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09-21-2008, 07:59 PM
Wisdom for Today
Living in a dead-end life happened because I refused to be honest with others or myself. I had to always be on the run to avoid the truth of my addiction. I didn’t want to give up my alcohol or drugs. I didn’t want to admit that I was out of control. I didn’t want to give up my anger and resentments. I didn’t want to give up my selfishness. I didn’t want to give up my way of thinking.
All this led me to a place where my drinking and using was truly threatening my life and all that I valued. Still no matter how severe the consequence, I couldn’t bring myself to admit that I was whipped. If I was ever going to find a way out of the insanity, I had to change my thinking. I had to give up and surrender. I had to admit I was and always will be addicted. Have I changed my thinking?
Meditations for the Heart
Life without limits is possible in the program, for my Higher Power is not limited in what He can do for me. This does not mean that I can run wild and have no guidelines to follow; but it does mean that with the words, “He can,” my life can be limitless. There is such freedom in surrender. Yes, this is paradoxical; but it is how it works. Giving up control and letting go is the only way out. Those first steps on the road to recovery are not easy. In fact, it is the hardest thing I have ever done. Still it is a simple thing to say, “I can’t.” And then with God's help, the recovery process can begin. Do I really believe “I can’t?” Do I believe that “He can?”
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
The vision of what my life will be is not always clear. Help me to trust that Your vision for me is limitless. Help me to take just one step at a time on this journey. Thank You for the freedom You provide me in surrender.
Amen.
-----
NA Just For Today
Keeping The Gift
"Life takes on a new meaning when we open ourselves to this gift."
Basic Text, p.102
Neglecting our recovery is like neglecting any other gift we've been given. Suppose someone gave you a new car. Would you let it sit in the driveway until the tires rotted? Would you just drive it, ignoring routine maintenance, until it expired on the road? Of course not! You would go to great lengths to maintain the condition of such a valuable gift.
Recovery is also a gift, and we have to care for it if we want to keep it. While our recovery doesn't come with an extended warranty, there is a routine maintenance schedule. This maintenance includes regular meeting attendance and various forms of service. We'll have to do some daily cleaning - our Tenth Step - and, once in a while, a major Fourth Step overhaul will be required. But if we maintain the gift of recovery, thanking the Giver each day, it will continue.
The gift of recovery is one that grows with the giving. Unless we give it away, we can't keep it. But in sharing our recovery with others, we come to value it all the more.
Just for today: My recovery is a gift, and I want to keep it. I'll do the required maintenance, and I'll share my recovery with others.
pg. 276
-----
September 22 - Daily Feast
Like attracts like. If we give up, so will others. If we cry, so will they. But if we decide this is a new beginning, others will take courage. We influence other people. Our attitudes send out ripples of feeling - like the scent of flowers that floats on air currents. What we think and say sets the stage for what is to happen. We can change our minds, our words, our attitudes, and we stop crying. We act like our prayers are already answered and take steps to show we believe it. When the early morning sun breaks through the far side of the woods, the dark places are lighted and much healing takes place. And so it is with us.
~ Great Spirit, you lived first, and you are older than all need. ~
BLACK ELK
"A Cherokee Feast of Days" by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
Elder's Meditation of the Day - September 22
"I think the spiritual values come first and everything else follows."
--Leonard George, Chief Councilor
To properly develop, the human being needs to learn the guiding principles. It is from these principles that we make our decisions. Spiritual values are the guiding principles given to us by the Great Spirit. He says if we live by these spiritual values, the results we experience will be good. These spiritual values will develop and guide the human being by helping us to think right. Right thinking will improve our choices and decisions. Doing this will bring good consequences.
Great Spirit, teach me values first.
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
THINK ON THESE THINGS
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
The first day of fall brings with it the promise of quiet and peace. A stillness permeates the woods and about the only sounds are woodpeckers drumming on a hollow tree and blue jays squawking at squirrels they cannot tolerate. A sweet peace that connects with us and helps us relax.
The hills are rose-beige and rounded on top with horses grazing quietly along the sides. Deep ravines where water has eroded the dirt are dark marks such as a child would make with a crayon, and most likely have housed a bobcat or two.
This is the season when we do not hunker down and endure but we enjoy to the utmost. The color, the fresh air, the fall fruit and vegetables and smell of earth turned up by the plow. If something is not right, fix it, and don't let this pleasant time go to waste!
-----
Daily Relationship Reading
Although change is a normal part of any relationship, usually when I face impending changes I don't want, I become scared, anxious, and even angry at times.
I might be faced with the loss of a job, or moving to a new city, or coping with a major problem in our relationship. I fear what the future will bring, and I feel the pain of having to let go of things that I used as anchors.
If I talked to older couples that have gone through their own difficult changes, I might hear them refer to something they initially feared as the "best thing that ever happened to us".
In nature, loss is a normal part of growth. Each year trees lose their leaves, and regain new ones in the spring, growing taller and stronger in the process. My future will have its own challenges. Once I realize anchors can also weigh me down, I can start to look at change when it comes as a natural part of my life, and a pathway to future treasures.
Just for Today
Today, I'll do whatever I can to let each loss bring me a greater gain.
Whenever difficult change comes to our relationship, I'll try to remember that my attitude plays an important part in replacing loss with something even better. All I really own in this world is my existence at this moment. Expecting anything to stay the same is like trying to make the sun stand still.
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. - Richard Bach
-----
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.
Scales
During our dieting days, we probably spent much time getting on and off the scales. In OA, we are advised not to weigh more than once a month. Though we want to get rid of excess weight, we do not want to be obsessed with pounds and ounces. This program involves much more than weight control, and to make the scales our ultimate judge is to miss the mark.
If we are honestly abstaining from compulsive overeating and working our program, we will lose weight. The rate of loss will vary from person to person and from week to week. Even, and especially, when the scale registers what we want it to register, we continue to honestly abstain and work the OA program.
In OA, we are more concerned with the progress we make in controlling our disease than we are with our specific weight on any particular day. If our illness is under control, weight control will follow. Scales are useful for measuring physical progress, but they are not a god.
May I use the scales wisely?
-----
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Kindness and intelligence don't always deliver us from the pitfalls and traps. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Being human means we'll have hard times along with pleasant ones. Whether with friends, at school, or at home, we'll find reasons for sadness or anger as easily as for laughter. In every part of our lives, we're offered just what we need for growth.
Being the best we know how to be doesn't mean we'll escape confusion or pain. Through the troubling times we learn to trust in a Higher Power; we learn patience; we learn to let go and let God decide outcomes. The troubling times offer us growth and serenity, our keys to happiness.
What hidden gifts will I find in today's troubles?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Time never challenged the Indian or worked against him. Time was for silently marking the passing of the seasons. It was a thing to be enjoyed. --Tim Giago
We have a choice as to how we view the passage of time. We can look at it as a gift to be enjoyed, marking the transitions and cycles of life. Or we can think of time as a long, thin string of pressures and frustrations - specific minutes and hours that we try to speed up or slow down. Our relationship to time is a very important part of our recovery.
We are learning to live in the present, one day at a time. We are letting go of the past. The future we place in trust to our Higher Power. Time doesn't work against us or challenge us, it just flows. This day need not be painless or close to paradise for us to live in the present moment. Being aware of our lives without struggling against time makes the day rich and full of meaning.
Today, rather than wrestling with time, I will be aware of my experiences and let time flow.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Anger conquers when unresolved. --Anonymous
Emotions need recognition. But not only attention; they also need acceptance as powerful dimensions of who we are. Their influence over who we are capable of becoming is mighty.
Respectful attention and willing acceptance of our emotions, whether fear or anger or hateful jealousy, takes away their sting. We can prevent them from growing larger than they are. Like a child who screams and misbehaves more and more fiercely until attention is won, our emotions grow larger and more intense the longer we deny their existence.
Our emotions bless us, in reality. They enrich our experiences. They serve as guideposts on the road we're traveling. How we "feel" at any single moment flags the level of our security, how close we are to our higher power, the level of our commitment to the program. They serve us well when acknowledged. On the other hand, when ignored or denied, they can immobilize us, even defeat us.
My feelings frequent my being, always. They steer my behavior. They reflect my attitudes. They hint at my closeness to God.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Trusting Ourselves
Many of us believed that heeding the words of God or our Higher Power meant following rigid rules, an instruction booklet for life.
Many of us now believe differently. The rigid rules, the endless instructions, the exhortation to perfection, are not the words our Higher Power whispers.
The words of God are often those still, small words we call intuition or instinct, leading and guiding us forward.
We are free to be whom we are, to listen to and trust ourselves. We are free to listen to the gentle, loving words of a Higher Power, words whispered to and through each of us.
Today, help me, God; to let go of shame based rigid rules. I will choose the freedom of loving, listening, and trusting.
Today I will find someone who needs my love. Today I will share my strength, hope and experience so that someone else can be reborn. --Ruth Fishel
God help me to stay sober and clean today!
Living in a dead-end life happened because I refused to be honest with others or myself. I had to always be on the run to avoid the truth of my addiction. I didn’t want to give up my alcohol or drugs. I didn’t want to admit that I was out of control. I didn’t want to give up my anger and resentments. I didn’t want to give up my selfishness. I didn’t want to give up my way of thinking.
All this led me to a place where my drinking and using was truly threatening my life and all that I valued. Still no matter how severe the consequence, I couldn’t bring myself to admit that I was whipped. If I was ever going to find a way out of the insanity, I had to change my thinking. I had to give up and surrender. I had to admit I was and always will be addicted. Have I changed my thinking?
Meditations for the Heart
Life without limits is possible in the program, for my Higher Power is not limited in what He can do for me. This does not mean that I can run wild and have no guidelines to follow; but it does mean that with the words, “He can,” my life can be limitless. There is such freedom in surrender. Yes, this is paradoxical; but it is how it works. Giving up control and letting go is the only way out. Those first steps on the road to recovery are not easy. In fact, it is the hardest thing I have ever done. Still it is a simple thing to say, “I can’t.” And then with God's help, the recovery process can begin. Do I really believe “I can’t?” Do I believe that “He can?”
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
The vision of what my life will be is not always clear. Help me to trust that Your vision for me is limitless. Help me to take just one step at a time on this journey. Thank You for the freedom You provide me in surrender.
Amen.
-----
NA Just For Today
Keeping The Gift
"Life takes on a new meaning when we open ourselves to this gift."
Basic Text, p.102
Neglecting our recovery is like neglecting any other gift we've been given. Suppose someone gave you a new car. Would you let it sit in the driveway until the tires rotted? Would you just drive it, ignoring routine maintenance, until it expired on the road? Of course not! You would go to great lengths to maintain the condition of such a valuable gift.
Recovery is also a gift, and we have to care for it if we want to keep it. While our recovery doesn't come with an extended warranty, there is a routine maintenance schedule. This maintenance includes regular meeting attendance and various forms of service. We'll have to do some daily cleaning - our Tenth Step - and, once in a while, a major Fourth Step overhaul will be required. But if we maintain the gift of recovery, thanking the Giver each day, it will continue.
The gift of recovery is one that grows with the giving. Unless we give it away, we can't keep it. But in sharing our recovery with others, we come to value it all the more.
Just for today: My recovery is a gift, and I want to keep it. I'll do the required maintenance, and I'll share my recovery with others.
pg. 276
-----
September 22 - Daily Feast
Like attracts like. If we give up, so will others. If we cry, so will they. But if we decide this is a new beginning, others will take courage. We influence other people. Our attitudes send out ripples of feeling - like the scent of flowers that floats on air currents. What we think and say sets the stage for what is to happen. We can change our minds, our words, our attitudes, and we stop crying. We act like our prayers are already answered and take steps to show we believe it. When the early morning sun breaks through the far side of the woods, the dark places are lighted and much healing takes place. And so it is with us.
~ Great Spirit, you lived first, and you are older than all need. ~
BLACK ELK
"A Cherokee Feast of Days" by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
Elder's Meditation of the Day - September 22
"I think the spiritual values come first and everything else follows."
--Leonard George, Chief Councilor
To properly develop, the human being needs to learn the guiding principles. It is from these principles that we make our decisions. Spiritual values are the guiding principles given to us by the Great Spirit. He says if we live by these spiritual values, the results we experience will be good. These spiritual values will develop and guide the human being by helping us to think right. Right thinking will improve our choices and decisions. Doing this will bring good consequences.
Great Spirit, teach me values first.
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
THINK ON THESE THINGS
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
The first day of fall brings with it the promise of quiet and peace. A stillness permeates the woods and about the only sounds are woodpeckers drumming on a hollow tree and blue jays squawking at squirrels they cannot tolerate. A sweet peace that connects with us and helps us relax.
The hills are rose-beige and rounded on top with horses grazing quietly along the sides. Deep ravines where water has eroded the dirt are dark marks such as a child would make with a crayon, and most likely have housed a bobcat or two.
This is the season when we do not hunker down and endure but we enjoy to the utmost. The color, the fresh air, the fall fruit and vegetables and smell of earth turned up by the plow. If something is not right, fix it, and don't let this pleasant time go to waste!
-----
Daily Relationship Reading
Although change is a normal part of any relationship, usually when I face impending changes I don't want, I become scared, anxious, and even angry at times.
I might be faced with the loss of a job, or moving to a new city, or coping with a major problem in our relationship. I fear what the future will bring, and I feel the pain of having to let go of things that I used as anchors.
If I talked to older couples that have gone through their own difficult changes, I might hear them refer to something they initially feared as the "best thing that ever happened to us".
In nature, loss is a normal part of growth. Each year trees lose their leaves, and regain new ones in the spring, growing taller and stronger in the process. My future will have its own challenges. Once I realize anchors can also weigh me down, I can start to look at change when it comes as a natural part of my life, and a pathway to future treasures.
Just for Today
Today, I'll do whatever I can to let each loss bring me a greater gain.
Whenever difficult change comes to our relationship, I'll try to remember that my attitude plays an important part in replacing loss with something even better. All I really own in this world is my existence at this moment. Expecting anything to stay the same is like trying to make the sun stand still.
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. - Richard Bach
-----
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.
Scales
During our dieting days, we probably spent much time getting on and off the scales. In OA, we are advised not to weigh more than once a month. Though we want to get rid of excess weight, we do not want to be obsessed with pounds and ounces. This program involves much more than weight control, and to make the scales our ultimate judge is to miss the mark.
If we are honestly abstaining from compulsive overeating and working our program, we will lose weight. The rate of loss will vary from person to person and from week to week. Even, and especially, when the scale registers what we want it to register, we continue to honestly abstain and work the OA program.
In OA, we are more concerned with the progress we make in controlling our disease than we are with our specific weight on any particular day. If our illness is under control, weight control will follow. Scales are useful for measuring physical progress, but they are not a god.
May I use the scales wisely?
-----
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Kindness and intelligence don't always deliver us from the pitfalls and traps. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Being human means we'll have hard times along with pleasant ones. Whether with friends, at school, or at home, we'll find reasons for sadness or anger as easily as for laughter. In every part of our lives, we're offered just what we need for growth.
Being the best we know how to be doesn't mean we'll escape confusion or pain. Through the troubling times we learn to trust in a Higher Power; we learn patience; we learn to let go and let God decide outcomes. The troubling times offer us growth and serenity, our keys to happiness.
What hidden gifts will I find in today's troubles?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Time never challenged the Indian or worked against him. Time was for silently marking the passing of the seasons. It was a thing to be enjoyed. --Tim Giago
We have a choice as to how we view the passage of time. We can look at it as a gift to be enjoyed, marking the transitions and cycles of life. Or we can think of time as a long, thin string of pressures and frustrations - specific minutes and hours that we try to speed up or slow down. Our relationship to time is a very important part of our recovery.
We are learning to live in the present, one day at a time. We are letting go of the past. The future we place in trust to our Higher Power. Time doesn't work against us or challenge us, it just flows. This day need not be painless or close to paradise for us to live in the present moment. Being aware of our lives without struggling against time makes the day rich and full of meaning.
Today, rather than wrestling with time, I will be aware of my experiences and let time flow.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Anger conquers when unresolved. --Anonymous
Emotions need recognition. But not only attention; they also need acceptance as powerful dimensions of who we are. Their influence over who we are capable of becoming is mighty.
Respectful attention and willing acceptance of our emotions, whether fear or anger or hateful jealousy, takes away their sting. We can prevent them from growing larger than they are. Like a child who screams and misbehaves more and more fiercely until attention is won, our emotions grow larger and more intense the longer we deny their existence.
Our emotions bless us, in reality. They enrich our experiences. They serve as guideposts on the road we're traveling. How we "feel" at any single moment flags the level of our security, how close we are to our higher power, the level of our commitment to the program. They serve us well when acknowledged. On the other hand, when ignored or denied, they can immobilize us, even defeat us.
My feelings frequent my being, always. They steer my behavior. They reflect my attitudes. They hint at my closeness to God.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Trusting Ourselves
Many of us believed that heeding the words of God or our Higher Power meant following rigid rules, an instruction booklet for life.
Many of us now believe differently. The rigid rules, the endless instructions, the exhortation to perfection, are not the words our Higher Power whispers.
The words of God are often those still, small words we call intuition or instinct, leading and guiding us forward.
We are free to be whom we are, to listen to and trust ourselves. We are free to listen to the gentle, loving words of a Higher Power, words whispered to and through each of us.
Today, help me, God; to let go of shame based rigid rules. I will choose the freedom of loving, listening, and trusting.
Today I will find someone who needs my love. Today I will share my strength, hope and experience so that someone else can be reborn. --Ruth Fishel
God help me to stay sober and clean today!