Daily Reflections
February 19
I’M NOT DIFFERENT
In the beginning, it was four whole years before A.A. brought permanent sobriety to even one alcoholic woman. Like the “high bottoms, ” the women said they were different; The Skid-Rower said he was different … so did the artists and the professional people, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostic, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans, and the prisoners. Nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we admit that the chips are finally down.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 24
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
February 19
A.A. Thought For The Day
Many things we do in A.A. are in preparation for that crucial moment when, walking down the street on a nice sunshiny day, we see a nice cool cocktail lounge and the idea of having a drink pops into our minds. If we’ve trained our minds so that we’re well prepared for that crucial moment, we won’t take that first drink. In other words, if we’ve done our A.A. homework well, we won’t slip when temptation comes. In preparation for that crucial moment when I’ll be tempted, will I keep in mind the fact that liquor is my enemy?
Meditation For The Day
How many of the world’s prayers have gone unanswered because those who prayed did not endure to the end? They thought it was too late, that they must act for themselves, that God was not going to guide them. “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” Can I endure to the very end? If so, I shall be saved. I will try to endure with courage. If I endure, God will unlock those secret spiritual treasures that are hidden from those who do not endure to the end.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may follow God’s guidance, so that spiritual success shall be mine. I pray that I may never doubt the power of God and so take things into my own hands.
Walk In Dry Places
February 19
Sticking with the winners
Prudence
“Stick with the winners,” newcomers are told at Twelve Step meetings. The real message of this statement is to share the attitudes and actions of people who are successful in living sober.
No recovering person can have a successful day while dwelling on ideas that can be harmful. We’ll meet people in the course of the day whose attitudes may appall us. We may work with people who are critical, gossipy, or resentful. It’s not our duty to correct them or argue with them. We’re wise, however, not to accept what we recognize as wrong thinking.
Winners, in AA terms, are people who seek sobriety first and live up to the principles of the program. Seek them out for help in doing likewise.
I’ll try to associate with people who exemplify the highest and best in good attitudes.
Keep It Simple
February 19
Changing brings questions, and questions bring change.
–Anonymous
What am I becoming? How do I know if what I’m doing is right? Is it best for me? We are full of questions. Often, times of question a are times of change. We are becoming something new, and there is always a little fear of change. Luckily, we don’t need to know what we are becoming to find peace. What we need to know is what we believe in. And we’ll become what we believe in. If we believe in sobriety, we’ll be sober. If we believe in honestly, we’ll struggle to be more honest. We must give ourselves the freedom of becoming. Becoming means we’re on a trip, a journey. Over time, becoming takes on a comfort of its own.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, what am I becoming? I give up having to know the answer. All I need to believe is that You love me and will do what is best for me.
Action for the Day: I’ll ask lots of questions. Often, the question is more important than the answer.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor touched… but are felt in the heart.
–Helen Keller“It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.”
–Gertrude SteinWe need to let the old go, so the new can emerge.
–Peggy BassettThe more I force things, the tougher my life gets.
–Helen Neujahr
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
February 19
PREJUDICE
“The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.”
— Rene Descartes
During the past few years I have begun to recognize how many of my prejudices were planted in childhood. Family, teachers, priests and “the neighborhood” passed on to me prejudices: ” The Jews are bad because they killed Jesus.” “Blacks are inferior to white people — but you should be kind to them.” “Women should obey the man of the house.” “Gays are child molesters.” “People who do not accept Jesus will not go to Heaven.” “Sex is for having babies and you should not enjoy it.”
Today I live with the problem of knowing that these statements are untrue but a part of me is still affected by them.
Today my spiritual program demands that I expose prejudice for the “hate-mail” that it is, and try to pass on to the next generation the joy that comes from love, acceptance and freedom.
Let the children grow in freedom.
Daily Inspiration
February 19
Joy is left if you rid your heart of all that pulls you down. Lord, help me to heal my spirit and grow from today’s experiences.
You have a responsibility to be the best that you can be. Lord, may I find a good balance in my life so that I neither neglect myself and my duties nor my responsibility to those that need or depend on me.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
February 19
The Old Man said, “you are both ugly and handsome and you must accept your ugliness as well as your handsomeness in order to really accept yourself.”
–Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA
My Grandfather told me one time that any person who is judgmental to another is also judgmental to themselves. If we want to be free of being judgmental, we need to first work on how judgmental we are to ourselves. If we quit judging ourselves and start accepting ourselves as we are, we will start accepting others as they are. Then we will experience a level of new freedom.
Great Spirit, let me accept myself as I am – honoring both my strengths and my weaknesses.
Journey to the Heart
February 19
Be Gentle with Your Heart
On this road, this journey to the heart, you will see more, feel more, and be more than you’ve ever been before.
Your heart is open, your spirit is alive. You’re open to all that the universe, life, and God hold for you. Because you’re that open, you are more sensitive than ever to people, energies, places, things. You are more sensitive to any unresolved issues in yourself and in those around you. You are open, more open that you’ve ever been.
Comfort yourself. Wrap yourself up in a blanket of love and hope. Know that you will be feeling, seeing, and taking in a great deal. Know that you will be healing at a deeper level than ever before. Most of the time, this will bring joy. But an open heart is not one-dimensional, joy is not the only emotion it will embrace. Make room in your heart, room in your life, and time in your days to feel other feelings,too– anger, grief, fear, exuberance, tenderness, betrayal, and exhilaration– all the emotions an open heart feels.
You’re more open than you’ve ever been. Take gentle, loving care of yourself. Be tender with your heart.
Today’s Gift
February 19
I have often thought morality may perhaps consist solely in the courage of making a choice.
—Leon Blum
Sometimes, trying to do the right thing isn’t easy because it isn’t what we want to do. For instance, we may want to sneak a cookie to take to bed with us, or we may want to stay out late. But is that the right thing to do?
One way to tell is to think how we’ll feel after we’ve done it. Will we be happy, or will we feel guilty because we know in our hearts it is wrong? On the other hand, how would we feel if we resisted the temptation? Perhaps we’d feel great because we’d know in our hearts we’d done the right thing. And don’t we deserve to feel good about ourselves? Of course we do!
How wonderful it is that our feelings can help us do the right thing when we’re in doubt.
Will I have the courage to follow my true feelings today?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
February 19
He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Our sense of purpose in life is not fixed in concrete. It changes from youth through all the stages of life. Often in the transitions to a new growth stage we are most confused. In the chaotic life created by our own addictive or codependent thinking, all meaning collapses around us. At these times we wonder, “What is the point?” “Does anything really matter?”
We receive a why for our existence by participating in the whole of this world. We are sons, or fathers, or husbands, or brothers, or friends to very specific people – and to the rest of our community, extending to all of creation. Our sense of purpose may change when life circumstances change. We get married, for instance, and then say, “Now what?” Or a child is born, or a parent dies, or we become disabled. Each time we may be confronted again with the questions. Being open to contact with our world, keeping our barriers down so we stay in touch, restores our awareness of purpose.
May I continue to respond to the changing phases in life – and be open to the renewal of purpose, which is here for me.
Daily TAO
February 19
INTERACTION
We make life real
By the thoughts we project.
The panorama of the objective world is meaningless until we interact with it. For example, if there is a rock that we pass day after day but we do not notice, then that rock has no significance for us. If we decide to make that rock a votive object and pray to it for decades, then that rock becomes quite important. To an outsider who does not subscribe to the rock’s assigned meaning, it will continue to be just a rock. In all cases, the rock was just a rock. It was only human interaction that created its meaning.
It is a mistake to assume that the meaning we give to something is as concrete and tangible as the object itself. We should not confuse the two. For example, our house may be precious to us, but our sense of preciousness has nothing to do with the building — it comes from the values and memories we associate with it. If we lose our house, we must remember that it is the feeling we have for it, not just the building itself, that determines our loss.
If all perception of reality is subjective, some schools of thought suggest that we should therefore see everything as unreal. By contrast, followers of Tao maintain that we must still interact with the world. If we do not take initiative and work with this phenomena of projecting meaning and receiving its echoes, we fall into a state of dormancy, and the world will not exist for us at all. As long as we remember that meanings we attribute to objects are subjective, we will avoid mistakes.
Daily Zen
February 19
Knowing that sentient beings
All have a thousand desires
Gripping the depths of their minds,
The Buddha teaches them
In accordance with their characters
And conditions.
With stories, words, and skillful means
He teaches them the truth.
– Lotus Sutra