More Recovery Readings - 12/10

[admin]

NA Just For Today
December 10
Winners

"I started to imitate some of the things the winners were doing. I got caught up in NA. I felt good...."
Basic Text pg. 223

We often hear it said in meetings that we should "stick with the winners." Who are the winners in Narcotics Anonymous? Winners are easily identified. They work an active program of recovery, living in the solution and staying out of the problem. Winners are always ready to reach their hands out to the newcomer. They have sponsors and work with those sponsors. Winners stay clean, just for today.

Winners are recovering addicts who keep a positive frame of mind. They may be going through troubled times, but they still attend meetings and share openly about it. Winners know in their hearts that, with the help of a Higher Power, nothing will come along that is too much to handle.

Winners strive for unity in their service efforts. Winners practice putting "principles before personalities." Winners remember the principle of anonymity, doing the principled action no matter who is involved. Winners keep a sense of humor. Winners have the ability to laugh at themselves. And when winners laugh, they laugh with you, not at you.

Who are the winners in Narcotics Anonymous? Any one of us can be considered a winner. All of us exhibit some of the traits of the winner; sometimes we come very close to the ideal, sometimes we don't. If we are clean today and working our program to the best of our ability, we are winners!

Just for today: I will strive to fulfill my ideals. I will be a winner.

-----

You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

One Day at a Time

We can only work this program one day at a time. Tomorrow's abstinence will take care of itself if we are abstinent today. It is when we look too far ahead that we become troubled and lose our confidence. Whatever happens, we can cope with it one day at a time.

Worrying about the possibility of being hungry next week destroys today's serenity. Projecting ourselves into future tasks produces unnecessary tension. Wondering how someone may react to something we may say tomorrow causes needless anxiety and robs us of the here and now.

Our Higher Power is with us now, today. By learning to know Him in the present, we grow in faith that He will be with us in the future. He gives us the strength to maintain our abstinence today, and that is the best thing we can possibly do for ourselves. One day at a time, we walk out of darkness into light.

Thank You for this day.

-----

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
She must learn to speak
starting with I
starting with We
starting as the infant does
with her own true hunger
and pleasure
and rage.
--Marge Piercy
Once there was a writer who was writing a book for children. He decided to ask his son for ideas. "What would you like to tell other children?" he asked. He thought the boy would say something like, "Everybody love everybody." But instead the boy said, "Number one, ignore what your parents say about nutritious food. Number two, don't go to school."
The father laughed and thanked the boy for his ideas, even though they weren't what he expected. He loved his son for being able to feel and express his desires so strongly.
We all have a child within us, no matter how old we are. When we honor that child, we also honor who we have become, and we free ourselves to express our truest feelings.
What does the child within me want to do today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
If you can just observe what you are and move with it, then you will find that it is possible to go infinitely far. --J. Krishnamurti
"Boys don't cry" is bad training for males. Worse than that were ideas like, "Don't pass up a dare," "Nice guys finish last," "Be a good provider," "Be aggressive." Some of these ideas have some value, but problems came from adopting them as the only way to be. We thought we had to work at being the strongest, the best, the least vulnerable. Now we are learning how weak and fragile such thinking actually makes men. It sets us up to go to the extremes we found in our addictions and codependency.
Weakness isn't the alternative to this thinking. Developing our spiritual side, we see that we don't have to work at being what we already are. A man can be strong enough to show his vulnerability. He can choose the opportunity to advance a relationship with his child over the opportunity to advance his career. He can choose to pass by a challenge without shame because he doesn't wish to spend his energy there.
I will be stronger today by simply allowing myself to be true to my feelings.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good. No good thing can be withheld from the forgiving state of mind. --Catherine Ponder
Forgiveness fosters humility, which invites gratitude. And gratitude blesses us; it makes manifest greater happiness. The more grateful we feel for all aspects of our lives, the greater will be our rewards. We don't recognize the goodness of our lives until we practice gratitude. And gratitude comes easiest when we're in a forgiving state of mind.
Forgiveness should be an ongoing process. Attention to it daily will ease our relationships with others and encourage greater self-love. First on our list for forgiveness should be ourselves. Daily, we heap recriminations upon ourselves. And our lack of self-love hinders our ability to love others, which in turn affects our treatment of them. We've come full circle--and forgiveness is in order. It can free us. It will change our perceptions of life's events, and it promises greater happiness.
The forgiving heart is magical. My whole life will undergo a dynamic change when I develop a forgiving heart.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Empowerment
You can think. You can make good decisions. You can make choices that are right for you.
Yes, we all make mistakes from time to time. But we are not mistakes.
We can make a new decision that takes new information into account.
We can change our mind from time to time. That's our right too.
We don't have to be intellectuals to make good choices. In recovery, we have a gift and a goal available to each of us. The gift is called wisdom.
Other people can think too. And that means we no longer have to feel responsible for other people's decisions.
That also means we are responsible for our choices.
We can reach out to others for feedback. We can ask for information. We can take opinions into account. But it is our task to make our own decisions. It is our pleasure and right to have our own opinions.
We are each free to embrace and enjoy the treasure of our own mind, intellect, and wisdom.
Today, I will treasure the gift of my mind. I will do my own thinking, make my own choices, and value my opinions. I will be open to what others think, but I will take responsibility for myself. I will ask for and trust that the Divine Wisdom is guiding me.


Today I trust the positive and loving people to whom I am attracted. Today I am free to share from my heart, knowing that what I say will be treated with love and respect. --Ruth Fishel

God help me to stay sober and clean today!

[francie21805]

Wisdom for Today

Another quality of character that seemed to disappear with my addiction was the ability to trust. With increasing fear and doubt as my constant companions, I found it impossible to trust anyone or anything. It got to the point where I could not even trust drugs or alcohol to take me away from my misery. I stopped drinking and using, but my ability to trust had not returned. How was I supposed to trust a bunch of drunks to help me get clean and sober? And as for a Higher Power, my relationship with God was far in the past; I had no idea how to rekindle this relationship. Most of all I could no longer trust myself.
Trust was not easy to rebuild. The thought of taking off the mask that I wore was so frightening, I could not imagine living without it. Then one day in desperation, sitting alone in my room with tears streaming down my face, I cried, "God, help me!" To my surprise He did. I'm not even sure when I realized that I was being helped, and I'm not sure it really mattered. Like peeling layers of an onion away, one by one I let my defenses fall by the wayside. I began to open up, and I continued to ask for help. Soon I could see that that bunch of drunks really had my best interests at heart. I was being shown the way, not just to sobriety, but also to a new way of living. As I followed the suggestions of others, I also found increasing happiness. I even found that I could begin to trust myself again, because I was no longer out to destroy myself. Am I becoming more trusting?

Meditations for the Heart

Prayer is a way to communicate with my Higher Power. Yet as I walk through the day, I am often confronted with so many different things that it is easy to loose sight of keeping God in the center of my life. In recovery I find that the word serenity is a slippery thing. Sometimes I tease and say that I have experienced at least 16 seconds of serenity in my recovery, and not all at once. Sadly this is not too far from accurate. I allow the material world to take center stage too often. However, when I am able to keep the spiritual world on center stage, I find that I have much more peace of mind and serenity.
As I have walked on this path called recovery, I have learned that practice does not make things perfect, but practice does allow for progress. So prayer is something I need to practice. My sponsor suggested I try using the Dr. Pepper method of practice. I looked puzzled, and he said, "On the old bottles of Dr. Pepper, you would see the numbers 10, 2, and 4." This was a suggestion of the times during the day to drink a bottle of Dr. Pepper. A marketing scheme turned sideways to help alcoholics and addicts! So I began to pray at 10, 2, and 4. I found that this practice helped and progress followed. So did more and more periods of serenity. Do I practice to improve my communication with my Higher Power?

Petitions to my Higher Power

God,
Help me this day to keep You central in my life. Let me not be distracted by the material world, but keep me focused on my spiritual life. Let me continue to risk trusting those who have walked this path before me. Most of all let me never stop trusting You.
Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 10 - Daily Feast

A great loneliness falls on some people at this time of the year. They feel the holidays are not for them - but for the happy people. But what they do not know is that the happy people could be live they, themselves, are if they would let it happen. Everyone has something to handle, something that hurts down deep, but it would be wrong to give in to the spirit of loneliness or grief. This is something trying to steal our peace of mind and we are not going to let that happen. When loneliness and melancholy knock on the door, take up the welcome mat and determine never to let them in again.

~ The white man is still troubled with primitive fears. ~

LUTHER STANDING BEAR - CHIEF

'A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II' by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*

Elder's Meditation of the Day - December 10

"Come forward and join hands with us in this great work for the Creator."

--Traditional Circle of Elders, NORTHERN CHEYENNE

The Elders have spent years learning to pray and communicate with the Great Spirit. Their job is to pass this knowledge onto the young people. The Elders have told us we are now in a great time of healing. The Creator is guiding them to help the young people figure this out. We must get involved and participate. We should pray and see what it is the Great Spirit wants us to do. We need to sacrifice our time to help the people and to be of maximum use to the Creator. Every person is needed to accomplish this great healing.

Creator, whisper what You want me to do.

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The greatest tragedy of life is not that we quarrel with our fellows, but that we do not take the time to know them.

In his great understanding of man and nature, Thoreau wrote, "Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed." Take time.

How often what seems to be an unfriendly atmosphere is only a lack of time. Some of our dearest friends are hidden behind the mask of hurry. And we need so desperately to know each other.

Understanding comes when people are allowed to talk to one another. They discover the ways and needs, the loves and hopes, and the despairs and fears when they take enough time to speak of them. All these things that make for understanding and compassion come from personal contact and the knowledge and practice of good will.

People become more civilized, more peaceful, more as God intended them to be when they take time to make friends out of acquaintances.

To be a good listener endears many a friendship. Everyone needs someone with whom to talk at length on all subjects without later regret. It has been written, "What a great blessing is a friend with breast so trusty that you may bury all your secrets in it."

And how often we need to be that friend and be the listener, and to make sure we are worthy of that trust.

Listening comes in many ways. We listen with all our senses, knowing many times without having to be told what someone's needs are. Charles Dickens said that no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. And it just may be by listening that we lighten another's load.

Sometimes we listen with our hearts and understand in silence. Sometimes we simply have to put ourselves into a situation to understand all sides of it. And we best do so by listening.

All our lives we carry secrets with us that we long to reveal to someone who understands.

There are relationships in our lives better and closer than the ordinary. Closer yet than brothers or sisters are those with whom we can share all our secrets, we think.

What a sad state of affairs when life imparts that others cannot always be trusted. What a shock to realize we have given all our hearts and bared our souls to people whose curiosity was the only motive that compelled them to listen.

Phillip Massinger, sixteenth century pot wrote, "I have played the fool, the gross fool to believe the bosom of a friend would hold a secret mine own could not contain."

Not one of us can testify that we have nothing within our lives and thoughts that we cannot reveal. And many of us have not expressed our innermost thoughts because we have found no one in whom we can confide.

As Shakespeare said, "Many a man's tongue shakes out its master's undoing." Sometimes the loquacious tell their secrets not out of a need to tell them, but out of a love of talking.

One of the greatest feelings in the world is to discover we haven't told something we cherish very much to someone we once thought we could trust.

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*


Daily Relationship Reading

Most couples have arguments during their relationship. Some are heated discussions, provoked by actions that trigger deep anger, hurt, or other strong emotions. I dread having such times of upheaval in our relationship. Yet it's often during those troublesome periods that I find out things I never realized before about myself and my partner.

For instance, my SO becomes extremely upset that I have been late one too many times, and I discover though the tears and screaming that they had a terrifying childhood experience once when their parents were late picking them up. An explosion over sexual struggles reveals that I was once raped, and had been too ashamed to tell them about it.

When I experience turbulent times, it could help me if I paused for a moment, and asked myself if there is something that I or my partner am afraid to be truthful about? Often there is; once I realize that, it becomes easier to handle those fears through kindness and understanding, not through further lashing.


Just for Today
Do I dread troubled times in our relationship, or do I accept them as an important way of learning about each other more? Maybe it's not the trouble itself that harms our relationship; maybe it's our attitudes about it. Although I have no control over my partner's attitude, I can change mine.

Today I'll treat trouble like a porcupine carrying a diamond - once I stop being afraid of it, I can thoughtfully and carefully get its treasure.

Trouble that leads us to truth is a friend.

[francie21805]

Daily Inspiration for women


http://www.meditationsforwomen.com/dailys/771263.html (http://www.meditationsforwomen.com/dailys/771263.html)

[francie21805]

Daily OM
December 10, 2008

Reflections of Self
We Are All Mirrors for Each Other
When we look at other people, we see many of their qualities in innumerable and seemingly random combinations. However, the qualities that we see in the people around us are directly related to the traits that exist in us. "Like attracts like" is one of the spiritual laws of the universe. We attract individuals into our lives that mirror who we are. Those you feel drawn to reflect your inner self back at you, and you act as a mirror for them. Simply put, when you look at others, you will likely see what exists in you. When you see beauty, divinity, sweetness, or light in the soul of another, you are seeing the goodness that resides in your soul. When you see traits in others that evoke feelings of anger, annoyance, or hatred, you may be seeing reflected back at you those parts of yourself that you have disowned or do not like.

Because we are all mirrors for each other, looking at the people in your life can tell you a lot about yourself. Who you are can be laid bare to you through what you see in others. It is easy to see the traits you do not like in others. It is much more difficult to realize that you possess those same traits. Often, the habits, attitudes, and behaviors of others are closely linked to our unconscious and unresolved issues.

When you come into contact with someone you admire, search your soul for similarly admirable traits. Likewise, when you meet someone exhibiting traits that you dislike, accept that you are looking at your reflection. Looking at yourself through your perception of others can be a humbling and eye-opening experience. You can also cultivate in you the traits and behaviors that you do like. Be loving and respectful to all people, and you will attract individuals that will love and respect you back. Nurture compassion and empathy and let the goodness you see in others be your mirror.

Published with permission from Daily OM