bluidkiti
06-01-2023, 07:06 AM
God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom to know the difference.
Thy will, not mine, be done.
June 2
Daily Reflections
THE UPWARD PATH
Here are the steps we took. . . . .
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 59
These are the words that lead into the Twelve Steps. In their
direct simplicity they sweep aside all psychological and
philosophical considerations about the rightness of the Steps.
They describe what I did: I took the Steps and sobriety was
the result. These words do not imply that I should walk the
well-trodden path of those who went before, but rather that
there is a way for me to become sober and that it is a way I
shall have to find. It is a new path, one that leads to
infinite light at the top of the mountain. The Steps advise
me about the footholds that are safe and about chasms to
avoid. They provide me with the tools I need during the many
parts of the solitary journey of my soul. When I speak of
this journey, I share my experience, strength and hope with
others.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Some more things I do not miss since becoming dry: wondering
if the car is in the garage and how I got home; struggling to
remember where I was and what I did since my last conscious
moment; trying to delay getting off to work, and wondering how
I will look when I get there; dreading the day ahead of me.
I'm quite sure that I don't miss these things, am I not?
Meditation For The Day
You cannot believe in God and keep your selfish ways. The old
self shrivels up and dies, and upon the reborn soul God's
image becomes stamped. The gradual elimination of selfishness
in the growth of love for God and your fellow human beings is
the goal of life. At first, you have only a faint likeness to
the Divine, but the picture grows and takes on more and more
of the likeness of God until those who see you can see in you
some of the power of God's grace at work in a human life.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may develop that faint likeness I have to the
Divine. I pray that others may see in me some of the power of
God's grace at work.
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As Bill Sees It
Without Anger, p. 153
Suppose A.A. falls under sharp public attack or heavy ridicule, having
little or no justification in fact. Our best defense in these situations
would be no defense whatever--namely, complete silence at the public
level. If in good humor we let unreasonable critics alone, they are apt
to subside more quickly. If their attacks persist and it is plain that they
are misinformed, it may be wise to communicate with them privately in
a temperate and informative way.
If, however, a given criticism of A.A. is partly or wholly justified, it may
well be to acknowledge this privately to the critics, together with our
thanks.
But under no conditions should we exhibit anger or any punitive intent.
<< << << >> >> >>
What we must recognize is that we exult in some of our defects.
Self-righteousness anger can be very enjoyable. In a perverse way we
can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us;
it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority.
1. Twelve Concepts, p. 69
2. 12 & 12, pp. 66-67
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Walk in Dry Places
Why admitting we're wrong is right
Right action
Sometimes it's painful or almost impossible to admit that we've been wrong. This means we'll probably go on making the same mistakes until we're forced to face the truth. Why does this happen?
The problem lies with what we call the EGO in our Twelve step program discussions. We commit ourselves in defending this ego at al times, especially around people who seem to put us down. Far from being a minor correction, any admissions of wrong feels like total defeat, at least in our warped way of looking at things.
We can release ourselves from this bondage simply by coming to see that admitting and facing our wrongs is essential to growth. A store manager who overstocks a certain item "admits" the mistake by putting the goods on a clearance sale and getting rid of them. We can cut any loss in the same way by admitting a mistake and going on to a better course of action.
I'll not plan to make any mistakes today, but I'll hold myself in readiness to admit them if they occur. This is no threat to my ego. I am much more than my mistakes.
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Each Day a New Beginning
I have come to realize that all my trouble with living has come from fear and smallness within me. --Angela L. Wozniak
We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are. We fear that we are inadequate to the task before us, fear that another woman is more attractive, fear that the friends around us are bored by our presence.
Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement with the experiences we are given to grow on. When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure: failure to take all we can from life; failure to be all that we can be. Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves. When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind.
I will not fear whatever looks like trouble today. Nothing I can't handle, in fact, nothing I can't grow from will come my way today. My inner strength can see me through.
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Keep It Simple
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.---Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us want to be happy. We just don't know how. We aren't sure what happiness is. We've learned the hard way that some things we wanted didn't make us happy. We're learning that happiness comes when we live the way our Higher Power wants us to live. That's when we’re honest. When we do our best work. When we are a true friend. We make happiness; we don't find it. Sometimes we don't even know we're happy. We're too busy with our work, our recovery program, our friends and family. We need to slow down and know that when we do what we need to, happiness comes.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know that I'm most happy when I listen to You and do Your will. You know better than I do what makes me happy.
Action for the Day: What parts of my program am I most happy about? Today I'll think of these and enjoy myself.
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
The Doctor's Opinion
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.
pp. xxviii-xxix
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
ANOTHER CHANCE - Poor, black, totally ruled by alcohol, she felt shut away from any life worth living. But when she began a prison sentence, a door opened.
Now I had gotten to the place where I would wake up with black eyes and not know where I got them, or wake up with a lot of money and not know where i got it. Later I found out that I went into stores and stole clothes, then sold them. One morning I woke up with a thousand dollars. I was trying to remember where it came from, when two of the biggest cops i ever saw walked in and took me to jail. It came out that I had sold a woman a fur coat. The cops had picked her up, and she told them she had bought it from me. I got out on bail right away, but when I went to trial, the judge gave me thirty days. When my thirty days were up, I started back on my rounds. I didn't last long. They tell me that I killed a man during that period, but I can't remember anything. Because I had been drunk, the judge gave me a twelve-year sentence in prison.
p. 533
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."
"So spoke the group conscience. The group was right and I was wrong; the voice on the subway was not the voice of God. Here was the true voice, welling up out of my friends. I listened, and - thank God - I obeyed."
p. 138
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Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn
whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
--Helen Keller
I came to this program to save my butt and found out it was attached
to my soul.
--Anonymous
"How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on
the inside of us."
--Park Cousins
"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the
only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have
sought and found how to serve."
--Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
"What we do in these rooms is we share our experience, strength, and
hope. The worse it gets, the more we laugh and the better it gets,
the more we cry. We call it Alcoholics Anonymous."
--thanks to Norm A. for this wonderful quote
In this world, nothing is permanent except change.
--American Proverb
All things change, and we with them.
--American Proverb
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
TIME
"Everything one does enough of
eventually generates its own
interest and one then begins to
believe in it. "
--Alan Dunn
I never thought that I could stay sober. For years I tried to abstain
with no success. It was not the act of stopping that was different ( I
could stop three times in one week!). It was staying stopped.
Then a man said, "Try stopping for twenty-four hours. If that proves
too long, try stopping until the morning or for one hour or even for one
minute . . . If the cravings gets too severe, call me but don't take that
first drink!" My abstinence began in periods of twenty-four hours.
Life is made up of days and we live in periods of twenty-four hours, so
I live a day at a time. I was successful. I am successful. Today I have a
number of years that are based on the simplicity of "don't drink today
". I believe in it. I believe in me. And it gets better.
Lord of time, thank you for giving me the simplicity of days, hours and
minutes.
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You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3
He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his
mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the
Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of
what Jesus Christ our Savior did.
Titus 3:5-6
You aren't alone in your trials and struggles. God is your help and
strength in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
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Daily Inspiration
Sometimes it is better to remove things from your "to do" list rather than adding to it. Lord, give me the courage to say no to the things that cause me to feel overwhelmed.
Imagine that you were paid for every kindness and charged for every unkindness. Would you be rich or poor? Lord, I often pray for material wealth. Let me not neglect my soul by now praying for the ability to build my spiritual wealth also.
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NA Just For Today
Sick And Tired
"We wanted an easy way out.... When we did seek help we were only looking for the absence of pain."
Basic Text, p. 5
Something's not working. In fact, something's been wrong for a long time, causing us pain and complicating our lives. The problem is that, at any given moment, it always appears easier to continue bearing the pain of our defects than to submit to the total upheaval involved in changing the way we live. We may long to be free of pain, but only rarely are we willing to do what's truly necessary to remove the source of pain from our lives.
Most of us didn't begin seeking recovery from addiction until we were "sick and tired of being tired and sick." The same is true of the lingering character defects we've carried through our lives. Only when we can't bear our shortcomings one moment longer, only when we know that the pain of change can't be as bad as the pain we're in today, are most of us willing to try something different.
Thankfully, the steps are always there, no matter what we're sick and tired of. The irony is that, as soon as we make the decision to begin the Twelve Step process, we realize our fears of change were groundless. The steps offer a gentle program of change, one step at a time. No single step is so frightening that we can't work it, by itself. As we apply the steps to our lives, we experience a change that frees us.
Just for today: No matter what prevents me from living a full, happy life, I know the program can help me change, a step at a time. I need not be afraid of the Twelve Steps.
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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Thoughts, rest your wings. Here is a hollow of silence, a nest of stillness, in which to hatch your dreams. --Joan Walsh Anglund
There is silence in the nest before an egg is hatched. The mother robin must sit quietly and warm them enough to be hatched. During this time, the mother concentrates only on her eggs. She does not let herself be distracted.
There is a time of silence before anything creative is born. And there is silence in the mind before an idea is discovered. A nest is a safe place birds can always return to and be at home. We all need such a nest of silence--a place where we can be quiet and safe, where we can let ourselves be held, and rest.
Often, our best ideas come out of these quiet moments. Times of silence are good for our souls. Just like the robin eggs hatching, so will dreams and solutions grow out of our own nest of stillness.
How well will I use my quiet time today?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
'Remember! You're two different animals. Men and women cannot totally unite. --Pierre Mornell
As we relate to women, we are often driven by needs, which no person could meet, and hampered by ignorance of what the opposite sex is really like. Perhaps we want to lose ourselves in a romantic closeness as we once lost ourselves in addiction and codependency. Then we get hurt and angry when the impossible doesn't happen. Or we fail to understand that one woman's reactions are different from our own.
The dialogue between the sexes is as old as the generations. It will always be a mixture of fascination, mystery, frustration, and new understandings. When we realize we cannot merge with a woman, take her over, or be taken over by her, we will meet her as a separate person, and our relationships will become vastly more peaceful.
Thanks to God for the differences. Let me learn more about them and accept them.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
I have come to realize that all my trouble with living has come from fear and smallness within me. --Angela L. Wozniak
We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are. We fear that we are inadequate to the task before us, fear that another woman is more attractive, fear that the friends around us are bored by our presence.
Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement with the experiences we are given to grow on. When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure: failure to take all we can from life; failure to be all that we can be. Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves. When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind.
I will not fear whatever looks like trouble today. Nothing I can't handle, in fact, nothing I can't grow from will come my way today. My inner strength can see me through.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Owning Our Power
We don't have to give others so much power and ourselves so little. We don't have to give others so much credit and ourselves so little. In recovery from codependency, we learn there's a big difference between humility and discounting ourselves.
When others act irresponsibly and attempt to blame their problems on us, we no longer feel guilty. We let them face their own consequences.
When others talk nonsense, we don't question our own thinking.
When others try to manipulate or exploit us, we know it's okay to feel anger and distrust and to say no to the plan.
When others tell us that we want something that we really don't want, or someone tells us that we don't want something that we really do want, we trust ourselves. When others tell us things we don't believe, we know it's okay to trust our instincts.
We can even change our mind later.
We don't have to give up our personal power to anyone: strangers, friends, spouses, children, authority figures, or those over whom we're in authority. People may have things to teach us. They may have more information than we have, and may appear more confident or forceful than we feel. But we are equals. Our magic is not in them. Our magic, our light, is in us. And it is as bright a light as theirs.
We are not second-class citizens. By owning our power, we don't have to become aggressive or controlling. We don't have to discount others. But we don't discount ourselves either.
Today, I will own my power with people. I will let myself know what I know, feel what I feel, believe what I believe, and see what I see. I will be open to changing and learning from others and experience, but I will trust and validate myself too. I will stand in my own truth.
Today I choose to go with the flow. --Ruth Fishel
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Journey To The Heart
Why Hurry Through?
Why hurry through a day, an hour, a life?
Hurry never catches up with itself. It misses out. It strains. It stresses. It doesn’t trust the natural rhythm, the natural order, of the universe. Slow down. Tap into the rhythm of the world. Tap into your rhythm as you dance through life, as you dance through eternity.
When you hurry, it is as if we are dancing out of step to the music. We become out of sync. Our body strains and stresses. We stop enjoying life. We are too busy hurrying, racing blindly to somewhere, anywhere. We hurry so fast that when we get there, we don’t take the time to enjoy it. We simply hurry on to the next moment.
Step in time to the music– the rhythm of our soul. The rhythm will lead you where you want to go. It will take you through all the tasks that need doing. It will take you down the road to spiritual growth, healing fulfillment, and joy.
And you’ll have more fun going there because you weren’t in a hurry.
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More Language Of Letting Go
Practice peace
I think that change often slips in when we’re relaxed inside of ourselves.
–Sark
Relax. Calm yourself down. Breathe consciously.
You don’t have to take a nap to relax, but sometimes it helps. So does taking a hot shower, walking through a forest, wading in a stream, drinking a cup of tea, going for a swim, watching a movie, listening to music, saying a prayer, meditating, getting a back rub, looking at the moon, or hearing a good joke.
Become conscious of how your body feels when you’re rrelaxed inside. How do you stand, walk, sit, breathe?
Become conscious of how you feel and what you think when you’re relaxed, It’s almost like nothingness, only you’re awake and aware. There are no angry thoughts and feelings. No frightened thoughts and feelings.
Practice relaxing until you can take that relaxed feeling with you no matter where you go or what you’re doing.
When’s a good time to relax? When you can’t do anything about whatever’s bothering you. When you’re afraid. When you’re certain that you have to do something, but you don’t know what that something is. When you’re meeting someone for the first time, obsessing, feeling guilty, grieving, feeling lonely, telling someone how you feel, balancing your checkbook, falling in love, getting a divorce, climbing a mountain, or learning to do something new.
When you practice relaxing inside, you’re practicing peace.
Practice peace until you can do it perfectly.
God, help me learn to consciously relax inside of myself.
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Sharing Space and Energy
Cohabitating with Others
Our homes are our havens. These places where we come to rest, recharge, and dream in safety and comfort allow us to better face the challenges of the world outside our doors. When sharing a living space with others, an awareness of the thoughts and feelings of everyone involved is essential in creating the peace we all desire. Regardless of where we lived before, each time we cohabitate with others it is important that we make the effort to share the space in a way that supports everyone.
We need to remember that in a shared space, everything we sense can also be sensed by another person. Peace will not likely be the result when the senses are filled with the sight of unwashed plates, intrusive sounds, unpleasant smells, the feel of a foreign substance beneath bare feet, or the taste of food tainted by an uncovered onion in the fridge. But if we communicate and listen with respect to those with whom we share a space, we may find that one enjoys washing dishes to end the day, while the other can take out the garbage during their evening walk. Working with another’s schedule, you can still meditate or exercise to your favorite music while the other is out, and save reading for the times when they are trying to sleep. Being thoughtful of the energy that is required for something to be cleaned up may make everyone aware of being neater, whether that means taking off your shoes at the entrance or wiping up juice spilled on the kitchen floor.
In the same way, pent up resentment toward your living partners is just as easily felt. Keeping the energy clear requires the effort of communication, the awareness of another’s feelings, and courtesy toward the space you share. While that sometimes requires changing your schedule or habits, there are many times when having a caring someone nearby is worth all the effort. Living with others can help us learn to mingle our energies at home as well as at work and in the world at large in a way that benefits us and everyone around us. Published with permission from Daily OM
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A Day at a Time
Reflection for the Day
In the process of learning to love myself and, in turn, to love others freely with no strings attached, I've begun to understand these words of St. Augustine: "Love slays what we have been, that we may be what we were not." More and more, I feel this enormous power of such love in The Program; for me, the words, "we care," also mean, "we love."
Just for today, will I try to be loving in every thought and action?
Today I Pray
I pray that I may feel the enormity and the power of the love I find in The Program. May my own caring be added to that great energy of love which belongs to all of us. May I care with my whole heart that my fellow members maintain their sobriety and are learning to live with it comfortably and creatively. May I never doubt that they care the same way about me.
Today I Will Remember
Caring makes it happen.
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One More Day
All our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.
– Blaise Pascal
In all our endeavors it is apparent that success is possible only with persistent effort. We must all pay the price to achieve any worthwhile goal. We shouldn’t be surprised when negative thoughts enter our minds. These thoughts do not go away easily. We have human frailties, so our thoughts are often disorganized and feelings are to subdued or excessive. Perfection is not possible no matter how hard we try. But we can search for answers.
We can’t have things both ways, so we have to make choices. We can think through the trade-off before we make a choice. Whatever our choice, we should make it and accept it. Squandered chances to solve problems may be lost forever.
I struggle with the same problems over and over again. Today, I resolve to start my search to find some answers.
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Food For Thought
Different Strokes
Though we are all very much alike as compulsive overeaters, we are also individuals with individual differences. We may work the OA program differently and we may define abstinence differently. The only requirement for OA membership is the desire to stop eating compulsively. Each of us takes a separate path to that goal.
Through the program, we grow more tolerant of the people who think and act differently from ourselves. We share what has worked for us, and someone else is free to take it or leave it. Our attention and concern is of value to those we would help, but we cannot prescribe for them.
Some of us follow a doctor's guidelines for our eating plan. Some of us are not always willing to weigh and measure. Some of us eat smaller, more frequent meals instead of three a day. What is a binge food for one person may be perfectly fine for someone else.
We are all learning how to be responsible for ourselves. No one forbids us this or gives us permission for that. Our differences are God given, and we accept each other in love.
I need to be more tolerant.
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One Day At A Time
STEP ONE
“Well begun is half done.”
Aristotle
The first time I took step one I knew that I was beat. Because I knew that I was beat, I knew I had to have help to survive. I sought and accepted that help in OA. I put the program into action. I completed the twelve steps and tasted recovery.
Over the years I have had to renew my step one, and each time I was convinced that I was not going to make it without the help in program. That spurred me on to complete the 12 steps many times. Step one is essentially what made me complete all twelve steps and go on to a fuller and fuller life in recovery. Without step one, there really was no need or motivation for steps two through twelve.
Recently I realized that step one is particularly necessary to do step twelve. I cannot help anyone without my Higher Power. I cannot control another's program. I cannot carry the message on my own, nor can I practice the principles in all my affairs by myself. Step one -- my powerlessness and my inability to manage -- is a great blessing. It is what spurs me on to turn to my Higher Power in all tasks great and small; it is what helps me to gain more and more ground in recovery.
One day at a time...
I will admit my powerlessness and my inability to manage, then I will turn to God Who will take me through my program and my life - with His power and His ability to manage.
~ Q
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AA 'Big Book' - Quote
Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, psychiatrist: 'As a psychiatrist, I have thought a great deal about the relationship of my specialty to A.A. and I have come to the conclusion that our particular function can very often lie in preparing the way for the patient to accept any sort of treatment or outside help. I now conceive the psychiatrist's job to be the task of breaking down the patient's inner resistance so that which is inside him will flower, as under the activity of the A.A. program.'
Pg. 569 - 4th. Ed. - Appendices III - The Medical View On A.A.
Hour To Hour - Book - Quote
An understanding of the false 'benefits' of mind-affecting chemicals is required so we can begin anew. An understanding of the 'tricks' of the mind to get us to use is also needed. Then we can enter into the truth.
God, as I understand You, bring the light of truth to my eyes.
Patience with Myself
Today, I will be patient with myself. When I do not do as well as I wish I would, I will not make that a reason to get down on myself. I will instead recognize that the fastest way to bring myself out of a painful funk is through understanding and being good to myself. I needn't get caught in my own cycle of shame, resentment and blame. If a child is upset, I comfort the child because I understand that is what will makes things better. I give myself the same comfort that I would extend to a hurt child knowing that it will help me have the strength to forgive and move on.
- Tian Dayton PhD
Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote
What comes after ninety days? Ninety-one! 'Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.' ~Will Rogers
There are only two times I have to diligently work this program, the first 90 days and every day after that!
"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" -Book
Try to live life without adding to your 8th Step list.
Time for Joy - Book - Quote
Today I choose to go with the flow.
Alkiespeak - Book - Quote
I drank to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. - Anon.
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AA Thought for the Day
June 2
Surprise!
Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out not to be the grim,
wet-blanket experience we had expected!
While we were drinking, a life without alcohol seemed like no life at all.
But for most members of AA, living sober is really living -- a joyous experience.
We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking.
One more note: anyone can get sober. We have all done it lots of times.
The trick is to stay and to live sober. That is what this booklet is about.
- Living Sober, Foreword
Thought to Ponder . . .
Sobriety is a journey, not a destination.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Alive.
~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
Happiness
"I feel myself a useful member of the human race at last.
I have something to contribute to humanity,
since I am peculiarly qualified, as a fellow-sufferer,
to give aid and comfort to those who have
stumbled and fallen over this business
of meeting life.
I get my greatest thrill of accomplishment
from the knowledge that I have played a part
in the new happiness achieved
by countless others like myself."
1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 229
Thought to Consider . . .
The joy is in the journey, so enjoy the ride.
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
B E S T = Been Enjoying Sobriety Today?
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Fairness
From "We Agnostics":
"We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that
many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness
and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.
"Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of
wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the
beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never gave the spiritual side of
life a fair hearing."
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 49-50
*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"I don't know when it happened, but one day I felt like I belonged in my group of sober guys ... I didn't have to leave. "
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, December 2006
"Out of Isolation,"
AA Grapevine
~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*
"We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor
do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. When we see a man
sinking into the mire that is alcoholism, we give him first aid and
place what we have at his disposal."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 132
"We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. 'Do I now
believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power
greater than myself?' As soon as a man can say that he does believe,
or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on
his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this
simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 47
The joy of living is the theme of A.A.’s Twelfth Step, and action is its key word.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 106
Misc. AA Literature - Quote
Suppose A.A. falls under sharp public attack or heavy ridicule, having little or no justification in fact. Our best defense in
these situations would be no defense whatever--namely, complete silence at the public level. If in good humor we let
unreasonable critics alone, they are apt to subside the more quickly. If their attacks persist and it is plain that they are
misinformed, it may be wise to communicate with them privately in a temperate and informative way.
If, however, a given criticism of A.A. is partly or wholly justified, it may be well to acknowledge this privately to the critics,
together with our thanks.
But under no conditions should we exhibit anger or any punitive intent.
What we must recognize is that we exult in some of our defects. Self-righteous anger can be very enjoyable. In a
perverse way we can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us; it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority.
Prayer For The Day: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You with a thankful heart for all that You have done in my life. Thank you for the many answers to my prayers and I appreciate You always being there when I call. May our lives be a testimony of Your love. Forgive us when we fail You and help us to overcome all the things that would hinder us from being like You. I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and ye shall find,
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Matthew 7:7
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom to know the difference.
Thy will, not mine, be done.
June 2
Daily Reflections
THE UPWARD PATH
Here are the steps we took. . . . .
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 59
These are the words that lead into the Twelve Steps. In their
direct simplicity they sweep aside all psychological and
philosophical considerations about the rightness of the Steps.
They describe what I did: I took the Steps and sobriety was
the result. These words do not imply that I should walk the
well-trodden path of those who went before, but rather that
there is a way for me to become sober and that it is a way I
shall have to find. It is a new path, one that leads to
infinite light at the top of the mountain. The Steps advise
me about the footholds that are safe and about chasms to
avoid. They provide me with the tools I need during the many
parts of the solitary journey of my soul. When I speak of
this journey, I share my experience, strength and hope with
others.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Some more things I do not miss since becoming dry: wondering
if the car is in the garage and how I got home; struggling to
remember where I was and what I did since my last conscious
moment; trying to delay getting off to work, and wondering how
I will look when I get there; dreading the day ahead of me.
I'm quite sure that I don't miss these things, am I not?
Meditation For The Day
You cannot believe in God and keep your selfish ways. The old
self shrivels up and dies, and upon the reborn soul God's
image becomes stamped. The gradual elimination of selfishness
in the growth of love for God and your fellow human beings is
the goal of life. At first, you have only a faint likeness to
the Divine, but the picture grows and takes on more and more
of the likeness of God until those who see you can see in you
some of the power of God's grace at work in a human life.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may develop that faint likeness I have to the
Divine. I pray that others may see in me some of the power of
God's grace at work.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Without Anger, p. 153
Suppose A.A. falls under sharp public attack or heavy ridicule, having
little or no justification in fact. Our best defense in these situations
would be no defense whatever--namely, complete silence at the public
level. If in good humor we let unreasonable critics alone, they are apt
to subside more quickly. If their attacks persist and it is plain that they
are misinformed, it may be wise to communicate with them privately in
a temperate and informative way.
If, however, a given criticism of A.A. is partly or wholly justified, it may
well be to acknowledge this privately to the critics, together with our
thanks.
But under no conditions should we exhibit anger or any punitive intent.
<< << << >> >> >>
What we must recognize is that we exult in some of our defects.
Self-righteousness anger can be very enjoyable. In a perverse way we
can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us;
it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority.
1. Twelve Concepts, p. 69
2. 12 & 12, pp. 66-67
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Why admitting we're wrong is right
Right action
Sometimes it's painful or almost impossible to admit that we've been wrong. This means we'll probably go on making the same mistakes until we're forced to face the truth. Why does this happen?
The problem lies with what we call the EGO in our Twelve step program discussions. We commit ourselves in defending this ego at al times, especially around people who seem to put us down. Far from being a minor correction, any admissions of wrong feels like total defeat, at least in our warped way of looking at things.
We can release ourselves from this bondage simply by coming to see that admitting and facing our wrongs is essential to growth. A store manager who overstocks a certain item "admits" the mistake by putting the goods on a clearance sale and getting rid of them. We can cut any loss in the same way by admitting a mistake and going on to a better course of action.
I'll not plan to make any mistakes today, but I'll hold myself in readiness to admit them if they occur. This is no threat to my ego. I am much more than my mistakes.
************************************************** *********
Each Day a New Beginning
I have come to realize that all my trouble with living has come from fear and smallness within me. --Angela L. Wozniak
We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are. We fear that we are inadequate to the task before us, fear that another woman is more attractive, fear that the friends around us are bored by our presence.
Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement with the experiences we are given to grow on. When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure: failure to take all we can from life; failure to be all that we can be. Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves. When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind.
I will not fear whatever looks like trouble today. Nothing I can't handle, in fact, nothing I can't grow from will come my way today. My inner strength can see me through.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.---Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us want to be happy. We just don't know how. We aren't sure what happiness is. We've learned the hard way that some things we wanted didn't make us happy. We're learning that happiness comes when we live the way our Higher Power wants us to live. That's when we’re honest. When we do our best work. When we are a true friend. We make happiness; we don't find it. Sometimes we don't even know we're happy. We're too busy with our work, our recovery program, our friends and family. We need to slow down and know that when we do what we need to, happiness comes.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know that I'm most happy when I listen to You and do Your will. You know better than I do what makes me happy.
Action for the Day: What parts of my program am I most happy about? Today I'll think of these and enjoy myself.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
The Doctor's Opinion
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.
pp. xxviii-xxix
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories
ANOTHER CHANCE - Poor, black, totally ruled by alcohol, she felt shut away from any life worth living. But when she began a prison sentence, a door opened.
Now I had gotten to the place where I would wake up with black eyes and not know where I got them, or wake up with a lot of money and not know where i got it. Later I found out that I went into stores and stole clothes, then sold them. One morning I woke up with a thousand dollars. I was trying to remember where it came from, when two of the biggest cops i ever saw walked in and took me to jail. It came out that I had sold a woman a fur coat. The cops had picked her up, and she told them she had bought it from me. I got out on bail right away, but when I went to trial, the judge gave me thirty days. When my thirty days were up, I started back on my rounds. I didn't last long. They tell me that I killed a man during that period, but I can't remember anything. Because I had been drunk, the judge gave me a twelve-year sentence in prison.
p. 533
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Two - "For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience."
"So spoke the group conscience. The group was right and I was wrong; the voice on the subway was not the voice of God. Here was the true voice, welling up out of my friends. I listened, and - thank God - I obeyed."
p. 138
************************************************** *********
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn
whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
--Helen Keller
I came to this program to save my butt and found out it was attached
to my soul.
--Anonymous
"How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on
the inside of us."
--Park Cousins
"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the
only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have
sought and found how to serve."
--Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
"What we do in these rooms is we share our experience, strength, and
hope. The worse it gets, the more we laugh and the better it gets,
the more we cry. We call it Alcoholics Anonymous."
--thanks to Norm A. for this wonderful quote
In this world, nothing is permanent except change.
--American Proverb
All things change, and we with them.
--American Proverb
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
TIME
"Everything one does enough of
eventually generates its own
interest and one then begins to
believe in it. "
--Alan Dunn
I never thought that I could stay sober. For years I tried to abstain
with no success. It was not the act of stopping that was different ( I
could stop three times in one week!). It was staying stopped.
Then a man said, "Try stopping for twenty-four hours. If that proves
too long, try stopping until the morning or for one hour or even for one
minute . . . If the cravings gets too severe, call me but don't take that
first drink!" My abstinence began in periods of twenty-four hours.
Life is made up of days and we live in periods of twenty-four hours, so
I live a day at a time. I was successful. I am successful. Today I have a
number of years that are based on the simplicity of "don't drink today
". I believe in it. I believe in me. And it gets better.
Lord of time, thank you for giving me the simplicity of days, hours and
minutes.
************************************************** *********
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3
He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his
mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the
Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of
what Jesus Christ our Savior did.
Titus 3:5-6
You aren't alone in your trials and struggles. God is your help and
strength in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Sometimes it is better to remove things from your "to do" list rather than adding to it. Lord, give me the courage to say no to the things that cause me to feel overwhelmed.
Imagine that you were paid for every kindness and charged for every unkindness. Would you be rich or poor? Lord, I often pray for material wealth. Let me not neglect my soul by now praying for the ability to build my spiritual wealth also.
************************************************** *********
NA Just For Today
Sick And Tired
"We wanted an easy way out.... When we did seek help we were only looking for the absence of pain."
Basic Text, p. 5
Something's not working. In fact, something's been wrong for a long time, causing us pain and complicating our lives. The problem is that, at any given moment, it always appears easier to continue bearing the pain of our defects than to submit to the total upheaval involved in changing the way we live. We may long to be free of pain, but only rarely are we willing to do what's truly necessary to remove the source of pain from our lives.
Most of us didn't begin seeking recovery from addiction until we were "sick and tired of being tired and sick." The same is true of the lingering character defects we've carried through our lives. Only when we can't bear our shortcomings one moment longer, only when we know that the pain of change can't be as bad as the pain we're in today, are most of us willing to try something different.
Thankfully, the steps are always there, no matter what we're sick and tired of. The irony is that, as soon as we make the decision to begin the Twelve Step process, we realize our fears of change were groundless. The steps offer a gentle program of change, one step at a time. No single step is so frightening that we can't work it, by itself. As we apply the steps to our lives, we experience a change that frees us.
Just for today: No matter what prevents me from living a full, happy life, I know the program can help me change, a step at a time. I need not be afraid of the Twelve Steps.
************************************************** *********
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Thoughts, rest your wings. Here is a hollow of silence, a nest of stillness, in which to hatch your dreams. --Joan Walsh Anglund
There is silence in the nest before an egg is hatched. The mother robin must sit quietly and warm them enough to be hatched. During this time, the mother concentrates only on her eggs. She does not let herself be distracted.
There is a time of silence before anything creative is born. And there is silence in the mind before an idea is discovered. A nest is a safe place birds can always return to and be at home. We all need such a nest of silence--a place where we can be quiet and safe, where we can let ourselves be held, and rest.
Often, our best ideas come out of these quiet moments. Times of silence are good for our souls. Just like the robin eggs hatching, so will dreams and solutions grow out of our own nest of stillness.
How well will I use my quiet time today?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
'Remember! You're two different animals. Men and women cannot totally unite. --Pierre Mornell
As we relate to women, we are often driven by needs, which no person could meet, and hampered by ignorance of what the opposite sex is really like. Perhaps we want to lose ourselves in a romantic closeness as we once lost ourselves in addiction and codependency. Then we get hurt and angry when the impossible doesn't happen. Or we fail to understand that one woman's reactions are different from our own.
The dialogue between the sexes is as old as the generations. It will always be a mixture of fascination, mystery, frustration, and new understandings. When we realize we cannot merge with a woman, take her over, or be taken over by her, we will meet her as a separate person, and our relationships will become vastly more peaceful.
Thanks to God for the differences. Let me learn more about them and accept them.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
I have come to realize that all my trouble with living has come from fear and smallness within me. --Angela L. Wozniak
We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are. We fear that we are inadequate to the task before us, fear that another woman is more attractive, fear that the friends around us are bored by our presence.
Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement with the experiences we are given to grow on. When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure: failure to take all we can from life; failure to be all that we can be. Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves. When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind.
I will not fear whatever looks like trouble today. Nothing I can't handle, in fact, nothing I can't grow from will come my way today. My inner strength can see me through.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Owning Our Power
We don't have to give others so much power and ourselves so little. We don't have to give others so much credit and ourselves so little. In recovery from codependency, we learn there's a big difference between humility and discounting ourselves.
When others act irresponsibly and attempt to blame their problems on us, we no longer feel guilty. We let them face their own consequences.
When others talk nonsense, we don't question our own thinking.
When others try to manipulate or exploit us, we know it's okay to feel anger and distrust and to say no to the plan.
When others tell us that we want something that we really don't want, or someone tells us that we don't want something that we really do want, we trust ourselves. When others tell us things we don't believe, we know it's okay to trust our instincts.
We can even change our mind later.
We don't have to give up our personal power to anyone: strangers, friends, spouses, children, authority figures, or those over whom we're in authority. People may have things to teach us. They may have more information than we have, and may appear more confident or forceful than we feel. But we are equals. Our magic is not in them. Our magic, our light, is in us. And it is as bright a light as theirs.
We are not second-class citizens. By owning our power, we don't have to become aggressive or controlling. We don't have to discount others. But we don't discount ourselves either.
Today, I will own my power with people. I will let myself know what I know, feel what I feel, believe what I believe, and see what I see. I will be open to changing and learning from others and experience, but I will trust and validate myself too. I will stand in my own truth.
Today I choose to go with the flow. --Ruth Fishel
**************************************************
Journey To The Heart
Why Hurry Through?
Why hurry through a day, an hour, a life?
Hurry never catches up with itself. It misses out. It strains. It stresses. It doesn’t trust the natural rhythm, the natural order, of the universe. Slow down. Tap into the rhythm of the world. Tap into your rhythm as you dance through life, as you dance through eternity.
When you hurry, it is as if we are dancing out of step to the music. We become out of sync. Our body strains and stresses. We stop enjoying life. We are too busy hurrying, racing blindly to somewhere, anywhere. We hurry so fast that when we get there, we don’t take the time to enjoy it. We simply hurry on to the next moment.
Step in time to the music– the rhythm of our soul. The rhythm will lead you where you want to go. It will take you through all the tasks that need doing. It will take you down the road to spiritual growth, healing fulfillment, and joy.
And you’ll have more fun going there because you weren’t in a hurry.
**************************************************
More Language Of Letting Go
Practice peace
I think that change often slips in when we’re relaxed inside of ourselves.
–Sark
Relax. Calm yourself down. Breathe consciously.
You don’t have to take a nap to relax, but sometimes it helps. So does taking a hot shower, walking through a forest, wading in a stream, drinking a cup of tea, going for a swim, watching a movie, listening to music, saying a prayer, meditating, getting a back rub, looking at the moon, or hearing a good joke.
Become conscious of how your body feels when you’re rrelaxed inside. How do you stand, walk, sit, breathe?
Become conscious of how you feel and what you think when you’re relaxed, It’s almost like nothingness, only you’re awake and aware. There are no angry thoughts and feelings. No frightened thoughts and feelings.
Practice relaxing until you can take that relaxed feeling with you no matter where you go or what you’re doing.
When’s a good time to relax? When you can’t do anything about whatever’s bothering you. When you’re afraid. When you’re certain that you have to do something, but you don’t know what that something is. When you’re meeting someone for the first time, obsessing, feeling guilty, grieving, feeling lonely, telling someone how you feel, balancing your checkbook, falling in love, getting a divorce, climbing a mountain, or learning to do something new.
When you practice relaxing inside, you’re practicing peace.
Practice peace until you can do it perfectly.
God, help me learn to consciously relax inside of myself.
**************************************************
Sharing Space and Energy
Cohabitating with Others
Our homes are our havens. These places where we come to rest, recharge, and dream in safety and comfort allow us to better face the challenges of the world outside our doors. When sharing a living space with others, an awareness of the thoughts and feelings of everyone involved is essential in creating the peace we all desire. Regardless of where we lived before, each time we cohabitate with others it is important that we make the effort to share the space in a way that supports everyone.
We need to remember that in a shared space, everything we sense can also be sensed by another person. Peace will not likely be the result when the senses are filled with the sight of unwashed plates, intrusive sounds, unpleasant smells, the feel of a foreign substance beneath bare feet, or the taste of food tainted by an uncovered onion in the fridge. But if we communicate and listen with respect to those with whom we share a space, we may find that one enjoys washing dishes to end the day, while the other can take out the garbage during their evening walk. Working with another’s schedule, you can still meditate or exercise to your favorite music while the other is out, and save reading for the times when they are trying to sleep. Being thoughtful of the energy that is required for something to be cleaned up may make everyone aware of being neater, whether that means taking off your shoes at the entrance or wiping up juice spilled on the kitchen floor.
In the same way, pent up resentment toward your living partners is just as easily felt. Keeping the energy clear requires the effort of communication, the awareness of another’s feelings, and courtesy toward the space you share. While that sometimes requires changing your schedule or habits, there are many times when having a caring someone nearby is worth all the effort. Living with others can help us learn to mingle our energies at home as well as at work and in the world at large in a way that benefits us and everyone around us. Published with permission from Daily OM
**************************************************
A Day at a Time
Reflection for the Day
In the process of learning to love myself and, in turn, to love others freely with no strings attached, I've begun to understand these words of St. Augustine: "Love slays what we have been, that we may be what we were not." More and more, I feel this enormous power of such love in The Program; for me, the words, "we care," also mean, "we love."
Just for today, will I try to be loving in every thought and action?
Today I Pray
I pray that I may feel the enormity and the power of the love I find in The Program. May my own caring be added to that great energy of love which belongs to all of us. May I care with my whole heart that my fellow members maintain their sobriety and are learning to live with it comfortably and creatively. May I never doubt that they care the same way about me.
Today I Will Remember
Caring makes it happen.
**************************************************
One More Day
All our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.
– Blaise Pascal
In all our endeavors it is apparent that success is possible only with persistent effort. We must all pay the price to achieve any worthwhile goal. We shouldn’t be surprised when negative thoughts enter our minds. These thoughts do not go away easily. We have human frailties, so our thoughts are often disorganized and feelings are to subdued or excessive. Perfection is not possible no matter how hard we try. But we can search for answers.
We can’t have things both ways, so we have to make choices. We can think through the trade-off before we make a choice. Whatever our choice, we should make it and accept it. Squandered chances to solve problems may be lost forever.
I struggle with the same problems over and over again. Today, I resolve to start my search to find some answers.
************************************
Food For Thought
Different Strokes
Though we are all very much alike as compulsive overeaters, we are also individuals with individual differences. We may work the OA program differently and we may define abstinence differently. The only requirement for OA membership is the desire to stop eating compulsively. Each of us takes a separate path to that goal.
Through the program, we grow more tolerant of the people who think and act differently from ourselves. We share what has worked for us, and someone else is free to take it or leave it. Our attention and concern is of value to those we would help, but we cannot prescribe for them.
Some of us follow a doctor's guidelines for our eating plan. Some of us are not always willing to weigh and measure. Some of us eat smaller, more frequent meals instead of three a day. What is a binge food for one person may be perfectly fine for someone else.
We are all learning how to be responsible for ourselves. No one forbids us this or gives us permission for that. Our differences are God given, and we accept each other in love.
I need to be more tolerant.
*****************************************
One Day At A Time
STEP ONE
“Well begun is half done.”
Aristotle
The first time I took step one I knew that I was beat. Because I knew that I was beat, I knew I had to have help to survive. I sought and accepted that help in OA. I put the program into action. I completed the twelve steps and tasted recovery.
Over the years I have had to renew my step one, and each time I was convinced that I was not going to make it without the help in program. That spurred me on to complete the 12 steps many times. Step one is essentially what made me complete all twelve steps and go on to a fuller and fuller life in recovery. Without step one, there really was no need or motivation for steps two through twelve.
Recently I realized that step one is particularly necessary to do step twelve. I cannot help anyone without my Higher Power. I cannot control another's program. I cannot carry the message on my own, nor can I practice the principles in all my affairs by myself. Step one -- my powerlessness and my inability to manage -- is a great blessing. It is what spurs me on to turn to my Higher Power in all tasks great and small; it is what helps me to gain more and more ground in recovery.
One day at a time...
I will admit my powerlessness and my inability to manage, then I will turn to God Who will take me through my program and my life - with His power and His ability to manage.
~ Q
*****************************************
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, psychiatrist: 'As a psychiatrist, I have thought a great deal about the relationship of my specialty to A.A. and I have come to the conclusion that our particular function can very often lie in preparing the way for the patient to accept any sort of treatment or outside help. I now conceive the psychiatrist's job to be the task of breaking down the patient's inner resistance so that which is inside him will flower, as under the activity of the A.A. program.'
Pg. 569 - 4th. Ed. - Appendices III - The Medical View On A.A.
Hour To Hour - Book - Quote
An understanding of the false 'benefits' of mind-affecting chemicals is required so we can begin anew. An understanding of the 'tricks' of the mind to get us to use is also needed. Then we can enter into the truth.
God, as I understand You, bring the light of truth to my eyes.
Patience with Myself
Today, I will be patient with myself. When I do not do as well as I wish I would, I will not make that a reason to get down on myself. I will instead recognize that the fastest way to bring myself out of a painful funk is through understanding and being good to myself. I needn't get caught in my own cycle of shame, resentment and blame. If a child is upset, I comfort the child because I understand that is what will makes things better. I give myself the same comfort that I would extend to a hurt child knowing that it will help me have the strength to forgive and move on.
- Tian Dayton PhD
Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote
What comes after ninety days? Ninety-one! 'Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.' ~Will Rogers
There are only two times I have to diligently work this program, the first 90 days and every day after that!
"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" -Book
Try to live life without adding to your 8th Step list.
Time for Joy - Book - Quote
Today I choose to go with the flow.
Alkiespeak - Book - Quote
I drank to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. - Anon.
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AA Thought for the Day
June 2
Surprise!
Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out not to be the grim,
wet-blanket experience we had expected!
While we were drinking, a life without alcohol seemed like no life at all.
But for most members of AA, living sober is really living -- a joyous experience.
We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking.
One more note: anyone can get sober. We have all done it lots of times.
The trick is to stay and to live sober. That is what this booklet is about.
- Living Sober, Foreword
Thought to Ponder . . .
Sobriety is a journey, not a destination.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Alive.
~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
Happiness
"I feel myself a useful member of the human race at last.
I have something to contribute to humanity,
since I am peculiarly qualified, as a fellow-sufferer,
to give aid and comfort to those who have
stumbled and fallen over this business
of meeting life.
I get my greatest thrill of accomplishment
from the knowledge that I have played a part
in the new happiness achieved
by countless others like myself."
1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 229
Thought to Consider . . .
The joy is in the journey, so enjoy the ride.
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
B E S T = Been Enjoying Sobriety Today?
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Fairness
From "We Agnostics":
"We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that
many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness
and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.
"Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of
wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the
beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never gave the spiritual side of
life a fair hearing."
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 49-50
*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"I don't know when it happened, but one day I felt like I belonged in my group of sober guys ... I didn't have to leave. "
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, December 2006
"Out of Isolation,"
AA Grapevine
~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*
"We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor
do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. When we see a man
sinking into the mire that is alcoholism, we give him first aid and
place what we have at his disposal."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 132
"We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. 'Do I now
believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power
greater than myself?' As soon as a man can say that he does believe,
or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on
his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this
simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 47
The joy of living is the theme of A.A.’s Twelfth Step, and action is its key word.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 106
Misc. AA Literature - Quote
Suppose A.A. falls under sharp public attack or heavy ridicule, having little or no justification in fact. Our best defense in
these situations would be no defense whatever--namely, complete silence at the public level. If in good humor we let
unreasonable critics alone, they are apt to subside the more quickly. If their attacks persist and it is plain that they are
misinformed, it may be wise to communicate with them privately in a temperate and informative way.
If, however, a given criticism of A.A. is partly or wholly justified, it may be well to acknowledge this privately to the critics,
together with our thanks.
But under no conditions should we exhibit anger or any punitive intent.
What we must recognize is that we exult in some of our defects. Self-righteous anger can be very enjoyable. In a
perverse way we can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us; it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority.
Prayer For The Day: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You with a thankful heart for all that You have done in my life. Thank you for the many answers to my prayers and I appreciate You always being there when I call. May our lives be a testimony of Your love. Forgive us when we fail You and help us to overcome all the things that would hinder us from being like You. I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and ye shall find,
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Matthew 7:7