WE FORGIVE. . . .
Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors
or spiritual adviser that we first felt truly able to
forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had
wronged us. Our moral inventory had persuaded us that
all-round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when
we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew
we'd be able to receive forgiveness and give it, too.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 58
What a great feeling forgiveness is! What a revelation
about my emotional, psychological and spiritual nature.
All it takes is willingness to forgive; God will do the
rest.
***********************************************************
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
In the story of the Good Samaritan, the wayfarer fell among
robbers and was left lying in the gutter, half dead. And a
priest and a Levite both passed by on the other side of the
road. But the Good Samaritan was moved with compassion and
came to him and bound up his wounds and brought him to an
inn and took care of him. Do I treat another alcoholic like
the priest and the Levite or like the Good Samaritan?
Meditation For The Day
Never weary in prayer. When one day you see how unexpectedly
your prayer has been answered, then you will deeply regret
that you have prayed so little. Prayer changes things for you.
Practice praying until your trust in God has become strong.
And then pray on, because it has become so much a habit that
you need it daily. Keep praying until prayer seems to become
communion with God. That is the note on which true times of
prayer should end.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may form the habit of daily prayer. I pray that
I may find the strength I need, as a result of this communion.
***********************************************************
As Bill Sees It
Giving Up
Defects, p. 136
Looking at those defects we are unwilling to give up, we ought to
erase the hard and fast lines that we have drawn. Perhaps in some
cases we shall say, "This I cannot give up yet. . ." But we should not
say to ourselves, "This I will never give up!"
The moment we say, "No , never!" our minds close against the grace
of God. Such rebellion may be fatal. Instead, we should abandon
limited objectives and begin to move toward God's will for us.
12 & 12, pp. 68-69
***********************************************************
Walk in Dry Places
Trees
Don't grow to the sky
Progress
Release from a compulsion can be a dramatic experience. It maqy also
mean immediate relase from vexing problems caused by the compulsion.
This time can bring such a sense of well-being that it's sometimes
called the HONEYMOON or CLOUD NINE period.
In any growth process, however, we must remember that a law of
diminishing returns sets in. This is expressed in the saying that trees
don't grow to the sky. At some point, we will discover that our joyous
feeling of pleasure has cooled down to an ordinary state of feeling
well, that we are not becoming increasingly joyous by the day.
There's nothing wrong with such a mental plateau. If we're practicing
the Twelve Step program, we're still moving forward, onward, and
upward. Diminishing returns must still be counted as returns.
I'll accept today's progress with gratitude and humility. I won't
expect more than a reasonable feeling of well-being and contentment,
but that is considerable.
***********************************************************
Keep It Simple
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.---Sydney J.
Harris
Relaxing is one of the little joys of life. We can learn to take time
from our busy day to chat with a friend, take a hot bath, or spend a
few
moments sitting alone under a tree. The busier we are, the more we need
to take time to relax.
When we rest, we stop fussing about the outside world. We find out how
we're doing inside. While relaxing, we can best listen to our Higher
Power. Our minds calm down. We put busy thoughts aside. Sometimes, we
can
almost hear our Higher Power say, "Stay quiet and listen! I have
something to tell you!"
***********************************************************
Each Day a New Beginning
It is only the women whose eyes have been washed clear with tears who
get the broad vision that makes them little sisters to all the
world. --Dorothy Dix
The storms of our lives benefit us like the storms that hit our towns
and homes and wash clean the air we breathe. Our storms bring to the
surface the issues that plague us. Perhaps we still fear a job with
responsibilities. Perhaps we still struggle with the significant other
persons in our lives. Possessiveness is a particular storm that often
haunts our progress. Storms force us to acknowledge these liabilities
that continue to stand in our way, and acknowledgment is the step
necessary to letting go.
Recovery is a whole series of storms, storms that help to sprout new
growth, storms that flush clean our own clogged drains. The peace that
comes after a storm is worth singing about.
Each storm can be likened to a rung on the ladder to wholeness, the
ladder to full membership in the healthy human race. The storms make
climbing tough, but we get strength with each step. The next storm will
be more easily weathered.
If today is a stormy day, let me remember it will freshen the air I
breathe.
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition
Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS
We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we
had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we
had them. Wasn’t it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was
good as far as it went, but it didn’t go far enough. Some of us once
had great self-confidence, but it didn’t fully solve the fear problem,
or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse.
p. 68
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition Stories
ME AN ALCOHOLIC? -
Alcohol's wringer squeezed this author--but he escaped quite whole.
Here I found an ingredient that had
been lacking in any other effort I had made to save myself. Here
was--power! Here was power to live to the end of any given day,
power to have the courage to face the next day, power to have friends,
power to help people, power to be sane, power to stay sober. That
was seven years ago--and many A.A. meetings ago--and I haven't had a
drink during those seven years. Moreover, I am deeply convinced
that so long as I continue to strive, in my bumbling way, toward the
principles I first encountered in the earlier chapters of this book,
this remarkable power will continue to flow through me. What is
this power? With my A.A. friends, all I can say is that it's a
Power greater than myself. If pressed, all I can do is follow the
psalmist who said it long before me: "Be still, and know that I
am God."
pp. 386-387
***********************************************************
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual
awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message
to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."
So, practicing these Steps, we had a spiritual awakening about which
finally there was no question. Looking at those who were only beginning
and still doubted themselves, the rest of us were able to see the
change setting in. From great numbers of such experiences, we could
predict that the doubter who still claimed that he hadn't got the
"spiritual angle," and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group
the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.
p. 109
***********************************************************
Blowing
out
another's
candle
will
not make yours shine
brighter.
--unknown
God, give me the courage to follow my heart.
Teach me how to experience more joy in my life.
--Melody Beattie
"God never said it would be easy, only worth it."
--unknown
The most effective way to achieve right relations with any living thing
is to look for the best in it, and then help that best into the fullest
expression.
--Allen J. Boone
Secret of Life
Take time to Think. It is the source of Power.
Take time to Play. It is the secret of perpetual Youth.
Take time to be Friendly. It is the road to Happiness.
Take time to Work. It is the price of Success.
Take time to Pray. It is the greatest Power on Earth.
Take time to Love and be Loved. It is the way of God.
--Author Unknown
***********************************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
LIBERTY
"Liberty means responsibility.
That is why most men dread it."
--George Bernard Shaw
The fellowship of recovering addicts and their families rejoice in the
freedom of life; the exchange of slavery to a drug or person for
liberty; a life of choice, rather than meaningless compulsion.
But with the gift of liberty comes the weight of responsibility. Today I
am responsible for my life. No longer can I say I do not know; no
longer can I blame others for my disease; no longer can I manipulate in
the "playground of denial".
The spiritual program requires a maturity of lifestyle that involves
responsibility - but the joys are immense.
O Master of liberty and responsibility, let me not forget to laugh.
***********************************************************
And my
God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
"I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.
Psalm 91:2
I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my
fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not
ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And
saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps all
around those who fear Him, And delivers them.
Psalm 34:4-7
***********************************************************
Daily Inspiration
When your mind takes you to places you don't want to
go, you have the power to bring yourself back. Lord, strengthen my
ability to focus on that which I am experiencing now so that I will
truly live and lose none of the time You have given to me.
Loneliness happens when you build walls instead of bridges. Lord, bless
me with a welcoming spirit for those that might need me today.
***********************************************************
NA Just For Today
Our Higher Power's Will
"God's will for us becomes our own
true will for ourselves."
Basic Text, p. 46
The Twelve Steps are a path to
spiritual awakening. This awakening takes the form of a developing
relationship with a loving Higher Power. Each succeeding step
strengthens that relationship. As we continue to work the steps, the
relationship grows, becoming ever more important in our lives.
In the course of working the steps, we
make a personal decision to allow a loving Higher Power to direct us.
That guidance is always available; we need only the patience to seek
it. Often, that guidance manifests itself in the inner wisdom we call
our conscience.
When we open our hearts wide enough to
sense our Higher Power's guidance, we feel a calm serenity. This peace
is the beacon that guides us through our troubled feelings, providing
clear direction when our minds are busy and confused. When we seek and
follow God's will in our lives, we find the contentment and joy that
often elude us when we strike out on our own. Fear or doubt may plague
us when we attempt to carry out our Higher Power's will, but we've
learned to trust the moment of clarity. Our greatest happiness lies in
following the will of our loving God.
Just for today: I will seek to
strengthen my relationship with my Higher Power. I know from experience
that knowledge of my Higher Power's will provides a sense of clarity,
direction, and peace.
***********************************************************
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
More majestic than a cardinal, as
shining as a pyx. --Gustave Flaubert
What in the world is a pyx? If we
don't have an expert nearby, we'll have to look in a book. There we'll
find it defined, explained, fixed. Now what in the world is love? It
doesn't live in a tree or a book, so where in the world do we look? Can
we find love in the house, maybe swept under the rug? Can we know the
feel of it in our hands, see it written on the lines of faces we know?
Does it make a sound--maybe laugh and cry? Does it know how to speak,
form words carefully, write letters? Is it only written on the heart?
We find love inside us, and our love
seeks itself out in others. We find it in the familiar footfall of a
brother or sister, the sound of a parent's voice in the next room, and
yet, too often we don't express it directly. When we do, our love
thrives in all we do together.
What does love have to do with the
ordinary facts of life?
You are reading from the book
Touchstones.
The work will teach you how to do it.
--Estonian proverb
We learn this spiritual program as we
learned to ride a bike or to swim. We could never get it from reading a
book. We only learn it by doing it and by following the example of
others. As we first entered the program, we may have thought, "Oh I
understand this. In twelve meetings I'll have it licked."
Many men have had difficulty trusting,
so we try to understand everything before we get involved in it. But as
long as we try to figure it out first, we remain on the outside looking
in. Doing the practical things in this program - taking inventories and
making amends, praying for guidance from our Higher Power, carrying the
message to others, selecting a sponsor, will teach us the essentials
for spiritual recovery.
Today, I will take the risk of
learning by living the spiritual life.
You are reading from the book Each Day
a New Beginning.
It is only the women whose eyes have
been washed clear with tears who get the broad vision that makes them
little sisters to all the world. --Dorothy Dix
The storms of our lives benefit us
like the storms that hit our towns and homes and wash clean the air we
breathe. Our storms bring to the surface the issues that plague us.
Perhaps we still fear a job with responsibilities. Perhaps we still
struggle with the significant other persons in our lives.
Possessiveness is a particular storm that often haunts our progress.
Storms force us to acknowledge these liabilities that continue to stand
in our way, and acknowledgment is the step necessary to letting go.
Recovery is a whole series of storms,
storms that help to sprout new growth, storms that flush clean our own
clogged drains. The peace that comes after a storm is worth singing
about.
Each storm can be likened to a rung on
the ladder to wholeness, the ladder to full membership in the healthy
human race. The storms make climbing tough, but we get strength with
each step. The next storm will be more easily weathered.
If today is a stormy day, let me
remember it will freshen the air I breathe.
You are reading from the book The
Language of Letting Go.
Self Love
I woke up this morning and I had a
hard time for a while, said one recovering man. Then I realized it was
because I wasn't liking myself very much. Recovering people often say:
I just don't like myself. When will I start liking myself?
The answer is: start now. We can learn
to be gentle, loving, and nurturing with ourselves. Of all the recovery
behaviors were striving to attain, loving ourselves may be the most
difficult, and the most important. If we are habitually harsh and
critical toward ourselves, learning to be gentle with ourselves may
require dedicated effort.
But what a valuable venture!
By not liking ourselves, we may be
perpetuating the discounting, neglect, or abuse we received in
childhood from the important people in our life. We didn't like what
happened then, but find ourselves copying those who mistreated us by
treating ourselves poorly.
We can stop the pattern. We can begin
giving ourselves the loving, respectful treatment we deserve.
Instead of criticizing ourselves, we
can tell ourselves we performed well enough.
We can wake up in the morning and tell
ourselves we deserve a good day.
We can make a commitment to take good
care of ourselves throughout the day.
We can recognize that were deserving
of love. We can do loving things for ourselves.
We can love other people and let them
love us.
People who truly love themselves do
not become destructively self centered. They do not abuse others. They
do not stop growing and changing. People who love themselves well,
learn to love others well too. They continually grow into healthier
people, learning that their love was appropriately placed.
Today, I will love myself. If I get
caught in the old pattern of not liking myself, I will find a way to
get out.
I begin my day with quiet time,
finding peace and serenity in my mediation. I carry those feelings with
me wherever I am. If anything happens to disturb this peace, I can stop
and spend a few minutes with my breath and regain my serenity. --Ruth
Fishel
**************************************************
Journey to the Heart
What You Believe Is What You Will See
We can all things into play by what we
believe, what we say, what we envision, what we speak. This is one of
the powers we’re learning about.
Much of this dance of life, this
universal rhythm, is out of our control. But while we don’t choreograph
it, we can work within the part that is ours, with the power that is
ours. We do this by what we believe. If we believe that we have to
fight the entire world, that we’re separate and apart, and that for the
most part those we meet will be our enemies, out to hurt us, than that
will most probably be true.
Our beliefs about what we deserve and
who God is will change as we journey through our adventures. But there
is also much we can do now to participate in changing our beliefs and
creating a more desirable world for ourselves.
What are your beliefs? Listen to
yourself. Listen to what you think, what you say, how you react. Listen
to yourself talk about other people, about what life is really like,
and about what always happens to you. Listen to what you say about what
you can and cannot do. What you hear yourself say is what you believe.
And that is probably what you are used to perceiving as happening.
Try believing something different. Try
asking the universe and God to help you change and correct your
beliefs. Take an active part in creating your world. Say your new
beliefs. Say them aloud. Write them down.
Believe that you deserve love. Believe
that universal love is there for you. And you will begin to see exactly
what you believe.
**************************************************
More language of letting go
Only you can assess what to do
It was about my fiftieth skydive. I
was determined to master this spinning thing. When my turn came, I went
to the door, pulled myself outside, then gave myself the count. Ready,
set, go. I released my hold and let myself fall into the air.
At first, I fell stable, belly down.
Then that dang spinning thing started. I tried to correct my body
posture. That didn’t help. The last time this had happened, I had spent
so much time trying to correct the problem, I had lost awareness of my
altitude. I had gotten obsessed with the problem and lost track of
time– not a good thing to do on the ground, and even worse to do while
falling through the air.
I remembered my jump master’s words:
What are you going to do, spend the rest of your life trying to gain
control? Instead of making further attempts to solve the problem, I
would stop it now. By pulling,, I yanked my rip cord. Instead of
hearing that whooshing sound, the one the parachute makes when it opens
correctly, I heard a heavy thud. I looked up. I had been spinning so
fast when I opened that I had a knotted mess of line twists and a wad
of material over my head.
I had experienced line twists before–
a few twists that could be kicked out with a little effort. This was
different. It looked like a Chinese braid over my head.
This just isn’t working, I thought. I
pulled my cutaway handle, freeing the knotted mass of stuff over my
head, then immediately pulled my reserve parachute. It opened sweetly
and immediately. I looked at my altimeter. I was at nine-thousand feet.
This was going to be a long ride down.
About five minutes later, I floated
back to the ground. I threw my parachute over my shoulder and tromped
back to the student room. When asked what happened, I explained my
story. It was full of ” should’s.” I should have been able to stop
spinning. I shouldn’t have opened so high. I apologized for what I had
done and for the fact that my rented parachute, which I cut away so
high, was going to be tough to find.
“This wasn’t an ideal situation,” said
the manager of the school. “But it’s your life. Only you can decide
what to do to save it. It’s up to you and you alone to decide what’s
right to do.”
Some situations aren’t ideal. Maybe we
shouldn’t be in them in the first place and maybe we should have known
better. But the facts are what they are. Don’t let shame stop you from
taking care of yourself. What are you going to do?
Talk to other people. Get opinions.
Read books. But it’s your life– your relationship, your financial
situation, your job, your home. It’s up to you to decide what’s best
for you. You’re the one who will ultimately live with the results of
any decision you make. Assess the situation, and decide what’s right
for you.
Take responsibility for your decisions
and for how best to live your life.
God, help me stop waiting for others
to approve of what I do or don’t do. Guide me in my decision-making and
help me trust the choices I make.
**************************************************
Looking Deeply
The Good in All by Madisyn Taylor
We can see the good in all when we
come from a place of serenity and looking deeply within.
Sometimes we find it difficult to see
the good in people, places, or situations that aren’t to our liking. We
focus on the things we don’t like in our lives as a way of fueling our
efforts to create change. There is nothing inherently wrong with this,
and it is one way we make progress. However, if we get too caught up in
this way of looking at the world, we lose touch with our ability to sit
back and simply say yes to everything on our plates, which is the true
starting point for all successful activity. Sometimes what we really
need is to encourage ourselves to look deeply into all things in our
lives to see the inherent goodness at the heart of everything.
At the core of this inquiry is the
practice of unconditional acceptance, which can be scary because we
feel as if we are being asked not to change the things we don’t like.
But when we think this way, we are still operating on the surface of
our lives. In order to feel the beauty and warmth of full acceptance,
we have to be willing to sink deeper into the stratum underlying the
external manifestation of our lives. This deeper place of being is the
origin of all lasting change, yet its paradox is that when we are in
it, we often don’t feel the need to change anything. From this place,
we experience the pure beauty of the process of being alive, and we see
that all things change in their own time. We don’t need to force
anything. If there are things that we do need to change, from this
place of serenity we create the shift easily, our hands guided by an
energy that resides at the very center of our hearts.
In our active, goal-oriented culture,
we learn to distrust stillness and to engage in busywork on the surface
of life. This tendency can blind us to the good that lies at the heart
of all things. But all we have to do to see again is stop for a moment,
let go of our preconceptions and our agendas, and settle into the very
center of our hearts, remembering that it is only from here that we can
truly see. Published with permission from Daily OM
**************************************************
A Day At A Time
Reflection For The Day
Many of us in The Program share the
memory that we originally drank or used other chemicals to “belong,” to
“fit in,” or to “be a part of the crowd.” Others of us fueled our
addictions to “get in” — to feel, at least for a short time, that we
fitted in with the rest of the human race. Sometimes, the chemicals had
desired effect, temporarily assuaging our feelings of apartness. But
when the chemicals’ effects wore off, we were left feeling more alone,
more left out, more “different” than ever. Do I still sometimes feel
that “my case is different?”
Today I Pray
God, may I get over my feeling of
being “different” or in some way unique, of not belonging. It was this
feeling that led me to my chemical use in the first place. It also kept
me from seeing the seriousness of my addiction, since I thought “I am
different. I can handle it.” May I now be aware that I do belong, to a
vast fellowship of people like me. With every shared experience, my
“uniqueness” is disappearing.
Today I Will Remember
I am not unique.
**************************************************
One More Day
Life is a series of experiences, each
one of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this.
– Henry Ford
During these most devastating periods
f our lives, it is hard to recognzie that we will, in the long run,
benefit from the experience. As we live through painful or trying times
when we are barely surviving, we certainly are not aware of growing or
of learning something.
Yet, in the more quiet times of our
lives, when we’re not in pain or just hanging on by a thread, we can
see that , yes, I did learn this or, indeed, that event did force me to
grow. Chronic illness is no different from other crises, and we are
able to inventory ourselves and see healthier attitudes and stronger
character as results of what we’ve experienced.
I will take time today to list the
ways in which some “bad” experiences have helped me become a better or
more mature person.
************************************
Food For Thought
Rebellion
Compulsive overeating may often be a form of rebellion. In the past,
the more we tried to diet, the more we rebelled against the diet, and
the more we overate. We were rebelling not only against a diet but also
against other people, ourselves, and our Higher Power.
We should never consider abstinence as defined by OA to be just another
diet. To do so would be to invite further rebellion. We compulsive
overeaters seem especially prone to fight constraints of any kind.
Rather than constraining us, abstinence is our liberation. We no longer
have a diet to rebel against.
When we accept abstinence, we decide to have three measured meals a day
with nothing in between, and we decide to avoid our personal binge
foods. What those meals will consist of is our choice, and we make the
choice daily. All we have to do is plan what we will have, measure it,
enjoy it, and then get from one meal to the next without taking the
first compulsive bite. Simple. There is no diet to rebel against.
I pray that I will no longer need to rebel.
*****************************************
One Day At A Time
LOOKING AT THE STARS
"We are all in the gutter, but some of
us are looking at the stars."
Oscar Wilde
Before I made the Twelve Steps part of
my life, I considered myself to have been in the gutter. My weight had
doubled, I was in a major depression, and I was going through the
motions of life. Those looking at me from afar saw only a perfect
marriage, a perfect career, a perfect home, and perfect children.
Although I was blessed, the disease I suffered from day in and day out
made it quite obvious to anyone who truly knew me that I was not
"looking at the stars." It took my first sponsor to start the healing
process for me.
As I began to work Steps One, Two and
Three, I felt "different." Nothing had changed . . . everything had
changed. It's hard to describe because outwardly I looked the same ...
but my entire being opened up. Weight began to come off because I was
able to focus on a plan of eating. I found my feelings returned ... the
ability to love and accept love came back. My spirituality blossomed
once again. I truly felt alive.
One day at a time...
I want to remember each time I find
myself in the gutter and giving up hope ... to look at the stars ...
and remember that my program works if I will just work it.
~ Mari
*****************************************
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
We find it a waste of time to keep
chasing a man who cannot or will not work with you. If you leave such a
person alone, he may soon become convinced that he cannot recover by
himself. To spend too much time on any one situation is to deny some
other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be happy. - Pg. 96 - Working
With Others
Hour To Hour - Book - Quote
By now, most of us start asking 'Am I
really an addict? Or is this just a bad mistake?' The pain of
separation is setting in. 'How can I cope without drugs? Will I become
stupid, boring and dull?' We must realize that these thoughts are our
addictions talking to us, luring us.
Higher Power, help me shut my ears to
my addictions.
My Feelings Have Force
Today, even though I am feeling out of
sorts I will take responsibility for what I am putting out to others.
Am I appreciating the efforts people are making for me. Am I looking
into and beyond their faces as they are looking into mine. Am I giving
them half a chance to help me and am I giving myself half a chance to
be helped? As I move through the experiences of my day, I will try to
remain conscious of others efforts and well as my own. I will
appreciate what is being done for me.
I let good in
- Tian Dayton PhD
Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote
Now and then with a little time, we
stop working one through nine. The price of recovery is eternal
vigilance. Steps Ten, Eleven, and Twelve insure that we keep working
One through Nine.
No matter how much time I have from my
last drink or drug, I am only Twelve Steps away from the next.
"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book
Don't force solutions.
Time for Joy - Book - Quote
I begin my day with quiet time,
finding peace and serenity in my mediation. I carry those feelings with
me wherever I am. If anything happens to disturb this peace, I can stop
and spend a few minutes with my breath and regain my serenity.
Alkiespeak - Book - Quote
Alcoholic's National Anthem; 'I was
always on my mind...I was always on my mind' - Ken D.
*****************************************
AA Thought for the
Day
May 16
The Answer
It finally became obvious to me that
the God I thought had judged and damned me
had done nothing of the sort.
He had been listening, and in His own
good time His answer came.
His answer was threefold: the
opportunity for a life of sobriety;
Twelve Steps to practice, in order to
attain and maintain that life of sobriety;
fellowship within the program, ever
ready to sustain and help me each twenty-four hour day.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 11
Thought to Ponder . . .
Joy is in knowing there is an answer.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Answer Available.
~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
Martyrdom
"Self-pity is one of the most unhappy
and
consuming defects that we know.
It is a bar to all spiritual progress
and can cut off all effective
communication
with our fellows
because of its inordinate demands
for attention and sympathy.
It is a maudlin form of martyrdom,
which we can ill afford."
Bill W., Letter, 1966
As Bill Sees It, p. 238
Thought to Consider . . .
I can't have a better tomorrow
if I am thinking about yesterday all
the time.
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
PEACE
Praying Energetically Always Creates
Ease
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Real
From "Because I'm an Alcoholic":
"A.A. is my home now, and it is
everywhere. I go to meetings when I travel here or in foreign
countries, and the people
are family I can know because of what
we share. As I write this, in my twenty-eighth year of sobriety, I am
amazed to
look back and remember the woman or
child. I was then, to see how far I've come out of that abyss.
Alcoholics
Anonymous has enabled me to move from
fantasies about what I might do with my life into living it, one day at
a time."
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 346
*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"I believe most of us would agree that
the general idea of anonymity is sound, because it encourages
alcoholics and the
families of alcoholics to approach us
for help. Still fearful of being stigmatized, they regard our anonymity
as an
assurance their problems will be kept
confidential; that the alcoholic skeleton in the family closet will not
wander in the streets."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., March 1946
"Our Anonymity Is Both Inspiration and
Safety"
The Language of the Heart
~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve
Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*
"Faith without works was dead, he
said. And how appallingly true for
the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic
failed to perfect and enlarge his
spiritual life through work and
self-sacrifice for others, he could
not survive the certain trials and low
spots ahead. If he did not
work, he would surely drink again, and
if he drank, he would surely
die. Then faith would be dead indeed.
With us it is just like that."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition,
Bill's Story, pg. 14~
"Resentment is the "number one"
offender. It destroys more
alcoholics than anything else."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition,
How It Works, pg. 64~
When our inventory is carefully taken,
and we have made peace with ourselves, the conviction follows that
tomorrow’s
challenges can be met as they come.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
p. 89
Misc. AA Literature - Quote
Giving Up Defects
Looking at those defects we are
unwilling to give up, we ought to erase the hard and fast lines that we
have drawn.
Perhaps in some cases we shall say,
'This I cannot give up yet. . .' But we should not say to ourselves,
'This I will never give up!'
The moment we say, 'No, never!' our
minds close against the grace of God. Such rebellion may be fatal.
Instead, we
should abandon limited objectives and
begin to move toward God's will for us. TWELVE AND TWELVE, PP. 68-69
Prayer For The Day: Oh God, hold me in the palm of your hand.
I pray that you will mold me into what you want me to be. May I
joyfully fill the role you have given to me and feel your peace deep in
my soul, today and always, Amen.