Daily Reflections
September 11
MAKING AMENDS
Above all, we should try to be absolutely sure that we are not delaying because we are afraid.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 87
To have courage, to be unafraid, are gifts of my recovery. They empower me to ask for help and to go forth in making my amends with a sense of dignity and humility. Making amends may require a certain amount of honesty that I feel I lack, yet with the help of God and the wisdom of others, I can reach within and find the strength to act. My amends may be accepted, or they may not, but after they are completed I can walk with a sense of freedom and know that, for today, I am responsible.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
September 11
A.A. Thought For The Day
Continuing the answers to the question of how a person can live without liquor and be happy, we say: “You will be bound to the other A.A.s with new and wonderful ties, for you and they will escape disaster together and all will commence shoulder to shoulder the common journey to a better and more satisfactory life. You will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You will become happy, respected, and useful once more. Since these things have happened to us, they can happen to you.” Have these things happened to me?
Meditation For The Day
God manifests Himself in human lives as strength to overcome evil and power to resist temptation. The grace of God is that power which enables a human being to change from a useless, hopeless individual to a useful, normal person. God also manifests Himself as love–love for other people, compassion for their problems, and a real willingness to help them. The grace of God also manifests itself as peace of mind and serenity of character. We can have plenty of power, love, and serenity in our lives if we are willing to ask God for these things each day.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may see God’s grace in the strength I receive, the love I know, and the peace I have. I pray that I may be grateful for the things I have received through the grace of God.
Walk In Dry Places
September 11
With Whom are we Honest?
Honesty
“When you’re up before a judge, you can’t be honest with the court,” an AA member said, with some regret. “If you are, the judge will throw the book at you.”
This member was right in the sense that court-room disclosures must always be made with prudence. What’s more important is that we are always completely honest with ourselves and the close friends who serve as our sponsors. As for what is disclosed in a court situation, for example, we follow sound professional advice. Under no circumstances, of course, should we tell an outright lie, however.
Our practice of honesty also does not require us to tell every person we know about our alcoholism. We are entitled to our privacy as well as anonymity. Others, in turn, need not be burdened with complete knowledge about our lives.
Our Higher Power will guide us along honest paths once we’re committed to the program. We will know when and how to make the right disclosures about ourselves.
I’ll practice rigorous honest today. At the same time, I will be prudent in the way I disclose personal information.
Keep It Simple
September 11
This above all: To thine own self be true.
—William Shakespeare
What does this saying mean: “To thine own self be true”? Hadn’t we thought only of ourselves before recovery? The answer is no. That wasn’t the real us. Each of us lost touch with our real self because of our addiction. We lost our goals, our feelings, our values. We chased the high. In this way, we lost our spirit. We became addicts.
With sobriety, we find ourselves again—and it feels great! We stop playing a role and become ourselves—and it’s wonderful. We follow our dreams and beliefs, not some addictive wild goose chase. We are again free to be ourselves. Thank you. Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Today, I pray to be myself, to know all of me. I can trust myself because my spirit is good.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll pray: “thine own self be true.”
Few is the number of those who think with their own mind and feel with their own heart.
–Albert Einstein
“I think everybody has to experience a certain amount of pain on the way to maturity.”
–Ruth Casey
“The great mind knows the power of gentleness.”
–Robert Browning
God is guiding me in all my thoughts and plans and actions. I have given up all my struggling and self-defeating messages and have turned over all my thoughts to the power and energy of goodness and love.
–Ruth Fishel
Today, I will not run from myself, my circumstances, or feelings. I will be open to myself, others, my Higher Power, and life. I will trust that by facing today to the best of my ability, I will acquire the skills I need to face tomorrow.
–Melody Beattie
We do not possess our home, our children, or even our own body. They are only given to us for a short while to treat with care and respect.
–Jack Kornfield
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
September 11
THOUGHT
“To be able to be caught up in a world of thought — that is being educated.”
– Edith Hamilton
For years I didn’t think I reacted. Things happened and I felt I had to respond — but rarely was it a considered response. I had no program for my life. I was like a boat without a sail.
Today I think before I speak. I talk things over with a sponsor or friends before I make an important decision. I listen to the opinions of others before I make a choice. Today I am caught up in a world of thought and it isn’t simply my own. God knows my best thinking nearly killed me!
The world only makes sense because people share. It is the giving and receiving that makes life worthwhile. To be an island unto myself is isolation. I know what it was to be lonely. Today I desire a relationship of mind, body and feelings.
Let me find You in my neighbor and be sustained by the stranger.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
September 11
“Listen to all the teachers in the woods. Watch the trees, the animals, and all living things – you’ll learn more from them than from books.”
–Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
Nature is a living example of how communities live in harmony. If you go into the forest or mountain and sit still and watch, ask yourself, what lessons are being taught? Then watch how the animals conduct themselves. The trees could represent diversity. The flowers could represent people. Notice how everything in nature assists one another. See how balance works. See how conflict is handled. Can you see acts of forgiveness? Can you spot respect? Nature is full of wisdom if we will only consider her to be our teacher.
My Creator, today let me learn from nature.
Touchstones Meditations For Men
September 11
A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself.
—Axel Munthe
Sometimes we’re mistaken about the source of our unhappiness. We walk around with a short fuse, ready to explode if anyone crosses our path. Then, when we do explode, we think it is the other person’s fault. At other times we have frightening physical reactions and worry that something is wrong with our bodies. But we are not aware that a deeper feeling of not being able to stand ourselves causes the problem.
Most of us have problems accepting ourselves. When we make peace with our consciences, some of our problems vanish. Other problems may never disappear, but our pain is eased because our inner battle has ceased and we have the energy we need to cope.
I am grateful for the gift of self-respect this program gives me.
Daily TAO
September 11
CONUNDRUM
Which came first,
Experience or meaning?
When we were children, a favorite riddle used to be, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” This conundrum was so sticky that it stayed with us even into adulthood and became a cliché indicating any difficult situation of logic.
Maybe meaning in life is somewhat arbitrary. People go to work, and their work becomes part of the meaning to their lives. People marry and have a family and declare that these are the most important things to them. If they had taken different jobs, or if they had married a different person, or if they had renounced the world and had become nuns and monks, wouldn’t their lives have had different meanings?
And then we have the people for whom life dictated so many of their meanings : A person with physical deformities will have a much different life than one born healthy. Someone born into a wealthy, aristocratic family will obviously have a much different outlook than a beggar’s child. Someone born in Asia will look at life differently that someone born in Europe.
So which comes first, those who say that meaning comes from our definitions, or those who declare that our circumstances determine our meaning?
Daily Zen
September 11
Inherent Knowledge
A primary aim of Zen is the uncovering of what is known as inherent knowledge. This is not the kind of knowledge that is produced by thinking based on conditioned consciousness. It is said that the ignorant are obstructed by ignorance, while intellectuals are obstructed by intellectual knowledge.
One way of getting past these obstacles and approaching inherent knowledge is to let go of whatever comes to mind.
– Muso Kokushi (1275-1351)