admin
09-27-2008, 04:09 PM
Wisdom for Today
Alcohol and drugs took me to school, and the lessons were not easy to learn. Despite all the clues that I was in serious trouble, my addiction had a way of hiding the evidence. Denial is a way we defend ourselves from that which is painful. It is not something that is unique to addiction, but simply a part of life. Even in recovery I have had my struggles with denial. I have wanted to deny many of my character defects. I have wanted to deny many of the effects that alcohol and drugs continued to have on me long after I stopped drinking and using. Hiding from the truth was easier to do when I was using, and I'm glad I now recognize this. I have found that even the most painful struggles I have faced clean and sober can be survived. I have learned that I do not have to face these struggles alone.
The lessons learned in the school of addiction have to be unlearned. New ways of living life must be learned. Many of the lessons of recovery are not easy lessons either. Learning to surrender, learning to face self, learning how to repair the damage and learning how to live all can be challenging. But these challenges do not need to be faced alone. There is help, and the instructors and teachers I find around the tables at Twelve Step meetings are more than willing to share their knowledge. Am I glad that I graduated from the school of addiction and now study in the school of recovery? You bet I am!
Meditations for the Heart
Life itself is a school, and the most important lessons I need to learn are the spiritual lessons. To be a good student I must be willing to listen. Learning to listen for God's voice in our life is not always easy. There have been many days when I would open myself up to listen and heard nothing but silence. Still, I had to keep trying. Little by little I began to hear that "still, small voice" in the middle of the chaos of my life. Over time it has become easier to listen for my Higher Power, and I am surprised at how often God reveals His will for me. I am amazed at the incredible sense of caring that God provides to me. At the time these things were happening, I did not always recognize them. Now I can look back and see many miracles that have happened in my life. Am I willing to listen for God's voice in my life?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
Today let me be an open book and ready to have You write Your message on my heart. Give me ears to hear that "still, small voice" in my head that is Your calling out to me. Give me courage to ask the teachers in the program for help. Make me a good student of life today.
Amen.
-----
NA Just For Today
September 28
Hope
"Gradually as we become more God-centered than self centered, our despair turns to hope."
Basic Text, p.92
As using addicts, despair was our relentless companion. It colored our every waking moment. Despair was born of our experience in active addiction: No matter what measures we tried to make our lives better, we slid ever deeper into misery. Attempts we made to control our lives frequently met with failure. In a sense, our First Step admission of powerlessness was an acknowledgment of despair.
Steps Two and Three lead us gradually out of that despair and into new hope, the companion of the recovering addict. Having accepted that so many of our efforts to change have failed, we come to believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves. We believe this Power can - and will - help us. We practice the Second and Third Steps as an affirmation of our hope for a better life, turning to this Power for guidance. As we come to rely more and more on a Higher Power for the management of our day - to - day life, the despair arising from our long experiment with self-sufficiency disappears.
Just for today: I will reaffirm my Third Step decision. I know that, with a Higher Power in my life, there is hope.
pg. 282
-----
September 28 - Daily Feast
On rare occasions you may have felt a word drop into your heart that you knew meant something because it never faded and always stood as a reminder that something profound happened. You may not have understood then, but your mind has gone back to it numerous times, wondering what it meant. Years can pass between an event and the understanding of it. It may be we have to grow up to it, or our minds and spirits have to mature enough to see how it is to play out in our lives. It is little different from building a house, you can see the structure going up, but you know it can't be used until it is finished. Sometimes ideas and visions need time to firm up before we can use them.
~ The designs of Providence, in the course of events, are mysterious.... ~
JOHN ROSS - CHEROKEE CHIEF
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
Elder's Meditation of the Day - September 28
"Love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It's that powerful."
--John (Fire) Lame Deer, ROSEBUD LAKOTA
The Old Ones say, love is all anyone needs. Love doesn't go away nor can love be divided. Once you commit an act of love, you'll find it continues. Love is like setting up dominos one behind the other. Once you hit the first domino, it will touch the second one which will touch the third one and so on. Every love act or love thought has an affect on each person as well as touching the whole world. If you live a life filled with love, the results will affect your friends, relatives and other people, even after you go to the other side. So... Love.
My Creator, let me love. Let me put into action the love dominos.
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
"THINK on THESE THINGS"
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Do you want to know the truth about worry? It hits everyone. It is not an ailment just for weaklings or cowards. Worry is the cat you throw out only to have it back in before you can close the door.
Worry has another side. It proves we care very much, and that we appreciate our God-given gifts and loved ones. In a way, it is a sign of strength, for if we can turn it to faith, then faith can be just as strong. And to overcome worry, or to at least control it, there must be faith.
Faith, and the knowledge that if you could be in all the places, watching closely all the things about which you are concerned, you couldn't do a tenth as much good as one simple prayer.
We are taught, "Be not anxious," "Fear not," and "Be not afraid," and too quickly we become anxious, fearful, and very frightened. But even then, we have only to put worry to flight by remembering those quieting words that are so absolutely true, "Be still and know that I am God."
Recently we had a summer storm. It was rumbling and heavy with darkness. The lightning flashed across the sky and currents. When the first huge drops of rain spattered across the walks and lawns, our thoughts turned to the safety of anyone or anything that might be caught out in the wind and rain.
We've been through many summer storms. Some of them left permanent marks upon our memories. The threatening, the darkness, the pressure of the atmosphere are not so different from the emotional storms of the human life. We see lives under pressure bend to and fro in the uncertainty of life. We know concern for the safety of those who experience emotional storms. Then we know the only answer is in God's hands. There is no other way.
The good earth rights itself quickly after a storm. Nature comes forth more richly for having gone through the storm, and the scars are lost in new growth. And blessed are we when we lift ourselves up to a new, deeper radiance and peace.
-----
Daily Relationship Reading
Have I done something I'm ashamed of lately, or made a choice that would be extremely upsetting to my partner, or others? Maybe I went too far flirting with someone, or made secret contact with a former partner, or shared a confidence that I had promised to keep, etc.
When I feel I need to keep something secret from my partner or someone else, it's time to look at my choices and motives more carefully. Am I telling myself that "it will only hurt them" if I tell them, and that I'm sparing them pain by keeping it a secret?
What I may not see is that such secrets can do much more damage while they remain hidden. Dishonesty acts like a repellent to love - both in myself and in my relationship - and its effects on our closeness adds to my frustration and our difficulties.
At such times, it may help me to ask myself what I would want if the situation were reversed. Would I prefer to know the truth now, or find it out 20 years from now, after being deceived in the meantime?
Just for Today
Whenever I'm afraid of admitting a secret inside of me, I'll remember that they'll rob me of life in many ways I won't realize until much, much later. When the truth hurts, then I know lack of it will even hurt more.
Today I'll find someone trustworthy to help me find the way through my inner maze, so that secrets are no longer able to imprison me or others.
If you plan to carry secrets to your grave, be aware they may carry you there first. - BH
-----
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.
My Own Body
My body is where I live. Its size and shape is a matter between my Higher Power and me. No one else is responsible for my body. In the past, I may have permitted other people to influence what I ate and how much I weighed, but I now take full responsibility.
Other people may think that I am too fat or too thin, but that is their problem, not mine. I am learning what my body needs in order to operate at peak efficiency. I am learning to avoid the foods, which I do not handle well. What and how much I eat depends on my own preference and the requirements of my metabolism.
My body is a gift to me from my Higher Power. Maintaining it in the best possible condition is my response to God's gift. No one else can tell me how best to maintain my body, since no one else is living in it or receives its inner signals. If I honestly interpret the signals, which come from my body, I will stay abstinent and healthy.
Thank You for my body.
-----
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain. --George Sand
"We always go get a hot fudge sundae after the school choir concert," the girl said. Her parents laughed because their daughter said always, and they had only gone to a school choir concert once. Then the parents realized that the girl really had a great idea.
"Yes," the mother said, "we always get a sundae because we like to make up new traditions. We'll have to be sure and do it tonight so we don't let the tradition fall apart before it even gets started!"
They all laughed together and started debating which restaurant had the best hot fudge sundae.
We all need to have special traditions with our families. We need celebrations that have nothing to do with official holidays. Family holidays can mean so much more to us sometimes because they celebrate our shared experiences in life and become the source of happy memories for a lifetime.
What tradition can I start today?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Life itself is the proper binge. --Julia Child
The Twelve Steps are a suggested program of recovery, not a cure. We can follow them and live a healed life, but we never develop immunity to our addictions and codependency. We remain vulnerable to slips, binges, and a return to old behaviors. If that has happened to us, our first need is to find a way back to the program. A slip may speak the blatant truth we avoided before. A man's complete honesty following a slip has sometimes been the way to renewed knowledge of his powerlessness. There is no value in feeling more shame and self hate in the aftermath of a slip. We need to accept we are incomplete and imperfect human beings. Recovery will come, not from shame, but from honestly accepting our powerlessness and the help we need.
The promise of recovery in this program, a healed life, is just as available after a slip as it ever was. It takes absolute commitment, a willingness to face the pain and hardship. Then we are freed again to engage fully in the joy and the awe of life.
I ask that my compulsions and my weaknesses be lifted from me. I'm not able to cure myself, but I pray for help.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome. --Golda Meir
Living a principled life is what the inner self desires. It's what God desires. And it's what the healthier ego desires. Living the program's principles is giving each of us practice in living a principled life, one that is free of guilt for our shortcomings.
Having principles assures direction. We need not ponder long how to proceed in any situation, what decision to make regarding any matter, when we are guided by principles. They offer us completeness. They help us define who we are and who we will be, in any turn of events.
As women, particularly as recovering women, we have struggled with self-definition. Often we were as others defined us, or we merely imitated those close by. Sometimes we may slip into old behavior and lose sight of whom we are and how we want to live. It's then that the program's principles come immediately to our aid.
There is no doubt about how today should be lived. I will do it with confidence and joy.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Prayer
Here are some of my favorite prayers:
Help. Please. Don't.
Show me. Guide me. Change me.
Are you there?
Why'd you do that?
Oh.
Thank you.
Today, I will tell God what I want to tell God, and listen for God's answer. I will remember that I can trust God.
I am learning to trust my intuition and I am willing to act on this inner guidance. I am taking positive and healthy actions today and my life is getting better and better. --Ruth Fishel
God help me to stay sober and clean today!
-----
Each day a new beginning
Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in
their best light. ~ Jennie Jerome Churchill
..........
Taking our friends and loved ones for granted, expecting
perfection from them in every instance, greatly lessens the value we have
in one another's lives. Being hard on those closest to us may
relieve some of the tension we feel about our own imperfections, but it
creates another tension, one that may result in our friends leaving us
behind.
We need the reminder, perhaps, that our friends are special to our
growth. Our paths have crossed with reason. We complete a portion of the
plan for one another's lives. And for such gifts we need to offer
gratitude.
Each of us is endowed with many qualities, some more enhancing than
others it is our hope, surely, that our lesser qualities will be
ignored. We must do likewise for our friends. We can focus on the
good, and it will flourish.... in the, in ourselves, in all
situations. A positive attitude nurtures everyone. Let us look for
the good, and in time, it is all that will catch our attention.
................I can make this day one to remember with fondness. I will
appreciate a friend. I will let her know they matter in my life.
Their life will be enhanced by my attention.
Alcohol and drugs took me to school, and the lessons were not easy to learn. Despite all the clues that I was in serious trouble, my addiction had a way of hiding the evidence. Denial is a way we defend ourselves from that which is painful. It is not something that is unique to addiction, but simply a part of life. Even in recovery I have had my struggles with denial. I have wanted to deny many of my character defects. I have wanted to deny many of the effects that alcohol and drugs continued to have on me long after I stopped drinking and using. Hiding from the truth was easier to do when I was using, and I'm glad I now recognize this. I have found that even the most painful struggles I have faced clean and sober can be survived. I have learned that I do not have to face these struggles alone.
The lessons learned in the school of addiction have to be unlearned. New ways of living life must be learned. Many of the lessons of recovery are not easy lessons either. Learning to surrender, learning to face self, learning how to repair the damage and learning how to live all can be challenging. But these challenges do not need to be faced alone. There is help, and the instructors and teachers I find around the tables at Twelve Step meetings are more than willing to share their knowledge. Am I glad that I graduated from the school of addiction and now study in the school of recovery? You bet I am!
Meditations for the Heart
Life itself is a school, and the most important lessons I need to learn are the spiritual lessons. To be a good student I must be willing to listen. Learning to listen for God's voice in our life is not always easy. There have been many days when I would open myself up to listen and heard nothing but silence. Still, I had to keep trying. Little by little I began to hear that "still, small voice" in the middle of the chaos of my life. Over time it has become easier to listen for my Higher Power, and I am surprised at how often God reveals His will for me. I am amazed at the incredible sense of caring that God provides to me. At the time these things were happening, I did not always recognize them. Now I can look back and see many miracles that have happened in my life. Am I willing to listen for God's voice in my life?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
Today let me be an open book and ready to have You write Your message on my heart. Give me ears to hear that "still, small voice" in my head that is Your calling out to me. Give me courage to ask the teachers in the program for help. Make me a good student of life today.
Amen.
-----
NA Just For Today
September 28
Hope
"Gradually as we become more God-centered than self centered, our despair turns to hope."
Basic Text, p.92
As using addicts, despair was our relentless companion. It colored our every waking moment. Despair was born of our experience in active addiction: No matter what measures we tried to make our lives better, we slid ever deeper into misery. Attempts we made to control our lives frequently met with failure. In a sense, our First Step admission of powerlessness was an acknowledgment of despair.
Steps Two and Three lead us gradually out of that despair and into new hope, the companion of the recovering addict. Having accepted that so many of our efforts to change have failed, we come to believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves. We believe this Power can - and will - help us. We practice the Second and Third Steps as an affirmation of our hope for a better life, turning to this Power for guidance. As we come to rely more and more on a Higher Power for the management of our day - to - day life, the despair arising from our long experiment with self-sufficiency disappears.
Just for today: I will reaffirm my Third Step decision. I know that, with a Higher Power in my life, there is hope.
pg. 282
-----
September 28 - Daily Feast
On rare occasions you may have felt a word drop into your heart that you knew meant something because it never faded and always stood as a reminder that something profound happened. You may not have understood then, but your mind has gone back to it numerous times, wondering what it meant. Years can pass between an event and the understanding of it. It may be we have to grow up to it, or our minds and spirits have to mature enough to see how it is to play out in our lives. It is little different from building a house, you can see the structure going up, but you know it can't be used until it is finished. Sometimes ideas and visions need time to firm up before we can use them.
~ The designs of Providence, in the course of events, are mysterious.... ~
JOHN ROSS - CHEROKEE CHIEF
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
Elder's Meditation of the Day - September 28
"Love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It's that powerful."
--John (Fire) Lame Deer, ROSEBUD LAKOTA
The Old Ones say, love is all anyone needs. Love doesn't go away nor can love be divided. Once you commit an act of love, you'll find it continues. Love is like setting up dominos one behind the other. Once you hit the first domino, it will touch the second one which will touch the third one and so on. Every love act or love thought has an affect on each person as well as touching the whole world. If you live a life filled with love, the results will affect your friends, relatives and other people, even after you go to the other side. So... Love.
My Creator, let me love. Let me put into action the love dominos.
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
"THINK on THESE THINGS"
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Do you want to know the truth about worry? It hits everyone. It is not an ailment just for weaklings or cowards. Worry is the cat you throw out only to have it back in before you can close the door.
Worry has another side. It proves we care very much, and that we appreciate our God-given gifts and loved ones. In a way, it is a sign of strength, for if we can turn it to faith, then faith can be just as strong. And to overcome worry, or to at least control it, there must be faith.
Faith, and the knowledge that if you could be in all the places, watching closely all the things about which you are concerned, you couldn't do a tenth as much good as one simple prayer.
We are taught, "Be not anxious," "Fear not," and "Be not afraid," and too quickly we become anxious, fearful, and very frightened. But even then, we have only to put worry to flight by remembering those quieting words that are so absolutely true, "Be still and know that I am God."
Recently we had a summer storm. It was rumbling and heavy with darkness. The lightning flashed across the sky and currents. When the first huge drops of rain spattered across the walks and lawns, our thoughts turned to the safety of anyone or anything that might be caught out in the wind and rain.
We've been through many summer storms. Some of them left permanent marks upon our memories. The threatening, the darkness, the pressure of the atmosphere are not so different from the emotional storms of the human life. We see lives under pressure bend to and fro in the uncertainty of life. We know concern for the safety of those who experience emotional storms. Then we know the only answer is in God's hands. There is no other way.
The good earth rights itself quickly after a storm. Nature comes forth more richly for having gone through the storm, and the scars are lost in new growth. And blessed are we when we lift ourselves up to a new, deeper radiance and peace.
-----
Daily Relationship Reading
Have I done something I'm ashamed of lately, or made a choice that would be extremely upsetting to my partner, or others? Maybe I went too far flirting with someone, or made secret contact with a former partner, or shared a confidence that I had promised to keep, etc.
When I feel I need to keep something secret from my partner or someone else, it's time to look at my choices and motives more carefully. Am I telling myself that "it will only hurt them" if I tell them, and that I'm sparing them pain by keeping it a secret?
What I may not see is that such secrets can do much more damage while they remain hidden. Dishonesty acts like a repellent to love - both in myself and in my relationship - and its effects on our closeness adds to my frustration and our difficulties.
At such times, it may help me to ask myself what I would want if the situation were reversed. Would I prefer to know the truth now, or find it out 20 years from now, after being deceived in the meantime?
Just for Today
Whenever I'm afraid of admitting a secret inside of me, I'll remember that they'll rob me of life in many ways I won't realize until much, much later. When the truth hurts, then I know lack of it will even hurt more.
Today I'll find someone trustworthy to help me find the way through my inner maze, so that secrets are no longer able to imprison me or others.
If you plan to carry secrets to your grave, be aware they may carry you there first. - BH
-----
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.
My Own Body
My body is where I live. Its size and shape is a matter between my Higher Power and me. No one else is responsible for my body. In the past, I may have permitted other people to influence what I ate and how much I weighed, but I now take full responsibility.
Other people may think that I am too fat or too thin, but that is their problem, not mine. I am learning what my body needs in order to operate at peak efficiency. I am learning to avoid the foods, which I do not handle well. What and how much I eat depends on my own preference and the requirements of my metabolism.
My body is a gift to me from my Higher Power. Maintaining it in the best possible condition is my response to God's gift. No one else can tell me how best to maintain my body, since no one else is living in it or receives its inner signals. If I honestly interpret the signals, which come from my body, I will stay abstinent and healthy.
Thank You for my body.
-----
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain. --George Sand
"We always go get a hot fudge sundae after the school choir concert," the girl said. Her parents laughed because their daughter said always, and they had only gone to a school choir concert once. Then the parents realized that the girl really had a great idea.
"Yes," the mother said, "we always get a sundae because we like to make up new traditions. We'll have to be sure and do it tonight so we don't let the tradition fall apart before it even gets started!"
They all laughed together and started debating which restaurant had the best hot fudge sundae.
We all need to have special traditions with our families. We need celebrations that have nothing to do with official holidays. Family holidays can mean so much more to us sometimes because they celebrate our shared experiences in life and become the source of happy memories for a lifetime.
What tradition can I start today?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Life itself is the proper binge. --Julia Child
The Twelve Steps are a suggested program of recovery, not a cure. We can follow them and live a healed life, but we never develop immunity to our addictions and codependency. We remain vulnerable to slips, binges, and a return to old behaviors. If that has happened to us, our first need is to find a way back to the program. A slip may speak the blatant truth we avoided before. A man's complete honesty following a slip has sometimes been the way to renewed knowledge of his powerlessness. There is no value in feeling more shame and self hate in the aftermath of a slip. We need to accept we are incomplete and imperfect human beings. Recovery will come, not from shame, but from honestly accepting our powerlessness and the help we need.
The promise of recovery in this program, a healed life, is just as available after a slip as it ever was. It takes absolute commitment, a willingness to face the pain and hardship. Then we are freed again to engage fully in the joy and the awe of life.
I ask that my compulsions and my weaknesses be lifted from me. I'm not able to cure myself, but I pray for help.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome. --Golda Meir
Living a principled life is what the inner self desires. It's what God desires. And it's what the healthier ego desires. Living the program's principles is giving each of us practice in living a principled life, one that is free of guilt for our shortcomings.
Having principles assures direction. We need not ponder long how to proceed in any situation, what decision to make regarding any matter, when we are guided by principles. They offer us completeness. They help us define who we are and who we will be, in any turn of events.
As women, particularly as recovering women, we have struggled with self-definition. Often we were as others defined us, or we merely imitated those close by. Sometimes we may slip into old behavior and lose sight of whom we are and how we want to live. It's then that the program's principles come immediately to our aid.
There is no doubt about how today should be lived. I will do it with confidence and joy.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Prayer
Here are some of my favorite prayers:
Help. Please. Don't.
Show me. Guide me. Change me.
Are you there?
Why'd you do that?
Oh.
Thank you.
Today, I will tell God what I want to tell God, and listen for God's answer. I will remember that I can trust God.
I am learning to trust my intuition and I am willing to act on this inner guidance. I am taking positive and healthy actions today and my life is getting better and better. --Ruth Fishel
God help me to stay sober and clean today!
-----
Each day a new beginning
Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in
their best light. ~ Jennie Jerome Churchill
..........
Taking our friends and loved ones for granted, expecting
perfection from them in every instance, greatly lessens the value we have
in one another's lives. Being hard on those closest to us may
relieve some of the tension we feel about our own imperfections, but it
creates another tension, one that may result in our friends leaving us
behind.
We need the reminder, perhaps, that our friends are special to our
growth. Our paths have crossed with reason. We complete a portion of the
plan for one another's lives. And for such gifts we need to offer
gratitude.
Each of us is endowed with many qualities, some more enhancing than
others it is our hope, surely, that our lesser qualities will be
ignored. We must do likewise for our friends. We can focus on the
good, and it will flourish.... in the, in ourselves, in all
situations. A positive attitude nurtures everyone. Let us look for
the good, and in time, it is all that will catch our attention.
................I can make this day one to remember with fondness. I will
appreciate a friend. I will let her know they matter in my life.
Their life will be enhanced by my attention.