Daily Reflections
April 15
THE BONDAGE OF RESENTMENTS
… harboring resentment is infinitely grave. For then we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit.
–AS BILL SEES IT, p. 5
It has been said, “Anger is a luxury I cannot afford.” Does this suggest I ignore this human emotion? I believe not. Before I learned of the A.A. program, I was a slave to the behavior patterns of alcoholism. I was chained to negativity, with no hope of cutting loose.
The Steps offered me an alternative. Step Four was the beginning of the end of my bondage. The process of “letting go” started with an inventory. I needed not be frightened, for the previous Steps assured me I was not alone. My Higher Power led me to this door and gave me the gift of choice. Today I can choose to open the door to freedom and rejoice in the sunlight of the Steps, as they cleanse the spirit within me.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 15
A.A. Thought for the Day
Terrible things could have happened to any one of us. We never will know what might have happened to us when we were drunk. We usually thought: “That couldn’t happen to me.” But any one of us could have killed somebody or have been killed ourselves, if we were drunk enough. But fear of these things never kept us from drinking. Do I believe that in A.A. we have something more effective than fear?
Meditation for the Day
I must keep calm and unmoved in the vicissitudes of life. I must go back into the silence of communion with God to recover this calm when it is lost even for one moment. I will accomplish more by this calmness than by all the activities of a long day. At all cost I will keep calm. I can solve nothing when I am agitated. I should keep away from things that are upsetting emotionally. I should run on an even keel and not get tipped over by emotional upsets. I should seek for things that are calm and good and true and stick to those things.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not argue nor contend, but merely state calmly what I believe to be true. I pray that I may keep myself in that state of calmness that comes from faith in God’s purpose for the world.
Walk in Dry Places
April 15
When Things are Not
humanly possible.
Facing Difficulties
We’re reminded again and again that “No human power could have relieved our alcoholism.” Whatever it is that keeps us sober must come from a Higher Power … God as we understand Him.
This fact about our alcoholism also has broader application to the general conditions of life. There’s an almost endless list of conditions that are not humanly possible to change. Some of these conditions apply only to us; others, such as war and disease, cruelly afflict all of humankind. Looking at this sorry picture, many of us wish we had the power to apply Twelve Step principles to all human problems.
While we don’t have such power at the moment, we do have the power to take a spiritual view of all seemingly hopeless conditions. This includes trying to do whatever we can about any problem, while recognizing that the real solution must eventually come from a Higher Power. We must never lose hope that God will cork with us and through us to create a better world. In a small way, we can help by sharing what happened to us in our recovery from alcoholism. No human power could have relieved our alcoholism, but God could and did.
Though I live and work with people who may be frightened and cynical, I’ll hold to the idea that a Higher Power is working ceaselessly to improve the human condition in general. There is no reason why the miraculous healing power that relieved my alcoholism should not apply to other problems in my life.
Keep It Simple
April 15
That day is lost on
which one has not laughed.
–French proverb
For a long time, we didn’t really laugh. It’s surprising when we think about it: We hadn’t really laughed for so long . . . we almost forgot how good we could feel. It feels so good to laugh again!
Now our spirits come more alive each day. Now we feel what alcohol and other drugs stuffed deep inside us. Pain, fear and anger come up. But so do happiness and joy, thankfulness and a sense of humor. In early recovery, we work through the hard feelings. As we grow in the program, we have more and more room for happiness.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, wake me up to the joy and laughter that today holds for me. Don’t let me miss it!
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll spread some laughter. I will learn a joke and tell it to three people.
To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own.
–Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Listen to your feelings. They tell you when you need to take care of yourself, like finding a friend if you feel lonely, crying if you feel sad, singing and smiling if you feel happy, and acting frisky if you feel good.
–Pat Palmer
“The spiritual journey, the path of recovery and personal growth, is a detoxification process in which we bring up and out the negative beliefs we have carried with us from the past and that now poison the present.”
–Marianne Williamson
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.”
–Art Linkletter
“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.”
–Raymond Hull
“God doesn’t play dice.”
–Albert Einstein
God always leads us toward life.
–Gracie M. Willingham
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 15
SOLITUDE
“People who take time to be alone usually have depth, originality and quiet reserve.”
–John Miller
I need to be alone. I need time to listen to my thoughts, consider my opinions and strengthen my body. I need to pull away from my hectic life to be alone with me.
As a drinking alcoholic I hated to be alone. I became paranoiac about “leaving the fort” – today I accept that nobody is indispensable, and that the world will still be there when I return from the desert!
Today I grow in the stillness of solitude. I can rest in that “still” part of me that is the essential me.
God is very close to me in the silence of self.
Lord, in the stillness of Your life, I am healed and rejuvenated.
Daily Inspiration
April 15
Never give up on yourself because God never gives up on you. Lord, You forgive me. Who am I not to forgive myself, too?
God is always doing new things in our lives. Lord, help me to close the door to my past and take the time to notice and enjoy the newness I am experiencing right now.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 15
“When people live far from the scenes of the Great Spirit’s making, it’s easy for them to forget his laws.”
–Walking Buffalo, STONEY
Society today is way off track. Unfortunately, many Indian people are caught up in these modern times. The Elders are telling us we must wake up! We must come back to the culture because this is where His laws are. If we don’t follow these laws, we will be unhappy. We cannot do things just because everybody is doing them. This does not make it right. We must follow what the Great Spirit says we must do. We need to pray hard for the courage to come back and live according to the culture. It will be difficult at first but worth it in the end. We must teach our children the culture.
Great Spirit, today, let me listen to the warnings of the Elders.
Today’s Gift
April 15
If I have freedom in my life, And in my soul am free, Angels alone that soar above Enjoy such liberty.
—Richard Lovelace
When a cow decides to stop nursing her calf, she isn’t rejecting it. She knows it’s time for the calf to be on its own. Although the calf might feel rejected and puzzled at first, it soon adapts to its new independence and freedom.
When we feel rejected, it’s useful to remember that whatever has caused us to feel this way might have nothing to do with us. It might be a reflection of what’s happening with someone else, or just the end of a natural stage in life, as with the calf.
When we understand that others’ actions toward us come from their own feelings, and that we don’t cause their feelings any more than they control ours, we can free ourselves from a little bit of fear and self-hate. We can see what seems to be rejection as an open door, with our freedom on the other side.
What rejections have set me free?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 15
Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart – it’s all a man has.
—Hubert Humphrey
Some of us have doubted our inner voice so completely that we abandoned it totally. Many of us have discovered in recovery that by our denial we had violated our inner voice with lies, even to ourselves. Now we question whether we can trust our instincts, and we may not know what we feel.
Masculine spiritual recovery is a return to our guts and our heart. Standing up and speaking from our hearts may be difficult at times, but our self-respect rises as we do. That is where we go for our final decision-making. We develop better reception for the inner voice as we live this program. We accept that we are never absolutely right. We continue with humility, knowing we may be wrong and listening to others and our Higher Power. Yet we must live with our choices.
I will seek the courage to be faithful to my own instincts.
Daily TAO
April 15
COMPASSION
The true god has no face. The true Tao has no name. But we cannot identify with that until we are of a very high level of insight. Until then, the gods with faces and the Tao with names are still more worthy of veneration and study than the illusions of the world.
With long and sincere training, it is possible to see the face of god. Holiness is not about scientific objectivity. It is about a deep and clear recognition of the true nature of life. Your attitude toward your god will be different than anyone else’s god — divinity is a reflection of your own understanding. If you experience differs from others, that does not invalidate your sense of godliness. You will have no doubts after you have seen.
Knowing god is the source of compassion in our lives. We realize that our separation from others is artificial. We are neither separate from other people nor from Tao. It is only our own egotism that leads us to define ourselves as individuals. In fact, a direct experience of god is a direct experience of the utter universality of life. If we allow it to change our way of thinking, we will understand our essential oneness with all things.
How does god look? Once you see god, you will see that same face on every person you meet.
Daily Zen
April 15
Of all good works, zazen comes first, for the merit of only one step into it surpasses that of erecting a thousand temples. Even a moment of sitting will enable you to free yourself from life and death, and your Buddha nature will appear of itself. Then all you do, perceive, think becomes part of the miraculous Tathagata-suchness.
– Meiho (1277–1350)