Daily Recovery Readings - 8/19

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Daily Reflections

A FRAME OF REFERENCE

Referring to our list [inventory] again. Putting out of our minds the
wrongs others had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes.
Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 67

There is a wonderful freedom in not needing constant approval from
colleagues at work or from the people I love. I wish I had known about
this Step before, because once I developed a frame of reference, I felt
able to do the next right thing, knowing that the action fit the situation
and that it was the correct thing to do.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. There is a
wide variation in the way each one of us approaches and conceives of
the Power greater than ourselves. Whether we agree with a
particular approach or conception seems to make little difference.
There are questions for each of us to settle for ourselves. But in each
case the belief in a Higher Power has accomplished the miraculous, the
humanly impossible. There has come a revolutionary change in their
way of living and thinking." Has there been a revolutionary change in
me?

Meditation For The Day

Worship is consciousness of God's divine majesty. As you pause to
worship, God will help you raise your humanity to His divinity. The
earth is a material temple to enclose God's divinity. God brings to
those who worship Him a divine power, a divine love, and a divine
healing. You only have to open your mind to Him and try to absorb
some of His divine spirit. Pausing quietly in the spirit of worship, turn
your inward thoughts upward and realize that His divine power may be
yours, that you can experience His love and healing.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may worship God by sensing the eternal Spirit. I pray
that I may experience a new power in my life.

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As Bill Sees It

No Personal Power, p. 114

"At first, the remedy for my personal difficulties seemed so obvious
that I could not imagine any alcoholic turning the proposition down
were it properly presented to him. Believing so firmly that Christ can
do anything, I had the unconscious conceit to suppose that He would
do everything through me--right then and in the manner I chose.
After six long months, I had to admit that not a soul had surely laid
hold of the Master--not excepting myself.

"This brought me to the good healthy realization that there were
plenty of situations left in the world over which I had no personal
power--that if I was so ready to admit that to be the case with
alcohol, so I must make the same admission with respect to much
else. I would have to be still and know that He, not I, was God."

Letter, 1940

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Walk In Dry Places

Inventory is now
Personal Inventory.
In the early days of AA, the dramatic accounts of drinking escapades seemed to show honesty. Taking personal inventory often included telling others about bizarre behavior connected with drinking.
We know today that inventory ought to continue on a daily basis, even
though years have passed since our last drink. We've learned
through painful experiences that in sobriety we can still display many of
the shortcomings that plagued us as practicing alcoholics.
It can also be a trap to focus on our past wrongs rather than today's
faults. We may be using this focus on the past to avoid being
honest about where we stand today. Let's remember that inventory is always now. Taking inventory of the past won't help us with today's shortcomings.
I won't use a discussion of my past wrongs as a subterfuge to keep
from being honest about today's wrongs. I'll continue to take
personal inventory and admit wrongs as they come up.

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Keep It Simple

The future is made of the same stuff as the present. --- Simone Weil
We found we didn’t need magic to recover---we needed a miracle! Now we are walking miracles.
Part of our miracle is that we see how important today is. We can’t change our future unless we change today. So we live One Day at a Time. By living today well, we make our future better. There is comfort in knowing that the program will be there. Hope we’ll be there.
Old-timers say sobriety is easy if we go by one simple rule: don’t drink and go to meeting.
Life can get simpler; they don’t change much. Staying sober will be easier for us over time.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me keep my sobriety simple. Help me accept the rules of life.
Action for the Day: I will list three things that will be there for me tomorrow and the next day, because I’m working on them today.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

My Chance To Live

A.A. gave this teenager the tools to climb out of her dark abyss of despair.

Following the principles laid out in the Big Book has not always been comfortable, nor will I claim perfection. I have yet to find a place in the Big Book that says, "Now you have completed the Steps; have a nice life." The program is a plan for a lifetime of daily living. There have been occasions when the temptation to slack off has won. I view each of these as learning opportunities.

p. 317

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Seven - "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."

There was another reason for our collective poverty. It was soon apparent that while alcoholics would spend lavishly on Twelfth Step cases, they had a terrific aversion to dropping money into a meeting-place hat for group purposes. We were astounded to find that we were as tight as the bark on a tree. So A.A., the movement, started and stayed broke, while its individual members waxed prosperous.

pp. 160-161

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"Lost time is never found again."
--Benjamin Franklin

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except
what you're going to do now and do it.
--William Durant

When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God,
because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own
happiness, and your own duty.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924)

"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes.
What matters most is getting off. You can not make progress without
making decisions."
--Jim Rohn

All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live is to
love....to love as He loved.
--Isadora Duncan

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of
throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."
--Buddha

Whatever my problem today, I will let God have it. A solution is in the
making. I'll see it just as quickly as I can let go of the problem.
--unknown

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
--Shakespeare

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

DECISION

"When you see a snake, never
mind where he came from."
-- W. G. Benham

So many alcoholics have died looking for "the problem" that made
them drink. The wife, family, neighborhood or unemployment was
why they thought they got drunk. They died seeking a reason.
Alcoholics Anonymous clearly states that alcohol is the problem
for alcoholics.

Alcohol is the problem! A statement that is so simple yet so profound
in its healing. Today thousands upon thousands are choosing not to
die by not taking the first drink. To see the problem clearly and
honestly is the beginning of wisdom. O.A., ACoA, N.A., G.A.,
Al-Anon and others have used these simple principles with
profound results. Do I see the snake?

Teach me to avoid those things that cause me pain and destruction.

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"For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding."
Proverbs 2:6

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and
let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move
along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed
them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the
air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then
God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the
whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be
yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of
the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that
has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it
was so.
Genesis 1:26-30

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Daily Inspiration

Begin each day with the certainty that today is the best day of your life and watch what happens. Lord, I celebrate my life and give thanks for everything because for everything there is a reason.

Make today the best day of your life. Lord, I have been greatly blessed not only by what I have, but by those burdens that I have been spared.

[admin]

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
A tree grown in a cave does not bear fruit. --Kahlil Gibran
A tree planted in a cave would soon be stopped short in its growth. There would be no room for it to grow tall or blossom. It would only grow so far and then would grow no bigger.
Fear can be like a cave. We sometimes become fearful for the same reason we might enter a cave, looking for protection. But fear protects us from the new ideas and behavior we need in order to grow. Fear can keep us huddling inside it, watching life's opportunities pass by. When fear threatens to enclose us, we can take a deep breath and begin to do what we are afraid of doing. The cave will fade away as we step out into the sun, fresh air, and storms that are a part of growing.
What fear can I overcome today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Many of us grew up in situations that required us to be constantly on our guard. We became so keenly attuned to the people around us and how to please them or avoid their anger that we lost contact with our inner messages. Rather than developing skills for drawing upon our inner resources, we developed skills for looking outward and reacting to whatever confronted us. This method of survival may have been necessary in the past while we were under stress, but it doesn't allow us any rest or the possibility of simply following what we know and feel is right.
We are learning to know what we think and feel and to express it, even if it isn't always what others want to hear. We can be spontaneous now because we have room for mistakes in our lives. Our relationships are more reliable, and we have more energy from sincerity than from always striving to make a good appearance.
Today, it is more important for me to be sincere than to be on my guard.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
...to have a crisis and act upon it is one thing. To dwell in perpetual crisis is another. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Exaggerating the negative element in our lives is familiar behavior for all too many of us. But this obsession is our choice. We can stop at any moment. We can decide to let go of a situation that we can't control, turn it over to God, and be free to look ahead at the possibilities for happiness.
Perhaps we can learn to accept a serious situation in our lives as a special opportunity for growth first of all, but even more as an opportunity to let God work in our lives. We learn to trust by giving over our dilemmas to God for solutions. With patience, we will see the right outcomes, and we will more easily turn to God the next time.
Crises will lessen in number and in gravity in direct proportion to the partnership we develop with our higher power. The stronger our dependence on that power, for all answers and all directions, the greater will our comfort be in all situations.
Serenity is the gift promised when we let God handle our lives. No crisis need worry us. The solution is only a prayer away.
I will take action against every crisis confronting me--I will turn to God. Each crisis is an invitation to serenity.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Letting Go of Shame
Shame is that dark, powerful feeling that holds us back. Yes, shame can stop us from acting inappropriately. But many of us have learned to attach shame to healthy behaviors that are in our best interest.
In dysfunctional families, shame can be tagged to healthy behaviors such as talking about feelings, making choices, taking care of ourselves, having fun, being successful, or even feeling good about ourselves.
Shame may have been attached to asking for what we want and need, to communicating directly and honestly, and to giving and receiving love.
Sometimes shame disguises itself as fear, rage, indifference, or a need to run and hide, wrote Stephanie E. But if it feels dark and makes us feel bad about being who we are, it's probably shame.
In recovery, we are learning to identify shame. When we can recognize it, we can begin to let go of it. We can love and accept ourselves - starting now.
We have a right to be, to be here, and to be who we are. And we don't ever have to let shame tell us any differently.
Today, I will attack and conquer the shame in my life.


I value myself today. I value everything about me. I am finding people who value me as much as I value myself. I am attracting people who treat with me with love and respect. --Ruth Fishel

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First Things First

"We apply effort to our most obvious problems and let go of the rest. We do the job at hand and, as we progress, new opportunities for improvement present themselves."
Basic Text, p. 54

It's been said that recovery is simple? All we've got to change is everything! That can seem a pretty tall order, especially when we first arrive in Narcotics Anonymous. After all, not many of us showed up at our first meeting because our lives were in great shape. On the contrary, a great many of us came to NA in the midst of the worst crises of our lives. We needed recovery, and quick!

The enormity of the change required in our lives can be paralyzing. We know we can't take care of all that needs to be done, not all at once. How do we start? Chances are, we've already started. We've done the first, most obvious things that needed to be done: We've stopped using drugs, and we've started going to meetings.

What do we do next? Pretty much the same thing, just more of it: From where we are, we do what we can. We walk the path of recovery by picking up our feet and taking the step that's right in front of us. Only when that's been accomplished must we concern ourselves with what comes next. Slowly but surely, we'll find ourselves making progress down the path, visibly drawing closer each day to becoming the kind of person we'd like to be.

Just for today: I will walk the path of my recovery by taking the step right in front of me.
pg. 241

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Wisdom for Today
Desperate measures require desperate action – right? When I first walked through the doors of the program I was desperate. I was desperate to find a way out. I wasn’t really sure that my substance use was the cause of all my problems, I just knew I wanted to find a way out of all my pain. I was running around frantically looking for the answer. I wanted to find the magic. I could see in the eyes of the people at meetings that many of them had found what I was looking for. Why was it so difficult to find the answer? All I wanted was a way out!

Then one day an old-timer looked at me and said, “Quit running!” I didn’t understand what he had said. “Quit running, you will never find a way out like that.” He was right I had to quit running. It was only when I slowed down that I began to realize that no one had found a way out, but they had found peace in the middle of the storm. Have I quit running?
Meditation for the Heart
Sooner or later all addicts and alcoholics realize that the program is not a cure for their disease, but it can teach them a new way of living. Addiction continues to raise its ugly head from time to time even in recovery. It affects our thinking, our emotional response to situations, and our behavior. Our initial response may be to want run. In fellowship with others in the program and in turning our life over to “a Power Greater” than ourselves, we begin to realize that there is peace in the storm. Rather than desperately trying to find a way out, we begin to look for “His” guidance and peace in the middle of our pain and fear. Do I believe that I can find this peace if I stop running?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God

The program tells me to take it one step at a time. It does not tell me to run. Lord, help me this day to look for you in all that I do. Grant me the peace and serenity that is promised. Help me to know that nothing you ask is to hard.

Amen

[admin]

You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Highs and Lows

Abstaining from compulsive overeating does not guarantee that we will always be on an even keel emotionally. We continue to have ups and downs, and often we feel emotional distress even more keenly when we are no longer using food as a narcotic.

Part of our program involves the striving for balance and perspective. Experience teaches us not to get carried away by either elation or depression. These are moods, which will not last, and we prefer to base our actions on the rational decisions, which we make in times of quiet reflection.

Contact with OA friends during periods when we are either high or low helps to put our emotions in perspective. By expressing what we feel, we are better able to deal with it. Some of us tend to make calls when we are up and others of us reach for help when we are down. Ideally, we will make contact both times so that we may strengthen each other and learn not to be overwhelmed by mood swings.

May I remember that You can control my highs and my lows.