Daily Recovery Readings - 6/11

[admin]

Daily Reflections

FAMILY OBLIGATIONS

. . . a spiritual life which does not include . . . family
obligations may not be so perfect after all.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129

I can be doing great in the program--applying it at meetings,
at work, and in service activities--and find that things have
gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand,
but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress,
but they don't--unless I show them. Do I neglect their needs
and desire for my attention and concern? When I'm around them,
am I irritable or boring? Are my "amends" a mumbled "Sorry,"
or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I
preach to them, trying to reform or "fix" them? Have I ever
really cleaned house with them? "The spiritual life is not a
theory. We have to live it."
(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83).

************************************************** *********

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

We alcoholics have to believe in some Power greater than
ourselves. Yes, we have to believe in God. Not to believe in
a Higher Power drives us to atheism. Atheism, it has been
said before, is blind faith in the strange proposition that
this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes
nowhere. That's practically impossible to believe. So we turn
to that Divine Principle in the universe that we call God.
Have I stopped trying to run my own life?

Meditation For The Day

"Lord, we thank Thee for the great gift of peace, that peace
which passeth all understanding, that peace which the world
can neither give nor take away." That is the peace that only
God can give in the midst of a restless world and surrounded
by trouble and difficulty. To know that peace is to have
received the stamp of the kingdom of God. When you have earned
that peace, you are fit to judge between true and false values,
between the values of the kingdom of God and the values of all
that the world has to offer.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that today I may have inner peace. I pray that today I
may be at peace with myself.

************************************************** *********

As Bill Sees It

The Reality of Spiritual Experiences, p. 182

"Perhaps you raise the question of hallucination versus the divine imagery of a genuine
spiritual experience. I doubt if anyone has authoritatively defined what a hallucination
really is. However, it is certain that all recipients of spiritual experiences declare their
reality. The best evidence of that reality is in the subsequent fruits. Those who receive
these gifts of grace are very much changed people, almost invariably for the better. This
can scarcely be said of those who hallucinate.

"Some might think me presumptuous when I say that my own experience is real.
Nevertheless, I can surely report that in my own life and in the lives of countless others,
the fruits of that experience have been real, and the benefactions beyond reckoning.

Talk, 1960

************************************************** *********

Walk In Dry Places

What can we change ?
Handling limitations.
There's always danger that resignation will masquerade as acceptance. In 12 Step programs, we must learn the difference between the two. Resignation refers to putting up with conditions that we should actually change; it regards self-imposed limitation. Acceptance meansx recognizing reality and becoming comfortable with it.
We might resign ourselves to bad treatment that is unacceptable, or we might put up with personal shortcomings that we could change. When someone points this out, we defend ourselves by asserting points this out., we defend ourselves by asserting that we're practicing acceptance.
As human beings and children of God, we are entitled to live with dignity and to receive fair treatment. We should never resign ourselves to anything that robs us of this basic humanity. Our Higher Power will show us how to eliminate resignation if we have been practicing it. The message of the program is that we never have to accept the things we can and should change.
Today if I am uncomfortable with something, I'll ask myself if I've been practicing resignation instead of acceptance. There may be many things in my life that can and should be changed.

************************************************** *********

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Housewife Who Drank At Home

She hid her bottles in clothes hampers and dresser drawers. In A.A., she discovered she had lost nothing and had found everything.

At one time the admission that I was and am an alcoholic meant shame, defeat, and failure to me. But in the light of the new understanding that I have found in A.A., I have been able to interpret that defeat and that failure and that same as seeds of victory. Because it was only through feeling defeat and feeling failure, the inability to cope with my life and with alcohol, that I was able to surrender and accept the fact that I had this disease and that I had to learn to live again without alcohol.

p. 295

************************************************** *********

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition One - "Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. Unity."

"Does this mean," some will anxiously ask, "that in A.A. the individual doesn't count for much? Is he to be dominated by his group and swallowed up in it?"
We may certainly answer this question with a loud "No!" We believe there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care upon its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled. Our Twelve Steps to recovery are suggestions; the Twelve Traditions which guarantee A.A.'s unity contain not a single "Don't." They repeatedly say "We ought . . ." but never "You must!"

p. 129

************************************************** *********

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of
kittens."
--Abraham Lincoln

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as
you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with
too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The right time for the journey is when you begin it. Why not today?
God, motivate me to live a fuller, richer life.
--An excerpt from Melody Beattie - (More Language of Letting Go)

"There is a very little difference between people; it is called attitude;
and it makes a really big difference. The big difference is whether it's
positive or negative."
--W. Clement Stone

"Kindness can become its own motive.
We are made kind by being kind."
--Eric Hoffer

Look past the body, past the personality, past the behavior, into the
window of one another's souls. There we make a connection. The
God in me recognizes and honors the God in you.
--Mary Manin Morrissey

God, grant me the serenity to not try to force outcomes and solutions
too soon.
--Melody Beattie

Wish not so much to live long, as to live well.
-- Benjamin Franklin

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
--Epictetus

***********************************************

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SOLITUDE

"Everyone should try to find a
spot to be alone."
--Queen Juliana (Netherlands)

Greta Garbo was reported to have said, "I want to be alone." Life
brings its pressures, but we all need to find a place where we can be
"alone".

Alone - not to "think" or "do" - simply to be. We need time to simply
rest in our lives. A time in the day which we can call our own, to have a
visit with the most important person we have got in our lives -
ourselves.

To rest in self is to experience "spiritual selfishness" - the joy of
self-love.

And how much we look forward to setting aside a time just for heart
and mind to center on the pathway to listening to God.

************************************************** *********

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4

Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.
Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes. He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted
high in honor.
Psalm 112:4-9

************************************************** *********

Daily Inspiration

It is laughter that helps us cope with the upsets and chaos of everyday living. Lord, lighten my spirit so that I will not take myself so seriously and be able to find more moments to laugh.

Take care of yourself so that you may give care to others. Lord, may I never totally ignore myself and my feelings for the sake of others and fit in time daily to refresh my spirit.

[admin]

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength. --A. J. Cronin
There is always something to worry about. What if it rains tomorrow on the family picnic? What if the baby gets sick and we can't go? What if we can't find a shady spot for our lunch table? Will the water be too cold for swimming? Will the boat motor conk out in the middle of the lake? What if we forget the charcoal? Or the lighter fluid?
Today, while preparing the potato salad for tomorrow's picnic, all we need to know is whether the potatoes are cool enough to peel and slice.
Our worries about tomorrow change nothing but ourselves, and they have nothing to do with what we are doing right now. Tomorrow will become today soon enough, and today is the day we have.
Which of my worries belong only to tomorrow, and should be left alone until then?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
We are each so much more than what some reduce to measuring. --Karen Kaiser Clark
Our society places great emphasis on how well each person is doing. It makes us judgmental and competitive. As children we may have thought that our real value was measured by the grades we got in school or the scores of our baseball games. As grown men we continue measuring our worth by things like the size of our wages, the model of the car we drive, or even how many months or years we have in recovery.
We can't stop the measuring, but we are in a program that helps us step outside this system. We seek to know and do the will of our Higher Power, which is beyond the limitations of such measurements. Submitting our own will to our Higher Power releases us from the competition and the judgments in these games of measurement. Our loyalties are to values like honesty, respect, peace, and wholeness.
Today, I will remember that my value as a man isn't measured on a man-made scale.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
My lifetime listens to yours. --Muriel Rukeyser
Our experiences educate us to help show each other the way. Others' experiences, likewise, will help still others. We need to share our histories. And the program offers us the way. There is no greater honor we can give one another than rapt attention. We each want to be heard, to be special, to be acknowledged. And recognition may will be the balm that will heal someone's hurt today.
A new day faces us, a day filled with opportunities to really listen to someone who needs to be heard. And the surprise is that we will hear a message just right for us, where we are now. A message that may well point us in a new, better direction. Guidance is always at hand, if only we listen for it. But when we are trapped in our own narrow world of problems and confusion, we scramble whatever messages are trying to reach us. And we miss the many opportunities to make another person feel special and necessary to our lives.
My growth is enhanced every time I give my attention fully to another person. And this process is multiplied over and over and over. I will be there for someone today.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Moving Forward
Much as we would like, we cannot bring everyone with us on this journey called recovery. We are not being disloyal by allowing ourselves to move forward. We don't have to wait for those we love to decide to change as well.
Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to grow, even though the people we love are not ready to change. We may even need to leave people behind in their dysfunction or suffering because we cannot recover for them. We don't need to suffer with them.
It doesn't help.
It doesn't help for us to stay stuck just because someone we love is stuck. The potential for helping others is far greater when we detach, work on ourselves, and stop trying to force others to change with us.
Changing ourselves, allowing ourselves to grow while others seek their own path, is how we have the most beneficial impact on people we love. We're accountable for ourselves. They're accountable for themselves. We let them go, and let ourselves grow.
Today, I will affirm that it is my right to grow and change, even though someone I love may not be growing and changing alongside me.


Today I have the courage to look within without fear at what needs to be changed in my life. --Ruth Fishel

[admin]

Living Clean

"As we recover; we gain a new outlook on being clean.... Life can become a new adventure for us."
Basic Text, p. 88

The using life is not a clean one-no one knows this better than we do. Some of us lived in physical squalor, caring neither for our surroundings nor ourselves. Worse, though, than any external filth was the way most of us felt inside. The things we did to get our drugs, the way we treated other people, and the way we treated ourselves had us feeling dirty. Many of us recall waking too many mornings just wishing that, for once, we could feel clean about ourselves and our lives.

Today, we have a chance to feel clean by living clean. For us addicts, living clean starts with not using - after all, that's our primary use for the word "clean" in Narcotics Anonymous. But as we stay "clean" and work the Twelve Steps, we discover another kind of clean. It's the clean that comes from admitting the truth about our addiction rather than hiding or denying our disease. It's the freshness that comes from owning up to our wrongs and making amends for them. It's the vitality that comes from the new set of values we develop as we seek a Higher Power's will for us. When we practice the principles of our program in all our affairs, we have no reason to feel dirty about our lives or our lifestyles - we're living clean, and grateful to be doing so at last.

"Clean living" used to be just for the "squares." Today, living clean is the only way we'd have it.

Just for today: I feel clean because I'm living clean - and that's the way I want to keep it.
pg. 169

[admin]

Wisdom for Today
Back when I was drinking and using, I would fantasize about the future. I had dreams and aspirations of a fine life, with a happy family, a good job, and many other good things. In recovery I have found many of these good things because of what the program has taught me. Sometimes I now fantasize about what my life would have been like if I never found the program. It is not a pretty picture. Yet this ugly picture is something I carry with me as a reminder. A reminder of what will happen should I choose to go back to the insanity of addiction.
Regardless of the ways we find to convince ourselves that addiction is wrong for us, we all need to face the truth of addiction. Addiction to alcohol or drugs only gets worse over time. There is no cure for this disease; it can be arrested but not cured. In the end it will destroy all that is precious to us. I hold this truth close to me so that I cannot forget the finality of the disease process - death, insanity, or institutions. I hold this close also so that I may be grateful for all the good things I have been given in recovery. Have I found a way to hold the truth of addiction close, so that I will not forget its finality?
Meditations for the Heart
Fantasy and imagination can serve us well in recovery. This was not my original thinking, but over time it has changed much like many other things in recovery. In step eleven we are asked to seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God. At first I thought meditation was for people in another culture or for people who were just plain weird. I was wrong about this just like I was wrong about many other things. Using meditation to fantasize or imagine what God wants me to do in my life has turned out to be a good thing. When I think deeply about what God wants and consider the wisdom that He is wanting me to have, only good can come of this. When I imagine myself securely in His arms, my fears slip away. When I imagine myself being given courage for the day, my strength is increased. The Psalm says it best, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Do I take time to meditate regularly?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
Be with me this day and walk with me in all that I do. Let me guard closely the truth of addiction and what it can do to me. Let me hold Your truth in front of me as my shield this day. Let me take time to spend in dialog with You. Let me think deeply about Your will for me this day.
Amen

[admin]

You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Our Security Blanket

Turning to food when we are afraid is a tendency shared by many of us. Since being fed reassured us as infants and children, we compulsive overeaters reach for something to eat when we are anxious or apprehensive. When the anxiety does not disappear, we eat more.

The desire for security is basic to all of us. Unfortunately, we often look for it in the wrong places. A fortress of fat is not much protection against the hurts and dangers to which we are all vulnerable as human beings. Overeating does not keep us safe from real or imagined threats.

We need to accept the fact that there is no such thing as absolute security. All of us are mortal and subject to hazards and destruction. Paradoxically, our security consists in relinquishing our lives to the care of our Higher Power. When we feel safely centered in Him, we have the courage to take risks and give up our worn-out security blankets.

I trust You to care for me, Lord.