Daily Reflection
October 16
THROUGHOUT EACH DAY
“This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.”
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84
During my early years in A.A. I saw Step Ten as a suggestion that I periodically look at my behavior and reactions. If there was something wrong, I should admit it; if an apology was necessary, I should give one. After a few years of sobriety I felt I should undertake a self-examination more frequently. Not until several more years of sobriety had elapsed did I realize the full meaning of Step Ten, and the word “continued.” “Continued” does not mean occasionally, or frequently. It means throughout each day.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
October 16
A.A. Thought For The Day
How seriously do I take my obligations to A.A.? Have I taken all the good I can get out of it and then let my obligations slide? Or do I constantly feel a deep debt of gratitude and a deep sense of loyalty to the whole A.A. movement? Am I not only grateful but also proud to be a part of such a wonderful fellowship, which is doing such marvelous work among alcoholics? Am I glad to be a part of the great work that A.A. is doing and do I feel a deep obligation to carry on that work at every opportunity? Do I feel that I owe A.A. my loyalty and devotion?
Meditation For The Day
If your heart is right, your world will be right. The beginning of all reform must be in yourself. It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you take it. However restricted your circumstances, however little you may be able to remedy financial affairs, you can always turn to your inward self and, seeing something not in order there, seek to right it. And as all reform is from within outward, you will always find that the outward is improved as the inward is improved. As you improve yourself, your outward circumstances will change for the better. The power released from within yourself will change your outward life.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that the hidden power within me may be released. I pray that I may not imprison the spirit that is within me.
Keep It Simple
October 16
“To err is human, but when the eraser wears out ahead of the pencil, you’re overdoing it.”
–Josh Jenkins
It’s okay to make mistakes. But we shouldn’t live a life of excuses. We shouldn’t slide over our mistakes; we should learn from them.
Excuses keep us part from ourselves and others. People don’t trust us if we won’t admit and accept our mistakes. Relying on excuses dooms us to repeat the same mistakes.
In recovery, we admit and accept our behavior. We do this by continuing to take an inventory of our lives. We do this so we can learn from our mistakes. “Owning” our mistakes helps us grow.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me own my mistakes. Thank-you for Step Ten and the growth it holds for me.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list my five favorite excuses. I’ll think of the last time I used each of these. What was I trying to avoid.
Walk In Dry Places
October 16
Homeless and unemployed
Economic Insecurity
Alcoholism isn’t the sole cause of the homelessness and unemployment that troubles our world. Even in sobriety, people can lose their jobs and homes, through no fault of their own.
Recovery makes it less likely that we will cause such conditions in our own lives. Beyond that , by keeping sober, we will be better able to deal with any setbacks that do occur. It is a painful fact that it is almost impossible to help any destitute alcoholic find a home or employment unless he or she stops drinking. We learn that much through our experience.
Our true home is with our Higher Power, and our best work bay be in the sharing of our experience and strength with others. Remembering this, we can be sympathetic and understanding about the general problems of homelessness and unemployment. We don’t have the complete answer, but we do have answers.
I’ll be grateful and understanding in any consideration of today’s problems of homelessness and unemployment. By staying sober, I am at least helping to alleviate some of the general problems.
“Listen in the silence. Listen and you shall hear God speak.”
–Frater Achad
“The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.”
–David Russell
“Happiness is intrinsic, it’s an internal thing. When you build it into yourself, no external circumstances can take it away. That kind of happiness is a twenty-four-hour thing.”
–Leo F. Buscaglia
“The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.”
–John Ruskin
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
October 16
CULTURE
“The great law of culture: let each become all that he was created capable of being.”
– Thomas Carlyle
We are capable of great things. This history of man, although surrounded by wars and unspeakable acts of violence, is also the history of art, music, poetry and romance. Each person is capable of great and noble acts — but do we want to do them? We can be honest, loving and caring people only if we choose to be that. The power of freedom and choice is the determining factor in all our lives. Each culture has imaginative and creative features, but it is the people that make them happen. Nothing will happen unless people decide to make it happen.
So it is with the culture of recovery. The people who make up the recovering community in all the addictions are the people who make a decision and acted upon it. Talk is cheap and cruel unless it is followed by an event. Decisions must be made real. We all have the capacity to be honest and kind.
May I not only be grateful for my culture but may I live to add something to it.
Daily Inspiration
October 16
Many of life’s hassles are mere tests of our strength. Lord, help me remember that patience can often diffuse a situation quicker than a snap response.
Spend less time trying to change and more time making the best of who you are. Lord, help me daily to put Your words into action.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
October 16
“Many religions have been brought to this land. And the way my religion is, they teach me, and they taught me, and told me to respect all religions. And I still do that.”
–Horace Axtell, NEZ PERCE
The Creator put on this Earth many different religions which represent different roads to walk to God. All religions are right and good if the path is the path to God. Should we be judging which road is better or worse than the other? When we accept each other’s way we can stand in a circle, hold hands and listen to each other as we pray to God. Let us be more accepting of the religions of others.
Great Spirit – God, Grandfather, Grandmother, Lord – let me know peace.
Today’s Gift
October 16
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.”
—Matthew 6:34
To worry about something ahead of time is a waste of time and energy that could be better spent on living a full life today.
For instance, if we spend hours today worrying about an important test at school tomorrow, we can’t very well concentrate on studying. And if we lie awake tonight agonizing over what we don’t know or haven’t studied, we’re going to be exhausted tomorrow when we take the test.
Wouldn’t it be much better to focus on doing all we can today to prepare for the test, and then, knowing we’ve done our best, let go of it tonight and get a good night’s sleep? In fact, if we do that every day of the year, when a big test comes along, we’ll know we’re as ready as we can be, and won’t have a thing to worry about. What a relief it is to know we’ve done our best today and every day.
What can I do well today so I won’t worry about it tomorrow?
The Language Of Letting Go
October 16
Being Honest with Ourselves
Our relationship with ourselves is the most important relationship we need to maintain. The quality of that relationship will determine the quality of our other relationships.
When we can tell ourselves how we feel, and accept our feelings, we can tell others.
When we can accept what we want and need, we will be ready to have our wants and needs met.
When we can accept what we think and believe, and accept what’s important to us, we can relay this to others.
When we learn to take ourselves seriously, others will too.
When we learn to chuckle at ourselves, we will be ready to laugh with others.
When we have learned to trust ourselves, we will be trustworthy and ready to trust.
When we can be grateful for who we are, we will have achieved self-love.
When we have achieved self-love and accepting our wants and needs, we will be ready to give and receive love.
When we’ve learned to stand on our own two feet, we’re ready to stand next to someone.
Today, I will focus on having a good relationship with myself.
Touchstones Meditation For Men
October 16
One of the main reasons wealth makes people unhappy is that it gives them too much control over what they experience. They try to translate their own fantasies into reality instead of tasting what reality itself has to offer.
—Philip Slater
We are constantly told that the way to happiness is through material possessions. “Men who drive this sports car have all the women after them!” “If I could only own this special tool it would make me happy!” What does a man really want? He wants a feeling that his life makes sense. He wants the give and take of loving relationships. He wants to feel he has a place in the world and can make a contribution. And he wants the feeling that he is not standing still, but growing in those ways.
Being poor certainly limits our options, but material wealth is an empty seduction. Putting all our energies into capturing wealth may make us rich, but it also can become an addiction that causes unhappiness. We become much richer in our souls and in our experiences when we take the risks that help us improve our relationships and teach us how to live balanced lives.
I will live each moment in ways that fit my true values.
Daily TAO
October 16
MERGING
Take the sun. Put it in your heart.
Take the moon. Pull it to your belly.
Draw down the Big Dipper.
Merge with the Northern Star.
We have gone from distant views of gods to a more inner-oriented one. In the past, our relationship was viewed vertically : People were in a subordinate position and the gods were supreme. Without much effort, we can see that this point of view was a reflection of feudalistic definitions and childlike emotions.
By contrast, those who follow Tao declare that gods do not exist.
To think this blasphemous is to miss the point. Rather, those who follow Tao seek a relationship with the divine in which there is no division. They are seeking a state of oneness.
If people are one with their god, then it stands to reason that there is no division between them. If there is no division between them, then they are god and god is them. This doesn’t mean that a person can do all the things that gods are supposedly able to do. Instead, they attain a state of being and understanding where there are no distinctions, fears, or uncertainties about what is divine.