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04-06-2008, 03:25 PM
Daily Reflections
A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE
And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare
that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither
of us could have lived to see A.A.'s beginning.
THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67
Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to
my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I
might never have survived to reach A.A.'s doors? I will
work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is
showing me which links our lives together.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
In A.A. alcoholics find a way to solve their personality
problems. They do this by recovering three things. First,
they recover their personal integrity. They pull themselves
together. They get honest with themselves and with other
people. They face themselves and their problems honestly,
instead of running away. They take a personal inventory of
themselves to see where they really stand. Then they face
the facts instead of making excuses for themselves. Have
I recovered my integrity?
Meditation For The Day
When trouble comes, do not say: "Why should this happen to
me?" Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people
and their troubles and you will forget about your own.
Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the
consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while,
it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not
so important any more, except as your experience can be used
to help others who are in the same kind of trouble.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may become more unselfish. I pray that I may
not be thrown off the track by letting the old selfishness
creep back into my life.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
The Reality of Spiritual Experiences, p. 182
"Perhaps you raise the question of hallucination versus the divine imagery of a genuine
spiritual experience. I doubt if anyone has authoritatively defined what a hallucination
really is. However, it is certain that all recipients of spiritual experiences declare their
reality. The best evidence of that reality is in the subsequent fruits. Those who receive
these gifts of grace are very much changed people, almost invariably for the better. This
can scarcely be said of those who hallucinate.
"Some might think me presumptuous when I say that my own experience is real.
Nevertheless, I can surely report that in my own life and in the lives of countless others,
the fruits of that experience have been real, and the benefactions beyond reckoning.
Talk, 1960
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Deserving Happiness___Emotional Control
Somewhere in the course of living sober, we should realize that we can deserve to be happy. If happiness is eluding us, the fault may lie in a peculiar guilt from our past. In a perverse way, we may be using unhappiness as penance for our past wrongs.
We deserve to be happy if we are doing the things that should bring happiness to ourselves and others. Thinking and living rightly is a path to happiness. Meeting our obligations to society and others contributes to personal happiness. Placing the overall responsibility for our lives in God's hands is yet another route to happiness.
We can also learn from our experience. Did any of us ever meet a truly happy person who was totally self-seeking? Do we remember any happy, serene people among our drinking companions? Did any of our temporary successes and victories bring permanent happiness?
AA experience gives us the answers we need. Happiness is always in the direction of love and service, never in anything selfish. We deserve to be happy, but we must plant seeds of happiness by our thoughts and actions.
I'll be happy today. If I'm worrying about something, I'll suspend the worry and let myself be happy in spite of it. I deserve to be happy and I am usually the person who is responsible for this happiness.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
To make the world a friendly place One must show it a friendly face.---James Whitcomb Riley
We are beginning to learn that we get what we expect. Why? If we believe that people are out to get us, we'll not treat them well. We will think it's okay to "get them" before they "get us." Then, they'll be angry and want to get even. And on it goes. It's great when we can meet the world with a balance. We are honest people. We can expect others to be fair with us. We get the faith, strength, and courage to do this because of our trust in our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I put my life in Your care. Use me to spread Your love to others.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll spread friendliness. I will greet people with a smile.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
GROUNDED - Alcohol clipped this pilot's wings until sobriety and hard work brought him back to the sky.
So much had happened in my life. I lost almost everything I had worked to acquire. My family had suffered public shame and humiliation. I had been the object of scorn, shame, and disgrace. Yet much more had also happened; every loss had been replaced with rewards. I had seen the promises of the Big Book come true in a magnitude I could never have imagined. I had gotten sober. I had regained my family, and we were once again close and loving. I had learned how to use the Twelve Steps and to live the wonderful program that was founded so many years ago by two drunks.
p. 529
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Seven - "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
As we approach the actual taking of Step Seven, it might be well if we A.A.'s inquire once more just what our deeper objectives are. Each of us would like to live at peace with himself and with his fellows. We would like to be assured that the grace of God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We have seen that character defects based upon shortsighted or unworthy desires are the obstacles that block our path toward these objectives. We now clearly see that we have been making unreasonable demands upon ourselves, upon others, and upon God.
p. 76
************************************************** *********
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
--Vince Lombardi
If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always
yours. And if they don't, they never were.
--Kahlil Gibran
"Devote uninterrupted chunks of time to the most important people in
your life."
--Brian Tracy
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
--John Powell
You can sit there choosing to live your life in pain, or you can choose
to take action and free yourself from the bondage.
--Gary Barnes
Nothing is better than experiencing joy except sharing it with someone
else.
--Deanna Smythe
There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart.
--Celia Thaxter
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
OLD AGE
"You just wake up one morning
and you got it!"
--Moms Mabley
I am so busy living I don't think about "getting old". I am so grateful in
my recovery from alcoholism that tomorrow, the future and age are
secondary.
In my sickness I was always living in the future; what would tomorrow
bring? Will I die crippled, lonely and afraid? My projections into the
future produced an emotional pain.
Today I do not need to do this. I welcome old age because I bring into
it the joy and experience of my sobriety. Will I be lonely? I doubt it if I
stick to my recovery program; I have so many friends all over the
world meeting together to face the disease on a daily basis. Also I
know that nothing could ever compare with the loneliness of my
drinking days.
My spiritual program reminds me to be grateful for my life and this
includes the inevitability of old age.
Lord, as I grow in age may I also grow in wisdom and tolerance.
************************************************** *********
"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall
come forth as gold."
Job 23:10
Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully near you.
Proverbs 3:29
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
One of the best parts of receiving blessings is enjoying them. Lord, may I take time to recognize my blessings and appreciate their wonder.
As a mother sets aside gifts for her children long before they need them, so, too, has God prepared for our needs long before we call out to Him. Lord, I give thanks and place my trust in Your loving arms.
A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE
And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare
that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither
of us could have lived to see A.A.'s beginning.
THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67
Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to
my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I
might never have survived to reach A.A.'s doors? I will
work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is
showing me which links our lives together.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
In A.A. alcoholics find a way to solve their personality
problems. They do this by recovering three things. First,
they recover their personal integrity. They pull themselves
together. They get honest with themselves and with other
people. They face themselves and their problems honestly,
instead of running away. They take a personal inventory of
themselves to see where they really stand. Then they face
the facts instead of making excuses for themselves. Have
I recovered my integrity?
Meditation For The Day
When trouble comes, do not say: "Why should this happen to
me?" Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people
and their troubles and you will forget about your own.
Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the
consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while,
it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not
so important any more, except as your experience can be used
to help others who are in the same kind of trouble.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may become more unselfish. I pray that I may
not be thrown off the track by letting the old selfishness
creep back into my life.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
The Reality of Spiritual Experiences, p. 182
"Perhaps you raise the question of hallucination versus the divine imagery of a genuine
spiritual experience. I doubt if anyone has authoritatively defined what a hallucination
really is. However, it is certain that all recipients of spiritual experiences declare their
reality. The best evidence of that reality is in the subsequent fruits. Those who receive
these gifts of grace are very much changed people, almost invariably for the better. This
can scarcely be said of those who hallucinate.
"Some might think me presumptuous when I say that my own experience is real.
Nevertheless, I can surely report that in my own life and in the lives of countless others,
the fruits of that experience have been real, and the benefactions beyond reckoning.
Talk, 1960
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Deserving Happiness___Emotional Control
Somewhere in the course of living sober, we should realize that we can deserve to be happy. If happiness is eluding us, the fault may lie in a peculiar guilt from our past. In a perverse way, we may be using unhappiness as penance for our past wrongs.
We deserve to be happy if we are doing the things that should bring happiness to ourselves and others. Thinking and living rightly is a path to happiness. Meeting our obligations to society and others contributes to personal happiness. Placing the overall responsibility for our lives in God's hands is yet another route to happiness.
We can also learn from our experience. Did any of us ever meet a truly happy person who was totally self-seeking? Do we remember any happy, serene people among our drinking companions? Did any of our temporary successes and victories bring permanent happiness?
AA experience gives us the answers we need. Happiness is always in the direction of love and service, never in anything selfish. We deserve to be happy, but we must plant seeds of happiness by our thoughts and actions.
I'll be happy today. If I'm worrying about something, I'll suspend the worry and let myself be happy in spite of it. I deserve to be happy and I am usually the person who is responsible for this happiness.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
To make the world a friendly place One must show it a friendly face.---James Whitcomb Riley
We are beginning to learn that we get what we expect. Why? If we believe that people are out to get us, we'll not treat them well. We will think it's okay to "get them" before they "get us." Then, they'll be angry and want to get even. And on it goes. It's great when we can meet the world with a balance. We are honest people. We can expect others to be fair with us. We get the faith, strength, and courage to do this because of our trust in our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I put my life in Your care. Use me to spread Your love to others.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll spread friendliness. I will greet people with a smile.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
GROUNDED - Alcohol clipped this pilot's wings until sobriety and hard work brought him back to the sky.
So much had happened in my life. I lost almost everything I had worked to acquire. My family had suffered public shame and humiliation. I had been the object of scorn, shame, and disgrace. Yet much more had also happened; every loss had been replaced with rewards. I had seen the promises of the Big Book come true in a magnitude I could never have imagined. I had gotten sober. I had regained my family, and we were once again close and loving. I had learned how to use the Twelve Steps and to live the wonderful program that was founded so many years ago by two drunks.
p. 529
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Seven - "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
As we approach the actual taking of Step Seven, it might be well if we A.A.'s inquire once more just what our deeper objectives are. Each of us would like to live at peace with himself and with his fellows. We would like to be assured that the grace of God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We have seen that character defects based upon shortsighted or unworthy desires are the obstacles that block our path toward these objectives. We now clearly see that we have been making unreasonable demands upon ourselves, upon others, and upon God.
p. 76
************************************************** *********
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
--Vince Lombardi
If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always
yours. And if they don't, they never were.
--Kahlil Gibran
"Devote uninterrupted chunks of time to the most important people in
your life."
--Brian Tracy
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
--John Powell
You can sit there choosing to live your life in pain, or you can choose
to take action and free yourself from the bondage.
--Gary Barnes
Nothing is better than experiencing joy except sharing it with someone
else.
--Deanna Smythe
There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart.
--Celia Thaxter
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
OLD AGE
"You just wake up one morning
and you got it!"
--Moms Mabley
I am so busy living I don't think about "getting old". I am so grateful in
my recovery from alcoholism that tomorrow, the future and age are
secondary.
In my sickness I was always living in the future; what would tomorrow
bring? Will I die crippled, lonely and afraid? My projections into the
future produced an emotional pain.
Today I do not need to do this. I welcome old age because I bring into
it the joy and experience of my sobriety. Will I be lonely? I doubt it if I
stick to my recovery program; I have so many friends all over the
world meeting together to face the disease on a daily basis. Also I
know that nothing could ever compare with the loneliness of my
drinking days.
My spiritual program reminds me to be grateful for my life and this
includes the inevitability of old age.
Lord, as I grow in age may I also grow in wisdom and tolerance.
************************************************** *********
"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall
come forth as gold."
Job 23:10
Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully near you.
Proverbs 3:29
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
One of the best parts of receiving blessings is enjoying them. Lord, may I take time to recognize my blessings and appreciate their wonder.
As a mother sets aside gifts for her children long before they need them, so, too, has God prepared for our needs long before we call out to Him. Lord, I give thanks and place my trust in Your loving arms.