Today's Thought - April

[bluidkiti]

April 1

Once you start helping others, you’ll realize you have plenty to give them.

~Michael Graubart

Even in recovery, we addicts often feel we are not enough. Maybe it’s leftover shame from our using days. But we are enough. We are of great value. We all need each other to stay sober.

Each of us needs other recovering people to help us remember the hell of addiction. We can forget how bad it was, but telling our stories makes us remember. When you feel you don’t want to stay sober for yourself, then stay sober for your brothers and sisters in the program. They need you. You’re their recovery, as they’re yours. There may be days you don’t feel glad to be sober. But your friends in this fellowship are glad you’re sober. They thank you for your sobriety.
Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me to see how my role in the recovery community helps others and how that adds to my sense of self.
Action for the Day

I’ll stop and think of all the people I’m glad for. I’ll start telling them today.

Today's reading is from the book Keep it Simple: Daily Meditations for Twelve Step Beginnings and Renewal*

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April 2

Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.

~Hermann Hesse

The forces of chaos and forces of order are always at work in the world. While many things are being built up, many are wearing down. It is a good thing, because life would be very boring in an unchanging state. But the chaos we met in our lives was often extreme and unusually destructive. We had to recognize it and feel the pain of it before we could build a new order. Looking back, we can see that our First Step was just such an event.

All people have small chaotic events in their lives every day. If we take a moment and reflect on our present lives, we can certainly become aware of some ways in which things are in disarray. By simply letting ourselves know it in this moment, we get ready for the new order to begin.

I pray for courage and honesty to see the chaos that exists today. Help me become ready for the new order to evolve.

Today's reading is from the book Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men*

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April 3

Developing ourselves

We must realize in our hearts that we are becoming better people. We do this by using our highest standards and making our best efforts. We do this, in part, by turning our lives over to our Higher Power, who will guide us if we sincerely ask.

As we develop, we find we’re offering much more to life than just avoiding mood-altering drugs. We are coming to love others and to help them by thinking, feeling, and behaving maturely in all situations.

Am I developing into a better person?

Higher Power, help me realize that my new life is not just about changing my past but about developing my future as well.

Today I will work on developing myself by…

Today's reading is from the book Day by Day: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts*

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April 4

Reflection for the Day

Change is the characteristic of all growth. From drinking to sobriety, from dishonesty to honesty, from conflict to serenity, from childish dependence to adult responsibility—all this and infinitely more represent change for the better. Only a Higher Power is unchanging; only a force greater than me can hold all the truth there is. Do I accept the belief that lack of power was my dilemma? Have I found a power by which I can live—a Power greater than myself?
Today I Pray

I pray that the program will be, for me, an outline for change—for changing me. These days of transition from active addiction to sobriety, from powerlessness to power through a Higher Power, may be rocky, as change can be. May my restlessness be stilled by the unchanging nature of my Higher Power, in which I place my trust. Only my Higher Power is whole and perfect and predictable.
Today I Will Remember

I can count on my Higher Power.

Today's reading is from the book A Day at a Time: Daily Reflections for Recovering People*

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April 5

We can never take back our cruel words.

Sometimes we want to hurt others. Maybe it’s because we are feeling inadequate and jealous: We don’t want them to get ahead of us, so we try to deflate their happiness. Maybe it’s because they are not living up to our expectations. Or maybe it’s because they continue using alcohol and other drugs, ignoring our pleas to stop. We may have dozens of reasons for wanting to inflict cruelty on others, but none is justified.

Learning the value of pausing, even for that brief moment before speaking, will bring us immediate rewards. Amends-making will be a simpler, less time-consuming task when we pause before responding to others. But more important, we will feel better about ourselves when we treat others with the respect they deserve. Every cruel word we inflict on another person will come back to us. So will every kindness. Furthermore, every time we show respect for others, we will be showered with greater respect too.

I can pause before I respond to people and remember respect is a two-way street.

Today's reading is from the book A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance*

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April 6

From five hundred miles away jealousy can hear the crumpling of a pillow beneath two heads.

~Naomi Replansky

When the green-eyed monster, jealousy, takes up residence in our heads, everything we used to know about ourselves shrinks and disappears. Suddenly, our lives are all about lack. We don’t have enough affection; we don’t have enough money. We’ve missed out on the lover, the grant, the promotion, the inheritance. Our bodies, homes, wardrobes, work—all that we have is inadequate compared with what others have, with what they have stolen from us!

In this turbulent and painful state of mind, we can sometimes step back and see how absurd our claims to superiority or inferiority are. Comparing ourselves unfavorably with others, insisting that we’ve missed out on what matters, casts a pall over our lives and disempowers us, as any obsession will. If we’re suffering from jealousy, it’s time to take a deep breath and to pray for abundance and fulfillment in the lives of those we envy. Whether our prayers are open-hearted or begin grudgingly, in time generosity will flow from us again, toward ourselves and others.

Today, I am grateful for abundance in my own and others’ lives.

Today's reading is from the book Glad Day

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April 7

Going Easy

Go easy. You may have to push forward, but you don’t have to push so hard. Go in gentleness, go in peace. Do not be in so much of a hurry. At no day, no hour, no time are you required to do more than you can do in peace. Frantic behaviors and urgency are not the foundation for our new way of life.

Do not be in too much of a hurry to begin. Begin, but do not force the beginning if it is not time. Beginnings will arrive soon enough. Enjoy and relish middles, the heart of the matter. Do not be in too much of a hurry to finish. You may be almost done, but enjoy the final moments. Give yourself fully to those moments so that you may give and get all there is.

Let the pace flow naturally. Move forward. Start. Keep moving forward. Do it gently, though. Do it in peace. Cherish each moment.

Today, God, help me focus on a peaceful pace rather than a harried one. I will keep moving forward gently, not frantically. Help me let go of my need to be anxious, upset, and harried. Help me replace it with a need to be at peace and in harmony.

Today's reading is from the book The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency*

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April 8

Never find your delight in another’s misfortune.

~Publilius Syrus

The German word “schadenfreude” means “delight in the troubles of another.” How many of us are guilty, in greater or lesser degree, of this unattractive habit of thinking? Sometimes, perhaps, it is sheer boredom that makes us perk up at news of someone else’s calamity. A fire, for instance, or a bad car accident often draws a crowd of onlookers who are more excited than they are empathetic.

But some of us actually find it more satisfying to observe another’s misfortunes than her triumphs. We’re quick to condemn and slow to commiserate. We don’t mind a bit when people “get what’s coming to them.” We like to see people “knocked off their high horse.” This assumes that we know two things we don’t know: (1) all the facts, and (2) what anybody deserves. “Schadenfreude” is a canker in the heart. If we find it there, we must root it out at once.

I will wish others well that I may reap what I sow.

Today's reading is from the book Days of Healing, Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children*

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April 9

If what I say resonates with you, it’s because we are both branches of the same tree.

~W. B. Yeats

Once we begin our recovery, we have an instant bond with others in recovery; they seem to understand us pretty well even if they haven’t known us very long. This is because we have a lot in common. We have the same disease. When we hear other addicts tell their stories, we know what they have gone through because it is a lot like what we have gone through.

The disease does similar things to us all. Yet each of us is unique and different, like the branches of a tree. The fact that we share so much with our recovering friends is a true strength. It helps us grow strong. The fact that we have our own special talents, thoughts, and dreams is also a gift. In fact, it makes us a gift to ourselves and others.
Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, thank you for the people in my life who understand me and love me, both because I am like them and because I am different from them.
Today's Action

Today I will make a list of people in recovery I don’t know very well. I will reach out to them so they become part of my recovery tree.

Today's reading is from the book God Grant Me: More Daily Meditations from the Authors of Keep It Simple*

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April 10

Tact is the intelligence of the heart.

~Anonymous

Making direct amends involves much more than a simple “I’m sorry.” Indeed, many of us have received an apology from someone who believed that just saying the words would erase a past full of hurt. Rather than peace, however, we have been left with a nagging feeling of incompleteness.

A real amend is the right one for the relationship. Through the willingness we show in making a list of whom we have harmed, we come to know what the right amend is. If we write a letter or apologize, our personal involvement makes the amend genuine and sincere. We can also choose not to contact the other person, but to make a sincere silent apology and turn it over to our Higher Power. If it’s an old lover to whom we’re making amends, we must consider the person’s present life and whether there’s a spouse involved.

In all cases, the best amend is to change our life so that today’s actions will not cause harm and have to be added to our list of future amends.

I can feel good knowing that every day I am in recovery is a gentle amend for the past.

Today's reading is from the book Answers in the Heart: Daily Meditations for Men and Women Recovering from Sex Addiction*

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April 11

Beauty

Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said.

~George Santayana

Beauty is among our most useful and most used words as we progress toward spiritual goals. The kind of beauty that guides our thinking in recovery does not lie on the outside, but rises from within. When we learn to see that beauty in the words, actions, and attitudes of others as well as in the principles we follow, we are choosing well. Our friends have beauty because of who they really are, not what they may appear to be. The emotions we feel and the living guides we follow are beautiful simply because we need them.

I will have no trouble finding spiritual beauty in our program. True beauty never dies. It is found in all thoughts, attitudes, and emotions, if only I seek it.

Today's reading is from the book Easy Does It: A Book of Daily Twelve Step Meditations*

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April 12

If you’re really working the Third Step, your life is no longer any of your business.

~Anonymous

Turning our will and our life over to the care of God, as we understand God, is the single most difficult thing we would ever be asked to do—if we were asked to do it. But we are not. We are asked only to make the decision. But do we even want to turn our will and life over? Maybe not. After all, we are ultimately responsible for whatever we do, aren’t we? What if we turned it over and promptly lost our job, or our savings, or our spouse?

Pretty drastic stuff.

But wait a minute. When we make the decision, a seed is planted: What if something entirely different, entirely unexpected and delightful were to happen?

Today I will continue to make the decision to turn my life and will over to God, and then see what happens.

Today's reading is from the book In God's Care: Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery*

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April 13

I came to the conclusion then that continual mindfulness…must mean, not a sergeant-major-like drilling of thoughts, but a continual readiness to look and readiness to accept whatever came.

~Joanna Field

Resistance to the events, the situations, the many people who come into our lives blocks the growth we are offered every day. Every moment of every day is offering us a gift—the gift of awareness of other persons, awareness of our natural surroundings, awareness of our own personal impact on creation. And in awareness comes our growth as women.

Living in the now, being present in the moment, guarantees us the protection of God. And in the stretches of time when we anxiously anticipate the events of the future, we cheat ourselves of the security God offers us right now.

We are always being taken care of, right here, right now. Being mindful, this minute, of what's happening, and only this, eases all anxieties, erases all fears. We only struggle when we have moved our sights from the present moment. Within the now lies all peace.

The most important lesson I have to learn, the lesson that will eliminate all of my pain and struggle, is to receive fully that which is offered in each moment of my life.

Today's reading is from the book Each Day a New Beginning: Daily meditations for Women*

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April 14

You see the one that I am, not the one that I was. But the one that I was is also still part of myself.

~Jean Améry

Our stories are central to our recovery. We tell them because they remind us where we came from. We live in the present moment, but our history is part of our identity. It isn’t the total of our identity, but it informs our healing. It’s the mine where we dig for the nuggets of wisdom for living today, and it gives us the drive and encouragement to continue our progress. We don’t tell our stories to wallow in the shame and guilt we felt or to gain sympathy for our suffering. And we don’t tell them to revel in the euphoria of the highs we experienced.

In telling our stories, others get to know us better because our history is part of our very selves. In that process, we cannot help but listen to ourselves speak the truth, and we thereby put together the puzzle pieces of our selves. Taking the risk of saying where we came from provides the rewards of feeling accepted by others.

I am grateful for telling my story and knowing that I am more than the man I once was.

Today's reading is from the book Stepping Stones: More Daily Meditations for Men*

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April 15

AA Thought for the Day

The AA program is one of submission, release, and action. When we’re drinking, we’re submitting to a power greater than ourselves—liquor. Our own wills are no use against the power of liquor. One drink and we’re sunk. In AA we stop submitting to the power of liquor. Instead, we submit to a Power, also greater than ourselves, which we call God. Have I submitted myself to my Higher Power?
Meditation for the Day

Ceaseless activity is not God’s plan for your life. Times of withdrawal for renewed strength are always necessary. Wait for the faintest tremor of fear and stop all work, everything, and rest before God until you are strong again. Deal in the same way with all tired feelings. Then you need rest of body and renewal of spirit-force. Saint Paul said: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” This does not mean that you are to do all things and then rely on God to find strength. It means that you are to do the things you believe God wants you to do and only then can you rely on His supply of power.
Prayer for the Day

I pray that God’s spirit will always guide me. I pray that I may learn how to rest and listen, as well as how to work.

Today's reading is from the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day: A Spiritual Resource with Practical Applications for Daily Life*