Daily Reflections
October 26
ONE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 132
When I am chosen to carry some small responsibility for my fellows, I ask that God grant me the patience, open-mindedness, and willingness to listen to those I would lead. I must remind myself that I am the trusted servant of others, not their “governor,” “teacher,” or “instructor.” God guides my words and my actions, and my responsibility is to heed His suggestions. Trust is my watchword, I trust others who lead. In the Fellowship of A.A., I entrust God with the ultimate authority of “running the show.”
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
October 26
A.A. Thought For The Day
Sixth, I have A.A. meetings to go to, thank God. Where would I go without them? Where would I be without them? Where would I find the sympathy, the understanding, the fellowship, the companionship? Nowhere else in the world. I have come home. I have found the place where I belong. I no longer wander alone over the face of the earth. I am at peace and at rest. What a great gift has been given me by A.A.! I do not deserve it. But it is nevertheless mine. I have a home at last. I am content. Do I thank God everyday for the A.A. Fellowship?
Meditation For The Day
Walk all the way with another person and with God. Do not go part of the way and then stop. Do not push God so far into the background that He has no effect on your life. Walk all the way with Him. Make a good companion of God, by praying to Him often during the day. Do not let your contact with Him be broken for too long a period. Work all the way with God and with other people, along the path of life, wherever it may lead you.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may walk in companionship with God along the way. I pray that I may keep my feet upon the path that leads upward.
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As Bill Sees It
October 26
A VISION OF THE WHOLE, p. 297
“Though many of us have had to struggle for sobriety, never yet has this Fellowship had to struggle for lost unity. Consequently, we sometimes take this one great gift for granted. We forget that, should we lose our unity, the millions of alcoholics who still ‘do not know’ might never get their chance.
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“We used to be skeptical about large A.A. gatherings like conventions, thinking they might prove too exhibitionistic. But, on balance, their benefit is huge. While each A.A.’s interest should center principally in those about him and upon his own group, it is both necessary and desirable that we all get a larger vision of the whole.
“The General Service Conference in New York also produces this effect upon those who attend. It is a vision-stretching process.”
1. Letter, 1949
2. Letter, 1956
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Walk In Dry Places
October 26
Who is an Alcoholic?
AA’s mission
Though AA’s avowed mission is to carry its message to alcoholics, the fellowship does not really have a one-size-fits-all definition of alcoholism. This has created some confusion when non-alcoholics inadvertently show up at meetings that are supposed to be for alcoholics only, or when people with other addictions seek AA’s help. A few groups even insist that people must declare themselves alcoholics in order to participate in a “closed” meeting.
But who is an alcoholic? The AA pioneers were not insistent that people should immediately declare themselves alcoholics in order to receive help. Newcomers were invited to attend meetings and then decide for themselves if they were alcoholics and needed the program. In today’s environment, we have the added factor that troubled people might be addicted to both drugs and alcohol. Such cross-addiction, in fact, seems to be a strong trend. We also know that any alcoholic can easily become cross-addicted if he or she uses other drugs.
Our best course is to keep the door open for any person who comes to AA sincerely desiring help. If people find their answer in AA, they probably belong in the fellowship.
I’ll be grateful today that I was able to admit that I had a problem and needed AA’s help. I’ll accept others just as I was accepted. To stay sober and grow in the program. I do not need to define alcoholism for anybody other myself.
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Keep It Simple
October 26
Nobody give you freedom.
-Malcolm X
We were not free. We were prisoners of our illness. What our illness wanted, we give itour dignity, our self-respect, even our families. Our prison walls were made of denial, false pride, and self-will run riot. Now we know that brick walls don’t have to stop us. We don’t have to bang our heads on them.
Slowly, we’re learning about freedom. We’re learning that freedom. We’re learning that freedom comes from within. It comes when we think clearly and make our own choices.
It comes when we follow a better way of life. It comes when we take care of ourselves. It comes when we take responsibility. The key to freedom is in loving our Higher Power.
Do you choose freedom?
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, show me how to walk away from a wall or go around it. But teach me to stop and think when I get to a wall. Maybe it’s there for my safety.
Today’s Action: Today I’ll think about all the freedom I have given myself by living a sober way of life.
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Each Day a New Beginning
October 26
My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue, an everlasting vision of the ever-changing view.
-Carole King
Every event of our lives is contributing a rich thread to our personal tapestry. Each of us is weaving one unique to ourselves, but all of our tapestries are complementary. We need others’ rich designs in order to create our own.
We seldom have the foresight to understand the worth, the ultimate value of a particular circumstance at its beginning. But hindsight offers us clarity. It’s good to reflect on the many circumstances that failed to thrill us; in all cases we can now see why we needed them. As our trust in God and the goodness of all experiences grows, we’ll more quickly respond with gladness when situations are fresh. No experience is meant for harm. We are coming to understand that, even though on occasion we forget.
Practicing gratitude will help us more fully appreciate what has been offered us. Being grateful influences our attitude; it softens our harsh exterior and takes the threat out of most new situations.
If I greet the day, glad to be alive, I will be gladdened by all the experiences in store for me. Each is making a necessary contribution to my wholeness.
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Alcoholics Anonymous
October 26
THE PERPETUAL QUEST
– This lawyer tried psychiatrists. biofeedback, relaxation exercises, and a host of other techniques to control her drinking. She finally found a solution, uniquely tailored, in the Twelve Steps.
The first difference between that night and all the others was that I did not immediately go directly to a bar to get lubricated or home with my regular giant weekend supply of booze. Instead I went to my club to swim, where strangely enough I also did not drink. I was so hungover that I had to give up trying to swim and instead wrapped myself in a bathrobe and sat in a dark corner of the locker room lounge for two hours, feeling desperately sorry for myself.
p. 394
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
October 26
Tradition Three – “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.”
At first the elders could look only at the objections. “We deal,” they said, “with alcoholics only. Shouldn’t we sacrifice this one for the sake of the many?” So went the discussions while the newcomer’s fate hung in the balance. Then one of the three spoke in a very different voice. “What we are really afraid of,” he said, “is our reputation. We are much more afraid of what people might say than the trouble this strange alcoholic might bring. As we’ve been talking, five short words have been running through my mind. Something keeps repeating to me, “What would the Master do?” “Not another word was said. What more indeed could be said?
p. 142
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Xtra Thoughts
October 26
“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”
-Rabbinical Saying
It’s amazing how well I feel when I’m not thinking about myself.
-Bob Y
“Appreciate people. Nothing gives more joy than appreciation.”
-Ruth Smeltzer
“When someone does something well, applaud! You will make two people happy.”
-Samuel Goldwyn
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
-Kahlil Gibran
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
October 26
KINDNESS
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
-Lao-tzu
It costs me nothing to say “hello” and yet it might make all the difference to my neighbor. It costs me nothing to give a hug and yet that hug might make all the difference to a friend. It costs me nothing to listen to another’s pain and yet the listening might make all the difference to another person.
Love is to be found in the small, ordinary acts of kindness as well as in the extravagant gesture. I need to seek God in the everyday happenings of life alongside the “religious.” Spirituality is in the smile that is real!
Today I know that I give only what I received — and I received a great deal. People loved me enough to be patient, they cared enough to telephone, they encouraged me with the gentle word of hope: I am in the flow.
Lord, You have created this wondrous patterned fabric of life — may I find You in its smallest detail.
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Bible Scriptures
October 26
Pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
-Proverbs 16:24
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
-1 Timothy 4:12
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God … ”
-Ephesians 2:8
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Daily Inspiration
October 26
You have the choice to do or not to do and realizing this allows you to accomplish more than you thought possible. Lord, help me make wise decisions with my time and not allow the pressures of life to drain my effectiveness.
Often times that which we find difficult is that which teaches. Lord, may I always be able to see the good that comes from even my trials.
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A Day At A Time
October 26
Reflection For The Day
From time to time when I see the slogan, But for The Grace of God, I remember how I used to mouth those words when I saw others whose addictions had brought them to what I considered a “hopeless and helpless” state. The slogan had long been a cop-out for me, reinforcing my denial of my own addiction by enabling me to point to others seemingly worse off than I. “If I ever get like that, I’ll quit,” was my on-repeated refrain. Today, instead, But for the Grace of God has become my prayer of thankfulness, reminding me to be grateful to my Higher Power for my recovery, my life, and the way of life I’ve found in The Program. Was anyone ever more “hopeless and helpless than I?
Today I Pray
May I know that “but for The grace of God.” I could be dead or insane by now, because there have been others who wanted on addictive paths when I did who are no longer here. May that same grace of God help those who are still caught in the downward spin, who are heading for disaster as sure as gravity.
Today I Will Remember
I have seen God’s amazing Grace.
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One More Day
October 26
Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
-Mark Twain
Even as we approached young adulthood, we clung to our dreams about the future. In those days it may have seemed to us that anything was possible.
It’s not immature to hold on to a dream, even when we know the dream is unlikely to come true. Bald men wish for a full head of hair. Some of us wish we still had young skin. Even through a long-term medical condition has become part of our lives, many of us still hold on to the illusions of our own health being restored.
Now we have a few more years — or decades — behind us. We accept that some things are possible and some are not. Most of us are comfortable with the knowledge. And still we hope.
I hold dearly to many of my illusions. The possibilities of what might occur keep my days full of excitement.
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One Day At A Time
October 26
Paths
“I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost
As a compulsive overeater, I longed to find a solution to my problems. Like so many of us, I tried all the heavily traveled roads ~ the endless means to lose weight and to alleviate my indulgent eating behaviors. But at the end — and there was always an end — of every new “method of weight loss” I returned to walking my old path of destructive compulsive overeating. I always went back to the old eating behaviors as well as the consequences of those behaviors. I had heard of OA but did not know anyone who belonged to its groups. It seemed like the whole world was on the latest fad diet — diets that I could never continue for more than a few days or weeks.
Since joining The Recovery Group, I now walk a new path and have abandoned the old roads and the diet of the week. I have been on this road nearly a year now, and it is a wonderfully pleasant trek. I indeed believe “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence.” I have found an incredible amount of recovery spiritually, emotionally and physically. I am traveling on “the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference!”
One day at a time …
I will enjoy this road less taken … a path of acceptance and surrender. It is a path of spiritual, emotional and physical recovery!
~ Karen A.
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day
October 26
“It seems that if Elders can feel that you are open to learning, they are more than generous with their teaching.”
-Chief Councilor, Leonard George
There is a saying, when the student is ready the teacher appears.
If the Elders sense that you are ready, they will help you see and learn new things. Most human beings love to share what they know with people who are excited to listen.
If you are talking to someone and you feel they really aren’t listening, you won’t want to tell them much.
Before you go talk to the Elders, examine your motives – are you really excited about listening to them?
My Creator, give me an open mind.
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Journey To The Heart
October 26
Let the World Help You Open Up
The universe is gentle, loving, benevolent, full of gifts, full of life, full of love. Don’t worry if you feel scared, or if you feel yourself closing down to life’s magic. That feeling won’t last long. It won’t last forever.
Take a walk. Touch a tree, hug it until your fear subsides. Feel the earth under your feet. Watch a sunrise. Ask the universe and God to help you open up. Say it aloud. Then watch what happens. Go where your heart leads, where your inner voice directs you to go. You will find yourself in circumstances that bring you back to your heart.
The universe will help you open up. It will do all it can, lovingly, gently, and with care. It will teach you all you need to know, help you learn all you came here to learn. It will guide you and lead you, open doors and shut windows, until you reach your destination– an open heart and a soul aligned with love.
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Today’s Gift
October 26
Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.
—Anne Frank
Anne Frank had good reason to be unhappy, full of fear, and deeply discouraged. Years of her life were spent in a small apartment hiding from the Nazis who wanted to destroy her and her family. Yet even in this little hiding place she had happiness. It was something she had inside which did not depend on what happened around her. She had riches of the heart. She had faith that kept her going. She had love and concern for her family and others, which made even a restricted life very rich with feelings. It is tempting to believe that we will be happy when we have something outside ourselves, which will make us happy. But happiness is not something we have to find outside; the seeds are in our hearts already.
What happiness can I find in my latest setback?
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The Language Of Letting Go
October 26
Clarity
I know better than to not trust God., But sometimes, I forget that.
When we are in the midst of an experience, it is easy to forget that there is a Plan. Sometimes, all we can see is today.
If we were to watch only two minutes of the middle of a television program, it would make little sense. It would be a disconnected event.
If we were to watch a weaver sewing a tapestry for only a few moments, and focused on only a small piece of the work, it would not look beautiful. It would look like a few peculiar threads randomly placed.
How often we use that same, limited perspective to look at our life – especially when we are going through a difficult time.
We can learn to have perspective when we are going through those confusing, difficult learning times. When we are being pelted by events that make us feel, think, and question, we are in the midst of learning something important.
We can trust that something valuable is being worked out in us – even when things are difficult, even when we cannot get our bearings. Insight and clarity do not come until we have mastered our lesson.
Faith is like a muscle. It must be exercised to grow strong. Repeated experiences of having to trust what we can’t see and repeated experiences of learning to trust that things will work out are what makes our faith muscles grow strong.
Today, I will trust that the events in my life are not random. My experiences are not a mistake. The Universe, my Higher Power, and life are not picking on me. I am going through what I need to go through to learn something valuable, something that will prepare me for the joy and love I am seeking.
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More Language Of Letting Go
October 26
Be aware of how you feel
What happened today? How did you feel about it?
Just like all those stuffed feelings from childhood that we could not deal with then, any feelings that we repress or deny today don’t go away. They linger in our energy field until we give them their due. Sometimes these repressed feelings block our view of the truth.
For many of us, resisting our feelings is an ardent pattern and a habitual way of life. Take your time to debrief from your day, but don’t just say what you did and what you liked. Say how you felt about each thing that occurred.
You might make a discovery that surprises even you. You don’t necessarily have to tell the other person how you feel, but you might. For certain, you at least need to tell yourself.
Today is just a simple reminder of something you already know. Be aware each day of what happens. And be aware of how you feel.
God, help me remember that it’s okay to be who I am and feel what I feel, no matter what those feelings are. Remind me when I believe my feelings are a nuisance, that they’re the key to my power.
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Touchstones Meditation For Men
October 26
A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
—D. Elton Trueblood
Our lives are enriched by the contributions of those who lived before us. Many men and women gave more than they ever took from society, and now we enjoy the rewards. Some people were fired with a spirit to beautify the world and planted trees that will live for 200 years. Others wrote music that speaks to us from another generation, and others established a government that guides our principles of justice. They gave so much because they knew they were a part of their community and the world.
Most of us cannot make the great contributions that will make us famous, but we enrich our lives when we contribute freely to improving our community and the world. We do that when we simply say hello to our neighbor, when we serve on a volunteer cleanup committee for a local park, and when we do Twelfth Step work in the program. We too have beautified and contributed to the world, and that gives us a feeling of peace and self-respect.
Today, I will appreciate all that comes freely to me from others, and I will give what I can to make the world a better place.
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Daily TAO
October 26
EXISTING
Fog makes the world a painting obscure.
Even close trees are half unseen.
But a lonesome crow won’t stop calling:
He objects to being in this dream.
Over and over, the sages tell us that this world is but a dream.
When one awakes on foggy mornings, with the mists obscuring hills and valleys and the trees and village buildings appearing as diaphanous apparitions, we might even agree with them. Didn’t we see this same uncertain mirage in the hills of Vermont? The hollow of the Yangtze River valley? The streets of Paris? Don’t the memories blend with the dream and turn reality into phantasmagoria?
The world is a dream from which there is no escaping.
In this still dream, there is a crow calling. He doesn’t stop. When everything else is frozen in the sepulchral dawn, the bird continues to scream. Maybe he realizes the same dream. He protests loudly.
The ancients hold the outer reality to be unreal. But there is the inner reality too. Some of us do not readily accept the conditions of this existence. We have eyes to see, but we also have voice to refute the existential delusion.