Daily Reflections
September 8
“WE ASKED HIS PROTECTION”
WE ASKED HIS PROTECTION AND CARE WITH COMPLETE ABANDON.
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 59
I could not manage life alone. I had tried that road and failed. My “ultimate sin” dragged me down to the lowest level I have ever reached and, unable even to function, I accepted the fact that I desperately needed help. I stopped fighting and surrendered entirely to God. Only then did I start growing! God forgave me. A Higher Power had to have saved me, because the doctors doubted that I would survive. I have forgiven myself now and I enjoy a freedom I have never before experienced. I’ve opened my heart and mind to Him. The more I learn, the less I know – a humbling fact – but I sincerely want to keep growing. I enjoy serenity, but only when I entrust my life totally to God. As long as I am honest with myself and ask for His help, I can maintain this rewarding existence. Just for today, I strive to live His will for me – soberly. I thank God that today I can choose not to drink. Today, life is beautiful!
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
September 8
A.A. Thought For The Day
Another of the mottoes of A.A. is “But for the Grace of God.” Once we have fully accepted the program we become humble about our achievement. We do not take too much credit for our sobriety. When we see another suffering alcoholic in the throes of alcoholism, we say to ourselves: “But for the Grace of God, there go I.” We do not forget the kind of people we were. We remember those we left behind us. And we are very grateful to the grace of God which has given us another chance. Am I truly grateful for the grace of God?
Meditation For The Day
A consciousness of God’s presence, as One who loves you makes all life different. The consciousness of God’s love promotes the opening of your whole being to God. It brings wonderful relief from the cares and worries of our daily lives. Relief brings peace and peace brings contentment. Try to walk in God’s love. You will have that peace which passes all understanding and a contentment that no one can take from you. Feel sure of God’s unfailing love and care for you and for all His children. There is freedom and serenity in those who walk in God’s love, held safe in His loving care.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may walk in God’s love, I pray that, as I go, I may feel the caring of God’s power in my steps and the joy of His love in my heart.
Walk In Dry Places
September 8
Admitting a Wrong
Inventory.
It is all but impossible for some people to make the simple admission, I was wrong. We might have a problem with such admissions because we tend to believe that they place us at a disadvantage.
The reality is that the sooner we can admit a wrong, the more rapidly it can be corrected and put behind us. The refusal to admit a wrong, the more rapidly it can be corrected and put behind us. The refusal to admit a wrong means making more of the same mistakes, thus bringing further harm to ourselves and others.
We may have trouble admitting a wrong because we once faced excessive punishments when we were found wrong. We can find our true course by realizing that admission of our wrongs is the route to well-being and improvement.
I’ll continue to take every opportunity to learn when I might be wrong, thus helping to avoid such mistakes in the future.
Keep It Simple
September 8
Some days the world just doesn’t seem safe. Maybe a friend died and your are hurting.
Maybe you argued with a loved one. You just want somebody to take care of you. You want to feel safe and warm.
Turn to the spiritual part of the program. Let your Higher Power hold you with warm, loving care. Pray. Pray to feel the programs will find you. Why? Because you’ve opened your heart to recovery. To be loved, you have to open up to love.
Prayer for the Day: I pray for an open heart. I pray that love of the program will find me and comfort me. Higher Power, I need Your love as a child needs the love of parents.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list three times the world has felt unsafe. I’ll meditate on how things would have been different if I had turned to my Higher Power for comfort.
Xtra Thoughts
September 8
The world has a way of giving what is demanded of it. If you are frightened and look for failure and poverty, you will get them, no matter how hard you may try to succeed. Lack of faith in yourself, in what life will do for you, cuts you off from the good things of the world. Expect victory and you make victory.
–Preston BradleyToday is a day of opportunities. I am open and ready to find them all, knowing that I am receiving all the guidance I need to be forward and be happy.
–Ruth FishelToday, I will remind myself as often as necessary that I am not a victim, and I do not need to be victimized by whatever comes my way. I will work hard to remove myself as a victim, whether that means setting and enforcing a boundary, walking away, dealing with my feelings, or giving myself what I need. God, help me let go of my need to feel victimized.
–Melody Beattie“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.”
–H. Jackson Brown Jr.None of us has the power to make someone else love us. But we all have the power to give away love, to love other people. And if we do so, we change the kind of person we are, and we change the kind of world we live in.
–Rabbi Harold Kushner, in Handbook for the HeartWisdom cannot be taught. It can only be learned.
–Source UnknownYou cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.
–Wayne Dyer
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
September 8
LIES
“A LIAR NEEDS A GOOD MEMORY.”
– QUINTILIAN
I lied to impress. I lied to hide my guilt and shame. I lied to cover my mistakes. I lied to bridge the silence. I lied to fantasize. I lied to hurt and destroy. I lied to hide the real me. Then I lied to cover the lies. Then I lied to cover the lies I told to cover the original lies! So it went on. Endless. Exhausting. Meaningless. A part of me always loathed the lies I told. Then I grew to hate myself.
Today, because I understand spirituality to be based on truth, I try not to tell lies. When I do lie, I make an effort to correct myself and apologize. Today lying is painful for me. Today I try to use my mind, imagination and memory for better things.
O God, who gave mankind the miracle of language and communication, let me not abuse Your gift with destructive deceit.
A Day At A Time
September 8
Reflection For The Day
We are told in The Program that no situation is hopeless. At first, of course, we find this hard to believe. The opposites — hope and despair — are human emotional attitudes. It is we who are hopeless, not the condition of our lives. When we give up hope and become depressed, it’s because we’re unable, for now, to believe in the possibility of a change for the better. Can I accept this: “not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced…”?
Today I Pray
May I remember that, because I am human and can make choices, I am never “hopeless.” Only the situation I find myself in may seem hopeless, which may reduce me to a state of helpless depression as I see my choices being blocked off. May I remember, too, that even when I see no solution, I can choose to ask God’s help.
Today I Will Remember
I can choose not to be hopeless.
One More Day
September 8
EVERY GREAT MISTAKE HAS A HALFWAY MOMENT, A SPLIT SECOND WHEN IT CAN BE RECALLED AND PERHAPS REMEDIED.
– PEARL S. BUCK
We’ve all made decisions we’ve regretted. Regret doesn’t change things, but we can learn to make better decisions in the future. Often there are moments in our decision-making process — especially in relationships — when we can still change our minds. At those times, we can reconsider what we want to say or do. is it important enough to jeopardize a friendship? Sometimes it is, and that can’t be helped.
But usually we discover we do want to preserve the relationship. We owe it to ourselves and our friends to look again, to think again, about what is being discussed or argued or decided. Sometimes, winning or being right isn’t as important as the relationship.
I will take time to decide what is important and what isn’t.
One Day At A Time
September 8
DREAMS
“YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE A DREAM IN ORDER TO MAKE A DREAM COME TRUE.”
-OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
Since first hearing this saying many years ago, I have come to believe in it. I have always had the dream of being happy, healthy, helpful and whole, but it wasn’t until I found this program (or it found me) that I am learning I can have all of these things. Through the program I am being shown a way to achieve them.
When I first joined the program, I just wanted to lose weight. But as I continue to understand and learn about the program, my dream is slowly coming true. It’s a slow path for me right now, but as long as I keep the dream alive in my mind, heart and soul, I know I’ll be able to accomplish it one day at a time!
One day at a time …
I ask my Higher Power to keep me on the right path toward my dream of being happy, healthy, helpful and whole. And right now, in this moment, I am grateful for my dream and for the opportunity to fulfill it.
~ Lorraine
Journey To The Heart
September 8
Get Out from Under the Gun
How often in life, in the busy world around us, we begin to feel as though we’re “under the gun.” Daily pressures can mount until our body feels as though someone is actually pointing a gun at us saying. Hurry. Finish. Do this or else. That feeling is not conducive to joy, creativity, or doing our best. That attitude creates stress, sometimes unbearable stress.
Some of us have lived under the gun so long we’re not even aware of it. But our bodies are. We feel tense, stressed, frightened, on edge. Many of us have felt that way so long we’ve gotten used to it. That’s just how it is, we say with resignation.
But that’s not how it needs to be. Gently take the gun away from whoever is pointing it at you. Lay it on the table. Tell that person the task will get done, the situation will come about much better, much more creatively, much more timely without the gun. Most importantly, tell yourself that,too.
Acknowledge commitments. Acknowledge the necessity of timely accomplishments of tasks. Then acknowledge the way and wisdom of the heart with joy. It will see you through to get everything done, and you won’t have to be under the gun.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
September 8
“KEEP YOUR LIFE SIMPLE BECAUSE THE MORE YOU GET, THE MORE COMPLICATED IT BECOMES.”
–JOE COYHIS, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
The old ones say, lead a simple life. The society we live in is all about getting more houses, cars, luxury and credit cards. The law of worry says, the more you have, the more you need to worry. You get a house, then you need insurance, then you need to take care of the yard and the list goes on. Next, you may want a bigger house with a bigger yard which costs more in insurance. Along with the accumulation of materialism, are other “gifts.” Soon you become a slave and the materialism owns you. Lead a simple life and have peace of mind. Lead a simple life and be spiritual.
Creator, let my foundation be spiritual and simple.
Today’s Gift
September 8
ONE MUST LOSE ONE’S LIFE IN ORDER TO FIND IT.
—ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH
We are often so busy trying to control the outcome of the happenings in our daily lives, so intent on projecting our tomorrows that we let life slip by. Life is today. This is all we have for sure – the moments in our lives we cannot hold. Sometimes it feels as if those moments are beyond time and place, gifts from God to receive and give up at the same time. Like a dragonfly that lights on our hand and will either be crushed or will fly away if we try to close our fingers over it.
Life is a series of things to let go of – our friends and loved ones, our children as they grow, our dreams, or our youth. Only we ourselves, our inner selves, are a constant to be found and learned about every day, in the present moment.
How well can I enjoy each moment today?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
September 8
IT’S HARD FOR ME TO KEEP MY EMOTIONS INSIDE. I WANT TO EXPRESS THEM NOW. THAT’S WHAT A TEAM IS ALL ABOUT.
—EARVIN “MAGIC” JOHNSON
We become part of a team in this program. That’s why all the Steps are written with the word we rather than I. We cannot fully surrender to renewal simply by reading about it, hearing about it, or thinking about it. We become participants, members, and peers. We go to meetings and express the details of our lives, and we learn from the stories of others. In our relationships we learn to let our emotions out.
When we say, “He’s hard to get to know,” we are talking about someone who doesn’t show feelings. Team members express their feelings to build a bond between themselves and gain a familiarity with each other. A man may say, “I’m the sort of guy who doesn’t do well in groups,” or “I’m not the type to express my feelings.” But for the sake of recovery, we must endure the awkwardness of learning new things. On this recovery team it is all right to come just the way we are, awkwardness and all.
Today, I will not hold back my emotions. I will let people know me.
Daily TAO
September 8
VITALITY
Snail, tiny spiral in calcified membrane;
Inchworm, a hairpin dragon;
Bumblebee, blob of velvet black and yellow;
White butterfly, syncopated burst of gladness;
Naked bulbs, white pubic tentacles in crumbling soil;
Pears, children of earth and sun.
If you ever doubt life, you need only spend a little time tending a garden. You will see great diversity. Everywhere that you look there will be some dynamic event in progress. Perhaps it’s the way a lotus sprouts up from the rot and mud, or the way that an earthworm dances a writhing passage through the dirt. The smell of moist earth is strangely stirring, the sight of growing trees wonderfully appealing.
No matter how well tended a garden is, there is constant entropy and disorder. That is fine. That is the way it is supposed to be. Our schemes and our aesthetics are imperfect. Our minds cannot comprehend the diversity of nature. Let nature take its variegated course. Variety is vitality.
Daily Zen
September 8
From a memorial stone 828
Someone asked Pomil, “What is the intention of the Patriarchs?” Pomil answered, “It has not been lost for six generations.” Someone else asked, “What is it that a novice should strive for?” Pomil replied, “You should not follow the steps of the Buddha, nor should you try to enlighten yourself by the dint of man.”
Although we know that a frozen pond is entirely water, the sun’s heat is necessary to melt it. Although we awaken to the fact that an ordinary person is Buddha, the power of dharma is necessary to make it permeate our cultivation. When that pond has melted, the water flows freely and can be used for irrigation and cleaning. When falsity is extinguished, the mind will be numinous and dynamic and then its function of penetrating brightness will manifest.
– Chinul