[bluidkiti]

September 10

Step by Step

Today, if life in sobriety jolts me with a reality that in the end is truly hopeless, I will not yield to hopelessness and instead will reach for the hope - and the first word in hopelessness is hope. If the program has impressed anything on me, it is that hope exists in all things and that hopelessness is empowered only if I bow to it. In hope, there is faith and promise that the hopeless will be overcome by hope; in hopelessness, there is loss of faith and inviting all those lethal feelings like fear, dread, self-pity and selfishness that, together, spell a slip or relapse. And either can send me back to that dark pit from which the program guided me. In hopelessness, the power of hope can and will take me from that dark place - as long as I keep the steps close to heart. Nothing, including the despair that life in sobriety will sometimes present, justifies my giving up all I have gained through in AA. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

OPINIONS

Look for similarities rather than differences.

~ Anonymous ~

By relating our experiences rather than our opinions, we allow the listener to form their own ideas, rather than be placed in a position of having either to agree or disagree with us.

For instance, if we express an opinion that "they should be honest," the listener may be out off.

However, if we tell an experience similar to their problem where honesty worked best for us, we aren't obligating the listener to solve their difficulty the same way. They're not forced into accepting or rejecting an opinion. They're still free to choose to solve their problem whatever way they see fit, and to profit from whatever experience results.

Opinions force me to take sides and "should" on myself and others. By sharing experiences instead of opinions, I am free to grow and to allow others to grow.

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

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation> hard work, learning from failure.

~ Colin Powell ~

Preparation consists of becoming entirely ready. On this path, where we have faced the ultimate truth of powerlessness, we accept the deep wisdom of adulthood: some things cannot be changed by the force of our will. So our work is to make ourselves ready for change to come to us. We work on our willfulness, our moral character, our honesty, and our openness to the spiritual presence. Readiness means that when opportunities for change appear, we accept them. It means that change comes as a gift, not of our own invention.

As our relationship with ourself grows, our relationships with others improve. As our relationship with our Higher Power grows, the cravings that we could not subdue by force of will are simply and quietly lifted. It is a spiritual paradox: this is not a passive path we are walking; it requires hard work. And yet the success we find is a gift that comes to us and we can only accept it.

Today I will continue to work, making myself ever more ready to receive the gifts of the spirit.

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

I believe we all have a purpose in this life, and each day is a step in the journey toward achieving that purpose.

~ Kathy McGraw ~

It is not always easy to remember that each of us has a unique purpose, one that is unfolding every moment of our lives. Many of our days seem lacking in excitement, devoid of momentous decisions or undertakings. Periods of our lives may seem to have evaporated: for example, we may recall nothing of our elementary school years or of parts of an earlier marriage or a painful relationship.

Trusting that our lives have purpose changes us. As our understanding deepens, we feel empowered and far more conscious of the opportunities our Higher Power offers us every day. We begin to see that every experience is purposeful.

We are here by assignment. Our homework is to learn and change, if necessary. We may never fully know our purpose, but with God’s help we will trust how our lives are unfolding.

I may not understand all that is happening in my life at the present, but if I trust that my Higher Power is helping me to fulfill my purpose, I can accept the experience.

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

I am beginning to lighten up

Before I got help for my addiction and depression, I was typically serious and sad. I spent little time with other people and spoke little. Laughing didn't feel natural; eventually my smile went away.

Even in recovery it's still hard to come out of my shell, but the truth is, I am worn out from all this gravity and intensity. It's a good thing, too. I believe I'm finally gaining some perspective—maybe even a sense of humor. Perhaps I'm getting ready to let go of some pain. I hope so. It would be a welcome relief.

I will rent an old favorite comedy movie and just see how hard I have to work not to laugh at least once.

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

Do not pray for easy lives.
Pray to be stronger men!

~ Phillips Brooks ~

Prayer is something that often does not come easy to us. We usually start out praying for what we want. Gradually, though, our recovery program teaches us to pray for knowledge and understanding—knowledge of what God wants for us today. This helps bring our lives in tune with our surroundings, and helps us let go of the need to control others and the events around us. It offers us the chance to use our energy for living in the moment, rather than worrying about outcomes. And it brings peace to our hearts to have faith that God will take care of outcomes.

When we begin to pray for knowledge of God’s will, we free ourselves. We give up the need to be “the boss” on everything, the need to be in control, the need to be responsible for everything. Prayer is our one-way ticket to peace and serenity.

Today let me accept gratefully what is God’s will.

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

There are people who live lives little different than the beasts, and I don’t mean that badly. I mean that they accept whatever happens day to day without struggle or question or regret.

~ Celeste De Blasis ~

Learning to live with what you were born with—from your appearance and innate talents to your failures and shortcomings—is a process of acceptance. Making an honest assessment of who you are—one that is focused on you and not based on comparisons to others—requires acceptance. No one is perfect. But sometimes you can feel disappointed when you know that you have not lived up to the expectations others have of you, or when you recognize how you have fallen short of achieving your goals. You may doubt you can ever become a better person.

Acceptance can be strengthened and developed by making good use of the tools available to you each day in the program—the Serenity Prayer, the Twelve Steps, belief in a power greater than yourself, and fellowship.

The program teaches acceptance, not perfection. Each day presents you with an opportunity to accept all of your qualities—both the good and the not-so-good—so you can gain greater knowledge about yourself. You can then utilize this knowledge to change those things that you can.

Working the program will help me to develop greater acceptance of myself.

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

Nowadays some people expect the door of opportunity to be opened with an electric eye.

~ Anonymous ~

"Great Expectations" may be an appropriate title for certain scenes in our lives. If we act a certain way, do certain things, or think in a certain way, we may believe these actions will have an expected reaction. But we'll have a rude awakening when we find this isn’t necessarily so.

It's as if we stepped on the automatic doormat to a grocery store when the mat wasn't operating. We'll crash into the door if we expect it to open every time. Similarly, we can't have expectations about the people in our lives or we'll crash into defeat, hurt, and rejection.

It's okay to behave toward others in a loving and kind manner. In return, others may become more kind and loving toward us. This treatment won't come to us because of our expectations, but because others decide to treat us in this way. If we change our expectations, we may receive many pleasant surprises.

Do I expect people to treat me in a way they don't want to? Tonight I can let go of my expectations. What's most important in my behavior.

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

Comparing

We are proud of the fact that if someone wants to join the program, sex, age, race, status, sexual orientation, or religious preferences do not matter. Yet we may still find ourselves judging the kind or severity of another’s addiction.

How can we possibly judge another’s pain? Or problems? Or recovery needs? And why bother? Don’t we have enough pain and problems of our own?

Have I stopped judging others?

Higher Power, help me to see that comparing separates me from myself and others.

I will practice accepting all my fellow travelers in recovery today by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

First things first.

~ PROGRAM SLOGAN ~

Newcomer

I have such a full life now. I don't even mind having to deal with problems that are coming up with other people—they make me feel alive. But still, I'm looking forward to not having to go to so many meetings.

Sponsor

It's good to hear how rich and diverse your experiences have become, and to see that there are people and activities that mean so much to you. We're living our lives today; that's the point of recovery. But as we become more engaged with life, we may forget the hold that our addictive craving formerly had over us, how we were driven to do whatever it asked of us. By continuing to come to meetings, we stay conscious of our powerlessness over addiction.

I need to remember what brought me here. If I become casual about my recovery, I may convince myself that I can try “just a little" of my drug of choice. If I do that, then, inevitably, my moderation will give way to active addiction. We're still powerless over this disease; that doesn't change. By putting recovery first, we can continue enjoying the rich life we have today.

What kept me sober in the early days of my recovery are the same things that keep me sober today.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Charity would be absolute foolishness if this life was the beginning and ending of all things. If there were no closer relationship between men than between animals, then we would be animals.

We know, however, that a mystical bond does unite mankind, and it is best exemplified in the practice of charity. As it lifts man above the level of animals, it also lifts man closer to the angels.

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

To Be Useful

Thank You, God, for I am glad to be useful,
to have a reason for living,
to have a purpose in life.

I want to lose my life in this wonderful
Fellowship and so find it again.

I need the Twelve Step Principles for the
development of the buried life within me,
the good life I misplaced before the Program.

Thank You, God, for this recovery life within me
is growing slowly but surely, with setbacks and
mistakes, but still developing. I cannot yet know
what it will be, but I know it will be good. That's
all I want to know. It will be good.

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

KEY WORDS IN THE BIBLE

SALVATION

The word salvation appears more than 120 times in the Bible. It was in constant use among religious people of past generations, and while it is not so often heard today, the fact remains that it is one of the most important words in the Bible and among the least well understood.

The word salvation in the Bible means perfect health, harmony, and freedom. These things are the will of God for man—for you personally; and the Bible was written to tell us how to attain to them.

We gain salvation by seeking God and letting Him work through us.

The Lord is my light and my salvation (Psalm 27:1).
He only is my rock and my salvation (Psalm 62:2).
He hath raised up a horn of salvation for us . . . (Luke 1:69).
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6).

Such texts as these are typical of the Bible promises concerning salvation.

Salvation comes to a few people gently and easily, but the majority have to work out their salvation with a certain amount of "fear and trembling" for the time being. The actual way in which it comes is not really important, for come it will—when we seek it with our whole heart.

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

Turn on Everything

You can have it all.

~ Arnold Patent ~

After I built a sauna at my home, I began to have electrical outages. I discovered that when the sauna was on at the same time as the hot tub, the house's main breaker would trip off. I concluded that the power required by the sauna and spa was too much for the house's electrical capacity, so I made the rule that the sauna and hot tub could not be used at the same time. When my electrician friend Gil came by, I told him about the problem, and he instructed me, “Turn on everything in the house."

"Won't that blow the circuit?" I asked him.

"There's no way it should. Your electrical capacity is great enough to handle everything you have and more." I went around the property and turned on the sauna, spa, oven, washer, dryer, and other major appliances (inwardly praying that Gil knew what he was doing). As everything was humming along, Gil opened up the electrical box and called, “Aha! I think I see your problem." He called me over and showed me, "This screw is loose. When you have a loose screw, the circuit heats up and trips the breaker." He tightened the screw and told me, “This should solve the problem. Now you can run anything you want at any time.”

I couldn't have asked for a better lesson on abundance. I had been thinking in terms of a limited universe: "There’s just so much available, so I better start choosing between things that I want because there’s not enough to go around." Gil, on the other hand, held a huge consciousness that there's enough supply for everything I needed. I was thinking small, and he was thinking big.

If you feel you must compromise what you want or need because there's not enough to go around, reconsider your belief system. The circuit may be much bigger than you thought, and your problem might not be that your supply is limited, but that one little screw is loose. Don't curse the source; tighten the screw.

Help me to remember that t live in a universe of abundant supply.

I can have everything I need to be happy.