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

As Bill Sees It

God's Gifts, p.249

We see that the sun never sets upon A.A.'s Fellowship; that more
than three hundred and fifty thousand of us have now recovered
from our malady; that we have everywhere begun to transcend
the formidable barriers of race, creed, and nationality. This
assurance that so many of us have been able to meet our
responsibilities for sobriety and for growth and effectiveness in
the troubled world where we live, will surely fill us with the deepest
joy and satisfaction.

But, as a people who have nearly always learned the hard way, we
shall certainly not congratulate ourselves. We shall perceive these
assets to be God's gift, which have been in part matched by an
increasing willingness on our part to find and do His will for us.

Grapevine, July 1965

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

Walk In Dry Places
 
A New approach to Freedom
Staying Sober
Most of us discover that we've had mixed-up ideas about the nature of freedom.
Real freedom is not simply doing exactly as one pleases; privileges would be
the correct term for that. And desirable as political freedom is,
it cannot give us what we're really seeking.
We should approach freedom by recognizing that we're really seeking release from
the bondage of self. This self-concern can be one of the worst tyrannies
humans face. As we are released from the bondage of self, we learn that our choices
begin to multiply. We make wise decisions instead of being driven to certain actions.
We are truly free.
Today I'll enjoy a freedom that is available to anybody who seeks it
wholeheartedly. I'll know it as the freedom only God can offer.

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

Keep It Simple
 
A lair needs a good memory. --- Quintilian
Many of us wasted a lot of energy trying to keep track of whom
we had told what. For example, we’d tell our boss one story and
our family another. Then we’d work hard to make sure they never met.
How wonderful to be done with that way of life! We now have a
life based on honestly. We can now be ourselves where we go.
Our program tell us that to get sober, we must live a life of strict
honesty. Honesty is our rule to get and stay sober. Life is much
more simple this way. We can relax and think of the happy details of life.
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me to live honestly.
Being honest brings me closer to You. Help me become closer to You.
Action for the Day:  Today, I’ll read the first three pages of Chapter
Five in Alcoholics Anonymous (Third Edition).
Here, I’ll learn why honesty is so important to my recovery.

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

Each Day a New Beginning

Remember your good memories, but live for today and keep the
memories behind you.  --Jodi K. Elliott
The stuff of our memories comprises who we have become.
Each recollection is akin to an ingredient in a simmering pot of stew.
The full flavor of our lives is enhanced by each additional experience,
whether it is painful or joyful.
Our experiences have a way of dovetailing, of grouping themselves,
perhaps even tailoring themselves, to provide us the best advantage.
So human is our tendency to linger in thought on past times that we
fail to take advantage, to be fully present in the moment, which is
assuredly making a necessary contribution to the total panorama of our lives.
Who are we to judge the value of any single experience? It's how
all experiences have mingled, that we must trust. We can be certain
in retrospect, that those situations that created the most inner turmoil
also offered us the most as growing, developing women.
The experiences offered today, in the 24 hours ahead, are significant
because they are unique. I will cherish them for the addition they are
making to my total person.

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

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 11 - A Vision For You

Now, this house will hardly accommodate its weekly visitors, for they number sixty or eighty as a rule. Alcoholics are being attracted from far and near. From surrounding towns, families drive long distances to be present. A community thirty miles away has fifteen fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Being a large place, we think that some day its Fellowship will number many hundreds.*

* Written in 1939.

p. 161

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

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Physician, Heal Thyself

Psychiatrist and surgeon, he had lost his way until he realized  that God, not he, was the Great Healer.

For myself, I have an absolute proof of the existence of God.  I was sitting in my office one time after I had operated on a woman.  It had been a long four- or five-hour operation, a large surgical procedure, and she was on her ninth or then post-operative day.  She was doing fine, she was up and around, and that day her husband phoned me and said, "Doctor, thanks very much for curing my wife," and I thanked him for his felicitations, and he hung up.  And then I scratched my head and said to myself, What a fantastic thing for a man to say, that I had cured his wife.  Here I am down at my office behind my desk, and there she is out at the hospital.  I am not even there, and if I was there the only thing I could do would be to give her moral support, and yet he thanks me for curing his wife.  I thought to myself----What is curing that woman?  Yes, I put in those stitches.  The Great Boss has given me diagnostic and surgical talent, and He has loaned it to me to use for the rest of my life. It doesn't belong to me.  He has loaned it to me and I did my job, but the ended nine days ago.  What healed those tissues that I closed?  I didn't.  This to me is the proof of the existence of a Somethingness greater than I am.  I couldn't practice medicine without the Great Physician.  All I do in a very simple way is to help Him cure my patients.

pp. 306-307

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

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Nine - "A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve."

At this juncture, we can hear a churchman exclaim, "They are making disobedience a virtue!" He is joined by a psychiatrist who says, "Defiant brats! They won't grow up and conform to social usage!" The man in the street say, "I don't understand it. They must be nuts!" But all these observers have overlooked something unique in Alcoholics Anonymous. Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles.

p. 174

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

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish one's
growth without destroying one's roots.
--Cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what God has done.
--unknown

"Whatever you are trying to avoid won't go away until you confront
it."
--Anonymous

Serenity isn't freedom from the storm, it is peace within the storm.
--unknown

"We learn the magical lesson that making the most of what we have
turns it into more."
--Codependent No More

Inner peace should not be determined by outward experiences.
--unknown

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

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

WORK

"Without work all life goes rotten."
-- Albert Camus

A spiritual discovery that I have made is that I work in order to be,
not simply to exist. To work is human. Work opens the door to the
meaning of life, and it stops life from being boring and dull. Work is
creative. When I was drinking, I did not have this understanding of
work and so it became a burden, something I had to get through,
something I had to do for money or security. I missed the creative
dynamic of work and how it could enable me to feel good about myself.

In recovery I work, create and grow not only in my job, but also in
my leisure hours. Indeed the distinction between the two often
overlaps because the program I take into the office is the same
program I take into the party or disco.

Today God is to be found in everything.

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

"Happy are those...whose hope is in the Lord their God."
Psalm 146:5

"Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'"
Luke 9:23

"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as
crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the
middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river
stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the
nations."
Revelation 22:1-2

Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for
the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
James 1:19-20

"To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul."
Psalm 25:1

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

Daily Inspiration

The way to freedom is the belief that we have the ability to choose. Lord, help me
make good choices and never be blinded by the false idea that I am a victim of circumstances.

The more difficult your burden, the stronger you are after you overcome it. Lord,
bless me as You bring me to everlasting life.

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

NA Just For Today

Resentment And Forgiveness

"Where there has been wrong, the program teaches us the spirit of forgiveness."
Basic Text p.12

In NA, we begin to interact with the world around us. We no longer live in isolation. But freedom from isolation has its price.

The more we interact with people, the more often we'll find someone stepping on our toes. And such are the circumstances in which resentments are often born.

Resentments, justified or not, are dangerous to our ongoing recovery. The longer we harbor resentments, the more bitter they become, eventually poisoning us. To stay clean, we must find the capacity to let go of our resentments, the capacity to forgive. We first develop this capacity in working Steps Eight and Nine, and we keep it alive by regularly taking the Tenth Step. Sometimes when we are unwilling to forgive, it helps to remember that we, too, may someday require another person's forgiveness. Haven't we all, at one time or another, done something that we deeply regretted? And aren't we healed in some measure when others accept our sincere amends?

An attitude of forgiveness is a little easier to develop when we remember that we are all doing the very best we can. And someday we, too, will need forgiveness.

Just for today: I will let go of my resentments. Today, if I am wronged, I will practice forgiveness, knowing that I need forgiveness myself.
pg. 261

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

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
The sun's the life giver. . . I talk to it like you would to a god. --Peter Firth
Having a Power greater than ourselves to believe in is like knowing the sun is in the sky. There are days when the sun shines with a brilliance that lights up everything around us--tree branches, snowflakes, the faces of our friends. When a seed is planted, it is the sun's warmth that invites it out of the ground to grow into a fruit or flower. The sun is the center the earth rotates around. The sun gives warmth and light to the earth, sometimes in ways we don't always notice.
There are days we do not see the sun--it is obscured by thick clouds. Yet even on these days, we know the sun's rays still reach the earth and nourish her.
God nourishes and warms our lives the same way the sun does the earth. Some days we easily see the presence of such a power in our lives, and other days we cannot see past the clouds. But God gives our lives a light-filled center and nourishes us even on quiet cloudy days.
How is God present in my life right now?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Friendship and community are, first of all, inner qualities. --Henri J. M. Nouwen
Many of us mistakenly search outside ourselves for answers. We feel small inside and not very powerful. Many of us men have tried to change our lives by affecting the people around us. Naturally, when we think of making friends, we assume we would start by getting a friend. But such beginnings often don't lead very far.
Friendship begins as an inward attitude or feeling before it is expressed outwardly. Perhaps we could first notice whom we feel friendly toward. Whom do we admire? Whom do we feel an affinity with? Let that friendliness exist within, and it will begin to express itself. Are we grasping for acceptance or response? Let us remain with our own goodwill and not return to old attempts to get someone else to change. Friendship exists as a feeling of admiration, of love, of fellowship, without demand. And when we are another man's friends, let us accept his friendship and enjoy it without trying to change it or him.
Today, I will simply notice my friendly feelings toward others.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Remember your good memories, but live for today and keep the memories behind you. --Jodi K. Elliott
The stuff of our memories comprises who we have become. Each recollection is akin to an ingredient in a simmering pot of stew. The full flavor of our lives is enhanced by each additional experience, whether it is painful or joyful.
Our experiences have a way of dovetailing, of grouping themselves, perhaps even tailoring themselves, to provide us the best advantage. So human is our tendency to linger in thought on past times that we fail to take advantage, to be fully present in the moment, which is assuredly making a necessary contribution to the total panorama of our lives.
Who are we to judge the value of any single experience? It's how all experiences have mingled, that we must trust. We can be certain in retrospect, that those situations that created the most inner turmoil also offered us the most as growing, developing women.
The experiences offered today, in the 24 hours ahead, are significant because they are unique. I will cherish them for the addition they are making to my total person.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Powerless over Others
Stop making excuses for other people.
Stop making excuses for ourselves.
While it is our goal to develop compassion and achieve forgiveness, acceptance, and love, it is also our goal to accept reality and hold people accountable for their behavior. We can also hold ourselves accountable for our own behavior and, at the same time, have compassion and understanding for ourselves.
When we claim powerlessness, we are not claiming irresponsibility. We have no power to control others, what they do, what they did, or what they might do. We're stating that we are willing to end an ineffective life based on willpower and control. And we're beginning a spiritual, mental, and emotional journey in which we take responsibility for ourselves.
We are not victims. We are not helpless. Accepting powerlessness when that is appropriate enables us to begin owning our true power to take care of ourselves.
Today, I will avoid making excuses for my own or someone else's behavior. I will let consequences and responsibility fall where they belong.


Today I'm getting all the guidance I need to take care of myself. I need not keep pushing beyond my limitations. I am learning to listen to my body and my mind, and rest when I get the message. --Ruth Fishel

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

Journey To The Heart

Let Your Creativity Blossom

Allow your creativity to blossom. For too long you have held back. For too long you have limited your natural creative leanings and talents. Maybe someone told you you couldn’t create or being creative wasn’t worthwhile. Maybe you started telling yourself that.

You are creative. You have a creative self within that wants to play, wants to be let loose, wants to create. Set that part of you free! Let yourself play– with life, with work, with projects.

Make a list of all the negative things you believe about your creative abilities– what you think, what you’ve been told, and what you tell yourself. Then burn it. Now make a new list of all the things that are true, or that you believe could be true, or that you want to be true. Let go of all the blocks. Write down that you are creative, that you can create, and that you’re connected to the creative force of the universe.

When you find your connection to creativity, the entire universe will come alive for you. It will help you, guide you, inspire you. You will find yourself imagining something, then being lead right down a path that will help you create it. When you don’t know what to do next, you can listen to your heart and let God and the universe guide you.

Creativity is the inherent nature of the world, the universe. The universe creates. And the universe needs your help in creating. Creating brings you into harmony with the universe, God, yourself, and the rhythm of life.

*****

more language of letting go
Appreciate who you are

Scott was sixty-nine when he took up skydiving for the second time in his life. He had jumped in the British military in World War 11. When the opportunity arose to make a demonstration jump into one of the old military bases, he came to California to learn how to skydive.

His body was old and stiff. But his heart was full of youth and fun. As he worked his way slowly through the levels, repeating many of the jumps until he got the skills dialed in, each jump took a little more out of his body. Despite his resolve, the training was more than he could handle and he had to stop short of his goal. As he left, he vowed to begin strength-training exercises and to return later to complete his training. "I'll be there, it'll just take longer than I thought," he said.

At the same time Scott started training, Tim started his skydiving training,too. Tim had never jumped before, though he had been skiing, mountain biking, and sailing. Tim was terrified. He was fearful that he would fail, afraid that he wouldn't respond well in an emergency, afraid that he would forget how to land, afraid to get out of a plane nearly two miles above the earth.

Scott talked to Tim. Scott laughed at him and laughed with him. And Tim kept getting back on the plane and passing his levels. He graduated. "I would have quit after the first jump," Tim said. "But if Scott can do it, so can I. I'm glad he was here. He gave me the faith to do something I believed was impossible."

We are each to walk our own path regardless of the fears and desires of those around us. Maybe you are like Scott, trying something new, something that may be a little beyond you. Great! Maybe you'll succeed; maybe you'll fail. Only you can decide what you'll do with the results. Scott could have taken his setbacks bitterly and dragged Tim down with him. Instead he built Tim up, enabling him to achieve something that he might not have done on his own.

Maybe you're like Tim, wanting to grow, but afraid of what you might lose in the trying. Follow your heart, and if you can find a mentor to help you on your way, thank that person for lifting you up.

Keep walking the path.

Some paths may lead to fame and recognition, others to quiet support of our fellow travelers. Walk your own path. Learn your own lessons.

God, thank you for my life.

*****

One Day at a Time
Stepping Stones by Madisyn Taylor

Taking one step at a time makes life much easier to navigate rather than always looking at the big picture.

The years of our life do not arrive all at once; they greet us day by day. With the descent of each setting sun, we are able to rest our heads and let the world take care of itself for a while. We may rest assured throughout the night, knowing that the dawn will bring with it a chance to meet our lives anew, donning fresh perspectives and dream-inspired hopes. The hours that follow, before we return to sleep once more, are for us to decide how we want to live and learn, laugh and grow. Our lives are sweeter and more manageable because we must experience them this way: one day at a time.

Imagine the future stretching out before you and try to notice if you feel any tension or overwhelm at the prospect of the journey still to come. Perhaps you have recently made a lifestyle change, like beginning a new diet or quitting smoking, and the idea of continuing this healthy new behavior for years seems daunting. Maybe you have started a new job or are newly married and can feel an undercurrent of anxiety about your ability to succeed. If you can shift your focus from what may happen years down the line and return it to the day that is before you right now, you may find a measure of calm and renewed confidence in your capabilities. You may also discover an inner faith that the future will take care of itself.

The way we show up for our lives today and tomorrow has an enormous affect on who we will be and what we will be experiencing years from now. If we can remain fully engaged in the day at hand, enjoying all it has to offer and putting our energy into making the most of it, we will find that we are perfectly ready and capable to handle any future when it arrives. Published with permission from Daily OM

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

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

“If you’re not alright the way you are,” it’s been said, “it takes a lot of effort to get better. Realize you’re alright the way you are, and you’ll get better naturally.” Sometimes we find ourselves in a siuation so difficult that it seems insoluble. The more we think about it, the more we get on our own backs for our imagined inadequacy to overcome the situation — and we sink into depression. That’s the moment to recall a single phrase, slogan, or bit of philosophy, saying it over and over until it replaces thoughts of the tormenting problem — which , in the final analysis will take care of itself. Do I sometimes forget that the thorns have roses?

Today I Pray

May I see that God gives us patterns so that we can take comfort in opposites — day follows night; silence follows din; s love follows loneliness; release follows suffering. If I am ineffectual, may I realize it and try to do something constructive. If I am insensitive, may my friends confront me into greater sensitivity.

Today I Will Remember

Clouds have linings. Problems have endings.

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

Food For Thought

I Am a Compulsive Overeater

The one fact, which I need to remember constantly, is that I am a compulsive overeater. If I forget it, I will eventually break my abstinence. There is no way that I can eat “normally,” like most other people. I either eat according to my OA plan or I eat very abnormally, according to my compulsion.

Because I am a compulsive overeater, I do not take tastes of this or that, and I do not have snacks. I have found from sad experience that this kind of uncontrolled eating is impossible for me to handle. I know that I need to plan every day the three measured meals, which I will eat.

Because of the new life that OA has given to me, I am grateful for my disease. Without it, I would not have found the measure of peace and serenity, which comes to me every day as I work the program.

May I remember I am a compulsive overeater.

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

One Day At A Time

HONESTY
“If it is not right do not do it;
if it is not true do not say it.”
Marcus Aurelius

Honesty of all sorts is important, but honesty with ourselves is foundational. With everything that was in me, I resisted the notion that I had an eating disorder. Everybody else had a problem with my eating, not me. But when I finally faced the painful truth, I began the journey to freedom, from not merely overeating, but from all the underlying bondage that had caused me to stuff my feelings.

The same thing happened when I acknowledged that my relationship with God was in need of correction. Sure, my whole life was a mess, but that had to be God’s fault, right? I had to own up to the fact that God did not fail me; I had failed myself. I had to be open and receptive to His way. What power comes from honesty! I used to be afraid of truth, but truth is becoming my friend.

One day at a time...
Today I will not let myself hide
from truth simply to be comfortable;
I will use truth as a tool for freedom.
~ Deborah H.

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

AA 'Big Book' - Quote

In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever. We have tried these methods. These attempts to do the impossible have always failed. - Pg. 101 - Working With Others

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Whether serious and conservative or eager and flighty, newcomers often feel no necessity for embracing recovery. REMEMBER, millions have gone before you. You don't have to embrace the 12 steps but embrace something that works for recovery.

I embrace a program of recovery, not my self will, but a program I trust with clean and people that I can see!

Remembering to Take Care of Myself

Today is a day to be reborn into the life I already have. To see and value it differently. To cherish it knowing that it is mine only for a while. I am God's gift to me. God has lovingly placed my life into my own hands to care for. God means for me to cherish and care for my own life in each and every way. I am responsible for what I do with me and what I do with my life. In caring for me, I am loving God's world. I am showing love and respect for what God has put into my hands until I rest once again in God's arms for all of eternity.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Even though you are a unique human being, you are not so unique that your recovery is any different then thousands before you. If you think we don't understand something about your situation, then your disease is playing tricks on you.

I am unique, just like everyone else.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

When you work with a drunk, the drunk you're working with is you.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I am getting all the guidance I need to take care of myself.

I need not keep pushing beyond my limitations. I am learning to listen to my body and my mind, and rest when I get the message.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

I want my way. That's 90% of my Fifth Step. - Doug D.

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

AA Thought for the Day

September 7

Faith
If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color,
are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms
as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.
Those who have religious affiliations will find here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies.
There is no friction among us over such matters.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 28

Thought to Ponder . . .
True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F A I T H = Finding Answers In The Heart.

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

Honesty
"I know the biggest word for me in AA is 'honesty.'
I don't believe this program would work for me
if I didn't get honest with myself about everything.
Honesty is the easiest word for me to understand
because it is the exact opposite
of what I've been doing all my life.
Therefore, it would be the hardest to work on.
But I will never be totally honest -
that would make me perfect,
and none of us can claim to be perfect.
Only God is."
1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 482

Thought to Consider . . .
Honesty is the absence of the intent to deceive.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
C H A N G E = Choosing Honesty Allows New Growth Every day

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

Endless
From "The Central Experience":
"I have become more and more aware of the infinite expansion of happiness which is accessible within. The Upanishad, part of the Hindu scriptures, concludes: 'From Joy all things are born; by Joy all things are sustained; to Joy all things return.' The more thoroughly I can surrender to this proposition, the more thoroughly I enjoy my life. Ultimately, my God as I understand Him is joy and the expansion of joy. - Toronto, Ontario"
1973 AAWS, Inc.; Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pg. 100

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

"It was long indeed before we knew that AA could surely cross all boundaries of distance, race, creed, or language ... We know now it is only a question of time when every alcoholic in the world will have as good a chance to stay alive and happy as we have had here in America."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., June 1955
"How AA's World Services Grew, Part II"
The Language of the Heart

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

"'There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which
is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in
everlasting ignorance that principle is contempt prior to investigation.'"
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Appendice II, Spiritual
Experience, pg. 568~

It works - it really does.
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, pg. 88~

"If he is to find God, the desire must come from within."
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 95

“Then, in Step Seven, we humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings such as He could or would under the conditions of the day we asked. In step Eight, we continued our house-cleaning, for we saw that we were not only in conflict with ourselves, but also with people and situations in the world in which we lived. We had to begin to make our peace.”
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 108

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

Whenever I find myself under acute tensions, I lengthen my daily walks and slowly repeat our Serenity Prayer in rhythm to my steps and breathing.
If I feel that my pain has in part been occasioned by others, I try to repeat, 'God grant me the serenity to love their best, and never fear their worst.' This benign healing process of repetition, sometimes necessary to persist with for days, has seldom failed to restore me to at least a workable emotional balance and perspective.

Prayer for the Day: God, please help me Watch for Selfishness, Dishonesty, Resentment and Fear. When these crop up in me, help me to immediately ask you to remove them from me and help me discuss these feelings with someone. Father, help me to quickly make amends if I have harmed anyone and help me to resolutely turn my thoughts to someone I can Help. Help me to be Loving and Tolerant of everyone today. Amen