Daily Reflections
June 14
WHEN THE GOING GETS ROUGH
It is a design for living that works in rough going.
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 15
When I came to A. A., I realized that A. A. worked wonderfully to help keep me sober. But could it work on real life problems, not concerned with drinking? I had my doubts. After being sober for more than two years I got my answer. I lost my job, developed physical problems, my diabetic father lost a leg, and someone I loved left me for another – and all of this happened during a two-week period. Reality crashed in, yet A. A. was there to support, comfort, and strengthen me. The principles I had learned during my early days of sobriety became a mainstay of my life for not only did I come through, but I never stopped being able to help newcomers. A. A. taught me not to be overwhelmed, but rather to accept and understand my life as it unfolded.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
June 14
A. A. Thought for the Day
In A. A. we have to learn that drink is our greatest enemy. Although we used to think that liquor was our friend, the time came when it turned against us and became our enemy. We don’t know just when this happened, but we know that it did because we began to get into trouble – jails and hospitals. We realize now that liquor is our enemy. Is it still my main business to keep sober?
Meditation for the Day
It is not your circumstances that need altering so much as yourself. After you have changed, conditions will naturally change. Spare no effort to become all that God would have you become. Follow every good leading of your conscience. Take each day with no backward look. Face the day’s problems with God, and seek God’s help and guidance as to what you should do in every situation that may arise. Never look back. Never leave until tomorrow the thing that you are guided to do today.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that God will help me to become all that He would have me be. I pray that I may face today’s problem as with good grace.
Walk in Dry Places
June 14
True Satisfaction
Contentment
True satisfaction never comes from feeding addition. Nothing is ever enough. The only possible outcomes for those who do not seek recovery from their additions will be complete breakdown and untimely death.
St. Augustine explained why it’s impossible for humans to find true satisfaction in pursuing pleasure.” Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they repose in thee,” he wrote, with reference to the Divine.
As we come to understand that true satisfaction comes from the Spirit, we will, surprisingly, receive more satisfaction from the worldly things we use. We will begin to look upon our possessions for the service they give rather than as things that should make us happy. A new car should give us comfortable satisfactory transportation, but it cannot give us peace and true self-esteem. New clothes can please us, but they will not do anything for our spiritual depression.
Why didn’t we know this all along? Probably because we falsely believed that certain possessions would bring fulfillment. They can’t do that, but when we are thinking right, our appreciation of everything should increase.
I’ll not expect true satisfaction in this world, although I’ll get more out of it if I put things in right order.
Keep It Simple
June 14
Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.
—unknown
Time always seems to pass too slowly or too quickly for us. . We want the fun times to last longer. We want the boring or painful times to go faster. But times goes at just the right pace. Any faster, and we wouldn’t have enough time to learn as we go. Any slower, and we’d lose interest. In our program, we learn to respect the pace of time. We let go, and we let time go at it’s own pace. We call this patience.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for patience. Help me look forward to the future without rushing. Help me live fully in the here and now. Help me make today a good one by doing Your will.
Action for the Day: I’ll list five ways I can use time to be more healthy—in body, mind and spirit. Which of these five things can I do today?
The memories of tomorrow depend on your attitude today.
–Dave Weinbaum
“Make sure the thing you’re living for is worth dying for.”
–Charles Mayes
“I have a special purpose!”
–Steve Martin
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
–Joseph Campbell
Injure others, injure yourself.
–Chinese Proverb
“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”
–Helen Keller
“I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline… I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious.”
–Vince Lombardi
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
June 14
LIFE
“To be free is to have achieved your life.”
–Tennessee Williams
Yesterday’s tapes: I need a drink. I can’t exist without a fix. How will I get through the morning without taking something? Do people see me shake? Are people watching me? Where can I get money? The prison of addiction!
Today I am free because I took courage and asked for help. Today I am free because I still ask for help. Today I have learned to say “no” to the first drink and life is more comfortable and less painful.
Freedom is a precious spiritual gift that I work for on a daily basis. God is involved – but so am I. The freedom from alcoholism is only guaranteed by the creative choices I make and in the choice is the freedom.
God, my memory is the key to today’s freedom; may I continue to remember.
Daily Inspiration
June 14
To be successful in the projects you undertake today, you must believe in yourself and your abilities even if you are walking on new ground. Lord, guide me in my endeavors and open my mind to new solutions if things aren’t going as I have planned.
The smallest kindness is worth more than the greatest intention. Lord, help me not to overlook the opportunities that I have to enrich the lives of others or think I am too busy to reach out with a word or even a smile.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day – June 14
“The basis of knowledge is the fire, rock, water, and green. But when that power was given to man, he used it to twist his own mind. Tunkashila gave man just one drop of that wisdom.”
–Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA
All of Nature has the wisdom to follow the Natural Laws. All of Nature knows how to live in harmony and use this wisdom in a good way, with exception of the human being. Often we misuse this wisdom. Wisdom always remains with those who use it in the proper way. Nature has used this wisdom well, so now we need to go to Her so we humans can relearn and change our lives. May we start doing this today, before it is too late.
Creator, let me be open to the lessons that Nature can teach me.
Today’s Gift
June 14
Fear not that life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.
–J. H. Newman
Our fears lock us up if we let them. They can prevent us from tasting adventure, from experiencing new wonders. We are often terrified of unknowns and fret about what might happen if we try something new. We worry if new people will like us – if we’ll fit in.
It is natural to be cautious about the unknown, and anything new is just that. But we can keep our caution from becoming fear by taking action, with the faith that we never encounter anything we can’t handle in some way.
Unknowns are merely joys we haven’t met. We hold the keys to our own cages and can free ourselves when we use our courage and inner strength to overcome our fears.
What new joy can I discover beneath my fear today?
Touchstones
Meditations for Men
June 14
The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.
—Max Lerner
When we consider all of the troubles and crises in our lives and all of the scrapes we’ve gotten into, we might feel overwhelmed. With what we have gone through, it seems miraculous for many of us to be here today. When we stop feeling sorry for ourselves and when we stop complaining about the unfairness of it all, we may get a new insight: “I have survived!”
We see the strength and persistence, which brought us through the toughest times we have known. Even when some of us did not know it, we were being carried along by our Higher Power. We can draw strength from that knowledge. We can remind ourselves today that, knowing what we have lived through with the help of our Higher Power, we can deal with anything to come.
I am grateful to my Higher Power for help in surviving the hard times in life.
Daily TAO
June 14
Master
Deception occurs when you are divided,
Truth appears when you are whole.
Uniting male and female brings illumination,
The real master is perfect light.
No one is ineligible to know higher truth. When concentration, energy, and thinking are scattered, we cannot break out of ignorance. The diversity and contradictions of existence confuse us, and appearances deceive us.
Do we need a master to help us in this struggle to know the truth? In the beginning we do. What is not often said is that the human master is but a temporary and imperfect manifestation of the ultimate truth. Without a master, you cannot make a beginning. If you never look beyond the person, you will never attain the entirety. A good master leads you to the true master within. Only that master, who is your own higher self, can adequately answer all questions.
Once you unite all elements within yourself, metaphorically referred to as the uniting of male and female, the light that dispels darkness appears. Just as all colored light together make colorless light, so too does the combination of all our facets result in the integration of our polarities. When this happens, you will “see” a light in your meditations. This light brings knowledge. That is why it is called the true master.