RESPECT FOR OTHERS
Such parts of our story we tell to someone who will understand, yet be
unaffected. The rule is we must be hard on our self, but always
considerate of others.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 74
Respect for others is the lesson that I take out of this passage. I
must go
to any lengths to free myself if I wish to find that peace of mind that
I
have sought for so long. However, none of this must be done at
another's expense. Selfishness has no place in the A.A. way of life.
When I take the Fifth Step it's wiser to choose a person with whom I
share common aims because if that person does not understand me, my
spiritual progress may be delayed and I could be in danger of a relapse.
So I ask for divine guidance before choosing the man or woman whom I
take into my confidence.
***********************************************************
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
It's very important to keep in a grateful frame of mind, if we want to
stay sober. We should be grateful that we're living in a day and age
when alcoholics aren't treated as they often used to be treated before
Alcoholics Anonymous was started. In the old days, every town had its
town drunk who was regarded with scorn and ridiculed by the rest of
the townspeople. We have come into A.A. and found all the sympathy,
understanding, and fellowship that we could ask for. There's no other
group like A.A. in the world. Am I grateful?
Meditation For The Day
God takes our efforts for good and blesses them. God needs our efforts.
We need God's blessing. Together, they mean spiritual success. Our
efforts are necessary. We cannot merely relax and drift with the tide.
We must often direct our efforts against the tide of materialism around
us. When difficulties come, our efforts are needed to surmount them. But
God directs our efforts into the right channels and God's power is
necessary to help us choose the right.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may choose the right. I pray that I may have God's
blessing
and direction in all my efforts for good.
***********************************************************
As Bill Sees It
Persistence
in Prayer, p. 127
We often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something
not really necessary. To be sure, we feel it is something that might
help us to meet an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are
apt to regard it as a somewhat mysterious skill of clergymen, from
which we may hope to get a secondhand benefit.
<< << << >> >> >>
In A.A. we have found that the actual good results of prayer are
beyond question. They are matters of knowledge and experience.
All those who have persisted have found strength not ordinarily their
own. They have found wisdom beyond their usual capability. And
they have increasingly found a peace of mind which can stand firm in
the face of difficult circumstances.
12 & 12
1. p. 96
2. p. 104
***********************************************************
Walk in Dry Places
Did I have a dysfunctional family?
Healing the Past.
We hear much about the long-term effects of growing up in a
dysfunctional family. Many alcoholics, in fact, have bitter memories of
their own parents' drinking, and may feel this caused needless
deprivation and misery.
Whether our families were dysfunctional or not, we must agree that most
of our parents did the best they could. We cannot bring back the
past---- nor can they, ----and it is best released, forgiven, and
forgotten. Our wisest course is to use the tools of the program
to
reach the maturity and well-being that will bring happiness into our
own lives. This will not happen, however, if we believe that growing up
in a dysfunctional home has left us permanently impaired.
In our fellowship, we can find endless examples of people who used the
Twelve Steps to overcome all kinds of emotional and physical
disabilities. Just when we start thinking something in our past
is a
permanent handicap, we meet other people who survived the same bitter
experiences and are living life to the fullest. They've cleared away
the wreckage of their past in order to build wisely for the future.
I'll remember today that I am not bound or limited by anything that was
ever done or said to me. I face the day with self-confidence and
a
sense of expectancy, knowing that I am really a fortunate person with
many reasons to be grateful.
***********************************************************
Keep It Simple
So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the
town gossip.---Will Rogers
Secrets help keep us sick. In our drinking and using days, we did
things
we weren't proud of. We lived in a secret world we were ashamed of.
This
part of the power of addiction. Our behavior and our secrets kept us
trapped. Recovery offers us a way out of this secret world. In our
groups, we share our secrets, and they lose their power over us. There
may be things we're too ashamed to talk about in our groups. When we
share these things in our Fifth Step, they lose their power over us.
We have a new life that we're not ashamed to talk about. When shame
leaves, pride enters our hearts. We know we're good people!
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me live a good life.
Action for the Day: Do I have any secrets that get in my way? Do
I
need to do a Fifth Step?
If so, I'll pick a date---today.
***********************************************************
Each Day a New Beginning
We tend to think of the rational as a higher order, but it is the
emotional that marks our lives. One often learns more from ten days of
agony than from ten years of contentment. --Merle Shain
Pain stretches us. It pushes us toward others. It encourages us to
pray. It invites us to rely on many resources, particularly those
within.
We develop our character while handling painful times. Pain offers
wisdom. It prepares us to help other women whose experiences repeat our
own. Our own pain offers us the stories that help another who is lost
and needs our guidance.
When we reflect on our past for a moment, we can recall the pain we
felt last month or last year; the pain of a lost love, or the pain of
no job and many bills; perhaps the pain of children leaving home, or
the death of a near and dear friend. It might have seemed to us that we
couldn't cope. But we did, somehow, and it felt good. Coping
strengthened us.
What we forget, even now, is that we need never experience a painful
time alone. The agony that accompanies a wrenching situation is
dissipated as quickly and as silently as the entrance of our higher
power, when called upon.
I long for contentment. And I deserve those times. But without life's
pain I would fail to recognize the value of contentment.
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition
Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS
We were usually as definite as this example:
I'm resentful at: Mr. Brown
The Cause: His attention to my wife.
Affects my: Sex relations. Self-esteem (fear)
The Cause: Told my wife of my mistress.
Affects my: Sex Relations. Self-esteem (fear)
The Cause: Brown may get my job at the office.
Affects my: Security. Self-esteem (fear)
I'm resentful at: Mrs. Jones
The Cause: She's a nut---she snubbed me. She commited her husband for
drinking. He's my friend. She's a gossip.
Affects my: Personal relationship. Self-esteem (fear)
I'm resentful at: My emplorer
The Cause: Unreasonable---Unjust---Overbearing---Threatens to fire me
for drinking and padding my expense account.
Affects my: Self-esteem (fear) Security.
I'm resentful at: My wife
The Cause: Misunderstands and nags. Likes Brown. Wants house put in her
name.
Affects my: Pride---Personal sex relations---Security (fear)
p. 65
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition Stories
ME AN ALCOHOLIC? -
Alcohol's wringer squeezed this author--but he escaped quite whole.
To be sure, I learned many
fascinating things and many things that were to prove helpful
later. I learned what a devastating effect it can have on a child
to coddle him and build him up, and then turn and beat him savagely, as
had happened to me.
p. 384
***********************************************************
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
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."
In A.A. we have found that the actual good results of prayer are beyond
question. They are matters of knowledge and experience. All those who
have persisted have found strength not ordinarily their own. They have
found wisdom beyond their usual capability. And they have increasingly
found a peace of mind which can stand firm in the face of difficult
circumstances.
p. 104
***********************************************************
Whoever
seeks
God
.
.
. has already found God.
"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age,
which means never losing your enthusiasm."
--Aldous Huxley
"A happy life is made up of little things . . . a gift sent, a letter
written, a
call made, a recommendation given, transportation provided, a cake
made, a book lent, a check sent."
--Carol Holmes
"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by
the attitude you bring to life."
--John Homer Miller
We need to let the old go, so the new can emerge.
--Peggy Bassett
***********************************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
SUCCESS
"There is no failure except in no
longer trying."
--Elbert Hubbard
I produced the failure in my life. For years I would blame everything
and
everyone - my parents, the job, my health, low income, a cruel world,
thoughtless friends, the weather! Today I am able to own my failures
because they are mine.
Today I am also able to see my successes - and this makes me a winner.
I am able to see the things that I have achieved, the character defects
I
have confronted, the happiness that comes with an acceptance of self.
I may not be perfect but I am certainly not worthless. I may make
mistakes but I am not evil. I have a heart that needs to love and also
needs to be loved. Today I am able to reveal my vulnerability and
discover its strength.
This underling is learning how to fly.
Master, may I continue to seek Your power and glory in my life.
***********************************************************
For
God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light
shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of
God in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting
away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and
momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what
is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
***********************************************************
Daily Inspiration
Right now is a good time to free yourself of the
burden of that which needs to be done, but has been put off. Lord,
little by little, help me remove my procrastinations so that I can
fully live in the present.
Live a God-filled life and it will be only natural that you will
express enthusiasm for life, joy, laughter and happiness. Lord, may the
way I live always express my love for You.
***********************************************************
NA Just For Today
Turning Turmoil Into Peace
"With the world in such a turmoil, I
feel I have been blessed to be where I am."
Basic Text, p. 155
Some days it doesn't pay to turn on
the news, we hear so many stories about violence and mayhem. When we
used, many of us grew accustomed to violence. Through the fog of our
addiction, we rarely got too disturbed by the state of the world. When
we are clean, however, many of us find we are particularly sensitive to
the world around us. As recovering people, what can we do to make it a
better place?
When we find ourselves disturbed by
the turmoil of our world, we can find comfort in prayer and meditation.
When it seems like everything is turned upside down, our contact with
our Higher Power can be our calm in the midst of any storm. When we are
centered on our spiritual path, we can respond to our fears with peace.
And by living peaceably ourselves, we invite a spirit of peace to enter
our world. As recovering people, we can affect positive change by doing
our best to practice the principles of our program.
Just for today: I will enhance peace
in the world by living, speaking, and acting peacefully in my own life.
***********************************************************
You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Our deeds will travel with us from
afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. --George Eliot
We grow within, the way a tree does.
We've all seen the rings representing the years of a tree's life. We
carry our histories with us, too. Our actions, our attitudes, our
goals, and our dreams all gather together inside us to make us what we
are today. We're probably ashamed of some of our past, but our behavior
each day adds to our history, and we control it.
We can't escape our mistakes, but we
don't have to repeat them; and every day that is lived well gives us a
history to be proud of.
How can I add goodness to my past--and
my future--by my actions today?
You are reading from the book
Touchstones.
The newest computer can merely
compound, at speed, the oldest problem in relations between human
beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old
problem, of what to say and how to say it. --Edward R. Murrow
We may reduce our difficulties with
others to communication problems, yet the remedy may remain unclear.
How can we become more responsible for our share of the communication?
Can we stop blaming others? When we improve in those ways, our
relationships get better.
Clear, specific, and direct language
will help us be more responsible and less blaming. We can use simple
words that expose the truth rather than words that hide or sugarcoat
it. We can use specific examples and give details rather than
generalities or hints. We can be more direct by using you and me
language. In the process, we yield to the truth within ourselves - and
become more honest.
Today, I will be aware of
communicating clearly, specifically, and directly.
You are reading from the book Each Day
a New Beginning.
We tend to think of the rational as a
higher order, but it is the emotional that marks our lives. One often
learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.
--Merle Shain
Pain stretches us. It pushes us toward
others. It encourages us to pray. It invites us to rely on many
resources, particularly those within.
We develop our character while
handling painful times. Pain offers wisdom. It prepares us to help
other women whose experiences repeat our own. Our own pain offers us
the stories that help another who is lost and needs our guidance.
When we reflect on our past for a
moment, we can recall the pain we felt last month or last year; the
pain of a lost love, or the pain of no job and many bills; perhaps the
pain of children leaving home, or the death of a near and dear friend.
It might have seemed to us that we couldn't cope. But we did, somehow,
and it felt good. Coping strengthened us.
What we forget, even now, is that we
need never experience a painful time alone. The agony that accompanies
a wrenching situation is dissipated as quickly and as silently as the
entrance of our higher power, when called upon.
I long for contentment. And I deserve
those times. But without life's pain I would fail to recognize the
value of contentment.
You are reading from the book The
Language of Letting Go.
Letting Go of Fear
Fear is at the core of codependency.
It can motivate us to control situations or neglect ourselves.
Many of us have been afraid for so
long that we don't label our feelings fear. We're used to feeling upset
and anxious. It feels normal.
Peace and serenity may be
uncomfortable.
At one time, fear may have been
appropriate and useful. We may have relied on fear to protect
ourselves, much the way soldiers in a war rely on fear to help them
survive. But now, in recovery, we're living life differently.
Its time to thank our old fears for
helping us survive, then wave good bye to them. Welcome peace, trust,
acceptance, and safety. We don't need that much fear anymore. We can
listen to our healthy fears, and let go of the rest.
We can create a feeling of safety for
ourselves, now. We are safe, now. We've made a commitment to take care
of ourselves. We can trust and love ourselves.
God, help me let go of my need to be
afraid. Replace it with a need to be at peace. Help me listen to my
healthy fears and relinquish the rest.
Today I choose to accept live on
life's terms...all of it. I am open to all I see, hear, think and
feeling the moment, without resistance. I am opening to be fully alive
and enjoying the adventure. --Ruth Fishel
**************************************************
***********
Journey to the Heart
Are You Angry?
Anger ranks high on the list of
perplexing, troublesome emotions. We want to be kind and loving, but
then suddenly we feel a jolt in our heart, an edge to our voice.
Something has been tapped deep inside. It could be a chunk of old
anger, something we weren’t conscious of or safe enough to feel back
then. It may be current. Something has come into our life today, and
our reaction is anger.
Oh no, we may think, this sin’t what I
need. But denying anger will not bring us joy. Hiding it, tucking it
away deep inside is not the answer. We may even turn it upon ourselves.
Not feeling anger won’t make it go away. Its energy will still be
there, pounding away inside us and, in subtle ways, pounding away at
others,too. Until we acknowledge our anger, feel it, and release it, it
will keep us off balance, on edge, and irritable. We need to give
ourselves permission to feel all our emotions, including anger.
But allowing yourself to feel angry
doesn’t mean giving yourself permission to rage, to hack and cleave at
the world, to verbally abuse those around you. Find ways to express
your anger with grace and dignity. Park your car, roll down the
windows, and yell. Find a solitary place, a spot where you are safe,
then speak loudly about how you feel. Write it out. Shout it out. Pound
it out. Go to the gym and work it out.
Anger can be a guide, Used creatively,
it can help us decide where to go and where not to go. It can help us
get to the next place in our lives. Feeling and expressing our anger in
appropriate ways will take us forward to a place of power within
ourselves.
Let yourself feel angry when anger is
what you really feel. Then get the anger out of your head and out of
your body. Once that’s happened, you’ll feel clear. You’ll know what to
do next. The path to your heart, to your inner voice, will be opened.
Sometimes getting angry is exactly what we need to do next.
**************************************************
***********
More Language Of Letting Go
Say when it’s time to stop coping
In her book Recovering from the Loss
of a Child, author Katherine Fair Donnelly writes of a man whose infant
daughter, Robyn, died from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). The
child died in the stroller, while the mother was out walking her. The
father had stopped to get a haircut that day and was given a number for
his turn.
“It was something he never did again
in future years,” Donnelly wrote. “He would never take a number at the
barber’s and always came home first to make sure everything was all
right. Then he would go and get a haircut. It became one of the ways he
found of coping.”
I hate “coping.” It’s not living. It’s
not being free. It reeks of “surviving.”
But sometimes it’s the best we can do,
for a while.
Eight years after my son died, I was
signing the papers to purchase a home. It was the first home I had
bought since his death. The night before he died, I had also signed
papers to buy a new home. I didn’t know that I had begun to associate
buying a home with his death, until I noticed my hand trembling and my
heart pounding as I finished signing the purchase agreement. For eight
years, I had simply avoided buying a home, renting one
less-than-desirable place after another and complaining about the
travails of being a renter. I only knew then that I was “never going to
buy another house again.” I didn’t understand that I was coping.
Many of us find ways of coping. As
children, we may have become very angry with our parents. Having no
recourse, we may have said to ourselves, “I’ll show them. I’m never
going to do well at music, or sports, or studies again.” As adults, we
may deal with a loss or death, by saying, “I’m always going to be nice
to people and make them happy.Then they won’t go away.” Or we may deal
with a betrayal by saying, “I’m never going to open my heart to a
woman, or man, again.”
Coping often includes making an
incorrect connection between an event and our behavior. It may help us
survive, but at some point our coping behaviors usually get in our way.
They become habits and take on a life of their own. And although we
think we’re protecting ourselves or someone we love, we aren’t.
Robyn didn’t die because her father
took a number and waited to get his hair cut.
My son didn’t die because I bought a
new house.
Are you keeping yourself from doing
something that you really want to do as a means of coping with
something that happened to you a long time ago? Cope if you must, if it
helps save your life. But maybe today is the day you could set yourself
free.
God, show me if I’m limiting myself
and my life in some way by using an outdated coping behavior. Help me
know that I’m safe and strong enough now to let that survival behavior
go.
**************************************************
***********
Undistracted Energy
Pure Thoughts
The longer we are able to hold a
positive thought, the stronger that energy around us becomes.
If we make no effort at all, our
thoughts usually scatter in a vast array of directions. They start and
stop and move in surprising ways from one second to the next. If we try
to follow our thoughts without controlling them, we will be amazed at
how truly inconsistent they are. Yet, if we apply our minds to a
specific task, especially one that interests us, they gather together
and allow us to focus our attention, creating great power and energy.
This is what is known as pure thought, because it is undistracted.
The law of attraction—like attracts
like—influences all energy, including our thoughts, and this is what
makes pure thought so potent. Our undistracted thoughts create a
powerful magnet that draws similar energy into our vibrational field.
As a result, the longer we are able to hold positive thoughts in our
minds, the more powerful the positive energy around us becomes. We
don’t need to focus on action and controlling so much when we are
surrounded by energy that draws what we want toward us. We can simply
respond to the opportunities that naturally come our way. When this is
the essence of our experience, we can go with the flow, knowing that we
will be okay.
If pure thought is a body, it is our
emotions that supply the heart that can really bring it to life. Our
thoughts and feelings exist in relation to one another, and they form a
feedback loop through which they communicate and empower each other.
When we hold a thought in our mind without being distracted, we have
achieved pure thought. When we have a positive emotional response to
that thought, we enable it to dance and move and breathe itself into
existence. Published with permission from Daily OM
**************************************************
***********
A Day At A Time
Reflection For The Day
If I believe that it’s hopeless to
expect any improvement in my life, I’m doubting the power of God. If I
believe I have reason for despair, I’m confessing personal failure, for
I do have the power to change myself; nothing can prevent it but my own
unwillingness. I can learn in The Program to avail myself of the
immense, inexhaustible power of God — if I’m willing to be continually
aware of God’s nearness. Do I still imagine that my satisfaction with
life depends on what someone else may do?
Today I Pray
May I give over my life to the will of
God, not to the whims and insensitivities of others. When I counted
solely on what other people did and thought and felt for my own
happiness, I became nothing more than a cheap mirror reflecting others’
lives. May I remain close to God in all things. I value msyelf because
He values me. May I have my being in his Being and be dependent only
upon Him.
Today I Will Remember
Stay close to God.
**************************************************
***********
One More Day
Faith has a powerful effect in
helping people recover a sense of balance, tranquility, and hope.
– Robert Veninga
It’s the funniest thing about human
nature: When we are well we accept our Higher Power with few second
thoughts. When we have undergone some kind of crisis, however, large
numbers of people seem to lose their faith for a while. After all, who
among us hasn’t asked, “Why me?” when our health first took a turn for
the worse? Questioning our faith is common at such a time.
A health crisis often encourages
soul-searching, and spiritual exploration. Life as we knew it has gone
Topsy-turvy, and we need time to adjust. After a while many of us
return with renewed strength to our spiritual beliefs.
My belief in my Higher Power may have
diminished for a while, but I take comfort in knowing that belief is
always there.
************************************
Food For Thought
Anger
When angry, many of us overate. Now that we are abstaining, what do we
do with our anger?
First of all, we need to be in touch with our feelings so that we can
recognize anger when it occurs. In our overeating days, we often may
not have realized that we were angry instead of hungry. Not until we
were stuffed with food did the anger surface, and then we frequently
directed it at ourselves for overeating.
Getting the carbohydrates out of our system allows us to be more aware
of our true feelings and reactions. If we can catch our anger when it
begins, it is easier to handle. Expressing it in the early stages is
less devastating to ourselves and others than waiting until it builds
up into a rage.
The best thing we can do with anger is to turn it over to our Higher
Power. If we hang on to it, we can be destroyed. Practicing the Steps
every day helps us get rid of anger. If we let Him, our Higher Power
will take it away.
Take away my anger, Lord.
*****************************************
One Day At A Time
SUBLIMATION
"People who are happy don't use food to
sublimate. Food is supposed to be good
for
you - not make you feel good!"
Gary Null
All compulsive overeaters use food to
sublimate. Sublimation in layman’s terms is any habit or technique we
use to alter or change our reality - for better or worse! Sublimation
methods of choice are a great gauge to measure mental and physical
health. Poor choices are using food, gambling, television, alcohol,
drugs, shopping, excessive sleep or too many passive activities.
Healthy choices are meditation, visual imagery, prayer, journaling,
yoga, physical exercise, relaxation exercises, deep breathing, etc.
Anything from lawn mowing to vacuuming could be an act of sublimation -
IF done with high level of awareness and concentration. A person who's
high up the ladder spiritually sees Higher Power in all things at all
times. Since we sublimate regardless, the trick is to make it a
consciously controlled positive sublimation rather than subconscious
negative sublimation.
One day at a time...
I will consciously incorporate
positive, healthy methods of sublimation.
~ Rob R.
*****************************************
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
Highly competent psychiatrists who
have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade an
alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve. Strangely enough,
wives, parents and intimate friends usually find us even more
unapproachable that do the psychiatrist and the doctor. - Pg. 18 -
There Is A Solution
Hour To Hour - Book - Quote
Withdrawal is a condition that can
last many months and produces chaos: chaotic emotions, chaotic
thoughts, chaotic family situations, chaotic desires. But we take one
step at a time, one hour at a time and the chaos eventually calms.
I know everything changes and the
chaos will pass in these changes as long as I don't use mind-affecting
chemicals.
Unseen Hands
There are forces in this ever alive
and vibrating universe that want to help me if I can let them. I will
pray to unseen hands to guide me toward wellness, to lift me towards
God. If I am low, I will allow this legion of tiny hands to lift me in
the blink of an eye. I will ask and trust that help is at hand. I will
free my mind so that it can include more experience that it normally
does. I will allow the veil to be lifted so that I can see this
spiritual and alive universe for what it is and people for the tender
and vulnerable creatures that we all are.
- Tian Dayton PhD
Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote
Don't ever think you have nothing left
to learn in the fellowship and that everyone wants to hear you talk
incessantly because you are so wise. You can not have an open mouth and
an open mind at the same time.
When I do all the talking, I can only
hear what I already know.
"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book
Reputation is what people think of us.
Character is what God knows about us.
Time for Joy - Book - Quote
Today I choose to accept live on
life's terms.all of it. I am open to all I see, hear, think and feeling
the moment, without resistance. I am opening to be fully alive and
enjoying the adventure.
Alkiespeak - Book - Quote
Alcoholism is a disease which tells us
we don't have it. - Anon.
*****************************************
AA Thought for the
Day
May 7
Pass It On
I'll never forget the first time I met
Bill Wilson.
I was a couple of months sober and so
excited,
so thrilled to actually meet the
co-founder that I gushed all over him
with what my sobriety meant to me and
my undying gratitude for his starting AA.
When I ran down, he took my hand in
his and said simply, "Pass it on."
- 'Pass It On' -- The Story of Bill
Wilson and How the AA Message Reached the World, Preface.
Thought to Ponder . . .
In AA we don't carry the alcoholic; we
carry the message.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
S O B E R = Simply Observe Bill's
Enduring Recovery.
~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
Control
"Most of us have been unwilling to
admit
we were real alcoholics.
No person likes to think he is bodily
and mentally
different from his fellows.
Therefore, it is not surprising
that our drinking careers have been
characterized
by countless vain attempts to prove
we could drink like other people.
The idea that somehow, someday he will
control
and enjoy his drinking is the great
obsession
of every abnormal drinker.
The persistence of this illusion is
astonishing.
Many pursue it into the gates of
insanity or death."
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 30
Thought to Consider . . .
When a person tries to control their
drinking
they have already lost control.
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
STEPS
Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Honesty
From "Our Survival:"
"The HONESTY expressed by the members
of A.A. in meetings has the power to open my mind. Nothing can block
the
flow of energy that HONESTY carries
with it. The only obstacle to this flow of energy is inebriation, but
even then, no
one will find a closed door if he or
she has left and chooses to return. Once he or she has received the
gift of sobriety,
each A.A. member is challenged on a
daily basis to accept a program of HONESTY."
1990, Daily Reflections, page 311
*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"Everyone's recipe for serenity is
different. It's like vegetable soup -- nobody makes it quite the same."
Chestertown, N.Y., January 2006
"Circles of Sobriety,"
AA Grapevine
~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve
Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*
"We found that as soon as we were able
to lay aside prejudice and
express even a willingness to believe
in a Power greater than
ourselves, we commenced to get
results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or
comprehend that
Power, which is God."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We
Agnostics, pg. 46~
"Neither could we reduce our
self-centeredness much by wishing or
trying on our own power. We had to
have God's help."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How
It Works, pg. 62
Having so considered our day, not
omitting to take due note of things well done, and having searched our
hearts with
neither fear nor favor, we can truly
thank God for the blessings we have received and sleep in good
conscience.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.
95
Misc. AA Literature - Quote
Persistence in Prayer
We often tend to slight serious
meditation and prayer as something not really necessary. To be sure, we
feel it is
something that might help us to meet
an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are apt to regard it
as a
somewhat mysterious skill of
clergymen, from which we may hope to get a secondhand benefit.
In A.A. we have found that the actual
good results of prayer are beyond question. They are matters of
knowledge and
experience. All those who have
persisted have found strength not ordinarily their own. They have found
wisdom beyond
their usual capability. And they have
increasingly found a peace of mind which can stand in the face of
difficult
circumstances. TWELVE AND TWELVE- 1.
P. 96 - 2. P. 104
Prayer For The Day: Dear Lord, You are my light and salvation.
With you I am not afraid and have nothing to fear. Thank you for being
there for me even when the hour is darkest.