Daily Reflections
October 17
A DAILY TUNE-UP
“Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities.”
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85
How do I maintain my spiritual condition? For me it’s quite simple: on a daily basis I ask my Higher Power to grant me the gift of sobriety for that day! I have talked to many alcoholics who have gone back to drinking and I always ask them: “Did you pray for sobriety the day you took your first drink?” Not one of them said yes. As I practice Step Ten and try to keep my house in order on a daily basis, I have the knowledge that if I ask for a daily reprieve, it will be granted.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
October 17
A.A. Thought For The Day
What am I going to do today for A.A.? Is there someone I should call up on the telephone or someone I should go to see? Is there a letter I should write? Is there an opportunity somewhere to advance the work of A.A. which I have been putting off or neglecting? If so, will I do it today? Will I be done with procrastination and do what I have to do today? Tomorrow may be too late. How do I know there will be a tomorrow for me? How about getting out of my easy chair and getting going? Do I feel that A.A. depends partly on me today?
Meditation For The Day
Today look upward toward God, not downward toward yourself. Look away from unpleasant surroundings, from lack of beauty, from the imperfections in yourself and in those around you. In your unrest, behold God’s calmness; in your impatience, God’s patience; in your limitations, God’s perfection. Looking upward toward God, your spirit will begin to grow. Then others will see something in you that they also want. As you grow in the spiritual life, you will be enabled to do many things that seemed too hard for you before.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may keep my eyes trained above the horizon of myself. I pray that I may see infinite possibilities for spiritual growth.
Keep It Simple
October 17
“Every child is an artist. The problem is remain an artist once your grow up.”
—Pablo Picasso
We each have colorful ideas waiting to be shared. We’re alive inside. But do we let this side of us show? Our disease stole much of the child like openness. Many of us were taught that growing up meant denying the child within us. Many of us grew up in homes where it wasn’t safe to act alive and creative. Whatever the reason, it’s time to claim the child, the artist, in each of us. Each of our programs is different, and each has its artistic touch. When we tell our stories, we share our life. And our lives are unique and alive. The more alive we become, the more color we bring to others and ourselves. Let’s not be afraid to add color to our lives.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me claim the child inside of me. Joy is choice. Help me choose it.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll work at not hiding myself from others. I’ll be alive, and I’ll greet everyone I meet with the openness of a child.
“I can forgive, but I can not forget” is only another way of saying, “I will not forgive.” Forgiveness ought to be like a cancel note – torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.
–Henry Ward Beecher
“To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.”
–William H. Walton
“Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it as it is, is the only way of being happy.”
–Jennie Jerome Churchill
“Ask not that events should happen as you will, but let your will be that events should happen as they do, and you shall have peace.”
–Epicetus
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
October 17
PROGRESS
You’ve got to be a fool to want to stop the march of time.”
–Pierre Renoir
My fear of the future gave me a fear of change. My need to control made me avoid any new or confusing ideas. My alcoholism wanted me to escape and hide in the past–tomorrow was too fearful to be contemplated. At other times–and this is why alcohol is cunning, baffling and powerful–I would want to escape into tomorrow and avoid the reality of today.
Time and reality were to be “played with” rather than experienced. But time moves on, it progresses just like the disease, and if I am to be a winner in this world, I need to move with it. God is to be experienced in the march of time and today I want to be in a relationship with God.
Teach me to respect time as an opportunity for growth.
Daily Inspiration
October 17
Mistakes are often a great source of learning. Lord, may I treat myself kindly when I appear to fall short of my expectations and anticipate the goodness that often is not very obvious.
The source of courage is having a deep sense of God’s presence and hearing Him say, “I am with you always.”. Lord, You are my solution. You are with me always giving me all that I need.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
October 17
“Peace… comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the Universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
–Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) OGLALA SIOUX
If we are to know peace we must look within ourselves. In order to do this, we must learn to be still. We must quiet the mind. We must learn to meditate. Meditation helps us locate and find the center that is within ourselves. The center is where the Great One resides. When we start to look for peace, we need to realize where it is within ourselves. When we experience conflict we need to pause for a moment and ask the Power within ourselves, “How do you want me to handle this? What would you suggest I do in this situation?” By asking the Higher Power for help we find peace.
Creator, help me to find peace.
Today’s Gift
October 17
“Fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.”
–Shirley MacLaine
No one is brave every moment; each of us feels awkward, shy, perhaps even ugly or dumb part of the time. If we could understand that about each other, it would make it easier for us to be friendly and willing to talk to someone new. Instead, we often sit back, waiting to be noticed; waiting for someone to invite us to join in an activity.
We are all so much alike, yet we are so certain we’re different. Being self-conscious is normal. Even those who are the most popular suffer the same fears as the rest of us. The better we understand the ways we are the same, the easier it will be to make friends with someone new. And it’s through friends that we grow and are strengthened for whatever lies ahead.
What new person can I offer friendship to today?
The Language Of Letting Go
October 17
Feelings and Surrender
Surrendering is a highly personal and spiritual experience.
Surrender is not something we can do in our heads. It is not something we can force or control by willpower. It is something we experience.
Acceptance, or surrender, is not a tidy package. Often, it is a package full of hard feelings – anger, rage, and sadness, followed by release and relief. As we surrender, we experience our frustration and anger at God, at other people, at ourselves, and at life. Then we come to the core of the pain and sadness, the heavy emotional burden inside that must come out before we can feel good. Often, these emotions are connected to healing and release at a deep level.
Surrender sets the wheels in motion. Our fear and anxiety about the future are released when we surrender.
We are protected. We are guided. Good things have been planned. The next step is now being taken. Surrender is the process that allows us to move forward. It is how our Higher Power moves us forward. Trust in the rightness of timing, and the freedom at the other end, as you struggle humanly through this spiritual experience.
I will be open to the process of surrender in my life. I will allow myself all the awkward and potent emotions that must be released.
Touchstones Meditation For Men
October 17
“I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live – that there were specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple happy, uncomplicated life.”
–Dan Millman
Wisdom begins in seeing how much we do not know. Sometimes it’s a painful blow to our egos to face what we still have to learn. Many of us have believed we know how to live. Yet, when we look at our lives, we see something has been missing. When we continue to have great stress, when we haven’t made progress in simplifying our lives, when our lives seem full of crises – perhaps then it is time to open ourselves to some new learning.
We can talk to sponsors and get ideas from group members. Perhaps they have noticed our blind spots and will tell us if asked. Expressing our problems in specific ways may point us to new learning. Our program teaches us twelve specific disciplines for our growth. We need to return to them again and again. We can always ask ourselves, “What Step am I working on at this time?” We may need to learn new ways to work on a specific Step.
I will turn to my fellow group members and focus on one Step for my growth today.
Daily TAO
October 17
TRANSFORMATION
You hurt me years ago;
My wounds bled for years.
Now you are back,
But I am not the same.
In the past, warriors fought by striking the same points that acupuncturists use. One famous swordsman nearly died in a duel in which his opponent attacked him in such a way. After that, the swordsman became a wanderer and tried to renounce the martial life. Years later, his enemy found him and challenged him to duel again. They fought. In the first flurry of blows, the aggressor stepped back in surprise. The swordsman smiled and said, “I trained for twenty years to move my vulnerable spots.” With that, he was finally able to triumph.
Spirituality is a process of inner healing. The wounds of the past can be the greatest obstacles for self-cultivation unless we find them all and heal them. This task can take years, but we must accomplish it.
In many cases, our wounds were inflicted by other people–enemies. This is subtle. Our enemies can be others on the street, or people much more intimate with us: parents, teachers, siblings, lovers, friends.