Daily Reflections
April 22
NEW SOIL … NEW ROOTS
Moments of perception can build into a lifetime of spiritual serenity, as I have excellent reason to know. Roots of reality, supplanting the neurotic underbrush, will hold fast despite the high winds of the forces which would destroy us, or which we would use to destroy ourselves.
–AS BILL SEES IT, p. 173
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 22
A.A. Thought for the Day
People believe in A.A. when they see it work. An actual demonstration is what convinces them. What they read in books, what they hear people say doesn’t always convince them. But when they see a real honest-to-goodness change take place in a person, a change from a drunkard to a sober, useful citizen, that’s something they can believe because they can see it. There’s really only one thing that proves to me that A.A. works. Have I seen the change in people who come into A.A.?
Meditation for the Day
Divine control and unquestioning obedience to God are the only conditions necessary for a spiritual life. Divine control means absolute faith and trust in God, a belief that God is the Divine Principle in the universe and that He is the intelligence and the Love that controls the universe. Unquestioning obedience to God means living each day the way you believe God wants you to live, constantly seeking the guidance of God in every situation and being willing to do the right thing at all times.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may always be under Divine Control and always practice unquestioning obedience to God. I pray that I may be always ready to serve Him.
Walk in Dry Places
April 22
Faking it, and then making it.
Finding the Spirit of the Thing.
We’re sometimes advised to “fake it until you make it.” But how can anything false really lead us to recovery? Aren’t we told that this is an honest program?
We’re not being dishonest by pushing ourselves to become actively involved in AA. The self-help movements have told us for years that we have to form an image of what we want to be in order to reach our goals. We are forming an image that corresponds to the sober people we want to be. We are actually rehearsing sober living and working to accept a picture of sobriety in our heart of hearts.
There’s also much to be said for “faking it” enough to attend meetings and try to benefit from association with people… even those we don’t like. This puts us in line for the change we really need.
A lot of members say that they “white-knuckled it” during the first months or years of sobriety. If this worked to bring recovery, it had to be the right approach.
Even if there is rebellion within, today I’ll talk and act like the sober person I want to be.
Keep It Simple
April 22
One meets his destiny often on the road one takes to avoid it.
–French proverb
None of us, perhaps, ever thought we’d end up in recovery. But we were working at joining recovery years before we got here! Maybe recovery was our fate from the day we first took a drink or a pill. Others around us could see the writing on the wall, but we couldn’t. We were to busy trying to avoid the pain. Alcoholism and other drug abuse have to do with us trying to find spiritual wholeness– the kind of spiritual wholeness we’re finding now in recovery. So, let’s welcome recovery into our lives. We have found our spiritual home.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I got lost because I acted like I knew the way to a good life. You lead the way. Thank-you for putting me on the right track.
Action for the Day:Today, I’ll think about why it’s my fate to be in recovery. I will list ways that I try to avoid my fate.
“Spiritual growth results from absorbing and digesting truth and putting it to practice in daily life.”
–White Eagle
There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.
–John Andrew Holmes
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
–Carl Sandburg
From that place of stillness, the right action will emerge, and you will find your next step. From that place of stillness, you can move into the present moment. There you will find your power, and there you will find God.
–Melody Beattie
You don’t have to wait for Christmas to give gifts of love and joy. Give that love to others and yourself. Give it often. Give it freely. Give it all year round.
–Melody Beattie
When we listen, God speaks and guides.
–Paul K. McAfee
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 22
MUSIC
“I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality.”
–H. A. Overstreet
A language for the world is music. It unites all peoples, cultures, religions and backgrounds; it points man beyond himself, while at the same time breathing through him God’s glory. Music makes man wonder, enables him to dream, allows him to rest in the miracle of creativity.
Drugs stopped me from appreciating the gift of music. They twisted and corrupted sounds and made them destructive and coarse. Drugs took from me so much and left me with a feeling of utter emptiness.
In my recovery I can hear again. My spiritual program incorporates music, different types of music, the inexhaustible joys of melody. I can feel in it, through it, with it – another miracle.
Thank You for the gift of music that enables me to grow in my understanding of self and my need of others.
Daily Inspiration
April 22
When you feel the need to tell someone how bad your day has been, tell them how good it’s been instead. Lord, help me to highlight the parts of my day that will bring me to a peaceful and joyful place.
There is always a reason why people act as they do. Lord, help me to be more patient and understanding.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 22
“Each creature has a medicine, so there are many medicines. Because they are so close to the Creator, they are to communicate that medicine. Then they bring help and health.”
–Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA
The Elders say everything has a purpose and everything has a will. We should never interfere with purpose or the will of everything. Every plant, creature, animal, insect, human being has a purpose to be here on the Earth. Each has a special medicine to contribute for the good of all things. Each person also has good medicine, a special talent, a special gift. These medicines are to help others or to help make us healthy. What is your special medicine?
Creator, today, help me discover and use my medicine to serve a greater good.
Today’s Gift
April 22
I meant to do my work today but a brown bird sang in an apple tree, And a butterfly flitted across the field, And all the leaves were calling me.
—Richard LeGallienne
The harried hen scurried about her house, trying to put it in order. Some friends she hadn’t seen for years were due to arrive later that day, and she wanted everything perfect for them. In a flurry, she made the bed, put away the dishes, and scrubbed the floor. Oh dear, she thought in dismay, I meant to wash the sheets today. Frantically, she flew back to the bedroom and tore the sheets from the made bed.
Just then, a neighbor arrived and stood at hen’s door, watching her anxiously rush about. “Dear hen,” he said in a patient loving tone, for he was quite fond of her, “You will never enjoy your visit if you continue to race about. Come. Sit and rest and tell me of these friends. Have you any snapshots?” The hen did as her neighbor had suggested, and soon her friends arrived to find her relaxed, refreshed, and warm with the memories of them.
What is my real work for the Day?
Touchstones
Meditations for Men
April 22
The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are often mean and little.
—Jonathan Swift
Our lives are like streams which flow through time. Looking at the flow of our whole lives, we see the interconnections of many days that seemed minor. Each day contributes to the stream of goals and faith and relationships. As we look at the flow of a whole river, we see at its beginning a little trickle of water here, joining another trickle there, slowly gathering together a stream that develops force and direction.
We may look for intensity in our lives and ignore the quiet. Much of our lives may have been lived on a roller coaster of major crises. As terrible as it seemed, it was not dull. Today may seem rather boring. But in recovery we learn to appreciate the more subtle trickle that a good day can be. Simply continuing with the flow – of our program, of faithfulness to our values, of being emotionally present in our relationships – adds up to a rich life.
May I see the continuity of my life in the simple moments of this day.
Daily TAO
April 22
NON-ANTICIPATION
Put forth your effort
With no thought of gain.
One should not pray or meditate with any thought of gain. Hold no expectations. Then the rewards will come. If one strives for power and gifts, no true results will come, and one will become lost in lust. Praying for results brings no results — the true spirit appears only when there are no expectations to hamper it.
Books and teachings talk of the results of meditation because they prepare the aspirant for the experiences that will occur. It is important not to look on these writings as advertisements. They are merely descriptions of what you will encounter.
Sit down with no thought of results and you will go naturally and spontaneously with Tao. It is admittedly a paradox. We are to know what to expect, and yet we should allow them to appear as they will. It seems irrational and inefficient. Yet if you would know Tao, there is no faster way to enter the midstream.
Daily Zen
April 22
The temple is in the green bamboo:
Its evening bells are small and distant
Your pilgrim’s hat catches
The slanting sunbeams far off
And alone in the blue green mountains
– Liu Chang-ch’ing