Even More Recovery Readings and Meditations - January

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January 30

Step by Step

Today, progress, not perfection. In recognizing the difference, I might learn patience over impatience not only with others, but with myself. Progress requires that I focus on just this day while perfection forces me to look to the unrealistic and unattainable goals beyond today. And by preoccupying myself with tomorrow, I am likely to neglect something today – and that failure will likely sabotage any tomorrow I might have. Tomorrow will hold nothing good if I neglect today. Today, then, will be focused on one thing at a time and first things first. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M.

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

FAITH

The reason why birds can fly and we can’t is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.

~ James M. Barrie ~

Blind faith in a 12 Step Program was all many of us had to our credit when we began recovery. Today, we know it is our most valuable asset in the search for spiritual progress. Faith gives us an open mind, something we will always need. With the acceptance of our Program’s living principles comes the gift of belief.

The proof that our Program works comes plentifully through all that we hear and read. We see God working through us and through others in our Program. This is all the evidence we need for faith that God exists. Without an early child-like faith, the road toward peace of mind can be discouragingly rough.

I must believe that good things can happen and have faith that they will Let me not forget that the absence of faith is despair.

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

Man’s real home is not a house but the road, and life itself is a journey to be walked on foot.

~ Bruce Chatwin ~

We often say that one of our main needs in life is security. We want to be able to predict and control how things will play out. The problem with this view is that even when we gain more control, it doesn’t generally make us feel deeply secure. If we accept security as our goal, we are soon on an endless search for more. A much wiser goal is to walk the road of life, accepting that it is always insecure. Happiness isn’t found by pursuing happiness, and a sense of security isn’t found by grasping for more security. They are both found by indirect means.

We find security by making peace with our insecurity and by trusting our Higher Power to care for our lives. We find happiness by taking on work that has meaning beyond ourselves.

Today I will walk on foot the journey that has meaning and value and accept the insecure feelings that are part of life.

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

Imagine
living in your head, untrue to your heart.
Imagine the pain of separation.
Imagine
the depth of the longing for peace.

~ G. Carol ~

Before finding recovery as a way of life, many of us barely hung on from one pain-filled moment to another. We incessantly tried to figure out what was wrong with our lives. We feared everything: our coworkers, our neighbors, the long days, the new experiences, the many strangers who crossed our paths. Miraculously, we were led to this program.

We can experience the joy of peace each time we remember to turn our will and lives over to the care of our loving God. To receive this goodness, we need only an open heart and a willingness to listen for the guidance of God. This guidance may come to us through a special passage in a book, the words of a friend, or in other ways. If we believe that the guidance will come, we will hear it.

I want to know God’s will for me today. I will be attentive every moment.

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

I need to take care of myself

It’s hard for me to do Step Eight and recall the names of people I have harmed. I don’t want to think about them or what I’ve done—especially to one person: myself.

I need to put myself on my Step Eight list. Given my dual disorder, I believe it will help if I see how I’ve failed to take care of myself (or perhaps even been self-destructive). When I think about this, I feel sad. Because in recovery, I am learning that I am worthy of better. I look forward to making a change.

I will write my name in my journal and then list two ways I’ve harmed myself and two ways I’m now taking care of myself

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

Hope is always available to us.
When we feel defeated, we need
only take a deep breath and say,
“Yes and hope will reappear.

~ Monroe Forester ~

Coastal redwoods are the planet’s most enduring lifework. A fallen coastal redwood will sprout anew within three weeks. Small trees can endure more than 400 years beneath a closed forest canopy without losing their ability to grow rapidly if and when that canopy is opened.

We can be like that, too. No matter how painful our life may have been, we always have the internal resources to heal and grow into happiness. We now have the strength, insight, and spiritual tools. This combination teaches us that there is no unhappiness too great to be made better. Opening ourselves up to the miracles of recovery, we step from the dark of negativity into the light of possibility and abundance. It doesn’t happen all at once, but it does happen — one day at a time.

Today let me have complete faith that my unhappiness will be removed as I work the steps of my program.

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

Nothing evades our attention so persistently as that which is taken for granted…. Obvious facts tend to remain invisible.

~ Gustav Ichheiser ~

Desperate to feel better, a heavy drinker decided to pray to God. She began by admitting she was not certain that she believed in a Higher Being. “But,” she said, “I am willing to try.” In her prayer, she acknowledged her drinking was out of control. She prayed for a long time, ending with a single word: please.

That night she was back at the bar. The next morning she prayed again, asking God, “Why didn’t you help me stop drinking? I asked for your help.” Again she found herself back at the bar. As she stumbled home, she began to cry and shouted to the sky, “I just don’t understand! Are you not listening? I keep asking for your help to stop drinking. What is it that I have to do to get your help?”

At that moment she heard a voice. “Have you admit-ted that you’re an alcoholic?” the voice asked. “Have you gone to a meeting? Have you done anything to change, besides asking me how to do what you should be doing yourself?”

Today I will use prayer to understand the purpose my Higher Power has for me, and to gain greater understanding of those thirty I need to do for myself.

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

So long as we believe we are only human, we are going to experience pain, suffering, tears, disease, and death.

~ Donald Curtis ~

Imagine what our lives would be like without negative feelings—fear, worry, anxiety, selfishness, tension, sadness. At first we might feel a great sense of release. But what will we replace those feelings with? What will we feel? Can it be possible to feel happy and joyous and free all the time?

It has been said we experience what we believe in. Do we believe to succeed in this world we have to suffer? We might even believe our sufferings are good: “If I hadn’t been hurting so bad, I never would have made that change.”

We can try to release the powerful hold our negative ties have on our lives. We can replace those negative ties with warm and loving thoughts, a kind and forgiving nature, and an ability to see good instead of bad. Life doesn’t have to be a struggle. We don’t have to suffer to be happy.

I can turn over worries, jealousies, fearfulness, and dissatisfactions and look at the other side of living. It is filled with serenity, hope, and light.

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

Taking it slowly

Let’s not make haste and demand perfection at once—this would only blind us. If we are impatient, we cannot work a daily program. But by exercising patience, we learn to recognize daily opportunities for growth.

It is worth waiting for, striving for, and working to develop a relationship with our Higher Power. It cannot be done overnight. Let’s not go too fast, but count each day as a new opportunity.

Am I learning to take it slowly?

Higher Power, I pray that I may meet each day with patience and grow closer to you.

I will take it easy today by

God help me to stay clean and sober today!

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

How easy it was to underestimate what had been endured.

~ MARGARET DRABBLE ~

Newcomer

I heard someone share that it was her anniversary and that she wanted to celebrate by stepping in front of a car and killing herself. How can someone talk that way at a meeting? I don’t want to listen to it.

Sponsor

The first thing I notice about this dramatic statement is that it was made at a meeting. As desperate as the person who made it may have been feeling, she did not act out her addiction, but instead showed up and shared. I’ve walked into meetings feeling depressed, despairing, angry, rebellious, alone, or misunderstood, and when I’ve been willing to share my state of mind, have felt sudden relief.

Not knowing the person who shared, and not being experts, we can’t really know how seriously to take such a statement. From one person, it might be a sign that compassionate professional help is needed; from another, it might be just a bit of self-indulgent humor or a bid for attention. People come to meetings in many different frames of mind, with different life experiences, and with recovery of varying lengths and quality. Some make everything they experience sound like high drama; others are reluctant to expose depths of real pain. And, of course, there are many people with strong recovery who use the tools of the program to help them “ride the waves” of life’s problems with relative ease and even joy.

Rather than focus on your discomfort with someone else’s sharing, why not keep the focus on yourself and your own recovery work?

Today, I say a prayer for those who are still sick and suffering, in or out of this program. I give my attention to the work that’s mine to do in recovery.

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~ THE EYE OPENER ~

After several years on the Program, we still have to guard against rationalizing. When it comes to selling ourselves a bill of goods we are tops. Our drinking was most always occasioned by a “good reason,” or so we thought; the real reason—the fact that we were alcoholics and therefore compulsive drinkers—never occurred to us. A good reason can always be found for our actions, but the real reason is frequently obscure. Lord, teach us to know the difference.

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~ WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG BOOK ~ (Official & Unofficial Sloganeering From the 12 Step Programs) ~

1) The man who makes a mistake and doesn’t correct it, makes two.

2) The healthy person finds happiness in helping others. Thus, for him unselfishness is selfish.

3) In order to get what you want, you must do something you’ve never done.

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

Thank You, God

Thank You, God, for all You have given me. Thank You for all You have taken from me. But, most of all, I thank You, God, for what You’ve left me:

Recovery, along with peace of mind, faith, hope, and love.

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

THE IMPRISONED SPLENDOUR

“Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; all around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception, which is Truth.”

A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and to know
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.

~ Robert Browning “Paracelsus.” Part 1 ~

. . . yea shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32)

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

Moving Targets

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.

~ James Thurber ~

I met a woman who changed residences every six months. In a can- conversation, she admitted that she harbored major fears about opening up to an intimate relationship. “You can’t hit a moving target,” she confessed, as a description of her protection strategy.

When we are excessively busy, we are running from ourselves. Workaholics, busyholics, and planaholics are terrified to be with themselves, dominated by the fear that they will be consumed by the loneliness or pain they have denied the empty feelings that well up in quiet moments.

Several years ago, I noticed that I had slipped into a pattern of obsessive doingness. At the time, I was ending a relationship, and I felt terrified at the prospect of being with myself at home alone. But I recognized that this was something I had to do, and ultimately the experience turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life. I had time to be with my–self and face myself. I looked squarely at the fears and old patterns that kept me on the run, and I made conscious choices to use my alone time as a healing, nurturing, and meditative experience. Now I can be with myself or be with people, and enjoy either experience.

A Course in Miracles explains that the fear to look within is not a fear of the darkness, but a fear of the light. If we stopped running, we would have to confront the things that frighten us—and that is wonderful, for on the other side of the shadow is the light. If you look yourself squarely in the eye, you will not find a demon, but a god.

Help me slow down enough to know Your presence. I will be still and touch the Peace You give.

In quiet I find the God within me.