[bluidkiti]

May 10

Step by Step

"Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." - Step Five

Today, my obligation to the Fifth Step is admitting the "nature of (my) wrongs" to three participants - God, myself and another person. Laboring with judicious honesty in the Fourth is not sufficient to reconcile myself with my character defects: " ...If we skip this vital (Fifth) step, we may not overcome drinking." The function of Step Five is to attain humility:"Trying to avoid this humbling experience, (we) have turned to easier methods." And, as we in recovery have been warned repeatedly, there is no "easier, softer way." Today, I will avoid the falsehood of thinking I have lost egoism and attained humility in my Fourth Step inventory, even if it is as honest as it can be, and submit to the humility of sharing the nature of my wrongs to another person - after admitting them first to my higher power and myself. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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~ EASY DOES IT ~ (A Book of Daily 12 Step Meditations) ~

TOUCHING HANDS

If only all hands that reach could touch.

~ Mary A. Loberg ~

When we were using, we may have been surrounded by people, but we felt alone. When we were beaten down to the pits of despair, we reached for helping hands. We found many extended to touch ours.

We can never stand so tall as when we stoop to reach the searching hand or those who may need our help. We know the hands we touch will give us still more strength to work our Program and carry our message of love.

Now we, too, are willing to reach out to help others who are still suffering, whether they’re in the Program or not. We want to give them the “hand up” we got from our friends and sponsor.

Unless my hands touch others, my recovery program will not survive. This union of hands is one of the secrets of its success.

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~ WISDOM TO KNOW ~ (More Daily Meditations For Men) ~

One of the oldest human needs is having someone wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.

~ Margaret Mead ~

Many of us grew up with a loving mother who gave us life and cared for our needs. Others among us had mothers who were missing from our lives, either physically or emotionally. Perhaps no word in any language carries more weight or more feelings than the word mother. It carries images of comfort, undying love, first intimacy, and complete acceptance. Few mothers ever totally fulfill those images.

As we become adults, we have a more realistic understanding of our relationship with our mother. She was a real human being, not a stereotype, and not perfect. We longed for her approval and her love, as all children do. We had angry feelings toward her sometimes, and guilt about the ways we hurt her. It is our adult task to make peace with her, living or dead, to forgive her for what we did not get and for how we were hurt, and to accept forgiveness for our mistakes. Only after we have made that peace are we truly emancipated adults and free to love others fully.

Today I seek peace with my mother.

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~ A WOMAN’S SPIRIT ~ (More Meditations For Women) ~

Life is for enjoying. It is not a race to see how much you can get done.

~ Jill Clark ~

Before we quit using alcohol and other drugs, we wasted precious hours, days, maybe years. Consequently, we feel we must make up for lost time. We make promises and commitments we don’t have the time or the energy to fulfill. This is a normal response to hindsight. After all, we missed many wonderful opportunities when our focus was on getting and staying high.

Making up for the past is different from making the most of each twenty-four hours. It’s not how much we accomplish in life but how we treat others along the way that counts. We can accomplish our daily tasks while being kind to other people. But choosing the latter as the more important action will bring a far greater sense of well-being than succeeding at “moving mountains.”

I will get done everything I really need to do today if I focus on being kind to the women and men who cross my path.

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~ TODAY I WILL DO ONE THING ~ (Daily Readings for Awareness and Hope) ~

I am coming alive in recovery

When I awaken these days, I feel stronger, hopeful, willing. I have a sense of purpose these days−to recover from my dual disorder, to reclaim my life−and I know what I need to do.

I have come out from under the rock. I feel free and light. With my recovery plan to guide me, my days are full and I sleep well at night. I feel grateful to my higher power for this new strength and spirit.

I will quietly share my process and my joy with my sponsor and group.

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~ BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT ~ (Inspiration and Support for Recovery) ~

Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation.

~ St. Francis of Assisi ~

When we begin recovery, we often start tap-ping our feet and looking at our watches, impatient and annoyed because our family and loved ones haven’t caught up with our progress. But if we really care about them, we’ll give them the respect they deserve and let them choose their own recovery timetable, as we chose ours.

We began recovery when we were ready, and not a minute sooner. We may have resisted the urging of others for a long time before we actually felt ready to change our lives.

Now it’s our turn to give others the time they need to change, to let them recover on their own timetable. We’re tempted to rush them, and maybe overeager to share the joys of recovery, our new values. We’ve found a wonderful new way to live, and we can’t wait for them to join us. But wait we must. Our Higher Power can help us wait lovingly and with patience, and we can let go.

Today help me be patient with those who are new to the path of recovery.

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~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~

My mother wasn’t what the world would call a good woman. She never said she was.

~ Boxcar Bertha ~

Chances are you did not grow up in a home with a mother who was a Carol Brady June Cleaver, or Claire Huxtable. If you did, you were blessed with love, attention, and care. Your mother was there for you. She made you feel important and noticed, and helped you build your confidence and self-esteem.

But if your mother was an addict herself, abusive, or an enabler to your father’s addiction, you lost out on knowing what it felt like to be mothered. If you lost your mother due to divorce or death, such circumstances similarly deprived you of an experience of growth through her guidance. Losing out on the opportunity to build a long-term relationship with your mother is a loss that may never go away.

But no matter what the relationship was or is with your mother, she is still your mother. Have you used the time since you left your childhood home to better understand your relationship with her? Have you been able to let go of what you did not get and accept that you can find love and support in adulthood? Or are you still looking for the mothering you never received?

Today I will forgive my mother and let go of any resentment I might still be feeling toward her.

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~ NIGHT LIGHT ~ (A Book Of Nighttime Meditations) ~

Ozone and friendship will be our stimulants−let the drugs, tobacco, and strong drink go forever. Natural joy brings no headaches or heartaches.

~ Elbert Hubbard ~

The longer we say in the program, working on bettering ourselves, the more addictions we'll find we've outgrown. The alcoholic and the drug addict learn life can be grand without chemicals. The overeater acquires an appetite for fresh air and companionship rather than food.

When we learn to see our lives without a primary addiction, we can then rid ourselves of secondary addictions like smoking, obsessive exercising, caffeine, and sweets. We can free ourselves from all addictions and have a more serene outlook on the healing power we have over our lives.

However, we need to remember we can be obsessive about change. We don t have to become a natural-food freak or a lecturer on the evils of white sugar or nicotine. But we do need to look at the hold those addictions have on us. When we're ready to let go of an addiction, we'll let go of it freely.

I can look at the addictions in my life and make some changes. I can begin tonight by working on le letting go.

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~ DAY BY DAY ~ (Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts) ~

Relating to our Higher Power

The relation of our souls to God is so pure that it is vain to think that we can separate it from any of our being. God speaks to all of our life. There isn’t one part that belongs to our Higher Power and other parts that belong to a job, family, friends, interests, and soon.

Our relationship with our Higher Power is sacred, and so all of our life is sacred. God loves beyond all things. God’s love and purity enter into all our life. We need but recognize and live by this.

How do I relate to God?

Higher Power, I know that you see me, hear me, and know all my thoughts and desires, even the innermost secrets of my heart!

Today I will work on my relationship with my Higher Power by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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~ IF YOU WANT WHAT WE HAVE ~ (Sponsorship Meditations) ~

I’ll agree to be your sponsor—if you’ll agree to phone me every day and to call first if you think you’re going to pick up.

~ MAN IN RECOVERY ~

Newcomer

I know I haven’t called you for a while. You don’t have to worry about me, though. I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but I just don’t think I need to call you every single day. I’ve been able to stay away from my addictive substance without always talking about it.

Sponsor

No one can force you to do anything. Your life is your own. You are the one who’s responsible for it. I can share my experiences and listen to yours, but I can’t get another person drunk and I can’t keep another person sober.

When I let others know what’s really going on with me, I start feeling connected with them. That’s not always comfortable. But I don’t much like the work of attempting to control my disease in isolation, either. Consistent sharing with other recovering people is the core of recovery. It teaches us how to be honest.

I want to acknowledge your courage in saying no to me today. I trust that you’ll say it a lot as you establish boundaries that let you feel safe with me and others. But if I’m going to sponsor you in your recovery, I need us to have an agreement about regular times to talk about the program and what’s going on in your relationship to it. And I want to know that if you’re tempted to act out your addiction, you’ll call me first.

Today, as relationships with people continue, I have the courage to identify my own needs. I set appropriate limits that allow me to stay connected with others and to keep my commitments.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

The life of any individual is a wonderful book; it is a love story; one of adventure and travel. It is biography and it is poetry. It is spiritual and it is tragic. It is everything rolled into one, for it is life, and life is every human emotion and experience.

The story does not end until the last line of the last chapter is completed. God is the author and He records a true portrayal of the character of the actors in the story, and the book will end “happy-ever-after” only if we, the actors, live our roles as He directed.

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~ The 12 STEP PRAYER BOOK ~ (A Collection of Favorite 12 Step Prayers and Inspirational Readings) ~

ONE DAY AT A TIME

One day at a time−this is enough.
Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone.
And do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come.
Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.

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~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX ~ (A Book of Daily Readings) ~

INCONSISTENCIES MADE CLEAR

Those who are perplexed by the difficulties and seeing inconsistencies of life should remember that at the present time we get only a partial view of things; and that a partial view of anything never shows the thing as it really is. If you were to show an Eskimo any number of pictures of sections of a horse, but never a picture of the whole horse, he would never know what the animal really looked like.

So it is with life. Some day (when we have enough spiritual growth) we will come to see that the seemingly disjointed happenings, the apparent accidents, are really part of an orderly pattern.

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement (John 7:24)

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~ A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE ~ (365 Daily Inspirations for Heart-Centered Living) ~

God’s Payroll

Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else shall be added unto you.

~ Jesus Christ ~

I feel so guilty,” my friend Don told me. "I have a word-of-mouth auto sales business in which I sell a few cars a week and make pretty good money. I spend most of my time as a sponsor for people in 12-step recovery programs. Yet I work just a few hours a week, and all my needs are met.”

“No need to feel guilty, Don,” I told him. “You are on God’s payroll.”

The universe will pay you to do what serves it best. To be in your right place and enjoy the benefits of right livelihood, release the idea that work is something you must slave at. The notion that work is a necessary evil and that we must violate ourselves to receive money is not a principle of God, but a tenet of fear. If God is love, then God would not make you do something you hated in order to receive support. To the contrary, the universe will rush to take care of you when you follow your bliss and do what you most enjoy.

You came to earth with talents, intuitions, and visions. As you follow them, you draw to yourself all the material and spiritual support you need. If abundance does not seem to be flowing your way, ask yourself if there is something that you would love to be doing more than what you are doing. Have you had urges or intuitions that you have not acted on? Your secret dreams or delights may be exactly the keys to shifting your energy and results. When you do what you love, you will be serving others in the highest capacity, feel fulfilled, and enjoy the support of the universe.

Give me the courage to follow my heart. Help me do what You would have me do, that I might enjoy the fullness of Your blessings.

I do what I love, and the universe loves to support me for it.