Daily Reflections
March 2
HOPE
Do not be discouraged.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 60
Few experiences are of less value to me than fast sobriety. Too many times discouragement has been the bonus for unrealistic expectations, not to mention self-pity or fatigue from my wanting to change the world by the weekend. Discouragement is a warning signal that I may have wandered across the God line. The secret of fulfilling my potential is in acknowledging my limitations and believing that time is a gift, not a threat.
Hope is the key that unlocks the door of discouragement. The program promises me that if I do not pick up the first drink today, I will always have hope. Having come to believe that I keep what I share, every time I encourage, I receive courage. It is with others that, with the grace of God and the Fellowship of A.A., I trudge the road of happy destiny. May I always remember that the power within me is far greater than any fear before me. May I always have patience, for I am on the right road.
************************************************
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
March 2
A.A. Thought For The Day
Over a period of drinking years, we’ve proved to ourselves and to everybody else that we can’t stop drinking by our own willpower. We have been proved helpless before the power of alcohol. So the only way we could stop drinking was by turning to a Power greater than ourselves. We call that Power God. The time that you really get this program is when you get down on your knees and surrender yourself to God, as you understand Him. Surrender means putting your life into God’s hands. Have I made a promise to God that I will try to live the way He wants me to live?
Meditation For The Day
Spirit-power comes from communication with God in prayer and times of quiet meditation. I must constantly seek spirit-communication with God. This is a matter directly between me and God. Those who seek it through the medium of the church do not always get the joy and the wonder of spirit communication with God. From this communication comes life, joy, peace, and healing. Many people do not realize the power that can come to them from direct spirit-communication.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may feel that God’s power is mine. I pray that I may be able to face anything through that power.
************************************************
As Bill Sees It
March 2
Resolving Fear, p. 61
Fear somehow touched about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it. It set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we didn’t deserve. But did we not often set the ball rolling ourselves?
<< << << >> >> >>
The problem of resolving fear has two aspects. We shall have to try for all the freedom from fear that is possible for us to attain. Then we shall need to find both the courage and the grace to deal constructively with whatever fears remain.
1. Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 67-68
2. Grapevine, January 1962
************************************************
Walk in Dry Places
March 2
Do we need some Fear?
Courage
It’s easy to get into an argument about the role of fear in our lives. Some say that we need some fear … It helps us get out of the path of an oncoming truck.
Is that really true? If it is, it’s still not like the fear that was present with alcoholism. This fear was more likely to make us freeze and lose all power of action in the face of a threat. It was the sort of fear that paralyzes us, making us unable to move out of the way when the truck is bearing down on us.
Fear is even more destructive when it keeps us from doing the simple things we need to function in our lives. Fear certainly can’t be helpful when it makes us unable to face a new customer or ride in an airplane for necessary business travel. Some people even put off medical exams simply because they fear bad news … and thus delay treatment, so that their condition becomes worse.
We might not need to get rid of all fear, but we do need to dispose of the unhealthy kind that keeps us from necessary actions on our own behalf.
A really strong sense of the program can help me deal with fear today. One good idea for coping with fear is to remember that if God is for us, nobody can really be against us. Keeping that thought in mind can help stabilize our feelings in the face of threatening situations.
************************************************
Keep It Simple
March 2
Love conquers all; let us surrender to love.
–Virgil
In Step Three, we turn our lives over to God’s care, God love. If we turn our lives over to a loving God, we can conquer all. If you need proof, look around at your next meeting. The room will be full of people who know that love conquers addiction. Like them, we’ve surrendered to love. Once we’ve done this, we can’t use again. For us, using alcohol or others drugs is an act of hate, not love. To Face the hard things in life, we’ll need a lot of love. We’ll find love in our Higher Power, groups, and friends. We’re all working at turning our lives over to love.
Prayer for the Day: There was a time that love scared me. It still does, at times. Higher Power, help me see that You are love, and I must follow where love takes me.
************************************************
Each Day a New Beginning
March 2
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
–Erica Jong
There was a time when we didn’t believe we had any talents. We couldn’t imagine we had any purpose or any gift to give to the world. But it’s true: We all have talents, many of them. If we each haven’t yet discovered ours, we soon will. With time and the Steps and friends, we will be encouraged to recognize them, to celebrate them, to cultivate them, to dare to give them away.
Utilizing our talents fully, which is part of life’s bigger plan, may lead us to new jobs, new friends, to places presently unknown. The prospect of new horizons may excite us. It may also elicit dread. We can trust that, just as we are given no problems too big to handle, we are given no talents too great to develop. The strength to move ahead will always be available if we have faith. And the program offers us faith.
I will look for my talents today. I will also look for talents in my friends. I can celebrate them, and soon the way to use them will become clear.
************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous
March 2
MY BOTTLE, MY RESENTMENTS, AND ME
– From childhood trauma to skid row drunk, this hobo finally found a Higher Power, bringing sobriety and a long-lost family.
One day a friend of mine who writes for a living asked if he could write the story of my life for a magazine. He assured me there would be no anonymity problems, so I agreed. I had been sober for almost twenty-five years at this time and had no idea what God, as I understand him, was about to do for me. My oldest brother, the one who had taken me in, just happened to subscribe to this magazine and just happened to read the article. Thus began an amazing chain of events that has altered not only our lives, but the lives of my family and many others. It is nothing short of a modern-day miracle. God has done for me what I could not do for myself!
pp. 444-445
************************************************
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
March 2
Step Two – “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
Let’s look first at the case of the one who says he won’t believe–the belligerent one. He is in a state of mind which can be described only as savage. His whole philosophy of life, in which he so gloried, is threatened. It’s bad enough, he thinks, to admit alcohol has him down for keeps. But now, still smarting from that admission, he is faced with something really impossible. How he does cherish the thought that man, risen so majestically from a single cell in the primordial ooze, is the spearhead of evolution and therefore the only god that his universe knows! Must he renounce all this to save himself?
p. 25
************************************************
Xtra Thoughts
March 2
The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he takes sobriety for granted.
–Unknown
God, help me remember that letting go is a powerful behavior, one that can change my life and impact the lives of others. Help me be patient with others and myself as letting go becomes a way of life.
–Melody Beattie
Laughter, like a drenching rain, settles the dust, cleans and brightens the world around us, and changes our whole perspective.
–Jan Pishok
A big part of my “conversion” has been full acceptance of myself, warts and all.
–Mary Zink
God is all around us, all the time.
–Martha Leonard
“Let us always be open to the miracle of the second chance.”
–Reverend David Stier
************************************************
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
March 2
INTEGRITY
“Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor.”
— John Gardner
I understand integrity to be a willingness to make sacrifices for what we believe to be true. The living of a spiritual program must lead to integrity.
Not so many years ago integrity was not an understood word in my vocabulary because of my unwillingness to make sacrifices. I was so selfishly preoccupied with my “wants” that I gave little thought to the needs of others. The more I lost myself in “self,” the greater was the emotional pain.
Today I live the paradox that it is only in giving that I truly receive.
May I daily express the paradox of sacrifice in my life.
************************************************
Bible Scriptures
March 2
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Of Him
-1 Peter 2:9
“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!”
-Psalms 27:14
“We can rejoice when we run into problems… they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady.”
-Romans 5:3-4
In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
-Isaiah 30:15
[God] is not far from each of us.
-Acts 17:27
************************************************
Daily Inspiration
March 2
Speak to God openly and honestly from your heart and then do not allow yourself to worry. Lord, You are my protection and my provider when I put my trust in you.
Keep yourself young in spirit always by thinking new thoughts and getting rid of old habits. Lord, may my spirit never become frail and my abilities never become barren.
************************************************
A Day At A Time
March 2
Reflection For The Day
Why don’t I spend part of today thinking about my assets, rather than my liabilities? Why not think about victories, instead of defeats — about the ways in which I am gentle and kind? It’s always been my tendency to fall into a sort of cynical self-hypnosis, putting derogatory labels on practically everything I’ve done, said or felt. Just for today, I’ll spend a quiet half hour trying to gain a more positive perspective on my life. Do I have the courage to change the things I can?
Today I Pray
Through quietness and a reassessment of myself, may I develop a more positive attitude. If I am a child of God, created in His image, there must be goodness in me. I will think about that goodness, and the ways it manifest itself. I will stop putting myself down, even in my secret thoughts. I will respect what is God’s. I will respect myself.
Today I Will Remember
Self-Respect is Respect For God.
************************************************
One More Day
March 2
Bitterness and anger seem to be very closely related and are interchangeable words for the same emotion.
–Robert Lovering
Why me? We may rage with anger or disbelief when we finally realize we may never fully regain good health. In the beginning, while we are still getting used to our new situation, this happens to most of us. And then we ask, “Why me?”
Having a chronic medical condition is not as likely to create bitterness as much as making poor choices about how to respond to it. If we choose loneliness or a lifestyle which allows no room for laughter, we choose bitterness.
By making healthier choices, we affirm our belief in ourselves, in the possibilities life has to offer. We feel more loving toward the people around us and in doing so, are more loving toward ourselves.
I can learn to balance my negative feelings with contentment and happiness. I can gain strength from my illness.
************************************************
One Day At A Time
March 2
EXPERIENCE
“I’m not afraid of storms … for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
–Louisa May Alcott
We spend our youth living and experiencing life. At some point our experiences become lessons. We who are compulsive eaters weren’t aware of that when we began to eat out of control. Deep down, however, we were living and experiencing food issues. These issues later would become our lessons.
I am so grateful that the Twelve Steps made it possible for me to look at my past experiences and see the reality they presented. If not, I may have continued life in denial.
One Day at a Time …
I will use the lessons I have learned to make the quality of my life better.
~ Mari ~
************************************************
Elder’s Meditation of the Day March 2
“The voice and the heart are not working together.”
–Barney Bush, SHAWNEE
We can say any words we want with our voice but we cannot hide the true meaning and the true spirit behind the words. The true meaning is always understood. The voice is heard in the physical world, but the meaning is transmitted in the spiritual world. If our voice says one thing but the heart is saying something else, it’s the something else that is heard. It is said that the truth will set you free. Reaching the truth means your voice and your words will be in alignment with the heart.
Great Spirit, let my tongue, speak the truth today.
************************************************
Journey to the Heart
March 2
Value Your Past
Value your past and all the lessons you have learned.
How easy it is to diminish the importance of our past and look on our history with a critical eye. We see the mistakes, we see what we think we should have known, we see what we could have done better. What we forget is that the reason we are able to see so clearly is because of the past and because of what we have learned. Often, it is the very experiences we regret that have created this clear vision.
Value what you’ve learned in your past. Each lesson has led to the next. Every person and event in each part of your life has been invaluable in shaping and forming you– in creating the person you are today. Each part of your past, each person who has come into your life and shared experiences with you has helped you to open your heart more to life, love, God, others, and yourself. Even those experiences you think of as wrong, or mistakes, have been an important and necessary part in creating you. Sometimes, those experiences formed the most important parts of you because they created in you compassion and understanding for others. Often the most painful events of your life are the ones that opened you to your ability to bring healing, help, and hope to others. Your past taught you to love– others and yourself. It has helped you become a channel for Divine love and a force for good in this world.
When you look back at your past, look tenderly and gently at all you have been through. Look with the eyes of the soul. See that each experience was necessary to bring you home to your heart.
************************************************
Today’s Gift
March 2
I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.
—William Blake
We have a right to claim our own feelings. Sometimes we get angry, but hold it inside because we think it’s wrong to feel it. If anger builds inside us, it expands like a balloon ready to burst. If not released, it can make us depressed, or even physically ill. When we give ourselves permission to feel anger, we are better able to get rid of it in a healthy way. Our inner voice can tell us how to let go of our anger. And once we’ve released it, we can easily get in touch with the feelings that caused it.
When we recognize our anger for what it is–one feeling among many others that makes us unique–it loses its significance, and we can prevent it from consuming us. Indira Ghandi said, “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” When we let go of our anger we can honestly embrace each other with open arms.
Am I carrying around anger which could be released today?
************************************************
The Language of Letting Go
March 2
Feelings on the Job
I’m furious about my job. Another man got a promotion that I believe I deserve. I’m so mad I feel like quitting. Now my wife says I should deal with my feelings. What good will that do? He still got the promotion.
—Anonymous
Our feelings at work are as important as our feelings in any other area of our life. Feelings are feelings – and wherever we incur them, dealing with them is what helps us move forward and grow.
Not acknowledging our feelings is what keeps us stuck and gives us stomachaches, headaches, and heartburn.
Yes, it can be a challenge to deal with feelings on the job. Sometimes, things can appear useless. One of our favorite tricks to avoid dealing with feelings is telling ourselves it’s useless.
We want to give careful consideration to how we deal with our feelings on our job. It may be appropriate to take our intense feelings to someone not connected to our workplace and sort through them in a safe way.
Once we’ve experienced the intensity of the feelings, we can figure out what we need to do to take care of ourselves on the job.
Sometimes, as in any area of our life, feelings are to be felt and accepted. Sometimes, they are pointing to a problem in us, or a problem we need to resolve with someone else.
Sometimes, our feelings are helping to point us in a direction. Sometimes, they’re connected to a message, or a fear: I’ll never be successful. I’ll never get what I want. I’m not good enough.
Sometimes, the solution is a spiritual approach or remedy. Remember, whenever we bring a spiritual approach to any area of our life, we get the benefit.
We won’t know what the lesson is until we summon the courage to stand still and deal with our feelings.
Today, I will consider my feelings at work as important as my feelings at home or anywhere else. I will find an appropriate way to deal with them.
************************************************
More Language Of Letting Go
March 2
Don’t stir the emotional pot
“My bill collector called today,” a friend said to me one day. “I love it when she calls. Every time she does, we have a good fight. She tells me that I owe her company money. Then I say I know. She tells me that my balance is due. I tell her I know that,too. Then she asks why I haven’t sent a payment. I tell her that the reason I didn’t send a payment is because I told her last month I could send only twenty dollars a month and she said not to send it, because that wasn’t enough. That’s when the screaming starts. Then she yells at me to get a job. I scream back that I’m trying and she ought to get a better job herself. Then we both slam down the phone and don’t talk to each other until she calls again next month.”
Some of us intentionally stir up drama to release emotions, get the pot brewing, and add a little energy to our lives. Sometimes we can cause trouble in areas where we’d be better off without it. Turning our home into a battleground doesn’t leave us a good place to live.
Sometimes when we’re stressed, we just like to get those emotions out. And what better way to get them out than by engaging in a good, old-fashioned fight. Just make sure you’re not making an enemy out of someone whom you’d rather have as a friend. And check to see that you’re not taking your stress out on an innocent bystander, a lover, family, or friend.
God, help me let go of my need for dysfunctional drama in my life. Help me make sure I’m not taking my stress out on the people I love. If I am, show me another way to release my emotions.
************************************************
Touchstones Meditation For Men
March 2
The fir tree has no choice about starting its life in the crack of a rock. What [nourishment] it finds is often meager, and above the ground appears a twisted trunk, grown in irregular spurts, marred by dead and broken branches, and bent far to one side by the battering winds. Yet at the top … some twigs hold their green needles year after year, giving proof that – misshapen, imperfect, scarred – the tree lives.
—Harriet Arrow
We often wish we had been born into better circumstances or blame our parents for our problems. Like the fir tree we could say, “If only I had taken sprout in a fertile meadow, life would be easier.” “If only I had had a better life as a boy … ” “If only I didn’t have my particular hardships … ”
By accepting the facts of our own lives, we mature into feelings of joy and pleasure alongside our griefs. Every man has to struggle with his own unique set of circumstances, even if they are not fair. Fairness is not an issue. Reality is what we have to deal with.
I will accept life on its own terms and rejoice in it.
************************************************
Daily TAO
March 2
SORROW
Rain scatters plum petals;
Weeping stains the earth.
One can only take shelter
And wait for clearing.
When sorrow comes, its bitterness soaks everything. The sages say that life is illusion, but does that change its poignancy? Let us be sad; it is feeling that makes us human. If we gain enlightenment, understanding all life to be a dream, sadness and happiness will fall away soon enough.
The greatest sorrow of life is witnessing. Experiencing our own sufferings is not as difficult as watching others held in fate’s mighty grip. Bearing our own problems is easier because we are always aware that we can exercise other options — up to the final one. However, it hurts the most when we can do nothing for others. The greatest sorrow is to see those we love suffer helplessly.
When faced with a sad situation, it is best not to languish in it. We can change things by being with different people, moving to other places, or, if all else fails, adjusting our own attitudes to take the initiative. Sadness is transitory, like everything else. If we want to deflect it, we need only alter its context and allow it to be subsumed back into Tao.
************************************************
Daily Zen
March 2
When someone who has not attained the Way practices Zen for a time, that person is Buddha for the duration; if one practices Zen for a day, one is Buddha for a day; if one practices Zen for one’s entire lifetime, one is Buddha for a lifetime. And whoever fosters this faith is a person of great capacity for the Dharma.
– Enni Ben’en (1201-1280)
************************************************
Food for Thought
March 2
Changing
As we lose weight, we adjust to a new self. Part of the body we had is disappearing, and this can be frightening. As our physical appearance changes, others may react to us differently. Along with the physical changes come new attitudes and expectations. Though for years we may have wished to be rid of the fat, when it actually begins to go we may fear the change.
What is new and unknown is often frightening. We may have used food and fat to retreat from uncomfortable situations. We may have spent so much time eating that there was little left for anything else. We may have expected all our troubles to vanish with the excess pounds. Now we can no longer hide behind fat or kill time with food, and our troubles may very well still be with us. What do we do?
It takes courage to change, to become a new person. We may decide at age forty to learn to play tennis. That takes lots of courage. New activities, new attitudes, changes in relationships with others–all require courage.
Change is frightening, but it is also an adventure. We are not alone. We have OA. Others have gone through the same changes and can reassure us, one step at a time.
May I not be afraid to change.
************************************************
In God’s Care
March 2
It is the daily striving that count, not the momentary heights
–God Calling, January 16
Progress, not perfection, is the hallmark of our program, and spiritual progress is guaranteed when we stay focused on the simple act of loving ourselves and others moment by moment.
Our longing for the one dramatic spiritual experience that will eliminate all uncertainty in our life and guarantee absolute happiness for all time clouds our vision of the moment. And as long as our sights remain on this hoped-for event, we’ll continue to miss the spiritual comfort allotted each step of each day’s journey.
We need to reflect daily on the progress we’ve made. Some of us, immobilized by fear in the past, are no longer anxious. Many of us, lonely and isolated in the past now have caring friends to turn to. And so many of us are now discovering the relief of sincerely asking our God for help.
We grow spiritually even when we seem to be neglecting our spiritual responsibilities. For this we can thank our Higher Power.
I will open myself with love to each moment today and know that God is close to me each step I take.
************************************************
Faith’s Check Book
March 2
Giving Without a Whisper
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in, secret himself shall regard thee openly.
(Matthew 6:3-4)
No promise is made to those who give to the poor to be seen of men. They have their reward at once and cannot expect to be paid twice.
Let us hide away our charity—yes, hide it even from ourselves. Give so often and so much as a matter of course that you no more take note that you have helped the poor than that you have eaten your regular meals. Do your alms without even whispering to yourself, How generous I am! Do not thus attempt to reward yourself. Leave the matter with God, who never fails to see, to record, and to reward. Blessed is the man who is busy in secret with his kindness: he finds a special joy in his unknown benevolences. This is the bread, which eaten by stealth, is sweeter than the banquets of kings. How can I indulge myself today with this delightful luxury? Let me have a real feast of tenderness and Row of soul.
Here and hereafter the Lord Himself will personally see to the rewarding of the secret giver of alms. This will be in His own way and time; and He will choose the very best. How much this promise means it will need eternity to reveal.
************************************************
This Morning’s Meditation
March 2
“But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock.”
—1 Samuel 13:20.
WE are engaged in a great war with the Philistines of evil. Every weapon within our reach must be used. Preaching, teaching, praying, giving, all must be brought into action, and talents which have been thought too mean for service, must now be employed. Coulter, and axe, and mattock, may all be useful in slaying Philistines; rough tools may deal hard blows, and killing need not be elegantly done, so long as it is done effectually. Each moment of time, in season or out of season; each fragment of ability, educated or untutored; each opportunity, favourable or unfavourable, must be used, for our foes are many and our force but slender.
Most of our tools want sharpening; we need quickness of perception, tact, energy, promptness, in a word, complete adaptation for the Lord’s work. Practical common sense is a very scarce thing among the conductors of Christian enterprises. We might learn from our enemies if we would, and so make the Philistines sharpen our weapons. This morning let us note enough to sharpen our zeal during this day by the aid of the Holy Spirit. See the energy of the Papists, how they compass sea and land to make one proselyte, are they to monopolize all the earnestness? Mark the heathen devotees, what tortures they endure in the service of their idols! are they alone to exhibit patience and self-sacrifice? Observe the prince of darkness, how persevering in his endeavours, how unabashed in his attempts, how daring in his plans, how thoughtful in his plots, how energetic in all! The devils are united as one man in their infamous rebellion, while we believers in Jesus are divided in our service of God, and scarcely ever work with unanimity. O that from Satan’s infernal industry we may learn to go about like good Samaritans, seeking whom we may bless!