Daily Recovery Readings 12/26

[janbear]

Daily Reflections


ACCEPTING SUCCESS OR FAILURE

Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming
failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to
either without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty,
sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and
serenity? Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the
humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when
the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied
us?
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 112

After I found A.A. and stopped drinking, it took a
while before I understood why the First Step contained
two parts: my powerlessness over alcohol and my life's
unmanageability. In the same way, I believed for a
long time that, in order to be in tune with the Twelve
Steps, it was enough for me "to carry this message to
alcoholics." That was rushing things. I was forgetting
that there were a total of Twelve Steps and that the
Twelfth Step also had more than one part. Eventually
I learned that it was necessary for me to "practice
these principles" in all areas of my life. In working
all the Steps thoroughly, I not only stay sober and
help someone else to achieve sobriety, but also I
transform my difficulty with living into a joy of
living.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

I am glad to be a part of A.A., of that great fellowship
that is spreading over the United States and all over the
world. I am only one of the many A.A.'s, but I am one. I
am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help
A.A. to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the
wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be
able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose
in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and
so find it again. Am I grateful to be an A.A.?

Meditation For The Day

These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of
service to other people in a small way at least. And we
can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much
about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to
leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power.
We can go along through life doing the best we can, but
without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all
the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same
time depend deeply on God.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may give my life to this worthwhile cause.
I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from
good work well done.


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As Bill Sees It

Forgiveness, p. 318

Through the vital Fifth Step, we began to get the feeling that we could
be forgiven, no matter what we had thought or done.

Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors or spiritual
advisers that we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how
deeply we felt they had wronged us.

Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-round forgiveness was
desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that
we inwardly knew we'd be able to receive forgiveness and give it, too.

12 & 12, pp. 57-58

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Walk In Dry Places

Humility: Teachable and Honest
Open to growth.
Humility& is often used in the context of being honest enough to admit one's faults, but it also means being teachable. The truly humble person realizes there's always more to learn and is open to such learning.
If we think we have humility, we usually don't. However, we can look back and recognize times when we made wonderful progress while being deeply humble. This was particularly true when we recognized our alcoholism and achieved sobriety. In this one action, we changed our lives.
If we continue to practice the honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness that helped get us sober, these traits will be apparent in other areas of our lives. Though humility isn't generally sought as a way of life, it's the right way for recovering people.
I'll be open today to ideas from any direction. I can learn something from every person.

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Keep It Simple

To be emotionally committed to somebody is very difficult, but to be alone is impossible. --Stephen Sondheim.
Let's face it, relationships are hard to work! But we are lucky! Recovery is about relationships. We learn how to set limits. We learn how to listen to and talk to others. In Step One, we begin a new relationship with ourselves. In Step Two and Three, we begin a relationship with our Higher Power. In later Steps, we mend our relationships with family and friends. In our relationship with our sponsor, we learn about being friends. And our past relationships with alcohol and other drugs is being replaced by people and our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for all the new relationships. Thank-you for teaching me how to feel human again.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a list of all the new relationships I have now, due to my sobriety.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

TIGHTROPE
Trying to separate worlds was a lonely charade that ended when this gay alcoholic finally landed in A.A.

Work in a law firm added a third side to my already divided life. Now I had to try to maintain social relations with clients, members, and associates of the firm, in addition to my gay and straight friends from my private lives. Needless to say, as the drinking increased, things became ever more confused. Eventually, the pressures became too great. I had formed a serious relationship and decided that I could no longer carry on the deception. Instead, I would change careers and go into teaching.

pp. 360-361

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Four - "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."

At this stage of the inventory proceedings, our sponsors come to the rescue. They can do this, for they are the carriers of A.A.'s tested experience with Step Four. They comfort the melancholy one by first showing him that his case is not strange or different, that his character defects are probably not more numerous or worse than those of anyone else in A.A. This the sponsor promptly proves by talking freely and easily, and without exhibitionism, about his own defects, past and present. This calm, yet realistic, stocktaking is immensely reassuring. The sponsor probably points out that the newcomer has some assets which can be noted along with his liabilities. This tends to clear away morbidity and encourage balance. As soon as he begins to be more objective, the newcomer can fearlessly, rather than fearfully, look
at his own defects.

p. 46

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The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we
have.
--Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

A person who possesses true peace is not one whose life is without problems and
turmoil but is rather a person who has peace in spite of it.
--unknown

If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been.
--unknown

A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
--unknown

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

APATHY

"The only thing necessary for
the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke

I read about the Holocaust and I am ashamed. I am ashamed to belong to the human
race that allowed, by an overwhelming silence, the slaughter of millions. The ultimate
in people-pleasing is to do nothing. The fear of being an outcast or traitor allows the
addiction to Power to develop. Power is an addiction that is rarely discussed in
society. And yet evil needs people and politics to function alone it is but a word.

With this new day I seek to be involved in the good life. Today I am not afraid to
stand alone for what I believe to be the principles of a God-given spirituality. I know
evil because I know myself. I know tyranny and injustice because for years I
perpetrated negativity in my life. Now I choose to say "no". Today I seek to make
amends for past wrongs by being rigorously honest in all my affairs. Because I
know what it is to hate, I seek to love. I wish to be responsible in God's world.

Teach me not only to learn from past mistakes but translate this knowledge into
action.

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"Nothing will be impossible with God."
Luke 1:37

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.
Psalm 145:3

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength."
Deuteronomy 6:5

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

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Daily Inspiration

If you think success and really believe it will happen, you will perform in a manner that leads to success. Lord, may I always avoid negative thoughts and visualize myself in the manner that You intended for me.

We are powerless to change our past, but we can change how we look at it. Lord, help me to realize that my past has made me a stronger person and show me that these experiences have taught me valuable life lessons.

[janbear]

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
I take it that what all men are really after is some form of, perhaps only some formula of, peace. --James Conrad
When snow drifts quietly down on a winter evening, the hush of nature brings a great sense of peace. Each of us has known times like this. Many of these times did not depend on conditions like snow, or soft music. When we are able to keep a quiet center within ourselves, we are truly in tune with the spirit. Peace of the heart comes from a Power greater than ourselves, and from the faith that all of us, and all that happens to us, are part of a great plan.
Just as the snow falls softly, without fear, without regard for whether it will land on a tree bough or in the street, we, too, can live our lives with peaceful acceptance of whatever comes along, knowing it comes to us naturally and from God.
Am I prepared to accept wherever I will land today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
He who knows how to be poor knows everything. --Jules Michelet
Letting go is one of the simple yet profound spiritual tasks taught by many of the world's religions. Knowing how to be poor means knowing how to have a full and rich life without a dependent relationship with material wealth, food, chemicals, or sex. It means not relying on the props in life like expensive clothes, a prestigious job, or a sporty car, but relying only on the basics. Knowing how to be poor is knowing we are not in control and not wasting our serenity in trying. It means being completely honest in all things. It means knowing life is neither easy nor free of pain.
Learning how to be poor is learning how to let go of all the essentials and appreciating the simplicity that endures. We don't automatically know how to do that, but we can learn.
I don't expect to know everything, but my Higher Power can guide me and show me how to let go.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
It is only framed in space that beauty blooms; only in space are events, and objects and people unique and significant and therefore beautiful.
--Anne Morrow Lindbergh
We must look closely; focus intently on the subjects of our attention. Within these subjects is the explanation of life's mysteries. To observe anything closely means we must pull it aside with our minds and fondle it, perhaps. We must let the richness of the object, the person, the event, wash over us and savor its memory.
Many of us only now are able to look around ourselves slowly, with care, noting the detail, the brilliant color of life. Each day is an opportunity to observe and absorb the beauty while it blooms.
I will look for beauty today, in myself, and in a friend, and I will find it.


You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Growth
Just as when we were children and grew out of favorite toys and clothes, we sometimes grow out of things as adults - people, jobs, and homes. This can be confusing. We may wonder why someone or something that was so special and important to us last year doesn't fit the same way in our life today. We may wonder why our feelings have changed.
When we were children, we may have tried to fit an outgrown article of clothing on to our body. Now, as adults, we may go through a time of trying to force fit attitudes that we have outgrown. We may need to do this to give ourselves time to realize the truth. What worked last year, what was so important and special to us in times past, doesn't work anymore because we've changed. We've grown.
We can accept this as a valid and important part of recovery. We can let ourselves go through experimentation and grief as we struggle to make something fit, trying to figure out if indeed it no longer fits, and why. We can explore our feelings and thoughts around what has happened.
Then, we can put last year's toys away and make room for the new.
Today, I will let last year's toys be what they were: last year's toys. I will remember them with fondness for the part they played in my life. Then, I will put them away and make room for the new.


I live today as I want to remember my life. --Ruth Fishel

[janbear]

You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Control

Control was something we either feared or did not know much about before
we began the OA program. We resisted control as being opposed to our
idea of spontaneous living, especially spontaneous eating, Control was
for other people - our children perhaps - but not for us.

Without control, we watched as self-will ran riot with our lives. We ate
what we pleased, and then, angry and depressed, we said what we pleased
and did what we pleased. The problem was that we ended up being not at
all "pleased," but full of disgust and despair. Dimly, we may have
realized that our suffering was due to lack of self-control, but we did
not know how to go about acquiring what we lacked.

By relinquishing our so-called control to a Higher Power, we learn what
it means to be free. By using the OA concept of abstinence to control
our eating, we find spontaneity in living. Rather than inhibiting us,
the kind of control we develop through this program liberates us from
the bondage of self-will.

Control my life, I pray.

[janbear]

Wisdom for Today
"Admitted to God, ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." These words in Step Five made my very insides groan. To honestly say out loud the words so carefully written in Step Four and admit to God, myself and someone else who and what I was and what I had done and not done was a task I thought too great. Yet I knew that this step had been written for a reason. So many that had gone before me had stated that they had found a new freedom in this step. So why was I so petrified by this task? The reality was that shame had me in its grasp. I stood broken and damaged and had no desire to complete this step.
I pondered for many days what the wisdom was behind this step and continued to be paralyzed. I could not even call the person that my sponsor suggested to me to arrange a meeting to discuss doing my Fifth Step. I didn't even want to talk to my sponsor about this. I went to a meeting I normally didn't attend hoping to find a way out. The chair of the meeting went through all of the opening rituals and then introduced the topic for the evening. He said, "Tonight I think we should talk about forgiveness." He went on to talk about his Fifth Step and how it had not only opened his eyes to the work he needed to do about his defects of character, but also how it opened the door to forgiving himself for all the wrongs he had committed. I was astounded. How was it that in this meeting I so rarely attended that this was the topic of the evening? God works in mysterious ways. The longer I stay clean and sober, the more I am convinced that there is no such thing as coincidence. Do I see how God works in and through the program?
Meditations for the Heart
Forgiveness was something I had heard about a lot in church growing up, but it was something that I really didn't understand. It was clear to me that this was a spiritual concept I needed to learn more about. Perhaps this is why my sponsor had suggested I talk with a recovering pastor to do my Fifth Step. At any rate the next day after this meeting, I made a phone call to schedule a meeting; and indeed in the following weeks I did learn much about this spiritual concept. I also learned why it was not only important but necessary to keep my Higher Power in the center of my life. It was about balance. I had gotten so out of balance spiritually because of my addiction. Now I had to learn about balance. Do I understand the necessity of keeping my Higher Power in the center of my life?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
Standing before You has not always been easy. Too often I have wanted to run and hide because of my shame. I understand why it is so important to keep You in the center of my life. If I do not trust You, whom can I trust? Walk with me this day and give me the willingness I need to live as You want me to live. Guide me each step of the way.
Amen.
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