[bluidkiti]

April 26

Step by Step

Today, wisdom to appreciate the power of the spoken word, the one spoken in anger, fear, frustration or sarcasm and which can inflict more damage than any destructive act of my drinking days. Let me understand that a single word can do hurt and injury that might not be healed by any amend I might make. And even if my amend or apology is accepted, the injury and hurt may cut so deeply in the person against whom the wrong word is spoken that something can still be forever lost. I pray for guidance in the 12th Step to practice the program's principles in all my affairs, including not caving into the impulsiveness or anger of unleashing a word that is intended to hurt. Today, I think before I speak, especially if I am angry, frustrated or afraid, because I cannot unspeak it - and atonement may not be enough to repair the damage. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

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

ACTION

Willingness without action is fantasy.

~ Anonymous ~

The best way to get ready for action is to pray. Prayer makes us ready for success. Sometimes our prayers tell us to go right or go left. Sometimes they just tell us to stand still and wait for orders.

When we are willing to pray, we are willing to act. When we are willing, we are filled with prayer. Prayer always comes before and action.

When we see those that admit they are willing to act but don’t lift a finger to help themselves, we don’t know what to think. Maybe they are still in the watching phase. Maybe the instruction aren’t clear. Or maybe they just haven’t prayed.

When I see anyone who is not growing, I will encourage them to pray, attend meetings, and work twice as hard on their Step work.

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

Although the world is full of suffering it is also full of overcoming it.

~ Helen Keller ~

We are born into a life with both pain and joy. That mix is inevitable, no matter what our status in life. If today’s combination seems more filled with difficulty or challenge, it also contains the possibilities for coping with it. We can take some steps today that will move us toward overcoming our challenges. We must avoid feeling defeated if we cannot totally fix our problems all at once. And most certainly, there are unseen forces at work, forces that continually bring change.

Let us accept that life always changes. Never can we place a clamp on some perfect day and hold ourselves there permanently. So we ride the ups and downs, we meet our pain and suffering, and we overcome it.

Today, as I face difficulty and rise to its challenges, I will have an attitude of acceptance.

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

Many of us think that attaining status and financial success will make us happy.

~ Helene Lerner-Robbins ~

Maybe we have to attain status and material wealth before we realize that it doesn’t fulfill us. If we grew up in unhappy homes, we may have thought that material objects would change our lives. To discover otherwise takes wisdom, and we are only now seeking that.

The attainment of wisdom gives us the happiness we have sought everywhere else in our past. All that we longed for comes to us when we stop the rush to attain things and focus instead on the miracle of our spiritual being. Life is full of wonderful paradoxes; utilizing the tools of this program helps us discover them.

Let’s not mislead ourselves. Having status and financial success doesn’t preclude happiness; it just won’t guarantee it. Finding God and settling for wisdom does.

I don’t need anything special to be happy. My reliance on my Higher Power will give me lasting happiness.

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

My emotions are connected to my body

It started when I was a child: whenever I felt sick to my stomach, I got sad and scared. I had an emotional reaction to what was going on in my body. In short, I felt awful.

In recovery, I notice this pattern in reverse: I have a physical reaction to my emotions. When I get upset or feel depressed, I may quickly feel tired and achy. Sometimes I even get a stomachache (although I no longer use drugs or alcohol). But I don’t feel awful. The difference is that over time I have learned that my mood affects the way my body feels, just as my body affects my mood. Understanding this important relationship helps me stay focused on the problem.

Three times today I will note my mood and how my body feels.

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

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Over and over again, we circle the same thoughts in our head, certain that if we keep chewing on them, we’ll be better able to make important decisions. Should we commit ourselves to a new relationship? Is it time to take a new job? Do we need to stand up for a principle?

The harder we tiy to make that “perfect decision,” the tighter and more obsessed we become. It starts to feel like the most important decision of our lives. The very process of decision-making becomes a problem.

Instead of recycling the same thoughts, let us ask, “What’s the worst thing that can happen if we choose a given path today?” “Is this decision in sync with ourselves and our recovery?” “Will it work for today?” When we answer these questions, our choices are clear. And when we make positive, healthy decisions, the cycle of worry can stop. Our lives are more serene, more productive, and more calm.

Today help me to keep my perspective. No decision is without risk —but few are irreversible.

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

When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~

Do you consider yourself to be charitable when you give away old clothing and the things you no longer want? Do you feel a sense of righteousness when you write a check to a nonprofit organization? While these are good and laudable things to do, such actions keep you at a distance from those receiving your charity. It is one thing to pack up a bag full of clothing and put it into the chute of a metal container; it is entirely another to offer your time and provide direct care—the greatest gift those in need can receive.

George Sand once wrote, “Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it.” It cannot be easy for someone who has next to nothing to accept the material goods of another.

To be of greater use to others, set aside time to interact with the elderly at a senior center, offer tutoring services to homeless children, or serve meals at a shelter. Such things can open your eyes to the needs of others so you can see the difference your contributions truly make.

Today I will consider ways in which I can truly contribute to those in need. Then I will devote time to providing my attention and care.

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

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it

~ Margaret Fuller ~

We are seen as powerful examples every time we speak at a meeting, offer encouragement, and give support to those in need. The knowledge we’ve gathered from the strength and hope of the program is a gift to share with others.

If we've ever seen a candlelight ceremony, we know how powerful one candle can be. Countless tapers can be lit until a room is brilliant with light. Our knowledge of the program is kept alive by a tiny candle within us. And each time we share our knowledge, we have the ability to light the candles of others.

Sometimes we may feel our faith and hope lessen and our candlelight begins to flicker and dim. Yet we can light our faltering candles again from the knowledge of another. We are all candlelighters to each other. This gift assures that we'll never be in the dark. We ll always have the ability to gather light and to give it.

I will let others light their candles from mine, thereby sharing the light of the hope in the program.

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

Doing what it takes

This universe is beautiful, but it doesn’t owe us a living. We can’t ask for results before we put forth the effort. We can’t be using mood-altering drugs and tell ourselves we’ll straighten up when we get a job. It doesn’t work that way.

We have to be willing to do what it takes to straighten up first—then we get the benefits. We have to be willing to do it God’s way, notours.

Am I willing to do what it takes?

Higher Power, grant me the willingness to put forth the effort today, to work the Steps, to stay sober and dean.

To stay clean and sober today, I will

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a foot

~ GEORGE SANTAYANA ~

Newcomer

I feel close to tears today, for no good reason. Listening to someone talking about his children, I actually did start to cry, and later I came close to tears again just because someone asked me how I was feeling. Everything has been going so well, and now this! I don’t want to be one of those people who are full of self-pity, and I don’t want my boss or my friends to think that my emotions are out of control.

Sponsor

When I was active in my disease, I rarely laughed or cried from the heart. Whether I felt sad or happy, angry or afraid, any feeling made me uncomfortable; a strong emotion was a signal to medicate myself. In early recovery, even after we have gone through physical withdrawal, our tears may flow seemingly for no reason as our bodies and spirits cleanse themselves and restore inner balance. There is no such thing as a “wrong” feeling. Nowadays, though I don’t need to cry as often, I can let others see my feelings without fear of being judged; my new willingness just to be myself helps others— it lets them see that they, too, are free to be themselves.

Today, I don't have to deny or judge my feelings or the feelings of others.
Tears and laughter are both gifts of my recovery.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Many of us came into AA either in middle life or beyond and feel that with our reasonable life expectancy, it is practically impossible to atone for our previous wrong actions. The thief at the crucifixion probably thought the same thing, but by one single act he brought the promises that “this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

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

I Am Me

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone choose it. I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own all my triumphs and successes, all of my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By doing so, I can love me and be friendly with me in all of my parts. I know there are aspects that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know, but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously look for solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me, and therefore I can engineer me. I am me and I am okay.

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

DANGER OF ANGER

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee;

Leave there thy gift before the alter, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift (Matthew 5:23-24).

Indignation, resentment, the desire to punish other people, the desire to “get Even,” the feeling “it serves him right”; all these things form a quite impenetrable barrier to spiritual power. Jesus says that if you are bringing a gift to the altar, and you remember that your brother has anything against you, you must put down your gift and go make peace with your brother; when you have done that, your offering will be acceptable.

Jesus builds up this tremendous lesson in the Oriental tradition. He says first that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger; second that to be hostile to another, is to be in grave danger; and finally that to hold so low an opinion about a fellow creature as to consider him outside the pale, is to shut ourselves off from any hope of spiritual fruit while we remain in this state of mind.

Note carefully that the King James version of the Bible here makes a serious error, which has been corrected in the revised version. It interpolates a phrase not in the earliest manuscripts and make Jesus say, “Whosoever is angry without a cause”; which is a manifest absurdity. No sane person gets angry without what he deems to be a cause. What Jesus said was that whoever was angry with his brother under any circumstances is in danger.

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

When to Pray

You got to pray if you want to make it today.

~ Hammer ~

My friend Tami, a guidance counselor in a Los Angeles elementary school, conducted a staff meeting to determine how to help a five-year-old girl. At the age of four, Janet had watched her father commit suicide and was then sent to live in her aunt’s home, where she was abused by her uncle. The little girl, emotionally traumatized, became aphasic and registered an I.Q. bordering on mentally handicapped. After Janet left the meeting room, the staff sat in stunned silence; they all felt the deep pain this child had undergone at a tender age. As the teachers rose to leave, Tami called them back, inviting them, “Let’s pray.” The group held hands, and each person, in their own way, asked God to take care of this child. As human beings, they had hit a dead end, and they acknowledged that they needed help from a higher power.

Perhaps it is time we started to pray again in schools—and homes and offices and hospitals and government buildings and everywhere. I am not referring to rote prayer in which we parrot meaningless verse; I am talking about real prayer that emanates from the hearts of sincere human beings to the heart of a receptive God.

Prayer is our greatest power, for it connects us with the power of the entire universe, which is love. Often we leave prayer until the last resort, while it will help us just as readily if we use it as our first response to fear. Pray for your peace and that of others. God will answer.

Be with me today, and help me remember that You are the source of true healing.

God is my best friend and my fountain of strength.