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04-08-2008, 05:37 PM
Daily Reflections
FREEDOM FROM "KING ALCOHOL"
. . . let us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under
constraint. . . . Our former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready
again to clutch us to him. Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the
great "must" that has to be achieved, else we go mad or die.
As Bill Sees It, p. 134
When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical
confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and
self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells
that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than
hopes of reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow
whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that
willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened
for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free--in a kind of
extended daily probation--that need never end.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Third, alcoholics recover their proper relationship with other people.
they think less about themselves and more about others. They try to
help other alcoholics. They make new friends so that they're no
longer lonely. They try to live a life of service instead of selfishness.
All their relationships with other people are improved. They solve
their personality problems by recovering their personal integrity, their
faith in a Higher Power, and their way of fellowship and service to
others. Is my drink problem solved as long as my personality problem
is solved?
Meditation For The Day
All that depresses you, all that you fear, is really powerless to harm
you. These things are but phantoms. So arise from earth's bonds,
from depression, distrust, fear, and all that hinders your new life.
Arise to beauty, joy, peace, and work inspired by love. Rise from
death to life. You do not even need to fear death. All past sins are
forgiven if you live and love and work with God. Let nothing hinder
your new life. Seek to know more and more of that new way of living.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may let God live in me as I work for Him. I pray that I
may go out into the sunlight and work with God.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Community Problem, p. 180
The answer to the problem of alcoholism seems to be in education--education in
schoolrooms, in medical colleges, among clergymen and employers, in families, and in the
public at large. From cradle to grave, the drunk and the potential alcoholic will have to
be completely surrounded by a true and deep understanding and by a continuous barrage
of information.
This means factual education, properly presented. Heretofore, much of this education
has attacked the immortality of drinking rather than the illness of alcoholism.
Now who is going to do all this education? Obviously, it is both a community job and a job
for specialists. Individually, we A.A.'s can help, but A.A. as such cannot, and should not,
get directly into this field. Therefore, we must rely on other agencies, on outside friends
and their willingness to supply great amounts of money and effort.
Grapevine, March 1958
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Understanding Compulsion__Protecting Sobriety
Often called a "compulsive illness," alcoholism is still a baffling mystery to most people. All we really know is that a single drink, a pleasant beverage for many, becomes a deadly trigger for alcoholics. We may even think it's unfair that we're unable to enjoy the pleasant customs of social drinking. If we let down our guard, we can even entertain the thought that we've somehow been cured of the compulsion to drink.
But we don't have to understand the exact nature of compulsion to realize that we are victims of it. Bitter experience and the tragic examples of others should tell us that our compulsion exists and is activated by the first drink. That's really all the understanding we need for living successfully in sobriety.
If there's anything we should question, it's not whether we have the compulsion, but why we would have any doubts after so much bad experience with alcohol. After all, if we always had a bad reaction from any other food or beverage, we would soon give it up. Why is there so much persistence in denying that we are compulsively attached to alcohol?
We still may be trying to convince ourselves that we can take a drink safely, and this delusion is another way the compulsion works. All we have to understand is that a single drink leads to our destruction.
I'll remember today that I've accepted the fact that I am alcoholic and subject to disaster with a first drink. I'll live today with the knowledge that I only have to understand that I have a compulsion to drink.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day a time. --Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln did great things for the United States. He took life One Day at a time.. He broke the future into manageable pieces. We can do the same. We can live in the present and focus on the task at hand.
Spirituality comes when we focus this way. When we stay in the present we find choice. And we worry less about the future. Still, we must have goals.
We must plan for the future.
Goals and plans help us give more credit to the present than to the future. And when we feel good about the present, we feel good about the future.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me focus. Help me keep my energy in the present. Have me live life One Day at a Time.
Action for the Day: When I find myself drifting into the future, I'll work at bring myself back to the present.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
GROUNDED - Alcohol clipped this pilot's wings until sobriety and hard work brought him back to the sky.
My back-to-work agreement said I would retire as a copilot. But the miracles in this program have never ceased for me, and last year I was notified that the president of my airline had granted permission for me to once again be captain.
p. 529
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Seven - "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
The Seventh Step is where we make the change in our attitude which permits us, with humility as our guide, to move out from ourselves toward others and toward God. The whole emphasis of Step Seven is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. If that degree of humility could enable us to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we could possibly have.
p. 76
************************************************** *********
You have to leave the city of your comfort and go unto the wilderness
of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll
discover will be yourself.
--Alan Alda
Right now, this moment, is the time to celebrate by dancing beneath
the warmth of the sun.
--Gary Barnes
When we are doing our best to live as God would have us live, if we
are in harmony with God, we shall feel and be at peace.
--SweetyZee
Silence is the great revelation.
--Lao Tzu
"God answers all kneel-mail."
--Gary R.
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
Make a conscious effort to thank God today.
--Patricia Ferris
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
SERVICE
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
Charles Dickens
As a drunk I thought that the world owed me a living. Everybody
existed for my employment and service; the world was waiting for my
telephone call! For years I manipulated people, and I was such a good
con artist they often left thanking me!
Today a part of my spiritual program requires service. I make the
coffee, put out the cookies, cook the meal and invite friends for
dinner. I make the telephone call, give the lectures, share in groups
and write articles. The life of service helps to keep me sober. I am
the message that I share. And I do it for me!
Thank you for making me aware of my need to give.
************************************************** *********
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:26
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal.
Matthew 6:20
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to go on in spite of it. Lord, may I be strong in my abilities and courageous in my beliefs.
In life it is those that persevere that will succeed. Lord, every day is a fresh beginning. With You, I will come closer to my goals each day if only I don't give up and quit.
FREEDOM FROM "KING ALCOHOL"
. . . let us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under
constraint. . . . Our former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready
again to clutch us to him. Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the
great "must" that has to be achieved, else we go mad or die.
As Bill Sees It, p. 134
When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical
confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and
self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells
that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than
hopes of reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow
whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that
willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened
for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free--in a kind of
extended daily probation--that need never end.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Third, alcoholics recover their proper relationship with other people.
they think less about themselves and more about others. They try to
help other alcoholics. They make new friends so that they're no
longer lonely. They try to live a life of service instead of selfishness.
All their relationships with other people are improved. They solve
their personality problems by recovering their personal integrity, their
faith in a Higher Power, and their way of fellowship and service to
others. Is my drink problem solved as long as my personality problem
is solved?
Meditation For The Day
All that depresses you, all that you fear, is really powerless to harm
you. These things are but phantoms. So arise from earth's bonds,
from depression, distrust, fear, and all that hinders your new life.
Arise to beauty, joy, peace, and work inspired by love. Rise from
death to life. You do not even need to fear death. All past sins are
forgiven if you live and love and work with God. Let nothing hinder
your new life. Seek to know more and more of that new way of living.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may let God live in me as I work for Him. I pray that I
may go out into the sunlight and work with God.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Community Problem, p. 180
The answer to the problem of alcoholism seems to be in education--education in
schoolrooms, in medical colleges, among clergymen and employers, in families, and in the
public at large. From cradle to grave, the drunk and the potential alcoholic will have to
be completely surrounded by a true and deep understanding and by a continuous barrage
of information.
This means factual education, properly presented. Heretofore, much of this education
has attacked the immortality of drinking rather than the illness of alcoholism.
Now who is going to do all this education? Obviously, it is both a community job and a job
for specialists. Individually, we A.A.'s can help, but A.A. as such cannot, and should not,
get directly into this field. Therefore, we must rely on other agencies, on outside friends
and their willingness to supply great amounts of money and effort.
Grapevine, March 1958
************************************************** *********
Walk in Dry Places
Understanding Compulsion__Protecting Sobriety
Often called a "compulsive illness," alcoholism is still a baffling mystery to most people. All we really know is that a single drink, a pleasant beverage for many, becomes a deadly trigger for alcoholics. We may even think it's unfair that we're unable to enjoy the pleasant customs of social drinking. If we let down our guard, we can even entertain the thought that we've somehow been cured of the compulsion to drink.
But we don't have to understand the exact nature of compulsion to realize that we are victims of it. Bitter experience and the tragic examples of others should tell us that our compulsion exists and is activated by the first drink. That's really all the understanding we need for living successfully in sobriety.
If there's anything we should question, it's not whether we have the compulsion, but why we would have any doubts after so much bad experience with alcohol. After all, if we always had a bad reaction from any other food or beverage, we would soon give it up. Why is there so much persistence in denying that we are compulsively attached to alcohol?
We still may be trying to convince ourselves that we can take a drink safely, and this delusion is another way the compulsion works. All we have to understand is that a single drink leads to our destruction.
I'll remember today that I've accepted the fact that I am alcoholic and subject to disaster with a first drink. I'll live today with the knowledge that I only have to understand that I have a compulsion to drink.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day a time. --Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln did great things for the United States. He took life One Day at a time.. He broke the future into manageable pieces. We can do the same. We can live in the present and focus on the task at hand.
Spirituality comes when we focus this way. When we stay in the present we find choice. And we worry less about the future. Still, we must have goals.
We must plan for the future.
Goals and plans help us give more credit to the present than to the future. And when we feel good about the present, we feel good about the future.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me focus. Help me keep my energy in the present. Have me live life One Day at a Time.
Action for the Day: When I find myself drifting into the future, I'll work at bring myself back to the present.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
GROUNDED - Alcohol clipped this pilot's wings until sobriety and hard work brought him back to the sky.
My back-to-work agreement said I would retire as a copilot. But the miracles in this program have never ceased for me, and last year I was notified that the president of my airline had granted permission for me to once again be captain.
p. 529
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Seven - "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
The Seventh Step is where we make the change in our attitude which permits us, with humility as our guide, to move out from ourselves toward others and toward God. The whole emphasis of Step Seven is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. If that degree of humility could enable us to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we could possibly have.
p. 76
************************************************** *********
You have to leave the city of your comfort and go unto the wilderness
of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll
discover will be yourself.
--Alan Alda
Right now, this moment, is the time to celebrate by dancing beneath
the warmth of the sun.
--Gary Barnes
When we are doing our best to live as God would have us live, if we
are in harmony with God, we shall feel and be at peace.
--SweetyZee
Silence is the great revelation.
--Lao Tzu
"God answers all kneel-mail."
--Gary R.
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
Make a conscious effort to thank God today.
--Patricia Ferris
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
SERVICE
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
Charles Dickens
As a drunk I thought that the world owed me a living. Everybody
existed for my employment and service; the world was waiting for my
telephone call! For years I manipulated people, and I was such a good
con artist they often left thanking me!
Today a part of my spiritual program requires service. I make the
coffee, put out the cookies, cook the meal and invite friends for
dinner. I make the telephone call, give the lectures, share in groups
and write articles. The life of service helps to keep me sober. I am
the message that I share. And I do it for me!
Thank you for making me aware of my need to give.
************************************************** *********
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:26
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal.
Matthew 6:20
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to go on in spite of it. Lord, may I be strong in my abilities and courageous in my beliefs.
In life it is those that persevere that will succeed. Lord, every day is a fresh beginning. With You, I will come closer to my goals each day if only I don't give up and quit.