Daily Reflections
October 27
GLOBAL SHARING
The only thing that matters is that he is an alcoholic who has found a key to sobriety. These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, one to the other. This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today animates A.A.’s all around the globe.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151
The strength of Alcoholics Anonymous lies in the desire of each member and of each group around the world to share with other alcoholics their suffering and the steps taken to gain, and maintain, recovery. By keeping a conscious contact with my Higher Power, I make sure that I always nurture my desire to help other alcoholics, thus insuring the continuity of the wonderful fraternity of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
October 27
A.A. Thought For The Day
Seventh, I can help other alcoholics. I am of some use in the world. I have a purpose in life. I am worth something at last. My life has a direction and a meaning. All that feeling of futility is gone. I can do something worthwhile. God has given me a new lease on life so that I can help other alcoholics. He has let me live through all the hazards of my alcoholic life to bring me at last to a place of real usefulness in the world. He has let me live for this. This is my opportunity and my destiny. I am worth something! Will I give as much of my life as I can to A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
All of us have our own battle to win, the battle between the material view of life and the spiritual view. Something must guide our lives. Will it be wealth, pride, selfishness, greed or will it be faith, honesty, purity, unselfishness, love and service? Each one has a choice. We can choose good or evil. We cannot choose both. Are we going to keep striving until we win the battle? If we win the victory, we can believe that even God in His heaven will rejoice.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may choose the good and resist the evil. I pray that I will not be a loser in the battle for righteousness.
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As Bill Sees It
October 27
A Mighty Beginning, p. 298
Even the newest of newcomers find undreamed rewards as he tries to help his brother alcoholic, the one who is even blinder than he. This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him.
And then he discovers that through the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether or not his brother has yet received anything. His own character may still be gravely defective, but he somehow knows that God has enabled him to make a mighty beginning, and he senses that he stands at the edge of new mysteries, joys, and experiences of which he had never before dreamed.
12 & 12, pp. 109-110
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Walk In Dry Places
October 27
Is your opinion of me important?
Inventory
A statement that is often quoted at AA meetings is Your opinion of me is not important. The purpose of this saying, apparently, is to wean us away from being people pleasers.
But the truth is that we all have legitimate interest in the opinions others hold of us. They may like or dislike us for the wrong reasons, but it is helpful for us to know this and accept it.
More important, the opinions of others can be useful in helping us take personal inventory and correct wrong behavior and attitudes. There may be a good reason why someone has a low opinion of us, and we should become aware of it.
It is true, however, that our opinions count the most in shaping our lives. If we’re thinking badly about others, that can be more damaging to us than to them. Surprisingly, they may think better of us as we change our opinions about them.
I doubt that I can go through the day without being affected by other people’s opinions of me. However, my main work will be in seeing that my own opinions aren’t being destructive in my life.
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Keep It Simple
October 27
An excuse is worst and more terrible than a lie.
-Alexander Pope
Excuses. They’re lies. We use excuses to hide from ourselves. Maybe we don’t want to be honest about our anger. So we say someone else made us angry. Maybe we don’t want to admit how mean we can be. So we pretend we have no part in what happens.
Excuses keep us from ourselves. They keep us from our High Power. A lot of our program is about looking at ourselves. Steps Four, Five, and Ten tell us to be honest about our excuses. We can be honest because we are good people. We are loved.
Prayer for the day: Today, I’ll say the serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Action for the Day: I’ll list my five most often excuses. Then, I’ll share them with my friends, family, and sponsor. I’ll ask them to tell me when I make excuses.
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Each Day a New Beginning
October 27
Problems have only the size and the power that you give them.
-S. H.
We will not be free from all difficulties today, or during any period of our lives. But we have the personal power to eliminate the threat, the sting of any challenge. But it’s our vision of circumstances that gives them their interpretation.
At this moment, we are defining our experience. We are labeling events good or bad, valuable or meaningless. And our growth, particularly this day, is greatly influenced by the value judgments we attach to our experiences.
As we grow stronger emotionally and spiritually, we learn that all difficulties are truly opportunities for exceptional growth and increased awareness of the truth of existence. All experiences can be taken in stride if we are trustful of their intended blessing.
We are sharing this life, every moment of it, with a power greater than ourselves. We need not worry about any circumstance. Always we are watched over. We never need struggle alone.
We can let go of our problems. It’s ourselves and that attitude we have cultivated that makes any situation a problem. We can turn it loose and therein discover the solution.
I will not make mountains out of the molehills of my life.
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Alcoholics Anonymous
October 27
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.
I don’t know what happened during those two hours, but close to eight o’clock, I leaped up, jumped into my clothes, and raced off to a meeting I’d had no intention of attending. It was a bit like getting a rap on the head with an invisible hammer and having my brain flip over, because the meeting seemed to be radically different from the last time I had been there. The people looked animatedly alive, the weirdos who had been attending before were absent that night, and the books on display, actually looked interesting. I bought the book Alcoholics Anonymous, listened intently, and then, for the first time, I went for coffee with those people, and listened some more.
p. 394
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
October 27
Tradition Three – “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.”
Overjoyed, the newcomer plunged into Twelfth Step work. Tirelessly he laid A.A.’s message before scores of people. Since this was a very early group, those scores have since multiplied themselves into thousands. Never did he trouble anyone with his other difficulty. A.A. had taken its first step in the formation of Tradition Three.
p. 142
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Xtra Thoughts
October 27
Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile.
-Wilfred Grenfell
If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder…you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.
-unknown
“Never let yesterday use up today.”
-Richard H. Nelson
LETTING GO
I feel so scared
Let go
I am so worried
Just let go
I am so angry
Please let go
My insanity keeps growing
I beseech thee to just let go
I am so peaceful
Thank you, you let it go
-Deborah Ann Smith
Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
-Gerald Jampolsky
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
October 27
JUSTICE
“Justice is truth in action.”
-Benjamin Disraeli
It is not enough for me to believe that a thing is true, it is important for me to live out my beliefs. For too long I had a thousand beliefs that only kept me silent. A fear of displeasing others played a large part in my silence.
Today I understand justice to be part of what I mean by spirituality: I need to be seen to walk as I talk! I am comfortable when I remain silent in the face of injustice. As a recovering alcoholic, this uncomfortability is dangerous because it can so easily lead to low self-esteem, anger, resentments and relapse.
Today I know I can have a slip without taking a drink. I slip from where I want to be in my life. My personal integrity combines a justice that can be seen in my lifestyle.
O God of justice, teach me never again to hide in the lie of silence.
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Bible Scriptures
October 27
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
-James 1:17
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.”
-Ephesians 4:14
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Daily Inspiration
October 27
It is the little bits of kindness and love that make this world happy. Lord, may I do my part to make today happy for someone.
There is no personal problem that you cannot solve. Lord, Your presence within me is all power. You are my help in every need.
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A Day At A Time
October 27
Reflection For The Day
The Program’s Fourth Step suggests that we make a fearless moral inventory of ourselves. For so many of us, especially newcomers, the task seems impossible. Each time we take pencil in hand and try to look inward, Pride says confidingly, “You don’t have to bother to look.” And Fear cautions, “You’d better not look.” We find eventually that this sort of pride and fear are mere wisps of smoke, the cloudy strands from which we woven the mythology of our old ideas. When we push pride and fear aside and finally make a fearless inventory, we experience relief and a new sense of confidence beyond description. Have I made an inventory? Have I shared its rewards so as to encourage others?
Today I Pray
May I not be stalled by my inhibitions when it comes to making a moral inventory of myself. May I not get to the Fourth Step and then screech to a stop because the task seems overwhelming. May I know that my inventory today, even though I try to make it “thorough” and honest, may not be as complete as it will be if I repeat it again, for the process of self-discovery goes on and on.
Today I will Remember
Praise God for Progress.
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One More Day
October 27
Better be alone than in bad company.
-Thomas Fuller
Most of us have had the experience of being befriended by someone who seems to want to spend every waking moment in our company. At first, we may be delighted with the attention and enjoy the excitement of the developing relationship. Then, suddenly we feel smothered. The other person gives us no time along; he or she is such a constant presence that we feel out of touch with ourselves.
We seem to have to choose between crushing our new friend or submitting to the constant intrusion, but first we may need to remind ourselves that we have the right to create the framework of our company is not our choice, we are free to say, “I need more time alone.” This isn’t a rejection of others; it’s an affirmation of ourselves and our need for solitude.
I can find a healthy balance between my time with others and my time alone.
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One Day At A Time
October 27
Living in the Present
“As long as you are seeking to find happiness somewhere, you are overlooking where true happiness is.”
-Gangaji
Happiness is always somewhere else, isn’t it? It is all too human to put off our happiness until a more appropriate or perfect time. Ideally, we know that happiness is not a matter of timing; it is a state of mind caused by even the smallest actions that we take (or fail to take) each day. However, I often used to remark to others that, “One day I will be happy when I get thin.” I got much thinner, but never thin enough, it seems. “One day I will take a night course.” I was so busy working, “on-call”, and doing things for others that I never managed to find the time.
“One day I will start this new food Plan,” I’d promised myself. It had worked for others. I truly wanted to give myself a chance to see if it could work for me too, yet I approached it haphazardly, at first. On paper, any food plan is just a diet, unless, you have a Sponsor, use the Tools, and work the Steps! I’d been told this over and over, and later–lived the actual experience of doing it my way. As long as I told myself, “One day I will find the time for me,” it didn’t come about!
One day at a time …
I now realize that as long as I keep looking to the future in order to allot myself wonderful challenges and small joys, I am choosing to postpone my happiness until my life is perfect, which is never in the realm of reality. I believe that this is why those who have gone before us in recovery suggest that we live life on life’s terms to the best of our ability just “One day at a time.”
~ January K.
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day
October 27
“O Great Spirit Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me!
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.”
-from, PRAYER TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
The Great Spirit runs the world and the people by a set of natural laws and principles. He says we are to live our lives and make decisions that will be in harmony with these laws.
He says we should be respectful to all things and to all people.
He says we should pray for each other.
He says we should forgive one another.
It is easy to tell if a person is following the ways of the Great Spirit. You can tell by how a man walks in life. He doesn’t need to say anything. If we are dishonest or deceitful, other people will know. This is true because we are all interconnected in the Unseen World.
My Creator, let me obey Your ways. Let me Walk the Talk.
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Journey To The Heart
October 27
Have You Been Working Too Hard?
Have you been working too hard at your job, at life, at your spiritual progress? Have you been working too hard on your relationships with people, or trying to gain insights, or on trying to figure out where to go or what to do next?
Many of us have had to work hard. To get from where we were to where we are, we had to push, force, put one foot in front of the other. At least we thought we did. But life doesn’t have to be that hard. Not anymore. The biggest task, the smallest task, the task of living our lives doesn’t have to be that difficult.
There’s a natural rhythm for everything that happens along the way. There’s a natural rhythm and order for all we’re to do. Yes, there are times to begin. Yes, there are times to put one foot in front of the other and go forward. But the joy, the service, the way of life we’re seeking doesn’t come from force. It comes naturally, easily, much more easily than you think. Stop pushing so hard, and see how quickly that rhythm finds you.
You don’t have to make life happen. In fact, you can’t. Relax. Let go. And let it happen.
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Today’s Gift
October 27
Walk. Don’t walk.
—Traffic Light
Signs direct us on our way in life. Traffic lights tell us to walk (or not), Golden Arches point us to dinner, geese flying south herald the coming winter, flashing neon tells us what to buy. We know how to read these signs of worlds and weather; they help to guide us on our journey.
We can learn to read the signs of human beings, too, to be detectives of the human spirit. Laugh lines around eyes and mouth, the texture of hands, tension in jaws and shoulders can tell much about a person, if we stop to look. All around us are signs that tell us others feel the pain and joy we feel, others need us as we need them, we are understood, and we are not alone.
The marvelous bonus in learning to read these signs in others is that we can begin to let ourselves be read, also.
Will I make good reading for others today?
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The Language Of Letting Go
October 27
Step Eleven
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
-Step Eleven of Al Anon
” … praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out” means that we ask on a daily basis to be shown the plan for that day. We also ask our Source for the power we need to carry that through. We will get a yes to both requests.
We do not ask other people to show their will for us. We ask God. Then we trust that we’ll be empowered to carry God’s will through.
God never, never asks us to do anything that He would not equip us to do. He never asks us to do anything we can’t do. If we are to do it, we will be empowered. That’s the easy part of this program. We never have to do more than we can, or anything we can’t. If we want to worry and fuss we can, but we don’t need to. That is our choice.
I have learned, through difficult and good times that this Step will carry me through. When I don’t know what to do next, God does. Working this Step, one day at a time, will take us to places we could never have traveled on our own. Simple acts, done daily in accordance to God’s will for us, lead to a Grand Plan for our life.
Today, I will focus on asking God to show me what He wants me to do. I will ask God for the power to do that; then I will go ahead and get the job done. God, help me let go of my fears about living life one day at a time. Help me trust that when life is lived simply and in trust, a beautiful mosaic called “my life” will be woven. I am being divinely led, guided, and cared for.
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More Language Of Letting Go
October 27
Be aware of the illusion of control
Remember how it feels when we try to control someone else.
“I was driving down the road one day behind a car that I decided was driving too slowly,” a friend said to me. “I was yelling, raging, and carrying on about the driver in front of me,trying to mentally will him out of my way. I wanted him to move over and let me by.
“While I was driving I observed myself. Then I started to laugh. I wasn’t angry about this driver in front of me. I was angry because I was trying to control something that I couldn’t change.”
Be aware of all your feelings. But also remember to be aware that sometimes it’s not the other person that’s making us crazy. We’re doing it to ourselves.
God, help me be aware of the self-created drama in my life. Help me let go of my need to control. Give me the courage of my feelings. And help me be aware when my self-will is running riot.
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Touchstones Meditation For Men
October 27
I feel the more I know God, that He would sooner we did wrong in loving than never love for fear we should do wrong.
—Father Andrew
Love has often been called the first rule of a spiritual life. As we awaken to our new life in this program, we learn that all of God’s creation is full of objects for us to love. A sunset repeats the creative energy at work in our world today. It appears briefly, invites our love, and slowly fades away, only to be repeated in a new form the next day. The color and markings on a little bug may inspire our love, as may the smell of moist earth, the excitement of a Broadway musical, the craftsmanship of a well-made tool, or the look of warmth on a friend’s face. These are all opportunities for us to let go and feel our love.
We men often feel awkward in expressing love. Perhaps we’re so self-conscious and guarded that we brace ourselves against saying or doing anything that wouldn’t look good. We’re learning through our spiritual development to be more fervent lovers and less perfectionistic in love.
I will be renewed today each time I appreciate something near me.
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Daily TAO
October 27
RIGHTING
A deviation of a hair’s breadth at the center
Leads to an error of a hundred miles at the rim.
When the effort is so slight,
Why should you hesitate to set things right?
There are many people who endeavor to know Tao. In the greatest sincerity, they take music lessons, read scriptures, learn foreign languages, study nutrition, change their dress, and go to temples — all in the hopes that they will reach Tao. Sadly, they miss it by a hair’s breadth. For a person to awaken to Tao, someone must give them a spark. Perhaps this is what is called direct transmission. It is odd, but this is the only way that knowledge of Tao is passed on.
Book knowledge can help and give one a deep theoretical background, but the true understanding of Tao still comes person to person. There is no other way.
So if you have any true understanding of Tao, you got it from someone. If you meet someone else who needs that spark and you are in the position to give it, then do so. Don’t be selfish. There are so many people out there who want guidance and who cannot get it. If you can make a difference for at least one person, then you have tremendous merit indeed.