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September 8

Step by Step

Today, choose to live in the solution of sobriety instead of the problem of alcoholism. Alcoholism isn't a problem unless we feed it, and the program strengthens us with the choice not to drink by guiding us through a thorough and honest inventory of ourselves with the purpose of deciding if drinking is worth the consequences it entails. I am an alcoholic. It's not a problem as long as I choose not to drink, though. And I choose not to whine that I cannot drink responsibly or moderately because, as an alcoholic, I do not have the luxury of responsible and moderate drinking anymore. Today, I can choose not to drink and live in the solution of being sober instead of the problem of fighting not to drink. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

CHOICES

Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit — and man is his own gardener.

~ John Leonard ~

Evil thoughts and destructive attitudes are not forced on us by fate. They are choices we make as we act and react to events in our lives.

Before the Program, when negative things happened, our first reaction was to choose to react negatively: "Life's not fair." "Why did that have to happen to me?" "I hate them for doing that." "I'm going to get even if it's the last thing I do." It is easy to react positively when good things happen. But we have often chosen to react negatively to even good events.

Good can be found in even the worst situations if we look for it. Bankruptcy can provide a fresh start. Defeat can allow rebuilding in a new and better way. Evil teaches us what is good. Death brings new life. Admitting our powerlessness finally gave us the freedom to make choices.

By choosing good thoughts and attitudes, the garden of my soul will thrive. By choosing bad ones, it will shrivel and die.

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

Learn the alchemy true human beings know: The moment you accept what troubles you've been given, the door will open.

~ Rumi ~

Step One requires us to admit the trouble we face. We now know that until we do that, no progress can be made. Some of us honestly didn’t see the true nature of our powerlessness. Others knew the truth but re-fused to admit it. Once we have faced up to such a big admission of powerlessness, we start to see an important pattern. Now we can apply it to many everyday situations. Owning up to the truth of a problem opens the door. Something changes and we begin to deal with problems in a new and more effective way.

Whether we have diabetes that needs daily attention, or a child with special needs, or a work situation that never improves, the formula is the same. Accept the matter for what it is, as hard as that may be, and new answers begin to emerge. In part, this is a spiritual process that seems to naturally lead us to the next step of turning to our Higher Power for comfort and guidance. This readies us for new possibilities.

Today I will try to accept the reality that I face so that I am ready for new answers.

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

Education is a private matter . . . and has little to do with school or college.

~ Lillian Smith ~

Every experience educates us in some respect. Whether these experiences cause us pain or joy, they teach us about life. Some philosophers believe that our whole reason for being is to become more enlightened about the nature of the human and the divine.

Our responses to every circumstance we encounter can instruct us about our inner self. Paying attention to how we act and, more important, react increases our understanding of who we are at specific moments. Taking charge of those reactions is always possible; it demonstrates willingness to “channel” our education.

Does it really matter why we are here? All of us have been called to participate in this life. Growing in acceptance that all matters concerning us are like books to be read gives us confidence that no experience will be beyond our capacity to absorb.

I eagerly anticipate what I will learn about myself today. I have been called to this moment. I am here.

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

I am responsible for my recovery

Because I have a dual disorder, I need help from different caregivers. I need to learn to trust them, but I also need to listen to myself.

When I first got help for my problems, I was treated for depression, then addiction, then depression again. Nobody really knew what was going on with me or how best to help me. Eventually I realized something: I needed to assume more responsibility for my recovery. With any treatment, I need to keep talking about what is—and what is not—working for me. I am the only one who really knows what I am feeling. When I speak up, I am taking care of myself.

At some point in my day, I will take a quiet moment to find out how I am feeling.

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

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Growing up in a dysfunctional home taught us not to talk or trust or feel. Spending all our energy trying to survive, we were probably not taught how to have or be a friend. But we are learning this now.

Although it requires some intense self-evaluation, the rewards outweigh the risks. The first step toward developing healthy friendships is to understand the disease that has afflicted us. When we know why we reacted the way we did, we can learn how not to repeat these behaviors. No longer sick and confused, we are making better choices now, and are able to act on them.

Now we can find people who have shared our problem, people who can help us break out of our isolation. By attending meetings and talking with our sponsor, we learn to trust again. Sometimes it is hard, because we are trying to change behaviors that have been with us since childhood. But now we have a Higher Power to help us and sustain us.

The friends we have now will last a lifetime. Soon we will feel confident that we can be a friend and will finally feel the warmth we’ve missed for so long.

Today help me learn how to be a friend.

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

Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.

~ John Flavel ~

Do you ever watch the news about some catastrophic natural disaster and expect to see people so devastated that they are nearly nonfunctional? And yet what you may see are people who exhibit calmness and even an eagerness to do whatever it is they need to in order to improve their situation. What you may hear is how deeply the people believe in God and the faith they have that things will get better.
When do you turn to a Higher Power for guidance and support? For some, it is when a major calamity strikes. For those who are addicts, it may be when they finally hit bottom and come to the realization that they cannot sink any deeper.

Through your helplessness and hurt, prayer to a Higher Power can help you begin the process of rebuilding. Prayer conveys your willingness to accept help. It gives you time in which to reflect upon your priorities and reevaluate them so you can consider new or different ways of doing things. It opens you up so you can learn better or more useful ways of navigating through a difficult period or trauma. And it builds a spiritual relationship that can last a lifetime.

I reach out to a Higher Power so I may learn how to rebuild myself and my life.

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

Don't try to saw sawdust.

~ Dale Carnegie ~

The pile of sawdust that gathers under our wood-working can never go back to its previous form. The lumber used to build a house can never return to the forest as a tree. That is a law of nature: whatever takes on a new form can never return to its original state. We may believe this statement as a law o[ nature, but may not believe it also applies to the past,

We can never go back to the past; the past can never become the present. We are not the same people today that we were when we were five years old, ten years old, or twenty years old. If we are always trying to live in the past, then we are trying to saw sawdust. To live in the present, we must work with new pieces of wood and make new piles of sawdust.

Tonight, I can stop living the past and see the present for what it really is: clean, fresh, and new.

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

Feeling the joy

Through this program we learn to live, we learn to work, we learn to play. We learn to be happy alone or with others. We learn love, and the result is joy.

This joy in living sets us free: Our choices expand; what was out of reach before now comes into our reach. Recovering in the program is a form of walking joy.

Am I experiencing and expressing joy?

Higher Power, help me to see the great change in my life, to feel the joy.

Today I will express my joy by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

Things get better. You don't necessarily get things.

~ WOMAN IN RECOVERY ~

Newcomer

I heard a speaker bubbling about how recovery had miraculously given him his life back. He shared about how he'd finally gotten all these things he wanted: a house, a cat a relationship. I thought that wasn't the point of recovery at all—but I do have to admit that I felt envious of his charmed life.

Sponsor

There's a saying sometimes heard at AA meetings: "If you don't drink one day at a time, then you don't drink one day at a time." To some, this statement suggests that recovery is limited, promising nothing but a change in habits where our addictive substance or behavior is concerned. To others it suggests more: life is uncertain and unpredictable but those of us who don't pick up are guaranteed sobriety and a new way of life. The AA Big Book goes further, promising that significant emotional peace and freedom always result from taking the Steps with care and thoroughness.

The measure of our growth in recovery is not the number and quality of possessions we've been able to accumulate but whether we're comfortable in our own skin, at peace with ourselves and others, able to treat ourselves and our fellow human beings with respect and care.

Today, I work to allow the promises of recovery to materialize in my life.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

In our introduction into AA we were admonished "Easy does it," in order to guard against the evil of trying to swallow more than we could digest. There is so much to AA that there is always the danger of taking an overdose. The wise AA doctor prescribes for alcoholism as a physician would for tuberculosis, very little medicine to be taken internally, but lots of fresh air and sunshine to be absorbed from day to day.

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

The Miracle of Meetings

Thank You, God, for one of the great miracles of Twelve Step recovery—the wisdom, insight, and encouragement I receive in our meetings. As I listen to others share their adventures in letting go, surrendering to Your will, taking inventory, and practicing recovery principles, I always hear something that comforts or challenges me. Often the meetings alert me to a problem I am having and then give me hope and determination to keep pressing on. God, make me ever aware that what I do between meetings is what is really important.

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

THE UNICORN

As long as we insist upon telling God His business, nothing very much can come of our prayers.

The ox, the mule, the donkey, will obediently pull your plow and your cart, and take them where you want to go; but you have to know where that is, and how to get there. The unicorn will not do chores. He will not pull a cart or tum a mill. He will not take orders. The unicorn knows where he is going, and it is always somewhere that you could not choose because you never heard of it; and in your present consciousness you could not even dream that such a place could exist.

Nevertheless, there are such places, and the unicorn knows them, and is not interested in anything less. Some day it may happen, probably when you least expect it, that the unicorn will suddenly appear at your side, eyes flashing, nostrils quivering, pawing the ground with impatience. When that happens, do not try to put a bridle on him, or to look for some task for him to do. He will not do it, and there will not be time. No sooner, seemingly, has he appeared than off he will go again. So do not pause, but leap upon his back, for he is a flying steed, and he wings his way to the gates of the morning.

On that ride problems are not solved—they disappear.

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? (Job 39:9-10).

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

Ripcord Grandma

Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age, and to imagine right up to the brink of death that life is only beginning.

~ George Sand ~

When 98-year-old Hildegarde Ferrara's friend offered to pay for a skydive for Hildegarde's next birthday, she was joking. When Hildegarde answered, I'd be delighted!" she was not. The offer was right in line with Hildegarde's life of endless adventure. At the age of 93, she had her naked body slathered with mud by the Mud Men of New Guinea, and was flattered that one Mud Man offered 500 pigs-10 times the going rate-for her hand in marriage. She has dined with headhunters, slept in King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle, and savored termites and eggs for breakfast. Her flare for individuality erupted in 1917 when she was suspended from an all-girls Catholic high school for posing for a photo in which she brazenly exposed her shoulders. There are only a few places on earth Hildegarde has not visited, and she advises, "Go out and see the world before it's too late." Apparently for Hildegarde, it's never too late.

Hildegarde is not an exception to life, but an example of its possibilities. She has not fallen prey to the notion that age determines our abilities or activities; she chooses to live from joy, and life supports her in manifesting her dreams.

There is a Hildegarde in each of us. We may not desire to see all the world, but we do yearn to be all that we can be. What have you been holding off doing because you are too old, sick, poor, inexperienced, uneducated, unqualified, tired, or unhappy? What if none of these conditions had any power to stop you from being what you want to be? What if, at this very moment, you could take action to mobilize the visions you have had on the shelf? What would you do if I dared you to put down this book right now and take a step toward one of your hidden dreams?

Now is the moment you have been waiting for. Live it to the fullest.

I pray to live my life in brilliant joy. Turn up my flame.

I can do anything I choose. I am unlimited. I am free.