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

As Bill Sees It

Praying Rightly, p.295

We thought we had been deeply serious about religious practices.
However, upon honest appraisal we found that we had been most
superficial. Or sometimes, going to extremes, we had wallowed in
emotionalism and had also mistaken this for true religious feeling.
In both cases, we had been asking something for nothing.

We had not prayed rightly. We had always said, "Grant me my
wishes," instead of "Thy will be done." The love of God and man
we understood not at all. Therefore, we remained self-deceived,
and so incapable of receiving enough grace to restore us to sanity.

12 & 12, p. 32

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

Walk In Dry Places
 
Light for Dark corners
Honesty
Newspaper writers know that there's usually a future story in the "dark side" of any person who is being lavishly praised in the media. That's because almost every person has a "dark side" or secrets that are carefully guarded.
We should look for such dark corners in our own lives.  Most of us are not public figures fearing exposure, but recovering people seeking to stay sober and healthy.
We can begin to illuminate our dark corners by discussing our secrets with others. This does not necessarily eliminate whatever shortcoming is involved, but our honesty is a step in the right direction.
False pride may also play a part in keeping dark secrets from others, causing fear that others might see us as we really are. Thus, learning to confront and confess our dark sides can lead to victory over both fear and pride.
I'll strive today to be honest about any weaknesses or wrongs that I've been concealing.  Under the light of such honesty, my dark secrets can be transformed

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

Keep It Simple
 
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.---Oliver Wendell Homes
Lying, above anything else, brings us close to getting crazy again. Lying is what addicts do.
In our addiction, our whole life was a lie.
Lying creates danger because it creates secrets. Secrets keep us from others. To stay sober, we need to stay close to people. We can't make it on our own.
Lying creates danger because it creates shame. A lie, like a drink, may make us feel good for the moment. But in the long run, it creates shame.
Do we still lie to deal with the world? Lies are like drinks---one leads to another.
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me to live today free of lies.
Action for the Day:  For the next twenty-four hours, I will tell no lies. If I do I’ll go back and do Step Ten. I will remember that lies can lead to relapse.

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

Each Day a New Beginning

The universal human yearning [is] for something permanent, enduring, without shadow of change.  --Willa Cather
The specter of change builds dread in most of us.  We fear the effects on our personal lives.  We lack faith that the impending change will benefit us.  Only time can assure us of that.  And it will, just as every change we've survived up to now has done.
Changes are gifts, really.  They come as hallmarks to our present attainments.  They signify successful growth.  How we struggle to understand this, and how quickly we forget it once we have adapted to the change.  The struggle is then repeated the next time change visits us.
We long for permanence, believing it guarantees security, not realizing the only real security available to us comes with our trust in God, from whom all change comes as a blessing on the growth we've attained.  If we were to experience total lack of change, we'd find death.  Life is challenge, continued change, always endurable and growth-enhancing.  We can reflect on what's gone before, and trust that which faces us now.
Change means I am progressing, on course.

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

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Foreword To Fourth Edition

As the message of recovery has reached larger numbers of people, it has also touched the lives of a vastly greater variety of suffering alcoholics. When the phrase “We are people who normally would not mix” (page 17 of this book) was written in 1939, it referred to a Fellowship composed largely of men (and a few women) with quite similar social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Like so much of A.A.’s basic text, those words have proved to be far more visionary than the founding members could ever have imagined. The stories added to this edition represent a membership whose characteristics—of age, gender, race, and culture—have widened and have deepened to encompass virtually everyone the first 100 members could have hoped to reach.

pp. xxiii-xxiv

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

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Student Of Life

Living at home with her parents, she tried using willpower to beat the obsession to drink.  But it wasn't until she met another alcoholic and went to an A.A. meeting that sobriety took hold.

When I discovered alcohol, everything changed.  I took my first real drink my first night of college.  I attended what was to be the first of many, many fraternity parties.  I didn't care for the beer, so I went for the vat of innocuous-looking punch.  I was told it was laced with grain alcohol.  I don't remember how many drinks I had, and my recollections of the actual events of the rest of the night are fuzzy, but I do remember this much:  When I was drinking, I was okay.  I understood.  Everything made sense.  I could dance, talk, and enjoy being in my own skin.  It was as if I had been an unfinished jigsaw puzzle with one piece missing; as soon as I took a drink, the last piece instantly and effortlessly snapped into place.

p.  320

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

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable. "

But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built.

p. 21

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

"Every moment is an opportunity for those who are ready to seize it."
--unknown

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an
honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a
life around.
--Leo Buscaglia

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
--Robert Louis Stevenson

It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action.
--Al Batt

Nature gave men two ends - one to sit on and one to think with. Ever since then man's
success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most.
--George R. Kirkpatrick

"Worry drives us to prayer and prayer drives away the worry."
--Eliz McJunkin

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Contentment comes from making the most of what you have and going
with it.
--unknown

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

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

CYNICS

"A cynic is a man who, when he
smells flowers, looks around for
a coffin."
-- H. L. Mencken

There was a time when I always felt that life was out to get me. I always looked on the
"black" side of life. I was forever being negative and pessimistic I would always be
surrounded by sick and destructive human beings. Whenever people offered hope or
tried to help me, I turned away and rejected them. For years I created the pain
and misery in my life.

Then a close friend forced himself into my life and gave me a dose of "tough love". He
made me see that I was wallowing in self-pity. He cared enough to intervene and tell
me what I did not want to hear.

Today I have some years of recovery from alcoholism and I carry the message.

I pray that I may always love myself and others enough to take a risk.

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

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:7

The LORD is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.
The LORD is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him sincerely. He fulfills
the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. The
LORD protects all those who love him, but he destroys the wicked. I will praise the
LORD, and everyone on earth will bless his holy name forever and forever.
Psalm 145:17-21

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18

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

Daily Inspiration

Do not be discouraged if it seems that there is no response to your prayers at this time. God always responds. Lord, Your wisdom always responds to my needs with unceasing peace and love and when I listen and give thanks I am blessed with results that bring goodness to me in better ways than I expect.

Through the power of God within me, I am stronger than any of my circumstances. Lord, I seek, I knock and I ask and You are always there and ready to give me the miracles that I need.

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

NA Just For Today

Responsibility

"We are not responsible for our disease, only for our recovery. As we begin to apply what we have learned, our lives begin to change for the better."

Basic Text, p.88

The further we go in recovery, the less we avoid responsibility for ourselves and our actions. By applying the principles of the Narcotics Anonymous program, we are able to change our lives. Our existence takes on new meaning as we accept responsibility and the freedom of choice responsibility implies. We do not take recovery for granted.

We take responsibility for our recovery by working the Twelve Steps with a sponsor. We go to meetings regularly and share with the newcomer what was freely given to us: the gift of recovery. We become involved with our home group and accept responsibility for our part in sharing recovery with the still-suffering addict. As we learn how to effectively practice spiritual principles in all areas of our lives, the quality of our lives improves.

Just for today: Using the spiritual tools I've gained in recovery, I am willing and able to make responsible choices.

pg. 310

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

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Before he closed his eyes, he let them wander around his old room. . .familiar and friendly things. . .which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted on for the same simple welcome. --Kenneth Grahame
When they moved into the house, the room at the top of the stairs was just a junk room. As the years passed, they slowly transformed the room into a guest room.
When they decided they needed another voice in the house, they transformed the room again; out went the fold-out couch, in came a crib and rocking chair; off went the art gallery prints from the walls, up went Winnie the Pooh. t was no longer a guest room, but a place for the baby, a new --- and permanent --- member of the family.
We always have room for more in our lives. When we are ready for it, what we need for growth will emerge.
What do the rooms inside our homes and ourselves have to tell us about the way we live our lives?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Becoming nothing before God, learn to keep silent; in this silence is the beginning, which is first to seek God's kingdom.
--Soren Kierkegaard
So many devastating things can bring us to our knees. With experience we learn that pain and trouble are part of life. Most of us have fought against everyday realities as if they were our personal enemies. We accepted every challenge, thinking we had to be winners every time. Today we may feel broken by the loss of a love, by a disappointing job experience, or by our powerlessness over a loved one.
In our brokenness we find our true humanity. It is the beginning of our spiritual awakening. As men we thought surrender was a word for losers and weaklings. Living this program teaches us that accepting our brokenness opens us to a new kind of wholeness. After we acknowledge we are not in control of every event in our lives, and after admitting our addiction and codependency have controlled us, we come alive inside with the rich new experience of being a person.
God help me today to learn the spiritual lesson contained in my frustrations and grief.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
The universal human yearning [is] for something permanent, enduring, without shadow of change. --Willa Cather
The specter of change builds dread in most of us. We fear the effects on our personal lives. We lack faith that the impending change will benefit us. Only time can assure us of that. And it will, just as every change we've survived up to now has done.
Changes are gifts, really. They come as hallmarks to our present attainments. They signify successful growth. How we struggle to understand this, and how quickly we forget it once we have adapted to the change. The struggle is then repeated the next time change visits us.
We long for permanence, believing it guarantees security, not realizing the only real security available to us comes with our trust in God, from whom all change comes as a blessing on the growth we've attained. If we were to experience total lack of change, we'd find death. Life is challenge, continued change, always endurable and growth-enhancing. We can reflect on what's gone before, and trust that which faces us now.
Change means I am progressing, on course.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Opening ourselves to love.
Open ourselves to the love that is available to us.
We do not have to limit our sources of love. God and the Universe have an unlimited supply of what we need, including love.
When we are open to receiving love, we will begin to receive it. It may come from the most surprising places, including from within ourselves.
We will be open to and aware of the love that is and has been there for us all along. We will feel and appreciate the love from friends. We will notice and enjoy the love that comes to us from family.
We will be ready to receive love in our special love relationships too. We do not have to accept love from unsafe people -- people who will exploit us or with whom we don't want to have relationships.
But there is plenty of good love available -- love that heals our heart, meets our needs, and makes our spirit sing.
We have denied ourselves too long. We have been martyrs too long. We have given so much and allowed ourselves to receive too little. We have paid our dues. It is time to continue the chain of giving and receiving by allowing ourselves to receive.
Today' I will open myself to the love that is coming to me from the Universe. I will accept it and enjoy it when it comes.


Today I find healthy ways to express my anger and resentments so that I can be free of them. Today I empty myself of all anger and resentments so that I can let love come into my heart. --Ruth Fishel

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

Journey To The Heart
October 24
Share Your Heart with the World

Share your heart with the world. Share willingly, openly, joyfully what you have seen, what you have learned.

Don’t tell people how you think you should have handled things. That’s shame. It teaches others to feel ashamed,too. Don’t tell people how you wish you had handled things. That’s needless regret that we pass on to others.

Share honestly and openly about yourself, the way you felt, the things you thought. Share how going through your experience changed you. Talk about your resistance, your pain, the imperfect way you did things, the way you handle things now.

Sharing honestly and openly teaches people aroud us the most helpful truth– that the imperfect way we live our lives is right for us at the time. When we love and accept ourselves enough to honestly share who we are, it helps those we touch to believe that they’re good anough,too.

Share your heart with the world and you will bring healing to those you touch.

*****

more language of letting go
What you see isn't always what you get

I was walking through the mall when I saw a photo booth at one of the kiosks. A large green screen hung as a backdrop and the photographer had her subjects stand in front of it in various poses. After taking the photo, she used a computer to paste it into a scene. You might then look like an alligator wrestler, a snowboarder, a hapless adventurer getting run over by his jeep.

What you see is not always what you get. People are not always what they seem. It's easy for others to paint an inaccurate picture either to impress or manipulate us into doing what they want us to do. Understand that while many, even most, of the people in your life will be honest, there will be those who will paint a false picture. They will claim to have experiemce that you don't; they will claim to know the secret of how to live your life; they will claim to be something they're not. They will try to use their self-exalted position to control and manipulate you.

Be aware of people who would manipulate you by pasting themselves into a false background or scene. Don't just take things at face value. Take your time, as much time as you need, to see what the real background is.

Most of us get misled from time to time. Sometimes people con us. Other times we trick ourselves. Let go of naivete.

God, if I start getting conned or manipulated, please show me and help me see the truth.

*****

Avoiding the Center
Hovering Around the Sun by Madisyn Taylor

Quiet time each day is so important, but many are so out of practice that it’s almost unnerving to be in stillness.

It’s funny to imagine our lives as something we spend a lot of time avoiding, because it seems like that would be impossible to do. Our lives consist of everything we engage in, from showering to sleeping, but also a lot of busy work that distracts us and keeps us from looking at our lives. Experiencing our life from the inside means taking time each day to simply be alone and quiet in the presence of our soul. Many of us are so out of practice that it’s almost unnerving to have a moment to ourselves. As a result, we may have stopped trying to carve out that time to take a seat at the center of our lives.

One of the reasons it can be uncomfortable to sit with ourselves is because when we do, we tend to open ourselves to an inner voice, which might question the way we’re living or some of the choices we’re making. Sometimes the voice reminds us of our secret, inner yearnings, dreams we thought we had forgotten. When we already feel overwhelmed by our busy schedules, the idea of hearing this voice can be exhausting. However, its reflections are the chords that connect us to our authentic selves, and they are the very things that make our lives worth living. When we continually avoid connecting with our life, we risk losing out on the very purpose of our existence.

To begin the process of being more present and less absent in your life, you might want to set aside just a few minutes each day to simply sit with yourself. This doesn't mean watching a movie or reading a book, but taking time each day for self-examination to avoid the avoidance, to be with yourself in an open way. After a while, you may start to enjoy this part of the day so much that you make less busy work for yourself, so that you can spend more time at the center of your own life, rather than hovering like a planet around the sun.

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

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

So many of us in The Program went through childhood — as well as part of our adult lives — emotionally shackled with the terrible burden called shyness. We found it difficult to walk into crowded rooms, to converse with even our friends, to make eye contact with anyone. The agonies we suffered! We learn in The Program that shyness is just another manifestation of self-centered fear, which is the root of all our character defects. Shyness, specifically, is fear of what others think or might think about us. To our enormous relief, our shyness gradually leaves us as we work The Program and interact with others. Am I aware that I’m okay as long as I don’t concentrate on me?

Today I Pray

God, may I be grateful that I am getting over my shyness, after years of pulling back from people, squirming, blushing, blurting out all the “wrong things” or blurting out all the sayings nothing at all — then reliving the agonies and imagining what I should have said and done. May I know that it has taken a full-blown addiction and a lot of caring people to convince me that I’m Okay — and you’re Okay, he’s Okay, and so is she.

Today I Will Remember

A cure for shyness is caring about someone else.

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

One More Day

We conceal it from oursleves in vain — we must always hav esomething.
–Blaise Pascal

Not knowing how to love may imperil our very existence. Although love doesn’t literally nourish our bodies, not being able to love strips us of our humanness.

Romantic love is only one part of our capacity to love, for there is also the ability to love our friends, family, and our fellow human beings. The ripple effect of our well-being will spread, both within us and from us, and we will begin to nourish our souls as well.

We also learn to love ourselves — all that we are. Self-love enhances our self-image. A strong sense of esteem enhances our entire lives.

I need to love and be loved. It is essential to my psychic well-being that I understand the importance of loving.

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

Food For Thought

Accepting God's Will

Disappointments and hurts can send us into an orgy of self-pity if we are not willing to accept them as part of our Higher Power's plan. We do not understand why we must suffer disappointments and frustrations, but trusting God means that we accept our share of this world's pain.

When we look back on former disappointments, we are often able to see that what we so desperately wanted at the time would not have been the best thing for us. Our vision and judgment are limited. Faith that God is managing our lives according to His purposes can relieve us of unnecessary hurt and frustration.

To accept God's will is not to passively absorb all that happens to us like an inert sponge. It is to actively seek knowledge of His plan for our lives and to purposefully work according to the knowledge we receive. Acceptance is positive and cooperative.

Your will is what I seek to accept.

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

One Day At A Time

FEAR
“Fear is not created by the world around us,
but in the mind, by what we think is going to happen.”
Elizabeth Gawain

There are different kinds of fear. Certain fears are good, because they help preserve our lives. Babies, for example, have a fear of falling. It just seems to be a natural instinct. Any fear that protects us from harming ourselves is a good fear.

However, when fear becomes an obsession, it is getting out of hand. Why do we go looking for trouble? There is a saying, “Don’t let clouds of fear of the morrow hide today’s sunshine.” We can get so anxious about what’s going to happen in the future that we don’t enjoy living today.

Life is a precious gift to be lived one day at a time, and is to be shared with others.

One Day at a Time . . .
This is how I will live my life: One day at a time, one moment at a time, sharing my precious gift with another through Twelve Step giving.
Lizzie

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

AA 'Big Book' - Quote

In this book you read again and again that faith did for us what we could not do for ourselves. We hope you are convinced now that God can remove whatever self-will has blocked you off from Him. If you have already made a decision, and an inventory of your grosser handicaps, you have made a good beginning. That being so you have swallowed and digested some big chunks of truth about yourself. - Pgs. 70-71 - How It Works

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

One of the things you will notice about our fellowship is that we hug a lot. Often this makes newcomers uncomfortable because they are not used to being given love and attention without serious strings attached. There are no strings, we just simply love you.

Give me the courage to hug the next clean and sober person I see.

Entering the Darkness

Today, I will allow myself to enter into the dark and searing painful experiences of my past, and cry it all out. If I can bring emotional literacy and forgiveness into the 'occupied territory' of my inner world, I can give myself the freedom I desire. I have a world within me that is deep and peaceful. The grief that I carry hidden in silence has great feelings in the present, and I release them. There is no longer any safety for me in hiding. My security comes from full awareness and acceptance of who I am. Until I understand my grief and allow myself to know it, I will not be free of its grip.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

You cannot go back and make new choices or change the outcome of the past. But you can face the demons of your past and change your destiny.

Not everything I face can be changed, but nothing can be changed until I face it.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

If anyone speaks badly of you, live so no one will believe it.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I find healthy ways to express my anger and resentments so that I can be free of them. Today I empty myself of all anger and resentments so that I can love come into my heart.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Until I make peace with what I am I'll never be content with what I have. - Burt S.

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

AA Thought for the Day

October 24

Self-will
I can recognize that I'm caught up in my will when I desperately struggle to slam a square peg into a round hole.
That's the time for me to back off and trust that God's will is far better than mine.
- © The AA Grapevine, November, 2013

Thought to Ponder . . .
I can't do His will my way.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Aware.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Traditions
"The Twelve Traditions point straight at many of our
individual defects.
By implication they ask each of us to lay aside
pride and resentment.
They ask for personal as well as group sacrifice.
They ask us never to use the AA name in any quest
for personal power or distinction or money.
The Traditions guarantee the equality of all members
and the independence of all groups.
They show how we may best relate to each other
and to the world outside.
They indicate how we can best function in harmony
as a great whole."
c.1957AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 96

Thought to Consider . . .
AA is not something you join, it's a way of life.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

How to Live
From: "Stars Don't Fall"
AA taught me how not to drink. And also, on the twenty-four hour plan, it taught me how to live. I know I do not have to be queen of them all to salve a frightened ego. Through going to meetings and listening, and occasionally speaking, through doing Twelve Step work, whereby in helping others you are both the teacher and the student, by making many wonderful AA friends, I have been taught all the things in life that are worth having. I am no longer interested in living in a palace, because palace living was not the answer for me. Nor were those impossible dreams I used to have the things I really wanted.
2003, AAWS, Inc., Experience, Strength & Hope, pages 362-363

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"This process of identification and transmission has gone on and on. The skid rower said he was different. Even more loudly the socialite (or Park Avenue stumble bum) said the same -- so did the arts and the professions, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostics, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans and the prisoners.
"But nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we all admit that the chips are finally down; when we see that it is really a question of do or die in our world wide Fellowship of 'the common suffering and the common deliverance."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1960
"AA Communication Can Cross All Barriers"
The Language of the Heart

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them
help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up
about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience you
must not miss."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 89~

What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually
becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and
having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that
we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this
presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless,
we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on
the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, pg. 87~

I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p.13

In all times of emotional disturbance or indecision, we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.41

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

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.'
'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.

Prayer for the Day: The Gratitude Prayer - O God, I want to thank you for bringing me this far along the road to recovery. It is good to be able to get my feet on the floor again. It is good to be able to do at least some things for myself again. Best of all is to have the joy of feeling well again. O God, keep me grateful; grateful to You for the way in which You have brought me through it all; grateful to all of the people who helped me back to health. O God, give me patience. Help me to not be in too big a hurry to do too much. Help me to keep on doing what I'm told to do. Help me to be so obedient to those who know what's best for me, that very soon I shall be on the top of the world and on the top of my job again. I can say what the psalmist said, "I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me & heard my cry. He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay, and on a rock He set my feet, establishing my way." Amen