Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - June

[bluidkiti]

June 26

Step by Step

"More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows in his heart he doesn't deserve it." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6 ("Into Action"), p 73.

Today, if I take the Fifth Step and confess to another person "the exact nature of (my) wrongs," may I be given the strength and courage to be honest with my toughest prospect: myself. Like Jekyll and Hyde, I displayed two personalities in my drinking days - the party animal or the isolated, depressed lonely drinker as I drank toward oblivion and, the morning after, the physically and emotionally broken person for everyone to see. I must meld both characters into one to find the actual self on which to build recovery, and that effort will likely be nil if I am not honest with myself first before taking Step Five. Honesty begins with myself; without it, my Fifth - and my Fourth, for that matter - is based on illusion. In the end, so will my recovery be based on illusion. Today, let me understand the wisdom that honesty, before it is given to anyone else, has to begin with me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M.

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

PRAYING

Trying to pray is praying.

~ Anonymous ~

"Oh, God, help me! If you get me out of this mess, I’ll never screw up again.” This was our favourite prayer before we entered the Program. We were always bargaining with God.

We have learned new prayers and a new way to talk and listen to our Higher Power. We are seeking God’s will for us. Many of us had to learn how to pray. We began with very simple prayers: God, help me know Your will for me.” “Thank you, God, for helping me today.

We learn that prayer helps us with our faulty dependence on people. Places, and things by giving us the insight and strength to rearrange our priorities. Prayer doesn’t change God, but it changes those who pray.

Today in my prayers, I will seek my higher Power’s will for me. I no longer bargain with God.

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

I’ve had a wonderful time but this wasn’t it.

~ Groucho Marx ~

How often we went out in search of pleasure to escape our problems, and our desires only led us into much bigger problems. Alcohol, gambling, sex, food, and even taking care of others are all pleasures. They have been part of good times in many people’s lives. But we know that pursuit of these pleasures can be abused and create only heartache and sickness.

In this program we are dealing with the age-old problem of how to manage our desires. This is a spiritual problem. We are born with desires. Our development into strong manhood is partly a growth in our ability to learn from experience and choose how and when to satisfy these desires—and which ones are best left unsatisfied. We are learning that a hearty, healthy man can live very well with some desires unfulfilled.

Today I will have a wonderful time, in part, because I choose to leave some desires and impulses unsatisfied.

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

Addiction is our mind’s attachment to a particular substance or behavior in the belief that it is going to create the sense of expansion that we crave.

~ Niro Asistent ~

We are painfully slow learners. We repeat old behaviors and are surprised when the same old results occur. On the other hand, most of us swiftly learned that our return to using an addictive substance meant the same old trouble. Why can’t we see the parallel here?

Perhaps we need to act as better teachers to one another. Let’s concentrate on reminding one another that old patterns can’t create new results; they keep us forever stuck.

We want to grow, to change, to feel whole. We wouldn’t have come to this program had we wanted to stay who we were. We forget, that’s all. But we can learn to remember, with one another’s help, that nothing new comes out of something old.

I want to be a good student and a good teacher today. With my Higher Power’s help and my willingness, I can do both.

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

I am growing to like myself again

Not so long ago I could hardly be bothered to crawl out of bed. When I did, I preferred to just pad about in my slippers and pajamas. I had little interest in myself or the world.

But I've come a long way in recovery. Today I popped out of bed right with the alarm. I made my bed and then put on my favorite pants and T:shirt. While brushing my hair in the mirror?surprise!?I broke into a smile. I felt good about myself?I felt good about the way I looked and about how I was starting my day.

Today I will practice smiling at myself in the mirror twice (even if I do not feel like it).

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

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks.

~ Phillips Brooks ~

What constitutes success? Is the success of a day measured in what we accomplish? In making money and rising in our work? Or being equal to the challenge of each new day?

Recovery has made a big difference in how we think of success. To be recovering from addiction calls for a full commitment to ourselves, our relationships, our challenges, and our spiritual growth. Now, being successful means we have patience, humility, enthusiasm, and courage. The gift of recovery opens the door to these new forms of success. Our Twelve Step fellowship, our sponsor, and our new friends help us make progress. And communion with our Higher Power gives us a strength and serenity that makes us less afraid of the challenges ahead. Now, we can live a full life, one day at a time.

Today grant me the strength to climb each daily “mountain” and find joy in each new vista.

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

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

~ Benjamin Disraeli ~

In the past, it may have seemed as if you were at odds with everyone. No matter what you said or did, it never seemed to be the right thing. A big part of such discord was a result of your habit. Because you were enslaved by your addiction, your thoughts and actions preserved a direct path toward your habit—and away from others. As a result, you were constantly caught up in arguments with those who did not understand the hold the addiction had on you. Try as you might, you could not force others to see your point of view.

But recovery shows you that there are others who share many of your thoughts. They have been down that same Habit Road multiple times, and they have often fought the same battles with others that you did.

Finding a connection with others who understand how you got here and what you are facing makes the journey that much easier. While not every person in recovery will agree with you, what is most important is that those in the program with whom you have bonded share a common connection.

My recovery journey is made easier through my connection to Others who understand what I am going through.

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

It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.

~ Sister Elizabeth Kenny ~

Following the crowd, going along with the majority, or doing for the approval of others makes us like sheep. Sheep travel in packs behind a leader or are guided by the barks and nips of sheepdogs. Sheep never travel alone and one sheep never leads the others. Are we like sheep?

By following the norm, we've learned life may be easier without arguments or disagreements over bucking the trend. But how has such following helped us grow? Do we really know who we are, or are we more aware of how everyone else is?

To walk against the wind once in a while is healthy. We don't always have to follow the crowd if we don't believe the crowd is right. We can be like a lion once in a while: a leader, unafraid to travel alone or to guide others. We can let out a mighty roar that will set us apart from the din of the crowd. We don't have to be sheep all the time, only when we want to be.

Will I be a leader or a follower? Whichever I choose, let me believe my choice is the best for me.

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

Listening by reading

We need to listen to drug-free members of the program to hear what it takes to stay clean and sober. But “listening” is not limited to meetings: There is a lot of literature that discusses the program and how to work it more effectively.

When we first come into the program, it is wise to keep our mouths shut and our eyes and ears open. Reading books, magazines, and pamphlets is an important way of listening. It is a gift from our fellow addicts that so much listening is available to us.

Am I well read on the program?

Higher Power, help me to “listen” in all the ways available to me.

Today I will read

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

The creation of the world is not completed so long as we have not fulfilled our creative function in it.

~ MORDECAI KAPLAN ~

Newcomer

I’m interested in many different things, but I haven’t focused on one yet. I feel as if I should know what I want to do with my life by now.

Sponsor

We have the ability, as long as we stay in recovery, to find our path and to fulfill our dreams. If many paths are beckoning, it will take time to explore and to have experiences that will show us where we most want to focus. Many tools, from the spiritual to the practical—including the Steps, prayer, and vocational counseling—are available to help us. In time, narrowing our options will give us the power that comes from concentrating our attention. For today, let’s not rush to cross anything off the list.

Having been led to recovery and offered a second chance to live full lives, we don’t have the right to thwart our Higher Power by giving up on ourselves. We’re mistaken if we believe that we’ve outlived the possibility of being useful. We’re mistaken if we believe that, having lost time in the past, we now have no right to a future. Patience with ourselves and the process is necessary.

By staying in recovery today, I contribute toward the repair of the world.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

Our sobriety is dead-serious. It has to be, to work at all. With it we can retain all we now have, and the limits to which we can add to it are circumscribed only by our initiative and our ability. Without sobriety we are in danger of losing that which we already have.

Sobriety is life itself to us and without it life would again become a living death. To unnecessarily subject ourselves to temptations is another variation of playing “Russian Roulette.”

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

DICK B.’s PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I thank and praise You in the name of Jesus Christ, for delivering me from the power of darkness and translating me into the kingdom of Your dear son; for affirming that You are Yahweh, our Creator, who heals all our diseases, forgives all our iniquities, redeems our lives from destruction, and showers us with loving kindness and tender mercies; and who wishes above all things that we prosper and be in health.

I ask Your forgiveness for my sins of today. I ask for the cure of all my infirmities and those of my family and friends. I thank You that by confessing Jesus as my Lord and believing in my heart that You raised Him from the dead, I have become Your son, received remission of past sins, and been healed by Jesus' stripes. I can and do ask that You provide me with the wisdom to choose each day the way of Your will; that You strengthen and guide me to obeying Your will and resisting temptations; and that You lead me to those who hunger for, and want Your salvation and a full and accurate knowledge of Your truth.

I thank You for supplying all my needs; for keeping me, my family, my fellow believers, and friends safe and in perfect soundness, and for protecting and keeping safe our President, his administration, our governments, our service men and women, and our country.

I ask that doing all to Your glory and loving You and my brothers with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength be my hearty and daily service to You. I ask for all these things in the name of Your precious son, Jesus Christ.

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

THERE IS NO DEATH

RESURGAM

There is no death! The stars go down
To rise upon some other shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine for evermore.

Time is no death! The dust we tread
Shall change beneath the summer showers
To golden grain, or mellow fruit,
Or rainbow-tinted flowers.
And ever near us, though unseen,
The dear immortal spirits tread;
For all the boundless universe
Is life?there are no dead!

~ John Luckey McCreery - "There Is No Death" ~

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory . . . But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55, 57).

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

Free to Live Anew

Never look for the birds of this year in the nests of the last.

~ Miguel de Cervantes ~

One of the most profound acts of healing I have witnessed was that of a couple whose teenage son had sustained a brain injury. Before his auto accident, Tim had been a vital, popular, and athletic young man. Now he was slow of speech and motion, and although he was making progress with therapy, he still struggled to do simple acts that before he had taken for granted. At a seminar, his parents asked to create a release ceremony. "We need to say good-bye to the son we once knew so we can embrace the person he is now." Amid profuse tears and with tremendous courage, the couple each read a statement of love, appreciation, and release for the son who was no more, and made a declaration of acceptance and commitment to the person he had become. The healing and empowerment that accrued to them was tremendous, in sharp contrast to the pain they experienced in attempting to hold on to someone who no longer was.

Are you freezing yourself or a loved one in a cast from the past? Are you trying to force someone to be who they were rather than honoring who they are now? No one wants to be treated like the person they once were; we want to be appreciated for who we are. Come fully into the present with yourself and others, and you will liberate tremendous energy to love and bless what is, rather than bemoan what was, or what you wish would be.

Help me to see clearly and to honor the beauty before me now.

I accept the gifts before me, and I accept the highest in everyone, including myself.