[bluidkiti]

March 26

Daily Reflections

THE TEACHING IS NEVER OVER

Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your
faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the
wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and
join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the
Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge
the Road of Happy Destiny. May God bless you and keep you
-- until then.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 164

These words put a lump in my throat each time I read them.
In the beginning it was because I felt, "Oh no! The
teaching is over. Now I'm on my own. It will never be
this new again." Today I feel deep affection for the A.A.
pioneers when I read this passage, realizing that it sums
up all of what I believe in, and strive for, and that
-- with God's blessing -- the teaching is never over, I'm
never on my own, and every day is brand new.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Strength comes also from working with other alcoholics.
When you are trying to help a new prospect with the program,
you are building up your own strength at the same
time. You see the other person in the condition you might
be in yourself and it makes your resolve to stay sober
stronger than ever. Often, you help yourself more than
the other person, but if you do succeed in helping the
prospect to get sober, you are stronger from the experience
of having helped another person. Am I receiving strength
from helping others?

Meditation For The Day

Faith is the bridge between you and God. It is the bridge
which God had ordained. If all were seen and known, there
would be no merit in doing right. Therefore God has
ordained that we do not see or know directly. But we can
experience the power of His spirit through our faith. It
is the bridge between us and Him, which we can take or
not, as we will. There could be no morality without free
will. We must make the choice ourselves. We must make the
venture of belief.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may choose and decide to cross the bridge of
faith. I pray that by crossing this bridge I may receive
the spiritual power I need.

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As Bill Sees It

Life Is Not A Dead End, p. 85

When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important
meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe
that which he could not do before on his unaided strength and
resources alone. He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new
state of consciousness and being.

He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going
somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not something to be endured or
mastered. In a very real sense he has been transformed, because he
has laid hold of a source of strength which he had hitherto denied
himself.

12 & 12, pp. 106-107

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Walk in Dry Places

I can't.... God can.... I think I'll let God
Guidance
One of the delusions that keep alcoholics in bondage is the belief in the power of the personal will. "I still think I'm strong enough to whip it," alcoholics have declared defiantly, just before heading out for another debacle.
Willpower has a role in recovery, but only in making a decision to turn the problem over to Higher Power. This sets in motion powerful forces that come to our assistance. We don't know how and why this process works as it does. We do know that it has worked repeatedly for those who sincerely apply it in their lives.
What's needed to start the process is an admission of defeat, a willingness to seek a Higher Power, and at least enough open-minded-ness to give it all a fair chance. The outcome can be very surprising.
There's also no need to be apologetic about our Higher Power after we've found sobriety. Nobody had a better plan, and we can remember that other severe problems can be handled in the same way.
I'll do my best today to solve every problem and meet every responsibility. If something is too much for me, I'll turn it over in the same way I did my drinking problem.

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Keep It Simple

We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can get from, Life. Sir William Osler
Service is a word we hear in our recovery program. Service means work we do for others. It's the backbone of our program. The reason is simple. Service to our Higher Power and to others breaks down our wanting to be self-centered. Service brings us back into the world. We really are part of the group when we pitch in to make coffee, set up chairs, or talk in meetings. We really feel like part of the family when we run errands and help with meals and housework. We really connect with our Higher Power when we pray, "Use me today to help others." Service breaks down the feeling of being alone that being self -centered brings.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to be of service to You and others. Show me what is needed.
Action for the Day: Today will be a service day. I'll see how valued I am. I'll give to others, knowing that I, too, will receive.

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Each Day a New Beginning

To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives; it is the only way we can leave the future open.
--Lillian Smith
Today stands before us, ready for our involvement. And it will offer us opportunities for personal growth and occasions to help another make progress on her path to the future. Challenges are to be expected. They further our purpose. They foster our maturity.
How different it is, for many of us, to look forward today with secure anticipation, to trust in what the future holds! We can still remember, all too vividly perhaps, the darker periods in our lives, periods that seemed to hold no promise; a time when we dreaded the future, fearing it would only compound those awful times.
The fear and the dread are not gone completely. They hover about us, on occasion. They no longer need to darken all of a day, however. We can recognize their presence as parts of our whole, not all of it. How free we are, today! Our choices are many.
I can step toward today with assurance, reaching out to others along the way, trusting that my accumulated steps add stability to my future.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

WE AGNOSTICS

On one proposition, however, these men and women are strikingly agreed. Every one of them has gained access to, and believe in, a Power greater than himself. This Power has in each case accomplished the miraculous, the humanly impossible. As a celebrated American statesman put it, “Let’s look at the record.”

p. 50

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

He Sold Himself Short

Needless to say, it was a year or more before they did contact me. On my trips back to Akron to get my spirits recharged and to work with other alcoholics, I would ask Dr. Bob about this delay and wonder just what was wrong with me. He would invariably reply, "When you are right and the time is right, Providence will provide. You must always be willing and continue to make contacts."

p. 264

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Eleven - "Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films."

In the beginning, the press could not understand our refusal of all personal publicity. They were genuinely baffled by our insistence upon anonymity. Then they got the point. Here was something rare in the world--a society which said it wished to publicize its principles and its work, but not its individual members. The press was delighted with this attitude. Ever since, these friends have reported A.A. with an enthusiasm which the most ardent members would find hard to match.

p. 182

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Like a tree blowing in the wind, friendships can bend and waver, yet
they will both remain standing if they have strong roots.
--Suzanne Long

To the world you're just one person but to one person you could mean
the world.
--Anon

There is light within a person of light, And it shines on the whole world.
--The gospel of Thomas

". . . I saw people willing to compromise themselves, or change
themselves, to acquire what they thought was important. I don't judge
what other people do, many choices that may be right for others are
definitely not right for me."
--Kathy Ireland

God is singing and Creation is the melody.
--David Palmer

Forgiveness restores us and our relationships.
--J. Keith Brown

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

TEACHING

"The art of teaching is the art of
assisting discovery."
-- Mark Van Doren

I have a need of a "sponsor" in my life. Somebody I turn to when I have
problems, when I am confused or in pain, when I simply need to talk,
when I feel lonely or when I am about to make a major change in my
life. Every addict needs a sponsor; somebody to bounce ideas off,
especially ideas that affect the living of my life because I truly
understand that the disease of alcoholism lives in my life!

My sponsor guides, suggests and gently leads me to where I need to go;
he does not demand or dictate. My sponsor is a friend whom I can trust,
and he makes a point of not being a "fixer" in my life. He will not allow
me to escape into his life. He will not allow me to become addicted to
him.

O God, let me always be free enough to discover You in my life.

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Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:6-7

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because
the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."
I John 4:4

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be
refreshed."
Proverbs 11:25

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.
Proverbs 3:13

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the
will of God lives forever."
1 John 2:17

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Daily Inspiration

Trouble comes to everyone, but feeling miserable is no reason to make others miserable. Lord, may I never destroy another's happiness.

With our blessings come responsibilities. Much is required of those to whom much has been given. Lord, may I use my blessings to be a blessing to others.

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NA Just For Today

Trusting A Sponsor-Worth The Risk

"In seeking a sponsor, most members look for someone they feel they can learn to trust, someone who seems compassionate…"
IP No. 11, "Sponsorship, Revised"

The idea of sponsorship may be new to us. We have spent many years without direction, relying only on self-interest, suspecting everyone, trusting no one. Now that we are learning to live in recovery, we find we need help. We can't do it alone anymore; we must take the risk of trusting another human being. Often, the first person we take that risk with is our sponsor-someone we respect, someone we identify with, someone we have reason to trust.

As we open up to our sponsor, a bond develops between us. We disclose our secrets and develop confidence in our sponsor's discretion. We share our concerns and learn to value our sponsor's experience. We share our pain and are met with empathy. We get to know one another, respect one another, love one another. The more we trust our sponsor, the more we trust ourselves.

Trust helps us to move away from a life of fear, confusion, suspicion, and indirection. In the beginning, it feels risky to trust another addict. But that trust is the same principle as apply in our relationship with a Higher Power-risky or not, our experience tells us we can't do without it. And the more we take the risk of trusting our sponsor, the more open we will feel about our lives.

Just for today: I want to grow and change. I will risk trusting my sponsor and find the rewards of sharing.

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
There is a proper balance between not asking enough of oneself and asking or expecting too much. --May Sarton
The boy's mother baked pies that morning before he was up. She left them on the back porch to cool, their warm aroma curling up through his bedroom window. His mouth was full of the smell when he woke.
Before she left for work, she said, "You may do anything you want today, anything at all. Except for one thing--don't step in those pies."
All day the boy could not get the pies out of his mind; his feet itched just thinking about them.
Don't step in those pies. He heard her voice inside his head. By late afternoon he could control it no longer. One, two, three, four, five, six--his foot fell squarely into the middle of each pie.
When we expect the worst from others, we often get just that. The same goes for our expectations of ourselves. And when we trust others, it too is returned.
Do I expect the best of others--and myself--today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
As long as I am constantly concerned about what I "ought" to say, think, do, or feel, I am still the victim of my surroundings and am not liberated. ... But when I can accept my identity from God and allow him to be the center of my life, I am liberated from compulsion and can move without restraints. --Henri J. M. Nouwen
As we get more settled in our recovery, we are more vulnerable to becoming rigidly ruled by ideas of behavior, which should serve as guidelines, not moral edicts. If we find ourselves saying we should pass the message of recovery to others, perhaps the spirit of the program is missing. If we are telling ourselves we should go to meetings but don't feel the benefit, perhaps we have lost the spiritual path.
Our powerlessness is the source of vitality in our relationship with God. In the painful awareness that our will and our own devices get us nowhere, we can put aside the shoulds and again accept our identity from God.
Today, I will set aside my shoulds and return to trust in my Higher Power.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives; it is the only way we can leave the future open.
--Lillian Smith
Today stands before us, ready for our involvement. And it will offer us opportunities for personal growth and occasions to help another make progress on her path to the future. Challenges are to be expected. They further our purpose. They foster our maturity.
How different it is, for many of us, to look forward today with secure anticipation, to trust in what the future holds! We can still remember, all too vividly perhaps, the darker periods in our lives, periods that seemed to hold no promise; a time when we dreaded the future, fearing it would only compound those awful times.
The fear and the dread are not gone completely. They hover about us, on occasion. They no longer need to darken all of a day, however. We can recognize their presence as parts of our whole, not all of it. How free we are, today! Our choices are many.
I can step toward today with assurance, reaching out to others along the way, trusting that my accumulated steps add stability to my future.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Gifts, Not Burdens
Children are gifts, if we accept them. --Kathleen Turner Crilly
Children are gifts. Our children, if we have children, are a gift to us. We, as children, were gifts to our parents.
Sadly, many of us did not receive the message from our parents that we were gifts to them and to the Universe. Maybe our parents were in pain themselves; maybe our parents were looking to us to be their caretakers; maybe we came at a difficult time in their lives; maybe they had their own issues and simply were not able to enjoy, accept, and appreciate us for the gifts we are.
Many of us have a deep, sometimes subconscious, belief that we were, and are, a burden to the world and the people around us. This belief can block our ability to enjoy life and our relationships with others. This belief can even impair our relationship with a Higher Power: we may feel we are a burden to God.
If were have that belief, it is time to let it go.


God gives me all the willingness I need today to sit quietly and listen. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey to the Heart

Make Each Moment Count

“A picture isn’t taken in a moment,” stated the brochure for the Cottonwood Colorado hotel. “It’s taken of a moment.”

It took me a long time to learn that important truth. I spent years trying to get my life together and keep it together, as though it were a solid chunk that could be arranged in a certain place, then made to stay there. It took me a long time to learn about moments.

In many ways, our lives are like a movie reel, made up of individual frames and single moments each one leading into the next. It is a waste of energy to try and hold on to the moments of the past. By the time we begin reaching for them, they’re gone. It is just as poor timing to try to jump into moments that have not arrived yet– the future.

Stay in the present moment, the frame you’re in now. That’s the only moment where happiness, joy, and love can be found. And remember to make each moment count.

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More Language Of Letting Go

Say whatever with as much love as you can

There’s an old story about compassion, detachment, and Mohammed, the prophet of Islam.

Mohammed had a neighbor who had a garbage problem. This neighbor was a cranky old man who let his garbage pile up and spill out all around his yard. The mess was unsightly, but Mohammed practiced tolerance and compassion. He didn’t say anything to the annoying neighbor, for years.

One day, the unsightly mess from the garbage disappeared.

Mohammed went over to his neighbor’s house and knocked on the door. The neighbor answered the knock.

“I got worried when I didn’t see your garbage,” Mohammed said. “I was just checking to make sure you were all right.”

We need to set boundaries, be clear, and stand up for ourselves. We need to check regularly to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves. But once in a while, we also need to check to see if we’re allowing ourselves to become irritated and upset by nonessentials and forgetting the essential of love.

Learn to say whatever, but learn to say it with as much compassion and love as you can.

God, help me learn to take care of myself and live with passion, compassion, and an open heart.

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Unlimited Vision
Everything Is in Divine Order

by Madisyn Taylor

Often when things are not as they seem to be, it is because we do not see the whole vision as we are asked to take baby steps.


We can only see so much from where we sit in our particular bodies, in the midst of our particular lives, rooted as we are in the continuum of space and time. The divine, on the other hand, is not limited to the constructs of either space or time, and its wisdom and workings often elude us as we try to make sense of what is happening in our lives. This is why things are not always what they seem to be and even the best-laid plans are sometimes overturned. Even when we feel we have been guided by our intuition every step of the way, we may find ourselves facing unexpected loss and disappointment. At times like these, we can find some solace in trusting that no matter how bad or just plain inexplicable things look from our perspective, they are, in fact, in divine order.

Even as we take our places in this earthly realm, a part of us remains completely free of the confines we face here. Regardless of what is happening in our lives, this part of us remains infused with joy and gratitude, connected to the unbroken source from which we come. Our small self, on the other hand, who is caught up in our false identity as a being limited in space and time, regards happiness as the result of things going the way it wants them to go. It is this part of us that suffers the greatest confusion and upset when the logic of events does not compute. And it is to this self that we must extend unconditional love, forgiveness, and compassion. In order to do this, we tap into our inner divinity, holding the space of a tender authority, extending love and light to our ego as a mother extends her love to a troubled child.

There are many ways to access our inner divinity—meditation, prayer, chanting, channeling, and conscious breathing, to name a few. It is helpful to develop a regular practice that provides us access to this all-powerful, healing presence, as it can be difficult to reach once we are in a stressful position, if we have not already established a connection. The more connected we are with this part of ourselves, the more we share its unlimited vision and the secure, knowing that all the things of our life, no matter how they appear, are in a state of divine and perfect order. Published with permission from Daily OM

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

I know today that getting active means trying to live the suggested Steps of The Program to the best of my ability. It means striving for some degree of honesty, first with myself, then with others. It means activity directed inward,m to enable me to see myself and my relationship with my Higher Power more clearly. As I get active, outside and inside myself, so shall I grow in The Program. Do I let others do all the work at meetings? Do I carry my share?

Today I Pray

May I realize that “letting go and letting God” does not mean that I do not have to put any effort into The Program. It is up to me to work the Twelve Steps, to learn what may be an entirely new thing with me — honesty. May I differentiate between activity for activity’s sake — busy-work to keep me from thinking – - and the thoughtful activity which helps me to grow.

Today I Will Remember

“Letting God” means letting Him show us how.

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One More Day

This confrontation, with death . . . makes everything look so precious, so sacred, so beautiful, that I feel more strongly than ever the impulse to live it, to embrace it, and let myself be overwhelmed by it.
– Abraham Maslow

When we are ill, we are forced to face our own mortality. A close brush with death is enough to put the fear of dying into us, but with this fear a sense of spiritually may flow through our lives. Problems, which once seemed overwhelming diminish in size. The trees are greener, the sky is bluer. People are kinder and more sharing than ever before.

We often don’t miss what we’ve taken for granted until it’s nearly yanked away from us. All of a sudden, every day is a gift. Every day is precious chance to live.

I am continuing the struggle to make each day the best one because I rejoice in the gift of life.

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One Day At A Time

Victimization

"Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and to sickness,
to riches and to poverty, to freedom and to slavery.
It is we who control these, and not another.”
Richard Bach

I have lived most of my life believing that I was a victim of circumstance. As a “victim” I believed I had no power, no options, no choices, no hope and no control in my life. It’s so tempting to be a victim. If I’m a victim, I am not responsible for anything. Every pain, every dysfunction, every addiction, every problem was not my “fault” and there was nothing I could do to improve my life. Or so I thought.

One day a friend asked me if I actually wanted to be well and I was shocked to find that the immediate answer flooding from my heart was, “NO.” Wow! You would think that a victim would give anything in order to be well, yet I found that I was terrified of the responsibility of being well. If I were well, I would be in charge of my own choices – particularly the most primal choices of all: Life or Death, holding onto powerlessness, or reaching out to grasp hope and health.

I am still tempted to return to the false security of victim-hood. Yet I come to recovery, and keep coming back. I work the program, I learn, I fail, I fall. I rise again and begin again.

One day at a time...
I will remember that I have the power, the freedom, and the responsibility to make choices which move me towards health. I will resist the siren call of victimization.
Lisa V.

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

Your candidate may give reasons why he need not follow all of the program. He may rebel at the thought of a drastic housecleaning which requires discussion with other people. Do not contradict such views. Tell him you once felt as he does, but you doubt whether you would have made much progress had you not taken action. - Pg. 94 - Working With Others

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Our anger often depicts the struggle we face in withdrawal. It seems our anger explodes over nothing. But in our hearts we know we want our DRUG and we're angry we can't have it. We stay clean, go to meetings, talk to our sponsor or counselor, and the anger passes.

May the Light of recovery outshine my anger of withdrawal as I live from hour to hour in the first month.

Silver Linings

I search for silver linings, for the deeper meaning of the events in my life. Life is my teacher if I can learn to read the subtle messages that are laced into the circumstances that I co-create around me. I will look for the lesson. When life offers up its inevitable challenges, I will try to understand what I am meant to see that I am not seeing, what I am meant to hear that I am not hearing, what I am meant to know that I am not knowing. There is always a silver lining if I look for it. Even if I don't see it readily, I trust that it is there and that it will reveal itself to me over time. Life isn't simple. One of the ways that I can grow from life's adversities, is to see what is positive about a difficult situation, to look for the silver lining. I can grow in joy and in pain. It doesn't need to be one or the other because pain can transform into joy. It can be the fire that clears the field for new and tender growth.

There is always a silver lining.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Many people think that the Twelve Steps are the work. But they are not. The Twelve Steps are the preparation for doing the real work. The real work is in reaching out to the still suffering alcoholic and addict.'God has no hands but yours.' (attributed to Mother Theresa).

I become the hands of my Higher Power.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

If you treat people badly today, you get to reap the benefits tomorrow.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

God gives me all the willingness I need today to sit quietly and listen.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Two things an alcoholic doesn't like; The way things are...and change. - Anon.