person I can be. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Be yourself. Who else is better qualified? ~ Frank J. Giblin, II ~ Almost every magazine devotes its cover to movie stars and famous personalities. We are taught that we need to look like the most attractive and glamorous people. We need to wear what they wear, eat what they eat, and fix our hair like theirs. The message we are given is: Don’t be yourself, be like someone else. There will always be someone who looks better than we do, has more money, scores better on tests, or has more creative skills. If we’re always trying to mimic other people, we won’t be looking at ourselves. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it keeps us from being ourselves. We need to stop focusing on what others have that we don’t have. We need to look inward at our good qualities as well as our imperfections. We need to see who we are by being ourselves. Life is not made up of people who are good and bad, happy and sad, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly. Life is made up of people being themselves. I will start to be myself. Help me show others the real me, not an imitation. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Accepting the past Noted psychiatrist Carl Jung once said, “If one can accept one’s sin, one can live with it. If one cannot accept it, one has to suffer the inevitable consequences.” We must come to accept our past acts before they will stop causing us pain. All the Steps help us do this, but in particular, Steps Four and Five (the inventory Steps) and Steps Eight and Nine (the amends Steps) help. If we attend to these Steps properly, we will no longer regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. Am I coming to accept myself? Higher Power, help me accept the ways I’ve behaved in the past—and the ways I behave in the present—that cause me pain, so that in your time I may be freed. I will work on self-acceptance today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Over and over, we begin again. ~ BANANA YOSHIMOTO ~ Newcomer Yesterday was such a difficult day. But here it is, morning again—somehow, I’ve gotten through another twenty-four hours, and without a drug. I wish I’d known yesterday that things wouldn’t feel so bad this morning. Sponsor Yesterday, we did the best that we could. Yesterday is over. We have slept. We think we know some of what today will hold. We may boil water in the same kitchen, take the same route to work, see some of the faces we usually see. At the meeting we attend, we’ll hear the familiar readings, take comfort from hearing the words we’ve heard before. Perhaps our shoulders, hunched with any tensions we’re experiencing, will drop at the sound of those accustomed words, and we’ll relax. Along with the predictable, there may be a thousand unexpected experiences: a new color in the sky, a smile answering our own, a phrase of music, a sense of willingness rising within us to do something differently. Let’s take some deep, slow breaths and begin the day with faith that whatever it brings, we’ll be present for it. This day is a gift that recovery has given to me. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Nothing is impossible for God, therefore nothing is impossible for you and God if you are both playing on the same team. There is a big difference between being on God’s team and getting God on your team. To get on God’s team we must train rigidly, know all the rules of the game, follow the instructions of the Great Captain in the spirit as well as in the letter, go to your Captain frequently when in doubt, co-operate with the other team members, do not try to be the big Star, be on the practice field early and stay late and put all you have into your efforts. Who knows—you might become a Regular upon whom God can rely to play his position as it should be played. One thing is sure—if you do make His team you are sure to win. ************************************************ ~ POCKET SPONSOR ~ (Back to the Basics for Addiction Recovery) ~ The sole purpose of AA is to help the alcoholic stop drinking. The sole purpose of NA is to help the addict stop using. The sole purpose of CDA is to help the chemically dependent give up mind affecting chemicals. The soul purpose of all these fellowships is service, unity, and recovery. “I do not put the sole purpose of any fellowship above the soul purpose.” ~ Shelly Marshall ~ ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Sobriety is never an accident. 2) You can be about as happy as you decide to be. 3) From Shame to Grace ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Sobriety Prayer If I speak in the tongues of men and even of angels, but have not sobriety, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains but have not sobriety, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not sobriety, I gain nothing. When I am sober, I am patient and kind. When I am sober, I am not jealous nor boastful, nor arrogant or rude. When I am sober, I do not insist on my own way. When I am sober, I am not irritable or resentful. I do not rejoice at wrong as I used to do but rejoice in what is right. When I am sober, I can bear all things, believe in all things, hope all things, and endure all things. Sobriety never ends and never fails. When I was using, I spoke like an arrogant child, thought like a stubborn child, and reasoned like a rebellious child. When I chose sobriety for my life, I gave up my childish ways. So faith, hope, love, and sobriety abide, but for me, the most important has to be sobriety, for without it, I cannot have the other three, nor can I ever have the serenity I yearn to possess. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ IF THE KEY STICKS We have said the golden Key is simple, but, of course, it is not always easy to turn. If you are very frightened or worried it may be difficult, at first, to get your thoughts away from material things. But by constantly repeating some statement of absolute Truth that appeals to you, such as There is no power but God, or I am the child of God, filled and surrounded by the perfect peace of God, or God is love, or God is guiding me now, or, perhaps best and simplest of all, just God is with me—you will soon find that your mind is clearing. Do not struggle, be quiet but insistent. Each time that you find your attention wandering, just switch it straight back to God. Do not try to think out in advance what the solution of your difficulty will probably turn out to be. This is technically called outlining, and will only delay the demonstration. Leave the question of ways and means to God. You want to get out of your difficulty—that is sufficient. You do your half, and God, will never fail to do His. . . . whosever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered . . . (Joel 2:32) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Fear No Evil F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real ~ Anonymous ~ While horseback riding, I gained a profound insight about fear. Occasionally during the ride, the horse would approach the edge of a cliff or negotiate a steep or rocky part of the trail, and I would have a moment of fear. On that day, I was feeling particularly relaxed, and I noticed that in my generally calm state, the fear would arise and depart in a moment. On previous rides when I had felt more uptight, I would have the moment of fear, followed by many moments of worry: “What if this happens again?” I realized that what most people call “fear” is really worry. When we obsess about something bad that may happen, the thing we fear is always in the future, and it is generated by something in the past. Examined closely fear has nothing to do with the now. On my horseback ride, I could see that even my moment of “fear” was actually just a call to pay close attention at that moment. Thus, I realized that fear is not real; it is but a trick of the mind. Cats are masterful teachers of ease. You have probably observed a cat sleeping underneath a parked car when the driver starts the car. In an instant, the cat springs out from under the car and moves a few feet away Within seconds, the cat is stretched out and relaxed again, not missing a step in the dance. When confronted with fear, ask yourself this question: Am I all right at this moment? If you are honest, you will see that you are almost always all right in this moment. If not, ask yourself what you need to do in this moment to get all right. By peeling away the onion skins of fear in this way, you will find that when you arrive at the center, there is nothing to fear. A Course in Miracles reminds us, “I could see peace instead of this.” Stay in the present moment, and the doors to peace will open. I pray to be released from anxious worry. Help me to feel safe in Your love and comforted in Your Presence. I am always safe in God. |
January 23
Step by Step “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” – Step 11 Today, the 11th Step, multidimensional in that it is among the three most demanding in the Program. The cornerstone of Step 11 is improving our conscious contact with our Higher Power “through prayer and meditation” and seeking HIS will for our lives, not OURS. We are subtly reminded in the 11th of an ever-constant theme throughout the Book Book – prayer and meditation. Without one, either or both, our self-will might have an opening to run riot. And our self-will has failed miserably – many times – for most of us. And in putting forth the humility and courage to surrender our will to Him, the “power” to carry out His will for us becomes, surprisingly, stronger. Today, I will focus on prayer and meditation to understand that His will, not mine, is what I need in both my recovery and my life. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ SELF-EXAMINATION And the night shall be filled with music And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs And as silently steal away. ~ Longfellow ~ Our nights once were the horror hours. Too often, our “friendly chemical” had been exhausted and we could only sob in anguish and cry out, “God help me.” In recovery, many of us use those relaxing periods after going to bed for an examination of our victories and errors during the day that has just passed. These are the moments for seeking, through prayer and meditation, a more conscious contact with our Higher Power. We examine what God’s will is for us and plan to carry it out. We devote time to meditating on the gifts recovery has brought us. We learn more about how to work and to profit from the Steps. Solitude is a time to know my acts and thoughts. Have I sought gratitude and humility? Have I been helpful to others without seeking recognition? Have I been honest? ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ That old law about “an eye for an eye” leaves everybody blind. ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~ Resentment and the urge for revenge can corrode our lives. We carry these dark feelings with us, sometimes in the back of our minds and sometimes up front. Such feelings keep us living in the past and tie us to the people we resent. Our spiritual goal is to reach the point of forgiveness. It is not easy to make that transition, and it cannot be done in a phony way. A good beginning is first to accept forgiveness as a goal and then focus our efforts on a thorough and searching inventory of ourselves. Finally, we can reach the point where we simply tear up the I.O.U. We stop expecting repayment for past wrongs and release ourselves from carrying old resentments. We let others deal with their own God and their own conscience. We reach a sense of freedom and well-being that is a great reward for forgiveness. It surprises us when our own self-esteem rises as we write off the bad debts we think others owe us. Today I am spending my efforts on my own inventory because that releases me from the burden of the past. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Comparing my insides to other people’s outsides causes me problems. ~ Joan Rohde ~ For most of our lives we felt inferior. Other women seemed smarter, wittier, and more attractive. We felt inadequate every time we compared ourselves to other women. Getting sober hasn’t freed us from this behavior, at least not completely. Fortunately, we now have tools that we can use in changing behavior that hinders our growth. Talking with a sponsor, sharing with a friend, or asking God for help frees us from the hold of negative behaviors. Comparing ourselves to others doesn’t have to shame us any longer. All that’s necessary is to stop the thought, think instead of God’s presence within, and quietly bless ourselves and the woman who unknowingly triggered our reaction. Our progress in changing this shortcoming will be as swift as our decision to take this simple action. I am in control of my thoughts. God will help me every time I start to compare myself to someone else today. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I want to become more open When I joined a recovery group, I knew the purpose was to talk more about my problems, and I knew it would help. Unfortunately, but understandably, at first I could not. I was too shy to admit how I behaved when drinking and afraid to admit how I felt with my psychiatric symptoms. I was afraid I’d be rejected and then feel even worse. I am glad to say that my assumption was incorrect. Members were typically nonjudgmental, and when I felt strong enough to share my story, I was fully supported—even encouraged. Moreover, once I’d opened up to my group, I felt less vulnerable, more accepted, more at peace. My risk earned an unexpected reward. At my next meeting I will share a little about myself and see how it feels. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ If someone is going to control me, it might as well be me. ~ Sarah B. ~ Ours is, and must be, a selfish program. Our recovery must be the most important thing in the world to us. Sometimes friends and loved ones are confused and hurt because we spend so much time and energy working at our recovery. It’s hard to explain why, yes, we must go to another meeting; no, we can’t skip it just this once. But however difficult, however hurtful or confusing to others our behavior might seem, we must take care of our own needs first. We’re no use to our friends and family if we’ve relapsed, and no use to ourselves, either. Our choices must seem like selfish ones. Our recovery must come first, before the demands of others or even our own comfort. We need to keep our new determination, and work toward a new way of life. Before, we told ourselves we’d quit tomorrow, that something would happen to make us change. Now, at last, we have the tools to arrest our addiction, but the tools will only work if we use them. Today help me be in control of my own destiny. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ The problem with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, and other dangerous substances is that they betray our trust. One consumes them to feel good, and they secretly work to destroy one’s body. ~ Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore ~ Trust is a leap of faith, and in the past such leaps may have led to great falls, trouble, and long periods of self-doubt. To open your mind and heart in trust, use the Steps of the program. Step Two (Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity) encourages you to be open and welcoming to a Higher Power, and to trust that you are being taken care of by a powerful, caring presence. Step Three (Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him) shows that you trust this presence is there for you. Step Five (Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs) provides you with the strength to be honest with your Higher Power, yourself, and others. And Step Seven (Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings) is your trust in action. I will follow the Steps and let them guide me through difficulties and triumphs, and teach me to trust that my Higher Power is always there for me. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ The darkness was encumbering only because I relied upon my sight for everything I did, not knowing that another way was to let power be the guide. ~ Carlos Castaneda ~ We don’t need to be blind in order not to see. Re-member how long it took for us to “see” our addictions? Remember how the blindfold of denial kept us from seeing the reality of our lives? But it took a person or people to help us “see” our way into the program. And now that we are members, we still need others to guide us in our recovery. Sometimes pride gets in the way and tells us we can do it alone, yet those are the times when we stumble and fall. Perhaps today was a day when we refused the guidance of others. We may have felt we were strong enough to “go it alone.” But we will feel the effects of such blind gropings if we don’t remember that we need others. Even the blind person has a cane or a companion or an animal for guidance. So we must rely upon the power of the group and our Higher Power to help us “see” our way. Have I been blind today to the help offered by others? Tonight, can I ask for help to “see”? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Letting others do it themselves Our new way of life is a se/^development pro-gram. Each person must do it for himself or herself. Sometimes an eager newcomer falls away when he or she discovers that there are no magic wands, only hard work in spiritual and emotional development. But we can’t heal the world of addiction. We can’t shove our cherished new ideals down anyone’s throat (but we can hold out a hand when they decide they want to get well). Do I let others do it for themselves? Higher Power, may I realize that it “took what it took” for me and that it will be the same for others. Today I will decide on these three personal boundaries for helping newcomers God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ The more you can experience the interconnectedness of all beings, the healthier you will be. ~ ANDREW WEIL ~ Newcomer I’m spending a lot of time traveling, because I don’t like going to meetings in my neighborhood. What if someone who knows who I am happens to see me going in, or even shows up at a meeting? Sponsor Of course, you can travel to other neighborhoods if you want to—it’s not going to hurt anyone. But I wonder if your fear is justified. Most people I know are thinking about their own lives, not about mine. In the unlikely event that a neighbor sees me walking into a church or community center for a meeting, he probably won’t know just where in that building I’m going or why, unless he’s been to the same meeting! I appreciate having meetings in common with people in my neighborhood. Though I’m certainly not required to become friends with them all, I feel strengthened knowing that we share a program of recovery. Once, in early recovery, feeling in danger of having a slip, I recognized another recovering person coming down the street toward me. We nodded to one another and moved on. I didn’t know her well, but seeing her reminded me of my own connection to the program and of what a gift recovery has been in my life. Perhaps your example will save someone else’s life one day, whether you know it or not; meanwhile, you’re saving your own. Today, I let go of self-centered fear. As someone who shows up for recovery, I’m willing to be a power of example. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ One of the first impressions of the non-alcoholic attending one of our meetings for the first time is the look of happiness upon the faces of our members. Time after time we have heard them comment on this fact. It is the characteristic that distinguishes us from the Dried-Up Drunks. The successful AA member radiates happiness as a natural consequence of his finding a new and happier way of living. It is a revolutionary change for us belligerent drunks, but the cheerful face will materialize with our encouragement and as a result of our living the Program. Abraham Lincoln expressed this fact when he said, “Every man over forty is responsible for his face.” Faces are the windows through which we see the man. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) “Opened by mistake” applies to the mouth more often than it does to mail. 2) Self-centeredness is a casualty of spiritual growth. 3) If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting it off. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Fellow Travelers Higher Power, Who fills our whole life, and Whose presence we find wherever we go, preserve us who travel the road of recovery, surround us with Your loving care, protect us from every danger, and bring us safely to our journey’s end. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LAW OF SUBSTITUTION There are a few great laws that govern all thinking, just as there a few fundamental laws in chemistry. We know that thought control is the key of destiny, and in order to learn thought control we have to know and understand these laws. One of the great mental laws is the law of substitution. This means that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute another one for it. You cannot dismiss a thought directly. You can do so only by substituting another one for it. If I say to you, “Do not think of the Statue of Liberty,” of course, you immediately think of it. If you say, ”I am not going to think of the Statue of Liberty,” that is thinking about it. But if you become interested in something else, you forget all about the Statue of Liberty—and this is a case of substitution. When negative thoughts come to you, do not fight them, but think of something positive. Preferably think of God; but if that is difficult at the moment, turn your attention to something quite different. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil . . . (Matthew 5:39) With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding (Job 12:13) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ A Few Kind Words Be kind— remember everyone you meet is fighting a battle—everybody’s lonesome. ~ Marion Parker ~ Sandra was born with a physical deformity known as a harelip, and she developed a great deal of self-consciousness about it. Sandra’s self-esteem was low, and she constantly feared others making fun of her or rejecting her. Fifth grade was one of Sandra’s hardest years, and when the time came for the teacher’s end-of-the-year evaluation, Sandra was petrified. She even had nightmares as the dreaded day approached. Finally, the day arrived, and Sandra nervously forced herself to walk up to the teacher’s desk and receive Mrs. Harrison’s comments about her. When she opened up the envelope, Sandra found but one sentence: “I wish you were my little girl” Years later, Sandra recounted, “That was the beginning of the end of my self-esteem problem. Someone I respected loved me. ” In a world shrouded with fear, guilt, and separateness, it takes but a little kindness to make someone’s day and perhaps change their life. Once I found myself in a strange city at the foot of a huge flight of post office steps, with three boxes I needed to mail and a plane to catch soon after. A man on his way out of the post office took a look at my dilemma and asked, “Would you like some help?” He carried one of the boxes all the way up the stairs and around several corridors with me. The fellow didn’t have to do that, but he did. It took him only a few minutes, but it made a huge difference in my day. I was then inspired to pass some extra kindness along to others. Love only expands when we give it. The fearful mind shrieks that we will lose love if we give too much of it, but we can never love too much; true love only multiplies and returns to bless us many times over. I pray to move beyond any fear of giving love. Help me bless the lives of those I touch. I give life with my love, and receive more myself. |
January 24
Step by Step “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” – Step 12 Today, Step 12, the “graduation” step that bestows marching orders and ushers us into the world and puts AA into service by taking the message to other alcoholics. But to be “qualified” as a 12th-stepper, we have to see that this step is actually one in three; we are required in it, first, to have had a spiritual awakening, second, to carry the message, and third, to practice in all our affairs the principles laid out in the previous 11 steps. And without achieving each three requirements, our effectiveness as a carrier of the message is likely to be compromised. After all, how can we talk about a spiritual awakening if we have not had one, and how can we ask someone to practice AA’s principles if we don’t do so ourselves? Today, I ask myself if I have experienced the spiritual awakening that is fundamental to recovery, if I actually practice AA’s principles in all I do, and if I try to carry the message when asked. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ LOVELY THOUGHTS What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness. ~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich ~ Thinking lovely thoughts during recovery encourages lovely acts. It is true that what starts as lovely will produce an air of loveliness around those of us who work for spiritual things. Truth has a relationship with lovely deeds. A great poet wrote that “beauty is truth and truth beauty,” and also gave us the familiar words, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” Our thoughts determine the way we behave and shape the personal image which we pass on to those around us. There is an “outer show of an inner glow” which results from kindness and beauty of mind. Unhealthy thoughts or false fronts are destructive. We are what we think we can be and want to be. If we recognize the best and most healthy in the world around us, we will be worthy of the honest image others have of us. Let me think only the best thoughts so that I might be the best I can be. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Journal writing is a voyage to the interior. ~ Christina Baldwin ~ Many men use daily notes in a private journal as a method of meditation. It is a means to learn about themselves as they reflect with pen in hand and put uncensored thoughts down on paper. It can take many forms. Some days a person might just make a list. It might be a prayer list: all the people he loves and all the people he is concerned about. It might be a list of the day’s tasks, with notations on the spirit with which to approach them. Some guys draw pictures in their journals and say it helps them quiet their minds and deepen their understanding of a situation. Some simply record the events of the day and then reflect on how they feel about them and what they mean. Every man in spiritual development needs a daily pattern of meditation and reflection. It should be a gentle means to respect himself, be honest with himself, and hold himself responsible for his life. Today I will make notes on paper and use my notes to interact with my thoughts. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ People have always wanted to talk to me about their problems. I guess I’m a good listener. Maybe I have something to contribute after all. ~ JoAnn Reed ~ No one is without value in this life. Maybe we haven’t discovered our unique purpose or special gifts, but we each have a place in the universe or we wouldn’t be here. Each of us can offer friends a valuable gift every day—we can listen. Messages from our Higher Power often come through the words of others. We perform a wonderful service for our companions by listening and by sharing our own experience and advice. Rapt attention—giving it and receiving it—is perhaps the most valuable contribution any of us can make. Let’s never underestimate the sacredness of listening. I will keep my own mind quiet if a friend wants to share her concerns today. That way, my heart may be able to offer her the wisdom she needs. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I can pray for my needs In part, I am afraid to pray. If I get what I ask for, I may feel guilty, as if I don’t deserve it. If my request is not met, I may feel rejected, angry, unworthy. But slowly I am learning that it’s OK to have needs, and that to get my needs met I must ask for help at times. I am learning that a “no” does not mean I’m a bad person or that I am unworthy. My higher power is accepting and forgiving and will not reject me. Today I will talk with my sponsor and a friend about the Eleventh Step and prayer. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ I get a massage almost every week no matter where I am, eat a healthy diet, schedule time alone, and if I get to a point where I feel I need a block of time…I’ll cancel. ~ Anne Wilson Schaef ~ Do we love and care for our body as well as we love and care for our home and car? Do we feel our body deserves full attention and a loving maintenance plan? Taking our body for granted is easy because of its remarkable durability and regenerative power. We may get lulled into a false sense of “nine lives” body security, believing our physical being will fix itself no matter what. Self-care takes time and priority planning to be successful. We may find we put off our exercise and nutritional needs, saying, “Tomorrow I’ll start taking better care of myself.” But sooner or later tomorrow comes, and our body produces symptoms that demand attention. Learning to love and nurture our body brings rewards without measure. We deserve to reap the benefits starting today. Today let me realize that respect for my body builds a healing temple in which the rest of my life can grow. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do you shoot a spectre through the heart, slash off its spectral head, take it by its spectral throat? ~ Joseph Conrad ~ You squander time and energy when you fret about bad things that could happen or when you imagine countless scenarios in which you are rejected, you fail, or your health is in jeopardy. You waste golden opportunities when you ask “What if … ?” rather than “Why not… ?” When you dwell in a state of thinking something will go wrong, you become immobilized by fear. You can be-come so timid in your actions that you never develop self-assuredness that will help you ride out the storms of life. Imagine you are a little boat sitting in the harbor about to set sail. There are boats much bigger, which could capsize you. Storms could toss you against rocks. But, then again, maybe these things will not happen. Today imagine you have the opportunity to set sail out of your protective harbor. What lies ahead is unknown. View the uncertainty as an adventure. Take full advantage of each moment today. Get out of your comfort zone and discover what you can do. Although I have no idea what may happen from minute to minute, today I will believe that everything happens for the best. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ It’s all right to hold a conversation, but you should let go of it now and then. ~ Richard Armour ~ Do we pay close attention to those who talk to us, or do we spend more time talking to them? How well do we listen to others? Do we hear only what we want to hear, mentally editing out comments and statements from others? A good exercise to improve listening is to repeat statements said to us, almost as if we were parroting the speaker. It may sound easy, but try it first! Too many of us pay more attention to our thoughts and don’t let in words spoken to us. As we think back over the conversations of the day, we may find we cannot recall the things discussed with co-workers, friends, or relatives. We may only recall our parts of the conversations. Can we remember things said at last night’s meeting or today’s noontime meeting? If we can’t, we probably didn’t carry much healing or strength away with us. If we begin the listening exercise and use it every day, we may find our growth improving by leaps and bounds, because we’ve started listening to others. Help me begin the listening exercise. I will listen as closely as I can to those around me and learn from them. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Getting honest Most of us have tried to con ourselves into believing that maybe it was actually okay for us to use drugs, because we needed an occasional tension reliever, for example. When we said that, we were still considering drugs as our Higher Power. We approached the question Why not use drugs? from every angle, hoping that we could win the argument and rationalize using. When we get honest about Why not? we begin to accept our condition. Am I honest about my true condition? Higher Power, help me accept that I am mentally and physically different from nonaddicts, so that I can be free of the desire to use chemicals. I will be honest about my condition today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ A friend is a person with whom I may he sincere. Before him I may think aloud. ~ RALPH WALDO EMERSON ~ Newcomer Someone from where I used to work showed up at the meeting I went to last night. I was uncomfortable, and I avoided looking straight at him, but I’m pretty sure he saw me. What happens to my anonymity now? I don’t want the whole world to know my problems. Sponsor I’m glad that you’ve raised this question; it’s an important one. What, exactly, is “anonymity” with respect to Twelve Step fellowships? The root of the word means, literally, “without a name.” I honor the tradition of anonymity by not mentioning your name in connection with the name of this program. I may decide to tell someone that I’ve been at a meeting, but I will not say that I saw you there. And I must never talk to anyone about what you’ve shared here. That won’t change after I’ve been here ninety days, or a year, or twenty years. I never have the right to break your anonymity to people in the community, even your close friends or family—that choice is yours and no one else’s. We all share this trust, and most of us are surprisingly good at honoring it. Anonymity gives a sense of freedom essential to recovery. If you bump into this person again, maybe you’ll just nod a greeting, or maybe you’ll reassure him that he can trust you to respect his anonymity! Today, I have no room in my life for gossip or self-consciousness. I feel joy at seeing others participate in recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ The AA Program is so simple and so honest that it confounds the physician with his Latin prescriptions and the scientist with his intricate formulas. They have been looking for the answer through a microscope or a telescope while the solution was at their finger tips. No wonder AA astounds them— they have been like the old woman who tore her house down looking for her glasses, only to find them on her forehead. The simplicity of our program is its attraction and we must keep it awfully simple or the results will be simply awful. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) FINE: Feeling Insecure Neurotic = Emotional 2) Act, don’t react. 3) A meeting a day keep my defects at bay. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ My first Prayer I surrender to Thee my entire life, O God of my understanding. I have made a mess of it, trying to run it myself. You take it, the whole thing, and run it for me, according to Your will and plan. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LAW OF RELAXATION Another of the great mental laws is The Law of Relaxation. In all mental working effort defeats itself. This is just the opposite of what we find on the physical plane, but it will not surprise us because we know that in many cases the laws of mind are the reverse of the laws of matter. On the physical plane, the harder you press a drill the faster will it go through a plank. The harder you hammer a nail the sooner does it go into the wall. But any attempt at mental pressure is foredoomed to failure because the moment tension begins, the mind stops working creatively. When you try to force things mentally, when you try to hurry mentally, you simply stop you creative power. In all mental working be relaxed, gentle, and unhurried for effort defeats itself. . . . in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength . . . (Isaiah 30:15) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Gotta Serve Somebody Bury not your faculties in the sepulcher of idleness. ~ George Shelley ~ After traveling extensively for many years, I had several months at home without teaching. At first I found my free time quite refreshing. After a while, however, I became very self-involved. Spending a lot of time alone, I began to focus on my problems and get caught up in small thinking. Although I did not realize it, I was drifting away from the high consciousness I usually enjoy while teaching. Then one evening I presented a seminar, and I was amazed by how much better I felt. I was empowered, uplifted, and back on track. Through that turnaround, I realized I need to give. I need to stay in the presence of God, which I remember through presenting seminars and counseling. As much as students need to take my seminars, I need to give them. The chemistry of life requires that we give in order to receive. We are not “paid” for giving by receiving later; in the action of giving, we enjoy the benefits of all we are offering. Right livelihood is like making love? as we are serving and blessing the other person, we receive pleasure and healing. In loving, we feel loved. The prayer of St. Francis affirms the importance of regular service: In giving we receive; In pardoning we are pardoned; And in surrendering we are born to eternal life. If you feel bottled up, depressed, or self-involved, find someone to love. There is no lack of people and groups needing love, and as you extend service to them, you will find your own healing. Lift me out of self-involvement, that I may know the joy of true service. I find peace by giving love. |
January 25
Step by Step Today: “Courage to change the things I can,” the command of the Serenity Prayer that WE – not our Higher Power – take on those things we CAN change. Though our options might be limited, the one thing we CAN change, even control, is our attitude and how we integrate into this day, how we react and respond. Thus, today I will not take the easier, softer way and complain about ANYTHING the day serves up and, instead, I will start with the POSITIVE by willing myself to make this day good and that nothing in it will poison the rest of the day. If there is something I do not want to do, I will do it, if for no other reason than to have it done and over with and earn the luxury to say one more bad chore is done. For some, negativity and complaining can be an excuse in disguise to get out of our obligation to sobriety. Today, I am positive, not negative, and this day WILL be good. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ HIGHER POWER Our need is God’s opportunity! ~ Anonymous ~ Finding a Higher Power is as simple as seeking God. We learn in our 12 Step Program that God can, and will, lead us to solutions if He is sought. Such a search need be only fifteen inches—the distance from brain to heart. We must feel, as well as recognize, our Higher Power. We will never fully under-stand God. If God were within mere man’s understanding, God would never be great enough to grant us our needs. Our first gift from a Higher Power was the capacity to know and accept the truth that we were not running our entire world. It took us many years of running the show before we realized that all our human effort could not help us with our addiction. I not only thank God for my Program, but I thank the Program for bringing me to God. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late. ~ Felix Frankfurter ~ A sure sign of true growth and change is the appearance of regret and grief that such wisdom came so late. Often, when we deeply understand something for the first time or make a real change that improves our lives, we wish we had learned this a long time ago. We mourn the losses and the pain that could have been avoided if we had only seen the light sooner. However, a good life always brings change and growth. The greatest tragedy is when a man never grows and never sees the light. We always see more clearly after we learn something new, and the regret that accompanies it is inevitable. With enough distance and perspective, most of us reach the point where we say, I wouldn’t change it if I could. Today I am grateful for the wisdom I have gained, and I will continue to seek more growth. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ I believe that every single event in life happens as an opportunity to choose love over fear. ~ Oprah Winfrey ~ When our past is strewn with tragic and abusive experiences, it’s not easy to recall events as opportunities to love. Yet today we are safe, and we have come to believe a Higher Power has been watching over us every moment. Through the principles of this program, we are learning to forgive and to trust that we will always be cared for. We cannot change the past. What happened and how we responded helped carry us to this point in our journey. We can cultivate love, now, for the present. The people who care for us will support us. The experiences designed for our progress will come to us. Our Higher Power will never leave our side. We can be free of fear today, if that’s our wish. I will not fear the events in my life today. I am ready for them. They need my involvement. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to accept the help professionals can give me I never liked doctors. I hate being sick. I resent the loss of control and feeling so vulnerable. Well, I’m sick again. I have an addiction and a psychiatric illness. And I am faced with not just a doctor, but with counselors, therapists, case managers, and social workers. I don’t want to be sick, to lose control, to need help. But after long denying my illnesses and struggling on my own, I can see that I need professional help. I wouldn’t be here if I could have done it on my own. I will read about Step Two today and pray for the willingness to trust. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Pray to God, row to shore. ~ Anonymous ~ The sign in the antique store showed a fisher-man in a rowboat being tossed about in a storm. The message was clear: the fisherman may have great faith, but now was not the time to put away the oars and kneel in prayer — it was time to pray and row! Sometimes we find ourselves in a storm of trouble, a sea of problems, and we want God to get us out. We may even pray, “God, get me out of this mess.” But like the man in the rowboat, the way out is not just by praying to God. The way out is to pray, ask for help, and take action — do something to help ourselves. Praying to God won’t keep us sober if we don’t also go to Twelve Step meetings. Praying to God to heal our relationships with others won’t help unless we’re willing to make amends. Health and recovery are a combination of prayer, communication with our Higher Power, and a commitment to do our part. Today help me pray and take action. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ And remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand. ~ Emily Kimbrough ~ Coping with the challenges of recovery depends not only upon your inner resources, but also upon your relationships with the people in your life. The more people available to you who can offer help and guidance, the healthier you are likely to be. Being a member of a self-help group provides you with a wonderful fellowship of like-minded individuals. These are people who understand what you are feeling. You can call upon them when you are craving a drink or drug. They can help you make it through each day, free from your habit. Take time today to assess who you can contact when you are in crisis. Maybe you have not had the time to ask a fellow member to be your sponsor. Or perhaps you are new to the program and shy about reaching out to others. Create a Help List of members’ telephone numbers and e-mail addresses you can use during a time of difficulty. If there is no one for you to call or e-mail, then reach out today at a meeting and ask for contact information. Today I will create a Help List of people who can be there for me. Through their support, I will know that I am not alone. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly. ~ Julie Andrews ~ If we think of the word discipline, we might visualize forms of punishment or reprimand from teachers, parents, or bosses. Yet discipline doesn’t have to be negative or an effort in blood, sweat, and tears. Discipline can be the structure we need in order to achieve our goals. Within the program are disciplines to follow to achieve our goal of a renewed outlook on life. The Steps are probably the greatest discipline, for they provide a framework to formulate more positive beliefs about ourselves and our lives. Going to meetings is another discipline that helps keep us on track as we learn and grow. There are other disciplines, too- sharing with others, reading literature, becoming committed to a group, and practicing the program’s principles in all our affairs. All these disciplines keep us focused on our ultimate goal: freedom from all past obsessions and negativity. With the discipline of the program, we can learn to fly. I can discipline myself to remain focused on the program. I know the benefits of such discipline. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Being open Sometimes we think we’re supposed to have more recovery under our belts. Perhaps we feel the need to impress our peers with our success in staying off mind-altering chemicals. But perhaps we are really just trying to convince ourselves. We know how difficult recovery is, and surely our Higher Power is not fooled by our pretense of well-being. If we try to hide our problems, we cannot get help for them. To get help we must tell people where we’re really at. No one can read a closed book. Am I open with others? Higher Power, help me believe in the saying, “Ask and you shall receive.” Today I will be more open and honest about God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Day in, day out I hunger and I struggle ~ SAPPHO ~ Newcomer I have so many problems. I have debts. I feel anxious and shaky at work. Meanwhile, friends and family members expect me to be the same person I’ve always been. I’m totally overwhelmed. Sponsor In recovery we have a future to look forward to. Over time, we learn new ways to approach situations that trouble us. But we can’t do anything differently if we’re still in the throes of our disease. We cannot rush recovery. You can learn to treat yourself gently, as you would a baby or a kitten, or a sick or injured person lying in a hospital bed. You wouldn’t yell at such a person, Get up! You have work to do! Stop wasting time! You’d be tender and understanding. You would not begrudge a baby, or someone recovering from illness, time for rest, food, or medicine. Taking some time for meetings is essential to the healing process. Prayer and meditation can help calm you when you feel overwhelmed. We are entitled to take time for recovery. Today, I treat myself tenderly and patiently. I deserve to recover. I allow myself time for healing. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ AA has had its remarkable growth not because of its affluence but because of its influence. The eyes of the world are upon us for we stand out as the lone hope of a world driven to despair by alcohol. Our every action is watched by those needing our program desperately. What will your influence be on them? Will you be a steppingstone or a stumbling block? ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Grace is getting what you don’t deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. 2) The first step in overcoming mistakes is to admit them. 3) Selfish or Serving ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Possibilities Prayer I know, dear God, that my part in this Program is going to be a thrilling and endless adventure. Despite all that has happened to me already, I know that I have just begun to grow. I have just begun to open to Your love. I have just begun to touch the varied lives You are using me to change. I have just begun to sense the possibilities ahead. And these possibilities, I am convinced, will continue to unfold into ever new and richer adventures, not only for the rest of my reborn days but also through eternity. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LAW OF SUBCONSCIOUS ACTIVITY As soon as the subconscious mind accepts any idea, it immediately begins trying to put it into effect. It uses all its resources (and these are far greater than is commonly supposed) to that end. It uses every bit of knowledge that you have ever collected, most of which you have totally forgotten, to bring about its purpose. It mobilizes the many mental powers that you possess, most of which you never consciously use. It draws on the unlimited energy of the race mind. It lines up all the laws of nature as they operate both inside and outside of you, to get its way. Sometimes it succeeds in its purpose immediately. Sometimes it takes a little time, sometimes it takes a long time; but if the thing is not utterly impossible, the subconscious will bring it about—once it accepts the idea. This law is true for both good and bad ideas. This law, when used negatively, brings sickness, trouble, and failure; and when used positively, brings healing, freedom, and success. We give the orders, the subconscious does the work. . . . his secret is with the righteous (Proverbs 3:32) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Tuck in That Ball Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. ~ Jesus Christ ~ In the 1993 Super Bowl, a strange and astounding play occurred. Late in the game, a Dallas Cowboys lineman intercepted a pass. Such a play is a freak, since linemen are essentially blockers and hardly ever touch the football. Seeing no tacklers, the 300-pound fellow went into ecstasy as he ran like mad in pursuit of the only touchdown he would probably ever make. Yards from the goal line, he raised the foot–ball triumphantly—but just a little too soon. The lineman did not see a tackier approaching from behind, and soon he was sprawled on the three-yard line, the football bounding away from him. When he looked up, he saw that the football had been recovered by the opposing team. In the early stages of a project, it is wise to keep our thoughts and energies contained, not waving in the air. If we expose our intimate visions to negative influences, we may be knocked down or lose momentum. Jesus advised us, “Do not cast pearls before swine.” He was not referring to people as swine, but the ravaging effects of judgmental or doubtful thinking. No one in the outer world has power over us, but if our own vision has not yet gelled, we must nourish it before sending it out into the world. When a farmer plants a tree in a field, he builds a fence to protect it from being trampled by cattle. After the tree has grown strong and firm, the fence is removed, and the cattle can scratch their backs against it and rest in its shade. Honor your tender thoughts and dreams by surrounding them with a protective womb. Then when they are born, they will bless everyone. Great Spirit, help me to hold my visions like an unborn child. Help me protect my child so it will emerge in full strength, health, and vitality. I honor my tender thoughts, feelings, and visions. I surround myself with people, energies, and influences for success. |
January 26
Step by Step Today, my program as based on three concepts: choice, consequences, and responsibility. I understand now that drinking is a choice and the reasons I concoct to justify drinking are nothing more than rationalizations – excuses – or contributing factors to which I am surrendering my control. If I choose to drink, there are the inevitable consequences as all actions have, and my long history with drinking proves that the consequences are usually the same, are never less and usually worsen. And with those consequences comes responsibility to them, and the consequences are predictable – a hangover, regret for what I did or said when I was drunk, maybe another DUI, possibly waking up in the county jail’s drunk tank – again. Today, the consequences are too high for me, and I don’t want to be responsible to them. And if I don’t want to be responsible to the consequences of drinking, the choice is clear and logical – don’t drink. I choose not to. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ HEALTHY PRIDE Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. ~ Schopenhauer ~ Pride should not be feared. It is listed among the “seven deadly sins,” but that is arrogance or false pride, not healthy pride which is a necessary part of self-esteem. Our Program teaches us that the pride that “goes before a fall” is an unhealthy state, a symptom of egotism, grandiosity, and arrogance. No harm will come to spiritual growth from the pride experienced when we freely admit to ourselves that any accomplishment of ours was not made by us alone. Humble pride acknowledges the guidance of others and faith in a Higher Power whom we call upon for inspiration and motivation. With humility and God’s help, lean learn to have healthy pride in my accomplishments and growth in the Program. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ You alone can do it, but you cannot do it alone. ~ O. Hobart Mowrer ~ A guy likes to feel independent and self-sufficient. We all naturally want to feel competent and on top of our game. As we live our lives, we gain some savvy about this drive to be our own master. The young boy has a simple idea: the less he needs others, the stronger and better he will be. But the wiser, experienced man knows that a man is stronger and wiser if he is willing to accept the help that is available. We alone can turn toward the help. We alone can decide to accept what we cannot change. We alone can open ourselves to spiritual grace and stop getting in the way of our Higher Power. The smarter man accepts the paradox that when we take our self-sufficiency too far, we become weaker. We are in the driver’s seat when we decide to receive the help of others and our Higher Power. Today I will open myself to the help that surrounds me. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Having loosened our grip on the past, we are free to reach for the future. ~ Ann D. Clark ~ Every day of our lives we think of some situation we wish we had handled differently. Perhaps we left a job we now miss, disciplined a child needlessly, or responded rudely to a friend. Our Fourth Step inventory abundantly details our many regrets, but the past is gone. We can’t take back the job or the punishment or the rude responses. However, we can make certain the Tenth Step we do every night is not filled with similar regrets. Recovery has given us a second chance. Let’s not waste this gift by hanging on to what can’t be changed. We all know what we don’t like about our behavior in the past. That’s all we need to remember when we decide how to behave in the present. We won’t be ashamed in the future, if we take charge of our present. Today is a new beginning. Whatever happened in my past need not control what I do with today. Today is mine to be proud of. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to get out more I feel shaky and fragile these days. I’ve been sad and quiet for so long—eating alone, working alone, being alone with my thoughts. It hurts and it’s hard to face the world. On the other hand, maybe it hurts because I’m withdrawing, because I’m not facing the world. Perhaps I could call a friend to talk with or walk with; perhaps I could go to a coffee shop or to the zoo. (Of course, I could always go to a Twelve Step or support group meeting.) Although I don’t feel like taking action now, perhaps now is the best time to do something to help my mood. It will help if I can move toward the world instead of away from it. Today I will try one new activity that involves other people. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ All experience is an arch to build on. ~ Henry Brooks Adams ~ We can learn something from any experience, even one that is painful. In fact, we often learn more from painful experiences than from pleasant ones. When we say or do something foolish or hurtful that causes us embarrassment or guilt, pain gives us a reason to learn and behave differently next time. It may hurt to be arrested for drunk driving, but the pain of that experience may be the beginning of recovery for someone who is addicted. We can’t change the experiences we have, but we can learn from them. Our life is a gift that comes wrapped in what we experience each moment. When we accept this gift and open it willingly, no matter what the wrapping looks like, we put ourselves in a position to discover unexpected treasures. We live life to the fullest, and we learn who we are as we grow. In that way, all experience is positive in building our new lives. Today let me learn something that will help me grow in wisdom and maturity. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical re-flection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence? ~ James Thomson ~ There is the story of a religious teacher who spent hours preparing his daily sermons, seeking to impart the greatest wisdom and the most stirring observations. Parishioners often commented on how wonderful and inspiring his talks were. He was about to deliver another of his sermons when a little bird came and alit on a nearby window sill. It began to sing away with a full heart and all those present listened. Then, as suddenly as it had arrived, the bird flew away. The preacher thought for a moment. He scanned the pages of his sermon, then looked out at the parishioners and announced, “The sermon for this morning is over.” While many things can be worked hard for, some things simply exist—and exist well. Appreciating nature and being able to connect with it in some way increases your ability to appreciate the blessings in your life and the beauty that surrounds you each day. Today I will notice the natural beauty around me. I will marvel at the beautiful songs of the birds, the crispness in the air, and the sight of bare trees against a winter sky. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ It is a matter first of beginning—and then following through. ~ Richard L. Evans ~ How many times have we started a project or a new path of living only to abandon it after a short time? We may have thought it wasn’t what we wanted or there wasn’t enough time. Instead of following through, we usually gave up just when it was getting challenging and difficult. What are our dreams today? Do we wish we could speak a second language, know how to operate a computer, exercise regularly, or attend more meetings? What’s stopping us? Each task we’d like to accomplish can only be done by persistence and dedication. We learn a new language one word at a time, learn how to operate a computer one step at a time, exercise regularly one day at a time, and attend more meetings one night at a time. We don’t have to give up an endeavor just because the hard work has begun. Instead of looking down the road where we want to be, we need to look at this moment. If we take a step toward our goals, we’ll be closer than if we never took that step. I can walk toward my goal, remembering each step I take will bring me closer to achievement and personal reward. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Embracing virtues and new attitudes Because of our addiction, our actions (and inaction) have fostered cynicism, futility, and distrust. How could we ever have hoped to succeed with attitudes like that? Now we are cultivating the virtues of understanding, love, and patience. It is often slow and difficult. We know that our Higher Power loves us and will lead us, if we only ask. Am I developing new virtues? Higher Power, take my hand and lead me from the old attitudes toward new virtues. I will work on the following virtues today God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ This is a “we” program. ~ SAYING HEARD AT MEETINGS ~ Newcomer Why must I have a sponsor? Can’t I do this on my own? Sponsor Sponsorship is a strong suggestion—not a rule. Yes, some people do stay in recovery without a sponsor. And no, we can’t recover on our own. There are great advantages to taking the program suggestion to maintain a relationship with a sponsor. Recovery is a major change—it’s one of the most difficult, most courageous things we can do in our lives. A sponsor, someone who’s survived the ups and downs we’re facing in early recovery, can serve as a guide and mentor. He or she can answer our questions and help us through the Steps, giving us the benefit of his or her experience. With a sponsor present to witness our recovery process, to offer perspective and support, we may have a gentler ride. When I was active in my addiction, I avoided the intimacy of relationships in which I might have to open myself to others or trust them. Even at times when there were many people in my fife, I managed to avoid “people situations” that made me uncomfortable. A sponsor-sponsee relationship can be the start of learning that human beings can depend on one another. Today, I’m not alone in recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ We alcoholics were up to our necks in the quicksand of yesterdays with a lifetime of tomorrows on our shoulders. Of course we sought escape in the bottle, for no man has courage and strength enough to survive this ordeal. AA has taught us that TODAY is the only day we have. Those horrible TOMORROWS which we hold in such dread have no substance except such as we give them in our living of successive TODAYS. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t been, and may never be, born. It is on the foundation of today that we build tomorrow. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) If you want to put the world right—start with you. 2) FINE: Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional 3) Adult Child of Alien Invaders. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Enough to Need Dear God, never allow me to think that I have knowledge enough to need no teaching, wisdom enough to need no correction, talents enough to need no grace, goodness enough to need no progress, humility enough to need no repentance, devotion enough to need no improvement, strength sufficient without Thy Spirit, lest, standing still, I fall back forevermore. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LAW OF PRACTICE Practice makes perfect. This familiar proverb embodies one of the great laws of human nature and—being a law—it is never under any circumstances broken. There is simply no achievement without practice and the more practice, provided it is done intelligently, the greater will the proficiency be and the sooner will it be attained. It is true in every conceivable branch of human endeavor. Practice is the price of proficiency. In metaphysics the effects of this law are particularly striking. Thought control is entirely a matter of intelligent practice. And true religion may well be summed up as the Practice of the Presence of God. . . . be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only . . . (James 1:22) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Accept the Grace By Grace I live. By Grace I am released. ~ A Course in Miracles ~ A doctor, lawyer, and engineer were lined up to be executed by guillotine. “Do you wish to face the blade, or look away?” the henchman asked the doctor. “I’ll face the blade!” the physician replied, and placed his neck on the guillotine. The executioner released the blade, which fell to a point just inches above the doctor’s neck and stopped. The assembled crowd buzzed excitedly. “This is obviously a sign from God,” announced the king. “You are pardoned.” Joyfully, the doctor arose and went on his way. The lawyer, next in line, also chose to face the blade. Down it fell, and once more it stopped inches from the man’s naked throat. Again the throng tittered, and the king informed the prisoner that divine intervention had obviously been issued, and he, too, was free. Happily, he departed. The final prisoner was the engineer who, like his predecessors, chose to face the blade. He fitted his neck into the crook of the guillotine and looked up at the apparatus above him. The executioner was about to pull the cord when the engineer pointed to the pulley system and called out, “Wait a minute!—I think I see the problem!” Within us resides an overworking engineer who is more concerned with analyzing the problem than accepting the solution. Many of us have become so resigned to receiving the short end of the stick that if we were offered the long end, we would doubt its authenticity and refuse it. Often we do better to enjoy our good rather than analyze it. I pray to be open to the good that is offered me. Help me go beyond my old ideas of punishment and accept love. I choose my freedom, and I live in a forgiven world. |
January 27
Step by Step Today, “Let Go and Let God” does not absolve me from responsibility for being alcoholic and from participation in my redemption from the damage and pain to others of my drinking days. “Let Go and Let God” commands that I turn my will over to my Higher Power for knowledge of HIS will for me and “the power to carry (it) out.” It does not give me the easy out by expecting God to do it for me. In accepting a role in my recovery instead of expecting it to come to me by reading the Big Book and going to meetings, I understand that sobriety is a two-level process. On the surface, I cannot drink; on a deeper level, I cannot expect a fundamental change in spiritual and emotional conditions that comes solely by not drinking. I am responsible for my condition as an alcoholic; likewise, I am responsible for my recovery. “Let Go and Let God” does not dismiss me from either responsibility. Today, I “Let Go and Let God” by surrendering MY self-will and listening for my High Power to show me HIS will and how to carry it out. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ REGRETS Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone. ~ Jerome K Jerome ~ All of us have things we regret. But when regret takes possession of our thoughts and lives, we are in trouble. There’s nothing wrong with playing the “what if’ game, as long as it remains a game. “What if I had chosen a different career? What if I hadn’t (or had) married? What if I had traveled more? Where and who would I be today?” These are questions we all ask ourselves. But the answer to unhappiness today doesn’t lie in past decisions. If we think it does, we’re ignoring the fact that each day is a new beginning. To concentrate on lost opportunities or to wish the past was different opens the door to despair. All we can do is the best we can do at any given moment. Perhaps my life would have been different had I made different choices, but can I really say it would have been better? Who I am today is the person with whom I have to deal. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ When we see men overdoing their masculinity, we can assume that they . . . are scared that they aren’t manly enough. ~ Frank Pittman ~ Masculinity is a wonderful thing. It is part of a man’s inner feeling of self-esteem, and it has a wide scope. It’s the feeling that we can protect and provide for ourselves, our family, and our loved ones; that we are tough when we need to be tough, standing up to difficult challenges; that we are true to our word, loving, and honorable. As young boys we had boyish ideas about masculinity. Normally, children have uncomplicated ideas about life. But boys don’t know manhood until they are there. And some of us didn’t have adult men that we were close to; we couldn’t know intimately what grown men were like. So we reached manhood almost as outsiders, still trying to fulfill our boyish ideas. We worked extra hard to fulfill the simple stereotypes of manhood. That’s why we sometimes exaggerated our behavior like perpetual adolescents, always anxious about whether our masculinity was measuring up. We don’t need to be anxious about our masculinity. When we are comfortable that we are man enough, that we have arrived, there is no need to prove anything. Today I value my masculinity and accept myself as a good man, just as I am. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ In analysis, as I have known it, you are confronted by your qualities and cannot disown them, though you may try to. ~ Florida Scott-Maxwell ~ We aren’t all in formal analysis, but this Twelve Step program does introduce us to the personal inventory. In this exercise of introspection, we come to know ourselves. We often don’t like who we see, but until we have acknowledged her, we are unable to change the specifics of our behavior. Blaming other people and the “unlucky” circumstances of our lives for all our troubles is deeply rooted in who we are. But coming to believe that accepting full responsibility for ourselves will empower us, even when we are guilty of wrongdoing, is a major step forward. Looking squarely at ourselves and owning all of who we are may not make us proud, but it does make us honest and humble. We have to be both, first, if we ever hope to forge the qualities that will make us proud. Today I will reveal qualities that I like very much. If some that I don’t like surface, I won’t deny them; I will correct them. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am willing to get help I was afraid to ask for help at first, because I was afraid to learn that I was indeed sick. Then I was afraid that my employer and friends would find out. I couldn’t accept having an addiction and an emotional illness. In the meantime, my problems kept getting worse. But now that I have managed to begin my dual recovery, I can see that to be willing to ask for help, I first had to hit bottom. I had to believe that it would be more painful not to change. Today I attend treatment and my Twelve Step group twice a week. I am doing the best I can and I am getting better—with help. I will practice trusting my helpers and pray for courage to continue my dual recovery. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ It is the act of forgiveness that opens up the only possible way to think creatively about the future at all. ~ Father Desmond Wilson ~ Today is full of endless possibilities and dreams. In many cases, we are limited only by our fear and lack of hope, in ourselves and others. Each new day we are given a clean page to live in our book of life. What freedom we find when we choose to practice the art of forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves and others will allow us to step into this new day as free human beings. What can really hurt us in the present if we have the key to daily forgiveness? What could our friend, boss, or enemy possibly say that would be worth the emotional price of ongoing resentment? Freedom is a gift we give ourselves every time we choose not to react to a hurtful comment. Holding on to old resentments keeps our creative energy trapped and stifled. Our choices are these: new freedom or old resentment. We choose new freedom. It is the gift we give ourselves when we choose not to let the sun rise on yesterday’s script. Today let me forgive everyone and anything — past and present — that might distract me from, my spiritual growth. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Hurry up and learn patience. ~ Wes Smith ~ When he was in his mid-80s, cellist Pablo Casals would play his instrument for more than five hours each day. Someone once asked him why, at his age and with his expertise, he still worked so hard. “Because,” he replied, “I have a notion that I am making some progress.” No matter your age, you may feel that you have accomplished little in life. You may reflect upon the years when you drank or drugged and feel deep regret over all the time you let slip by. Be patient as you learn and grow in recovery. Do what you can, when you can. Try not to rush ahead too fast, nor look behind too long. When you feel you are progressing more slowly than you would like, trust that you are making progress. Each step you take leads you closer to where you would like to be. Each goal you set makes your dreams and desires that much more attainable. Live as Casals did—no matter your age or where you are in life, know that there is still time left for you to learn and achieve so much more. Today I will not regret the time that I have lost. Instead, I will trust that I am exactly where I need to he—at this moment ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Iron rusts from disuse, water loses its purity from stagnation . . . even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. ~ Leonardo da Vinci ~ After a long day of working or doing errands, we may want to sit and not do a thing. But although our bodies may be physically tired, our minds may be just the opposite. If we’re plagued by tired, cranky thoughts after a day’s activity, we might discover our minds are too hooked into our feelings. We can separate the mind from the body and learn to chase away stinking thinking. We might treat our tired bodies to a bath while we treat our minds to a good book. While we’re soaking our feet or resting in an easy chair, we can put on some music. Or we can put aside the hectic pace of the day and throw our creative energies into preparing a new recipe. There are countless ways to wake up our minds even if our bodies are tired. Instead of collapsing in front of the television or eating junk food, we can change our focus. We can tune out the signals of the day and turn on our minds. Did I exercise my mind tonight? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Finding joy In the revelation of life (not in booze, pills, or junk) our first joy is the very fact that we are alive. Next, we find gladness and joy in our daily activities and accomplishments. Soon we discover the joy of service to others. Later our happiness widens when we learn to share the joys of our brothers and sisters. And finally, we find joy in our Higher Power. Am I finding joy? Higher Power, may I experience joy in the world around me, joy in being myself. Today I will look for the joy in God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ I took the portion that was given to me and gave it to him. ~ THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD ~ Newcomer Are there any rules about how to find a sponsor? Sponsor Some meetings have interim sponsorship programs. An interim sponsor works with a newcomer temporarily—a few weeks to a few months—while he or she looks for a regular long-term sponsor. Sometimes, an interim sponsor becomes the newcomer’s regular sponsor, if they both agree to it. Long-term sponsorship is a relationship of trust, one that’s likely to have a significant impact on the process of recovery. It’s not a good idea to choose impulsively. When we attend meetings, we listen closely as people qualify or share. We’ll hear people who have the serenity and sober experience we ourselves want. If we hear someone we think we’d like to ask to be our sponsor, we try phoning or going out for coffee with him or her first. We take a little time. We soon know whether or not we have the willing-ness to share and to listen. We sense whether this is someone whose guidance we can trust. Sponsors should have a minimum of one year of recovery. It’s suggested that a sponsor’s gender not be that of his or her sponsee’s sexual preference; for example, a heterosexual woman generally shouldn’t choose a heterosexual male sponsor. It’s a suggestion, not a rule, meant to keep the way clear, so that sponsors and sponsees don’t get distracted from their goal. The goal is continued, quality recovery—for both the sponsor and the sponsee. Today, I welcome a sponsor-sponsee relationship that encourages and supports my recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ We alcoholics are the world’s greatest squanderers. During our drinking days we squandered our money, our health, our time, our intellect, our reputations, in fact everything—not for a purpose but to make ourselves oblivious to the fact that we were doing so. We who have accepted the AA way of living must never give up our old habit but we should learn to spend ourselves for a constructive purpose. That purpose is to help the other alcoholic. We are the best qualified people in the world for the job. Years of conditioning and thousands of dollars went into the process of making us experts. We have no other means of atoning for the past, no other way of showing our appreciation for the Grace of God which saved us, but to squander ourselves for this world-needed purpose. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) Do you really want to give up the defect? Or do you just want to give up the result of the defect? 2) Our reprieve from using is a daily grace contingent upon a spiritual base. 3) The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing you will make one. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ The Gifts I Ask These are the gifts I ask of Thee, Spirit Serene: Strength for the daily task, Courage to face the road, Good cheer to help me Bear the traveler’s load; And for the hours that come between, An inward joy in all things heard and seen. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LAW OF FORGIVENESS It is an unbreakable mental law that you have to forgive others if you want to demonstrate over your difficulties and to make any real spiritual progress. The vital importance of forgiveness may not be obvious at first sight, but you may be sure that it is not by chance that every great spiritual teacher from Jesus Christ downward has insisted so strongly upon it. You must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a matter of form, but in your heart—and that is the long and short of it. You do this, not for the other person’s sake, but for your own sake, Resentment, condemnation, anger, desire to see someone punished and things that rot your soul. Such things fasten you r troubles to you with rivets. They fetter you to many other problems that actually have nothing whatever to do with the original grievances themselves. Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that yea are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing (1 Peter 3:9) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Money Love The closed fist locks up heaven, but the open hand is the key of mercy. ~ Hindu proverb ~ Milton Petrie was a wealthy entrepreneur who knew what to do with his money. Each morning, Milton and his wife would read the newspaper to see who had been the victim of a crime or disaster, and then the Petrie’s would help them. One morning, the couple read about a beautiful model who had been viciously assaulted by several men who gashed her face many times, leaving her with huge, gaping scars and ruining her budding career. I saw a heart-rending photo of this young woman with a Frankenstein-like face. Milton Petrie called her to his office and promised her $20,000 a year for the rest of her life. She used her gift to restore her skin to its former beauty and renew her career. The purpose of money is to extend love, celebrate abundance, and support each other. The more we try to hoard, protect, or withhold money, the more it slips away from us and becomes a source of pain and contention. The more we use money to make each other happy, the greater our own flow of joy becomes. We do not have to be millionaires to enjoy the blessings of giving love through money. Leaving a larger-than-usual tip at a restaurant, sending an “I love you” greeting card, or simply not arguing over money matters are ways we can use money to enhance our experience of love. In the long run, it will not be our bank accounts that we remember, but the kindness we gave and received. Abundant God, help me use money to serve love’s purpose. Every dollar I spend expands love and returns to me multiplied. |
January 28
Step by Step Today, at day’s end, I will look back and know by the grace of God that I did the best I could in all my affairs. If in prayer and meditation I find that I have not fully surrendered to my Higher Power some problem or character defect, I will know I have asked for the wisdom and humility to surrender it once and for all and that, if there is a tomorrow for me, I may be one day closer to that total surrender. I will not have reason to regret some communication with someone else because I was either cruel or indifferent to their needs or feelings. I will be grateful that I was not have tempted to take the first drink that always leads to disaster, and I will go to sleep tonight with the comfort that my Higher Power blessed me with the words, “Well done, my child.” And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ FORGIVENESS Forgiveness is another word for letting go. ~ Matthew Fox ~ What a wonderful discovery it is when we realize our Higher Power has forgiven our past actions! What a joy to know that as we have been delivered from our addiction, we also have been forgiven for our mistakes! We experience a love we never dreamed possible, one which accepts us for being exactly who we are and doesn’t put us down for all the trouble and pain we have caused. As we have been forgiven, so must we forgive. Our Program instructs us as to how we can receive our forgiveness and how we can extend forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is to recovery as oxygen is to the air we breathe. We seek to get rid of all the conditions we place on our ability to forgive. There are no “ifs” in forgiveness. “If he apologizes first” or “if she changes her ways” are some of the ways we put conditions on forgiveness. I realize that to keep my own forgiveness, I must give it away. Forgiveness is for sharing. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. ~ Allen K. Chambers ~ A wise old man who had survived years of abuse and hard labor in a Nazi concentration camp and lost several loved ones to the gas chambers was asked how he could live without getting depressed. He answered that it was because he had a purpose in his life. We are rebuilding our lives after the devastation of codependency and addiction. The promises of this recovery program tell us that we will experience the restoration of meaning and purpose, and we will feel like full-fledged human beings again. Now we are finding those promises coming true every day. There is always plenty to be depressed about. However, we have something to do, we have the love of others, and we have hope for our future. Today my gratitude and purpose carry me along with plenty to be happy about. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ I can change only myself, but sometimes that is enough. ~ Ruth Humlecker ~ Happiness is more fleeting for some of us than for others. We may ponder this notion but fail to grasp the reason. However, careful attention to how “the happy ones” go through life will enlighten us. We will note how seldom they complain about others’ actions. We will discover their willingness to accept others as they are. We will see that their attention is generally on the positive aspects of people and circumstances rather than on the negative. We can join the parade of “happy ones” by letting go of our need to change people and situations that disturb us. Even when we are certain other people are wrong, we can let go of controlling them. Doing this means changing ourselves, of course. But this is the one thing in life we do have control over. I will change myself if I think something needs changing today! ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am grateful for my life Yes, there’s been much pain in my life. I have had extreme ups and downs. Yes, I have lived with addiction and with serious emotional problems. I have even been suicidal. These problems have cost me spiritually, emotionally, and physically. But I still have life, my life, and I am grateful. In dual recovery I can see that I am not done realizing my potential. I still have the chance to change and grow. With the help of my higher power, I am developing the necessary acceptance, strength, and courage. Dual recovery shows me how I can integrate my experience to make today better. I will say a prayer today in gratitude for my life. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ I was so mixed up I tried to be perfect at avoiding perfectionism! ~ Kathryn G. ~ Oh, the struggle with perfectionism! Of all the clubs we can use to beat ourselves with, that one may be the worst. With all the “musts,” “must nots,” “shoulds,” and “should nots” we demand of ourselves, it’s a wonder we can get through some days at all. One woman said she called one of her cats by the other cat’s name and as a result spent the next two hours depressed. Most of us don’t go that far with perfectionism, but we still make unreasonable demands of ourselves. The “one year” test is a good one for perfectionism: “If I (fill in the blank), what difference will it make in a year?” Some things will be important in a year. Making meetings, contacting our sponsor, communing with our Higher Power, and being honest with ourselves and others are all important. And we should be concerned when we fail. But more often we punish ourselves for the little failures — forgetting someone’s name or saying the “wrong thing.” These are the “crimes” we remember the most. But now we can learn to forgive ourselves and concentrate on what’s really important: our new lives in recovery. Today help me remember what’s important. Help me forgive myself for minor mistakes. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Alcoholism isn’t a spectator sport. Eventually the whole family gets to play. ~ Joyce Rebeta-Burditt ~ Alcoholism is a disease that affects everyone. Just as germs can be spread, so too can the effects of alcoholism spread to others. When you were using, here are some of the qualities you may have shown to your children and partner: • You are autocratic and inflexible, and you discourage growth in others. • You do not give quality time to others, and you focus on self. • You do not show or express feelings. • You are incapable of caring and nurturing others. Being in recovery provides you with the opportunity to develop and strengthen new qualities that you can show to your children and partner. Starting today, you can: • Listen to your partner and children, and be flexible. • Set aside quality time to spend with your partner and children. • Discuss areas that may be difficult to talk about. Today I will see myself as part of a family “team.” I will be open and honest, giving, forgiving, and loving. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Either you reach a higher point today, or you exercise your strength in order to be able to climb higher tomorrow. ~ Nietzsche ~ It has been said truth will set us free. Truth is not simply being honest with ourselves and others. It is also the ideals by which we would like to live. Some people spend their lifetimes never knowing truth, while others search for it in vain. To find truth, we must set out on individual journeys. In many Eastern countries, people believe truth is found after scaling a high mountain peak and consulting with the guru. In a way, that’s what we must do- set off on a tiring journey to consult our Higher Power. Yet our goal is not to reach the top, but to realize truth on the way. As we gain such knowledge, the journey becomes easier and less painful. No matter how good or bad today was, we have gained ground in our search for truth. We may now have some insights to our lives. Even if we didn’t come as far in our journey as we would have liked to today, we still have tomorrow. The search for truth is an ongoing quest filled with great rewards. Help me find the strength to press onward and upward for truth. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Believing in change At first, drugs or booze turned us on; later they turned on us. We couldn’t find any peace anywhere. We began turning into the kind of person we didn’t want to be, but we didn’t know what was happening to us or how to change. When we came to believe that our lives could and would turn around if we quit drinking or using, things began to get better. Do I believe I can change? Higher Power, help me to be open-minded and humble enough to believe that what has worked to change the lives of others will work to change mine. Today I will seek change by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ Sincerity is the foundation of the spiritual life. ~ ALBERT SCHWEITZER ~ Newcomer I started out with a temporary sponsor. She was the one who spoke to me first. She seemed to like me and to have real concern for how I was doing as a newcomer. At first, we talked a lot. She knew what being a newcomer was like and said some things that went pretty deep. Then she became hard to reach. She took her time returning my calls, and when I finally asked if something was wrong, she said she thought I should get a regular sponsor. I was angry and hurt. We’d worked together so well at first. Sponsor Some people prefer working with newcomers, helping them through the roller coaster of early recovery, but aren’t available as long-term sponsors. Whatever the underlying reasons, it’s a preference—just as some parents take more naturally to parenting very young, dependent children, while others have an easier time with kids who can walk and talk and read books. There’s nothing wrong with that— it’s just a fact. Of course, it helps if a sponsor is clear with us from the beginning about the limits of his or her availability. Confusion sets in when people send us mixed signals. I don’t know all the specifics of what occurred between you and your interim sponsor, or whether there was a clear understanding between the two of you at the outset. But what is perfectly clear is her last message: when she suggested that you find another sponsor, then stopped returning calls, she let you know that she was no longer available to you. I respect your desire to extend the relationship with your temporary sponsor; I, too, can still feel the power of my first attachments in this program. But when someone says no to us, it’s wise to believe what they say. It’s freedom. Today, I remember that many people are willing to help me on my path. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Man was created in the image of God. We are told that the heart of man is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. A realization of this fact makes the desecration of the body as sacriligious as the desecration of any church. We alcoholics have a lot of mess to clean up in our Temples in order to make them a fit place for communion with the God in us. If we really want God to work in and through us in the rehabilitation of other alcoholics, we must provide Him at least a clean workshop. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) The differences between selfishness, self-seeking, and self-centered. Selfishness is: It’s all for me. Self-centeredness is: It’s all about me. Self-seeking is: What’s in it for me? 2) If you want what we’ve got, you’ll do what we’ve done. 3) FINE: Frustrated, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Peace in God’s Will My Higher Power, quicken my spirit and fix my thoughts on Your will, that I may see what You would have done, and contemplate its doing without self-consciousness or inner excitement, without haste and without delay, without fear of other people’s judgments or anxiety about success, knowing only that it is Your will and therefore must be done quietly, faithfully, and lovingly, for in Your will alone is my peace. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE DUAL LAW OF THOUGHT Every thought is made up of two factors, knowledge and feeling. A thought consist of a piece of knowledge with a charge of feeling, and it is the feeling alone that gives power to the thought. No matter how important or magnificent the knowledge content may be, if there is no feeling attached to it nothing will happen. On the other hand, no matter how unimportant or insignificant the knowledge content may be, if there is a large charge of feeling something will happen. It makes no difference whether the knowledge content is correct or not as long as you believe it to be correct. Remember that it is what we really believe that matters. A report about something may be quite untrue, but if you believe it, it has the same effect on you as if it were true; and that effect again will depend on the quantity of feeling attached to it. When we understand this law we see the importance of accepting the truth with joy in every phase of our experience. Thou wilt show me the path of light: in thy presence is fullness of joy . . . (Psalm 16:11) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Boomerang Efforts That the yielding is more powerful than the rigid, is a fact known by all and practiced by none. ~ Lao Tse ~ “I’ve been smoking pot nearly every day for six years,” Bonnie confessed. “I’ve tried to quit many times. No matter how hard I try, I fail. I need help.” “Then quit trying,” I suggested. “You mean I should just keep smoking?” “No, just quit fighting it. Your struggle against smoking is keeping it strong in your mind. Rather than battling what you don’t want, cultivate what you do want. Meditate, pray, read uplifting books, keep supportive company, walk in nature, listen to joyful music—all the things that make you happy. Don’t let the pot smoking be a major issue. If you smoke, love yourself anyway. If the habit is not in your best interests, it will fall away in the presence of the light you are generating.” Six months later, I saw Bonnie and asked her how she was doing. “I haven’t smoked in three months,” she excitedly proclaimed. “It worked just like you said. I didn’t make smoking a big deal; I concentrated on what I wanted instead of what I didn’t want, and I am done with it. ” Fighting against something only gives it more power over our life. Those who fight Satan reinforce the thought that Satan is real and stronger than we are. The most direct way to dispel satanic thoughts is to focus on the light. In the presence of light, all darkness must vanish. If you lift up a log in the woods, you will find a host of bugs and worms living underneath it. The moment they are exposed to the light, they scatter. So it is with the illusion of evil. Place love where you once found evil, and you will prove that there is only love. I place all my problems in Your care and trust You to do for me what I cannot do for myself. God is the only power. Love is the only reality. Nothing in the outer world can have power over me because God is in me. |
January 29
Step by Step Today, I will harness courage, strength, hope, wisdom of my Higher Power, compassion, passion and work them for another person’s whose needs are far more urgent and desperate than mine. I will not accept that other person’s intellect or others barrier as an excuse to permit his voice from being heard. Today, MY voice will be HIS, and his desperate struggle for help will no longer be his silent and lonely fight. And in helping this person who cannot help himself, I am driven by the knowledge that my Higher Power has sent this person to me and He will give me the knowledge to carry out His will. And, in the end, if I am effective in helping someone else, I will NOT accept congratulations save my ego being fueled. And, in advocating for someone else today, I won’t have the time, I’ll have no reason or excuse, to use or drink. I will be too busy carrying out the commandment of the program – carrying the message. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ THE BLUES How do you know when you’ve hit bottom? When you stop digging! ~ Anonymous ~ We learn in recovery how to deal with the down times. Our Program constantly reminds us that we hit bottom when we stop digging. Therefore we can stop a downward spiral by simply letting go and letting God and our friends help us. Our Higher Power and the Program will provide a ladder with which we can crawl out of our hole. We just need to remember to use the ladder. God will never take away our free will. If we use our will to do the business of our Higher Power and work the Steps, we will be surrounded by love and have strength. It is when we sometimes use our free will to do the bidding of our own ego and set expectations too high that we fall into a bottomless pit. Working with and helping others is the basic “ladder” at my disposal when I deal with the blues and down times. So I always keep in touch with my fellow travelers. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Can you accept the idea that some things happen for no reason, that there is randomness in the universe? ~ Rabbi Harold S. Kushner ~ Whenever something bad happens to us, we ask, why? We want to make sense out of our misfortune. How could this happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this tragedy? Sometimes we even explain our pain by saying we deserve it for being bad. It is true that many bad things have happened because of bad choices we made. But many things happen for no reason. Illness, death, and pain come into every life. There is no reasonable explanation except that these things are random. So we accept that fact. We take reasonable precautions, drive carefully, and take our vitamins. Most of all, we hold close to our human connections because we are all in this together. The comforting bonds of trusted friends and loved ones form the human net that holds us up through tough challenges. Within our human network, we celebrate our good times, we play and take joy in life, and we support each other when we need it. Today I will go beyond the question why? and hold close to the life-giving bonds of human love. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ My thoughts guide my day. Noticing how I awake can help me save the day. ~ Kelley Vickstrom ~ We may envy friends who seem happy and peaceful. Why aren’t they troubled as we so often are? The fact is, we can take actions to become more content too. One of the simplest is to ask our Higher Power for a positive attitude before we even throw back the bed covers. Being in charge of what we dwell on is easier than we might imagine. We can practice the art of focusing our minds on the positive. Begin by stopping a thought, any thought, in midsentence. Think, instead, of how lucky we are to be in recovery. Focus on a blessing that is obvious today. Anytime an unhealthy thought surfaces, drop it, replacing it with a blessing. This can become a way of life if we make the choice. We have felt enough pain and experienced enough harm. Today can be much better. And it will be if we carefully select our thoughts. I am as happy as I truly want to be today. No one can steal peacefulness from me if that’s what I really want. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I am learning about patience and rest At night I have trouble falling asleep. During the day I have racing, tumbling thoughts. The medication isn’t helping as much as I had hoped. I feel tired much of the time. Fortunately, my doctor is supportive. He reassures me that many people feel this way as they begin to recover from addiction and emotional illness. He says that once the medication is at full strength, my thinking will get clearer and sleep will come easier. I’m glad I can trust my doctor. I will give this more time to begin resolving. I will take some quiet time during the day and go to sleep early tonight. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ When one door closes, fortune will usually open another. ~ Fernando De Rojas ~ Sometimes, especially in early recovery, we concentrate on our losses instead of our gains. We see a chapter in our life closing, and we mourn. We must leave some friends behind, or say good-bye to a social life we enjoyed. We must give up active addiction, which had become our best friend and only comfort. We may even have to leave our families, at least for a time, in order to concentrate on our own needs. We need to grieve all these losses. Then we can see more clearly what recovery has brought us. For every loss, we’ve gained blessings. For every friend gone, we have the chance to make many more. A whole new sober life awaits us when we’re ready to be part of it. When we gave up the false comforts of addiction, we found genuine comfort in sound sleep and healthy bodies, in peaceful days and serene nights. When we were ready to give up anger and resentment, we found generosity and forgiveness toward other people, and toward ourselves, too. In recovery, it’s true, one door has closed. But another, better door has finally opened. Today help me be grateful for my new life. Help me grieve my losses so I can appreciate all that awaits me. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it. ~ Blaise Pascal ~ Although recovery places you firmly in the present, the work you oftentimes need to do requires you to look at your behaviors and actions of the past. These memories are hard to accept as being part of your history, and for many years you may have successfully repressed them. To move forward, you first need to accept that you are your past. To deny your past is to deny yourself; the life you lived up to this point comprises who you are today. So, you cannot fully grow or change without reflecting upon the past with honesty. You may think, “Why should I remember the horrible things I said or did when I was using? No good can come of it. There is nothing I can do about such things now.” But there are many things you can do. You can use the Steps to finally put those bad memories behind you. You can tell your story at meetings, share your past his-tory with your sponsor, admit to your Higher Power your transgressions, and make a searching and fearless moral inventory. Such honest reflections will lead you to bring about positive change. Today I will look at my past with honesty and share this past with others. © 2011 by Hazelden Foundation ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Whatever men attempt, they seem driven to overdo. ~ Bernard Baruch ~ It’s usually very difficult for us to bring balance into our lives. We may find it hard not to put in overtime at work. We may be obsessed about housework or yardwork to the extent that we work long hours at it. Whatever we do, whatever we have, whatever we want, it’s usually not enough for us. Any activity or commitment needs a certain amount of time, concentration, and energy. But some of us may be too absorbed in physical fitness to notice we are always tense, always on the go. Some of us may be so obsessed with money that we take on additional work, not noticing we are often hard to get along with. Some of us may be so fascinated by a hobby that we ignore people in our lives who need our time and attention, too. Tonight we need to recognize the obsessive areas of our lives and begin to make changes. It may mean assigning time limits to different activities. Or it may mean altering our schedules, even letting go of an activity. Tonight is the time to begin to bring balance into our lives, gently and gradually. I know I need more balance in my life. What are some changes I can make to bring the scales more in balance? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Letting go of fear Those of us who have been sober and clean for a period of time share newcomers’ concerns for the future, but we do not share their fear. We know how unsafe they feel, but we know how safe they are. The richness of life is often overlooked by giving minor events too much attention. By working the Steps, going to meetings, and sharing in the fellowship—the newcomer will learn to relax. The newcomer will feel the richness of life and lose his or her fear by working the program and staying clean and sober. Am I losing my fear? Higher Power, help me let go of my fear so that I can be ready to experience the richness of life as it comes my way. Today I will combat my fear by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ They try to pass along something they themselves have not yet received. ~ LEWIS HYDE ~ Newcomer What do I do if someone I don’t know offers to be my sponsor? Sponsor Sometimes, a volunteer sponsor is the best thing that could happen to a newcomer who’s floundering or confused and who would do well with strong guidance. Sometimes it’s not such a good thing. What are the motives of someone who walks up to me and announces, “I’m your sponsor”? How do I know the difference between someone whose offer of service is sincere and someone who has the wish to control me? Or worse, who wants to prey on me—sexually or in some other way? Control is an issue for most of us in recovery. As a sponsor, I have to be careful about my impulse to try to “fix” another person. It may make me feel powerful to think I’ve got the answers; it may distract me from my own unsolved problems. Over responsibility can be an addiction, too. If I have doubts about what someone in recovery is offering me, I can take some time to talk and to listen. I can trust my instincts. If I listen, I may discover that I already have the answer inside me. Today, I’m grateful for the unconditional love offered by others in recovery. I trust my ability to make good choices as I form relationships with people I meet, here and elsewhere. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ On that awful day when the world had toppled about us, when all hope had departed and only wild desperation remained, then was the night darkest and nearest was the dawn. At this darkest hour we “hit our bottom.” There was no way to go but UP. As dawn follows darkness in Nature’s scheme, so darkness follows again in its turn. All things, save God, are transitory and what one day can bring, another day can take away. Let us not feel too secure in our sobriety, for darkness will come in the regular course of events, and we must be sure we have provided ourselves with the Light which will enable us to keep our footing on the slippery paths ahead. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) ALL “shoulds” are a lie. 2) God does not make junk, but some of the goods do have defects. 3) The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ For Those Who Have Relapsed O God of all mercies and comfort, Who helps us in time of need, we humbly ask You to behold, visit, and relieve those who have relapsed for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of Your mercy; comfort them with a sense of Your goodness; preserve them from the temptations of their addiction; and give them patience under their affliction. In Your time, restore them to the Program and physical, mental, and spiritual health. And help them, we pray, to listen, believe, and do Your will. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LAW OF GROWTH What you think upon grows. This is an Eastern maxim, and it sums up nearly the greatest and most fundamental of all laws of mind. What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies. The more you think about your grievances or the injustices that you have suffered, the more such trials you will continue to receive; the more you think of good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you. This is the basic fundamental, all inclusive law of mind, and actually all psychological and metaphysical teaching is little more than commentary upon this. What you think upon grows. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever thins are of good report; if they be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8). ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ The Search for Myself All the music I write is a search for myself. ~ Bruce Hornsby ~ While writing my first book, I came upon a Buddhist text in which the author confessed, “I have no pretension that I am writing this book for any purpose other than my own awakening.” His candor struck a chord deep within me as I realized that I, too, write primarily for the healing of my own mind and spirit. Since then, I have spoken to countless creative artists who agree that even if no one else ever read their books, saw their paintings, or listened to their music, all of their efforts would be worth the sheer joy of producing the work. For whom are your creative efforts directed? Do you write, sing, or dance for worldly approval, or are you hearkening to the inner writer, singer, or dancer calling to express and celebrate? We teach what we need to learn. Sometimes teachers are reluctant to admit that they need to study what they are teaching, but that is the very reason we are in a particular position. In college, I learned a famous re–laxation technique developed by a renowned psychologist. My friend met the man and described him as “one of the most uptight people I have ever met.” Was he a hypocrite? Not necessarily. If you teach what you have mastered, even while you’re learning more, you are in integrity. The technique this man developed for his own healing helped many people who applied it. Your right place is the one in which you are receiving the most edification. The fact that other people receive a benefit is the icing on the cake. Do what is healing to your spirit, and without effort you will offer the world healing in return. Direct me to the work that will feed my soul, that I may feed others. I do what I love, and the world loves what I do. |
January 30
Step by Step Today, progress, not perfection. In recognizing the difference, I might learn patience over impatience not only with others, but with myself. Progress requires that I focus on just this day while perfection forces me to look to the unrealistic and unattainable goals beyond today. And by preoccupying myself with tomorrow, I am likely to neglect something today – and that failure will likely sabotage any tomorrow I might have. Tomorrow will hold nothing good if I neglect today. Today, then, will be focused on one thing at a time and first things first. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ FAITH The reason why birds can fly and we can’t is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. ~ James M. Barrie ~ Blind faith in a 12 Step Program was all many of us had to our credit when we began recovery. Today, we know it is our most valuable asset in the search for spiritual progress. Faith gives us an open mind, something we will always need. With the acceptance of our Program’s living principles comes the gift of belief. The proof that our Program works comes plentifully through all that we hear and read. We see God working through us and through others in our Program. This is all the evidence we need for faith that God exists. Without an early child-like faith, the road toward peace of mind can be discouragingly rough. I must believe that good things can happen and have faith that they will Let me not forget that the absence of faith is despair. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Man’s real home is not a house but the road, and life itself is a journey to be walked on foot. ~ Bruce Chatwin ~ We often say that one of our main needs in life is security. We want to be able to predict and control how things will play out. The problem with this view is that even when we gain more control, it doesn’t generally make us feel deeply secure. If we accept security as our goal, we are soon on an endless search for more. A much wiser goal is to walk the road of life, accepting that it is always insecure. Happiness isn’t found by pursuing happiness, and a sense of security isn’t found by grasping for more security. They are both found by indirect means. We find security by making peace with our insecurity and by trusting our Higher Power to care for our lives. We find happiness by taking on work that has meaning beyond ourselves. Today I will walk on foot the journey that has meaning and value and accept the insecure feelings that are part of life. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Imagine living in your head, untrue to your heart. Imagine the pain of separation. Imagine the depth of the longing for peace. ~ G. Carol ~ Before finding recovery as a way of life, many of us barely hung on from one pain-filled moment to another. We incessantly tried to figure out what was wrong with our lives. We feared everything: our coworkers, our neighbors, the long days, the new experiences, the many strangers who crossed our paths. Miraculously, we were led to this program. We can experience the joy of peace each time we remember to turn our will and lives over to the care of our loving God. To receive this goodness, we need only an open heart and a willingness to listen for the guidance of God. This guidance may come to us through a special passage in a book, the words of a friend, or in other ways. If we believe that the guidance will come, we will hear it. I want to know God’s will for me today. I will be attentive every moment. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to take care of myself It’s hard for me to do Step Eight and recall the names of people I have harmed. I don’t want to think about them or what I’ve done—especially to one person: myself. I need to put myself on my Step Eight list. Given my dual disorder, I believe it will help if I see how I’ve failed to take care of myself (or perhaps even been self-destructive). When I think about this, I feel sad. Because in recovery, I am learning that I am worthy of better. I look forward to making a change. I will write my name in my journal and then list two ways I’ve harmed myself and two ways I’m now taking care of myself *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Hope is always available to us. When we feel defeated, we need only take a deep breath and say, “Yes and hope will reappear. ~ Monroe Forester ~ Coastal redwoods are the planet’s most enduring lifework. A fallen coastal redwood will sprout anew within three weeks. Small trees can endure more than 400 years beneath a closed forest canopy without losing their ability to grow rapidly if and when that canopy is opened. We can be like that, too. No matter how painful our life may have been, we always have the internal resources to heal and grow into happiness. We now have the strength, insight, and spiritual tools. This combination teaches us that there is no unhappiness too great to be made better. Opening ourselves up to the miracles of recovery, we step from the dark of negativity into the light of possibility and abundance. It doesn’t happen all at once, but it does happen — one day at a time. Today let me have complete faith that my unhappiness will be removed as I work the steps of my program. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Nothing evades our attention so persistently as that which is taken for granted…. Obvious facts tend to remain invisible. ~ Gustav Ichheiser ~ Desperate to feel better, a heavy drinker decided to pray to God. She began by admitting she was not certain that she believed in a Higher Being. “But,” she said, “I am willing to try.” In her prayer, she acknowledged her drinking was out of control. She prayed for a long time, ending with a single word: please. That night she was back at the bar. The next morning she prayed again, asking God, “Why didn’t you help me stop drinking? I asked for your help.” Again she found herself back at the bar. As she stumbled home, she began to cry and shouted to the sky, “I just don’t understand! Are you not listening? I keep asking for your help to stop drinking. What is it that I have to do to get your help?” At that moment she heard a voice. “Have you admit-ted that you’re an alcoholic?” the voice asked. “Have you gone to a meeting? Have you done anything to change, besides asking me how to do what you should be doing yourself?” Today I will use prayer to understand the purpose my Higher Power has for me, and to gain greater understanding of those thirty I need to do for myself. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ So long as we believe we are only human, we are going to experience pain, suffering, tears, disease, and death. ~ Donald Curtis ~ Imagine what our lives would be like without negative feelings—fear, worry, anxiety, selfishness, tension, sadness. At first we might feel a great sense of release. But what will we replace those feelings with? What will we feel? Can it be possible to feel happy and joyous and free all the time? It has been said we experience what we believe in. Do we believe to succeed in this world we have to suffer? We might even believe our sufferings are good: “If I hadn’t been hurting so bad, I never would have made that change.” We can try to release the powerful hold our negative ties have on our lives. We can replace those negative ties with warm and loving thoughts, a kind and forgiving nature, and an ability to see good instead of bad. Life doesn’t have to be a struggle. We don’t have to suffer to be happy. I can turn over worries, jealousies, fearfulness, and dissatisfactions and look at the other side of living. It is filled with serenity, hope, and light. ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Taking it slowly Let’s not make haste and demand perfection at once—this would only blind us. If we are impatient, we cannot work a daily program. But by exercising patience, we learn to recognize daily opportunities for growth. It is worth waiting for, striving for, and working to develop a relationship with our Higher Power. It cannot be done overnight. Let’s not go too fast, but count each day as a new opportunity. Am I learning to take it slowly? Higher Power, I pray that I may meet each day with patience and grow closer to you. I will take it easy today by God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ How easy it was to underestimate what had been endured. ~ MARGARET DRABBLE ~ Newcomer I heard someone share that it was her anniversary and that she wanted to celebrate by stepping in front of a car and killing herself. How can someone talk that way at a meeting? I don’t want to listen to it. Sponsor The first thing I notice about this dramatic statement is that it was made at a meeting. As desperate as the person who made it may have been feeling, she did not act out her addiction, but instead showed up and shared. I’ve walked into meetings feeling depressed, despairing, angry, rebellious, alone, or misunderstood, and when I’ve been willing to share my state of mind, have felt sudden relief. Not knowing the person who shared, and not being experts, we can’t really know how seriously to take such a statement. From one person, it might be a sign that compassionate professional help is needed; from another, it might be just a bit of self-indulgent humor or a bid for attention. People come to meetings in many different frames of mind, with different life experiences, and with recovery of varying lengths and quality. Some make everything they experience sound like high drama; others are reluctant to expose depths of real pain. And, of course, there are many people with strong recovery who use the tools of the program to help them “ride the waves” of life’s problems with relative ease and even joy. Rather than focus on your discomfort with someone else’s sharing, why not keep the focus on yourself and your own recovery work? Today, I say a prayer for those who are still sick and suffering, in or out of this program. I give my attention to the work that’s mine to do in recovery. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ After several years on the Program, we still have to guard against rationalizing. When it comes to selling ourselves a bill of goods we are tops. Our drinking was most always occasioned by a “good reason,” or so we thought; the real reason—the fact that we were alcoholics and therefore compulsive drinkers—never occurred to us. A good reason can always be found for our actions, but the real reason is frequently obscure. Lord, teach us to know the difference. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) The man who makes a mistake and doesn’t correct it, makes two. 2) The healthy person finds happiness in helping others. Thus, for him unselfishness is selfish. 3) In order to get what you want, you must do something you’ve never done. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Thank You, God Thank You, God, for all You have given me. Thank You for all You have taken from me. But, most of all, I thank You, God, for what You’ve left me: Recovery, along with peace of mind, faith, hope, and love. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE IMPRISONED SPLENDOUR “Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise From outward things, whate’er you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, Where truth abides in fullness; all around, Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, This perfect, clear perception, which is Truth.” A baffling and perverting carnal mesh Binds it, and makes all error: and to know Rather consists in opening out a way Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, Than in effecting entry for a light Supposed to be without. ~ Robert Browning “Paracelsus.” Part 1 ~ . . . yea shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ Moving Targets All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why. ~ James Thurber ~ I met a woman who changed residences every six months. In a can- conversation, she admitted that she harbored major fears about opening up to an intimate relationship. “You can’t hit a moving target,” she confessed, as a description of her protection strategy. When we are excessively busy, we are running from ourselves. Workaholics, busyholics, and planaholics are terrified to be with themselves, dominated by the fear that they will be consumed by the loneliness or pain they have denied the empty feelings that well up in quiet moments. Several years ago, I noticed that I had slipped into a pattern of obsessive doingness. At the time, I was ending a relationship, and I felt terrified at the prospect of being with myself at home alone. But I recognized that this was something I had to do, and ultimately the experience turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life. I had time to be with my–self and face myself. I looked squarely at the fears and old patterns that kept me on the run, and I made conscious choices to use my alone time as a healing, nurturing, and meditative experience. Now I can be with myself or be with people, and enjoy either experience. A Course in Miracles explains that the fear to look within is not a fear of the darkness, but a fear of the light. If we stopped running, we would have to confront the things that frighten us—and that is wonderful, for on the other side of the shadow is the light. If you look yourself squarely in the eye, you will not find a demon, but a god. Help me slow down enough to know Your presence. I will be still and touch the Peace You give. In quiet I find the God within me. |
January 31
Step by Step Today, live just for today. I cannot nor do I want to forget yesterday for it has lessons to carry into tomorrow. Nor do I want to be so preoccupied with tomorrow that I neglect today for I may miss some unintended good that someone or something has to offer. I can plan for tomorrow, but I cannot fret over it and dread what demons or challenges my yesterdays programmed me to expect. But that programming from my yesterdays was dictated by a whiskey bottle and, God granting, there is no whiskey bottle in my today. I therefore cannot fear that what I do today will poison my tomorrow. My life, my sobriety, my hopes, my dreams, my fears, my recovery – all are today. Today is all I have, and I must not be lax in strengthening it to make tomorrow’s today the promise of something good. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M. ************************************************ ~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~ HAPPINESS If it is happiness you want, change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with shoes than to carpet the whole earth. ~ Anonymous ~ “Happiness” is one of the three spiritual characteristics that the Program tells us God wants for us. The other two are “joyous” and “free.” In our study of what comes to us during our recovery, we read often about the treasured state of being happy. Someone wrote that we “have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.” We in the Program are not selfish with the happiness we gain through our own efforts and through the sharing of our fellow members. We hope that all around us can be as happy as our Program has made us. A happy state of mind is contagious. Happiness breeds satisfaction—with ourselves, our fellow travelers, and life as a whole. It is difficult to be successful without finding happiness. I accept happiness as a gift and thank my Higher Power for it. ************************************************ ~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~ Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have. ~ Doris Mortman ~ Marketers call us consumers. Television commercials suggest that a new car will make us happy or that when we buy our special loved one a beautiful diamond, we will really be somebody. But our awakening into a healthy, new life has nothing to do with what we own. Sure, it’s fun to buy something new, but it doesn’t make us happy for long. We don’t define ourselves as mere consumers; rather, we are men with meaning in our lives. When we haven’t got ourselves on track, when we don’t have a focus for our lives, we are easily seduced by distractions and dead-end promises. Peace of mind hasn’t come easily for most of us. We had to accept some things about ourselves that we didn’t want to accept. We had to learn some lessons that we couldn’t easily learn at first. Now we feel like real men. We have something much better than anything we could buy with money, and no one else can take it away. Today and every day I restore my peace of mind by making peace with myself. ************************************************ ~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~ Establishing goals and following through on them help women build self-confidence. ~ Sharon Walters ~ Alcohol and other drugs created the illusion of confidence for many of us before our recovery. Some of us held prominent positions in corporations. Others of us raised children and held jobs too. All of us took on responsibilities that might have overwhelmed us had we lacked the false security that drugs could offer. But their time ran out. Luckily for us, their time ran out. Since giving up our drugs, we have had to develop new ways to build confidence. Fortunately, having this program and the Steps as guides, we have been able to make progress. The confidence we are building now through reliance on our Higher Power is substantive and real, not illusionary and temporary. We are learning who we are through our inventories, and that has made it possible to determine what we want to do with our lives. Our goals and our ability to follow through on plans are manifestations of our hard work. Self-confidence is the lasting reward. My confidence will not waver today if I remember to let God help me handle each responsibility. ************************************************ ~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~ I need to monitor my symptoms I get less and less interested in work and what I eat. I feel run down, almost ill, and can’t seem to get going. Sometimes I can’t think straight, sometimes I can’t stop thinking, and sometimes all my thoughts are gloomy. For me, the clue to giving in to depression is gloomy thoughts. Odd as it is, I want to keep thinking them. They’re comforting somehow (because they’re familiar?) and yet very painful. But in dual recovery, I can see that this symptom, among the others, is a warning sign and that I need to give it prompt attention. When my thoughts are too dark or when dark thoughts persist, I will stay in touch with a trusted friend or my counselor. *********************************************** ~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~ Nature is the Art of God. ~ Sir Thomas Browne ~ The most relaxing activities may be the ones in which we do absolutely nothing. And if we can do nothing amid the sounds of nature — birds chirping, water bubbling in a brook, the wind rustling in the trees — so much the better. During these moments, away from the noise and chaos of our fast-paced, stress-filled lives, we commune most directly with nature and our Higher Power. Without distraction, our bodies can totally relax; there is no danger, no need to be ready to respond to anything. All we have to do is be. If we live in the city, we can take refuge in its parks; a quiet room or the library. We can listen to the sounds of nature on records or cassette tapes. The point is to slow down, to smell and taste the rain, to hear the chirping of crickets and the rustling of leaves and our own thoughts. When we remember nature, we remember — our bodies remember — that we are a part of nature, part of something greater than ourselves. Today help me hear the sounds of nature and let them comfort and heal me. ************************************************ ~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~ Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock. ~ James Baldwin ~ Addiction places you into a form of slavery that keeps you from being free to live up to your fullest potential. That is why the First Step in recovery (We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable) is so important. The First Step places a mirror in front of you and asks that you open your eyes to the dangers and ravages of addiction. You need to see what alcoholism has done to your body, your mind, and your spirit. By opening your eyes, you can clearly see what you have destroyed in yourself and in others. You can see when you escaped from responsibilities, love, and purpose. But just as this mirror reflects the negative effects of your addiction, so too does it show your positive aspects. It reveals that you are brave and courageous; not everyone can admit powerlessness nor strive toward making positive change. The mirror reflects a person, like any other— someone who has strengths and weaknesses, passions and hopes, dreams and desires. Looking in the mirror is something I need to do every day. Today I remember to always be honest with myself and with others. ************************************************ ~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~ Hitch your wagon to a star. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ How often have we struggled to do something alone, refusing to have another help us? Maybe we single-handedly cooked a meal for a family get-together or moved a piece of furniture or plodded slowly through some confusing work without assistance. Instead of asking for help to make our job go smoother, we chose to take care of it all ourselves. While we probably accomplished what was needed, where did that get us? Our ancestors settled this land by helping one another. Lands were discovered by bands of exploration parties; barns were raised by communities; crops were harvested by many hands. That same pioneer spirit extends today to the program, where each member pulls another through good times and bad. Succeeding alone means we have survived; succeeding with others means we have truly lived. We were not put into this life to survive without others, but to live with them. By joining ourselves with the humanity around us, we have joined that spirit which connects us all. I can be a pioneer and share my humanity with others. How are my brothers and sisters tonight? ************************************************ ~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~ Living new lives If we thank our Higher Power each day for the problems in our lives, we will find that we can live and cope with them. And if it is our Higher Power’s will, our problems will be transformed in ways we cannot comprehend. We don’t fully understand our fives. If we become willing to let our Higher Power handle each situation in its way, we will see that we are living ourselves into new ways of being. We will experience a freedom and joy that we could not have understood in our old ways of thinking and being. We cannot think ourselves into a better fife; we must live ourselves each day into better thinking. Am I living myself into a new life? Higher Power, I am grateful for the problems in my life; they help me change myself into a new being. Today I will live myself into a new way of thinking about God help me to stay clean and sober today! ************************************************ ~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~ I like to think that at birth, everyone is allotted a quantity of alcohol to last for her whole life, and that by the time I was in my twenties, I’d already consumed my entire quota! ~ WOMAN IN RECOVERY ~ Newcomer I can’t get my mind off what I’m missing. I think that at this point I could control myself and just use moderately. Ordinary people have a glass of wine when they eat dinner at a restaurant, or have a beer on a hot summer day. Why do I have to deprive myself? Sponsor Frankly, I can’t imagine a better way to torture myself than making the decision to have just a little. I’d be preoccupied with that little bit all day long: waiting beforehand for the right time to have it, then resenting its being over, afterward. For me, how could just a little ever be enough? And how could I keep from rationalizing, after a while, having just a little bit more? My biochemistry and my mental obsession make me crave certain substances whenever I have them. Other people may not react this way—but I’m not other people. My susceptibility turns something that may be safe for others into poison for me. There is one simple way for me to keep from craving more of this poison, and that is to avoid it altogether. Over time, deprivation takes on a new meaning—we no longer have the desire to deprive ourselves of this experience of recovery. For today, I stop my craving by not feeding it. I make room for a new, better life. ************************************************ ~ THE EYE OPENER ~ Nothing great was ever achieved without overcoming great obstacles and no hero of history deserves more acclaim than those who were triumphant over self. But do not let us swell up too much with pride. If we are honest, we know that with our character-weakened souls, with our “fogbound” brains, we could accomplish nothing of ourselves. It was only when we, in our desperate surrender, threw our lives and our wills into His keeping that He, in His mercy, removed the obstacle. Unknown, even to ourselves, there must have slept in us that Faith of a mustard seed, that can remove mountains. ************************************************ ~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~ 1) FINE: ****ed up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional 2) Be Kind to Yourself 3) The most natural state of an alcoholic is irritable, restless, and discontented. ************************************************ ~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~ Humility Prayer Lord, I am far too much influenced by what people think of me; Which means that I am always pretending to be either richer or smarter than I really am. Please prevail me from trying to attract attention. Don’t let me gloat over praise on the one hand and be discouraged by criticism on the other, nor let me waste time weaving the most imaginary situations in which the heroic, charming, witty person present is myself. Show me how to be humble of heart. *********************************************** ~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~ THE LORD’S PRAYER The Lord’s Prayer is the most important of all the Christian documents. Everyone who is seeking to follow along the Way that Jesus led, should pray the Lord’s prayer intelligently every day. The Great Prayer is a compact formula for the development of the soul. It is designed with the utmost care for the specific purpose; so that those who use it regularly, with understanding, will experience a real change of soul. It is the change of soul that matters. The mere acquisition of fresh knowledge received intellectually makes no change in the soul. The first thing that we notice is that the Prayer naturally falls into seven clauses. This is very characteristic of the Oriental tradition. Seven symbolizes individual completeness, the perfection of the soul, just as the number twelve in the same convention stands for corporate completeness. The seven clauses are put together with the utmost care, in perfect order and sequence, and they contain everything that is necessary for the nourishment of the soul. The more one analyzes the Lord’s Prayer, the more wonderful its construction is seen to be. After that manner therefore pray ye . . . (Matthew 6:9) ************************************************ ~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~ In-Your-Face Productions If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are headed. ~ Oriental proverb ~ “That’s loud!” I remarked to the massage therapist as a tight muscle on my back popped audibly while she worked it. “Yes,” she answered, “resistance is loud.” When we fight the flow of life, the universe lets us know in a big way. Drama, emergencies, hefty surprises, health or relationship crises, changes beyond our control, and physical and emotional pain all serve to get our attention. When we are asleep to what is happening in or around us, In-Your-Face Productions will arrange a wake-up call to get us out of a rut and back on track. Usually, such attention-getters are not gentle or pleasant, and they bring a fair amount of discomfort. The good news is that a temporary period of pain or inconvenience is a small price to pay com–pared to a lifetime of unconscious self-defeating behavior. We can minimize or avoid the angst of In-Your-Face Productions in two ways. First, we can develop our intuition so that we become aware of our lessons in their early stages rather than waiting until they mount to a huge crisis. If you pay attention to the little red “brakes” warning light on your car dashboard, you can avoid full-out brake failure. Spirit usually whispers to us before a potential crash. Through prayer and meditation, you can sensitize yourself to hear important messages before they are played out in the physical world. The second way to lighten the brunt of wake-up calls is to bless them when they happen. Rather than fight life or adopt a victim position, look for the gift in the experience. Imagine that the universe is conspiring not to hurt you, but to free you. An attitude of appreciation, rather than resentment, will soften and transform otherwise difficult lessons. We do not have to live by emergency; as we become more attuned to the voice of love, we can glide, not stumble, through life. Help me hear Your voice at the subtlest level and act on my inner wisdom. I hear the guidance of love and proceed from the truth that keeps me whole. |
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