Daily Reflections
March 13
A WORLD OF THE SPIRIT
“We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.”
—ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84
The word “entered” and the phrase “entered into the world of the Spirit” are very significant. They imply action, a beginning, getting into, a prerequisite to maintaining my spiritual growth, the “Spirit” being the immaterial part of me. Barriers to my spiritual growth are self-centeredness and a materialistic focus on worldly things. Spirituality means devotion to spiritual rather than worldly things, it means obedience to God’s will for me. I understand spiritual things to be: unconditional love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control and humility. Any time I allow selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear to be a part of me, I block out spiritual things. As I maintain my sobriety, growing spiritually becomes a lifelong process. My goal is spiritual growth, accepting that I’ll never have spiritual perfection.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
March 13
A.A. Thought For The Day
We’ve got rid of our false, drinking selves and found our real, sober selves. And we turn to God, our Father, for help, just as the Prodigal Son arose and went to his father. At the end of the story, the father of the Prodigal Son says: “He was dead and is alive again, he was lost and he is found.” We alcoholics who have found sobriety in A.A. were certainly dead and are alive again. We were lost and are found. Am I alive again?
Meditation For The Day
Gently breathe in God’s spirit, that spirit which, if not barred out of selfishness, will enable you to do good works. This means rather that God will be enabled to do good works through you. You can become a channel for God’s spirit to flow through you and into the lives of others. The works that you can do will only be limited by your spiritual development. Let your spirit be in harmony with God’s spirit and there is no limit to what you can do in the realm of human relationships.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may become a channel for God’s spirit. I pray that God’s spirit may flow through me and into the lives of others.
Walk in Dry Places
March 13
Believing In Justice
Justice
“What goes around, comes around,” is a popular saying. It’s often used to suggest that certain arrogant, unprincipled people will eventually receive their comeuppance. It conveys the idea that there’s a hidden justice at work in human affairs that assures all injustice will eventually be punished.
But if it works to punish, this hidden justice also rewards right actions, and this is more important in our working of the program. If we act from good motives, we’ll always find that our work is rewarded in some way. No alcoholic who performs a service in the fellowship goes unrewarded. Quite often the reward is simply a personal sense of well-being and growth in character, but these may be more important than money or recognition.
Justice is one of the cardinal virtues–a Godlike attribute that human beings strive to understand. Believing in justice is believing in the Hidden Power that orders justice in all things.
I’ll view my world today as something that is controlled and ordered by a Just Power. Reward and retribution are built into the scheme of things, but I’ll focus more on actions that bring the right kind of rewards.
Keep It Simple
March 13
“God loves the world through us.”
—Mother Teresa
In Step Three, we turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. How do we feel God’s care, God’s love? We feel God’s care and love through how people treat us. Our Higher Power works through people who love us back to life. With time, we begin returning this care and love to others. We feel this warm love flow right through us and out to others. We’re kind without trying to be. We smile at others for no reason. We comfort those who hurt just by holding them.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, use me to make Your love real to someone today.
Action for the Day: Fear sometimes keeps me from loving. I’ll list three things I’m afraid will happen if I’m “to loving.” I’ll share these fears with my sponsor.
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”
—Jim Rohn“Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves.”
—John B. Sheerin“Nothing is worth more than this day.”
—Goethe“It is a sign of strength, not of weakness, to admit that you don’t know all the answers.”
—John P. Lougbrane
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
March 13
BALANCE
“There are two ways to slide easily through life: To believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.”
—Alfred Korzybski
This statement is so true for me. I was so compulsive and obsessive not only about the things that I believed in but also about the things I didn’t believe in. I was extreme. Everything I did was exaggerated. I either raced through life at ten thousand miles an hour or was in neutral. Balance was absent.
Today I am developing balance in my life, more patience and more tolerance. I have discovered that my extremism was a mask by which I hid from life; I did not have to think, consider or ponder—I simply reacted.
Now I know that to believe in everything is to believe nothing; and to doubt everything is not to think. Life is “a many splendored thing” but it has a variety of options.
God of the many, help me to discover You in the myriad of thoughts that life produces.
Daily Inspiration
March 13
Take care of your own emotional and spiritual needs first and it will become natural to reach out lovingly to others. Lord, I depend on Your help in every situation.
Delighting in the happiness of others will make your heart too big for your body. Lord, help me set aside my jealousies and celebrate the blessings of others. Their blessings will then be a blessing for me too.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
March 13
“I went to a holy man and asked him for help. He told me to get on the Red Road. Pray to Wakan-Tanka (Great Spirit) to help you walk the Red Road.”
—Dr. A.C. Ross (Ehanamani), LAKOTA
All Indian traditions, customs and ceremonies help us answer three questions: who am I?, why am I?, and where am I going? Only on the Red Road can we find the answer to these three questions. When we can answer these three questions, we are on the Red Road. When we cannot, we have gone astray. That is why the Holy Men tell us to pray to the Great Spirit and to seek the Red Road. Why am I? My purpose is the serve the Great Spirit. Who am I? I am an Indian who walks the Red Road. Where am I going? My vision is to serve my people.
Great Spirit, when I know You, only then do I know me. Help me today to know You.
Journey to the Heart
March 13
Connect to Creativity
The more open and connected you are to the world around you, the more creative you will become.
You will become more creative in your own growth and in how you live your life. You will be more creative in problem solving in work and play. You’ll be more willing to try new things– whether it’s learning to play a flute, build a stone fence, ride a horse, or create a Japanese garden in your front yard. You’ll find yourself more open in solving problems with loved ones, trying less traditional approaches than you might have considered in the past. You’ll find yourself gaining insights, information, and healing from sources you may have previously overlooked. Your participation in all your activities will be less controlled and more spontaneous.
You will hear the universe prompting you more. You will imagine more. You will recognize the quiet voice of intuition, the voice of your heart. You will see possibilities. And because you are open to your heart, the guidance of your inner voice, you will know what to do, and when to do it.
The more connected you are to the universe, to life, to yourself, the more creative you will be.
Today’s Gift
March 13
“I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the ugly duckling.”
—Hans Christian Andersen
The ugly duckling was not really ugly at all, he was just different. The other ducks teased and pecked and even bit him until the ugly duckling flew away. He wandered around for a year, and was treated as an outcast everywhere. In the spring, he saw a group of swans on a lake, and wanted very much to join them. As he swam out toward them, he was astounded to notice his reflection in the water–he was a swan! The other swans welcomed him warmly, and found him to be beautiful.
Most of us go through times when we feel different from those around us. These are painful and lonely times, but it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with us. Like the ugly duckling, we will come into a time when we will be loved. All the pain and loneliness we have felt will help us fully appreciate the acceptance when we find it.
How can I treasure the ways I am different from others today?
Touchstones Meditation For Men
March 13
“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.”
—Louis L’Amour
How much fuller each day feels when we can be patient and accept the inches we have progressed. Yet, we are aware of large problems which require miles of progress. We may want others in our lives to change quickly, we may be impatient with a work situation, or we may feel angry about an addiction.
Perhaps the spiritual message to us is we need to surrender to time. We are on the road moving in the direction of recovery. The forces of progress are at work. Our growth now may come in learning patience and trusting this process. Looking back we might see a mile of progress. It was made an inch at a time.
Today, I will accept my progress. There are many rewards already.
Daily TAO
March 13
DISCOVERY
Seize the mountain spirits,
Make them divulge their secrets.
Only with strength is there discovery.
The scriptures say that the mountains contain the answers. Generations of seekers have gone into the wilderness and have encountered spirits both benevolent and terrible. Though the possibility of great discovery is mixed with the threat of misadventure, we must all go into the mountains to seek these answers.
We should understand that these mountains represent the unknown aspects of our own minds. Meditation is a process of discovery, of slowly exploring how you function as a human being. Through walking in the vastness of this land, you can resolve the problems of your psyche and seek the treasures buried in your soul. Like actual mountain exploration, this process is not without danger. Failure means falling into insanity and obsession. Success is to find treasures without comparison anywhere in the world.
People ask, “Is meditation necessary?” If you want to explore the innermost parts of your mind and ascertain who you really are, there is no more ideal method. Mere introspection is not deep enough, and psychological counseling will not necessarily bring you face to face with all parts of yourself. Only the depth and solitude of meditation can help you learn everything. Discoveries are there. We need only enter the mind to find them.
Daily Zen
March 13
I found my way up
Yoshino’s precipice-hung
Path and into its
Past, seeing there the blossoms
I sought that spring ages ago.
—Saigyo (1118-1190)