Daily Reflections
November 6
GOING WITH THE FLOW
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him.
–TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 96
The first words I speak when arising in the morning are, “I arise, O God, to do Thy will.” This is the shortest prayer I know and it is deeply ingrained in me. Prayer doesn’t change God’s attitude toward me; it changes my attitude toward God. As distinguished from prayer, meditation is a quiet time, without words. To be centered is to be physically relaxed, emotionally calm, mentally focused and spiritually aware. One way to keep the channel open and to improve my conscious contact with God is to maintain a grateful attitude. On the days when I am grateful, good things seem to happen in my life. The instant I start cursing things in my life, however, the flow of good stops. God did not interrupt the flow; my own negativity did.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
November 6
A.A. Thought For The Day
Fear and worry had me down. They were increased by my drinking. I worried about what I had done when I was drunk. I was afraid of what the consequences might be. I was afraid to face people because of the fear of being found out. Fear kept me in hot water all the time. I was a nervous wreck from fear and worry. I was a tied-up bundle of nerves. I had a fear of failure, of the future, of growing old, of sickness, of hangover, of suicide. I had a wrong set of ideas and attitudes. When A.A. told me to surrender these fears and worries to a Higher Power, I did so. I now try to think faith instead of fear. Have I put faith in place of fear?
Meditation For The Day
Spiritual power is God in action. God can only act through human beings. Whenever you, however weak you may be, allow God to act through you, then all you think and say and do is spiritually powerful. It is not you alone who produces a change in the lives of others! It is also the Divine Spirit in you and working through you. Power is God in action. God can use you as a tool to accomplish miracles in peoples’ lives.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may try to let God’s power act through me today. I pray that I may get rid of those blocks which keep His power from me.
Walk In Dry Places
November 6
Dealing with worry
Dealing with feelings
There’s nothing like a siege of worry to spoil our day. It matters little whether the worry is about a real problem or something we’re imagining. In either case, worry makes us unhappy, depressed, and even fatigued.
It doesn’t help to be urged not to worry. We may even know worry is harmful, yet be unable to stop it. In fact, one of the things we may have sought in the bottle was an easing of worry.
The best answer to worry is in the 12 Step program. If we have turned our will and lives over to our Higher Power, the real direction of our lives is out of our hands. We must think of ourselves as passengers in a divinely guided vehicle.
Some will think this philosophy is preposterous and irresponsible, but in reality we are taking right actions in an orderly way, as our guidance continues. We need only prove to ourselves that our program works. Worry is merely a signal that we need to work our program.
If I catch myself worrying, I’ll remind myself that my Higher Power is in charge of all outcomes. I’ll do my best and expect the best.
Keep It Simple
November 6
“That suit is best that best suits me.”
–John Clark
How much time do we spend trying to “fit in?” Many of us used to care too much what other people thought about us—our clothes, our ideas, our work. Did we drink the right brand, drive the right car, listen to the right music?
In our program, we still have to watch out for fads and peer pressure. We have to ask ourselves if we’re really in touch with our Higher Power. Are we searching for a sponsor who has inner peace and direction? Or do we look for people who are like our old using friends? As we learn to find our own way of following our Higher Power, we need to be okay with being different.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be the best me I can be today.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll work to be me–honestly me–to everyone I meet.
“God’s grace is like the wind: I can’t see the wind, but I can surely feel the effects of the wind.”
–John G.
“AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God’s help, one day at a time.”
–Rufus K.
“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”
–Albert Einstein
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
November 6
BELIEF
“An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”
–John Buchanan
The common cry of those who suffer from addiction is that they feel isolated. Not only isolated from self, family and friends but also from God. One reason for this feeling of isolation is teachings and attitudes that produced guilt, shame and fear. God was seen as a hammer with which society beat the addict.
Today, in an atmosphere of love and fellowship, we begin to look at these old attitudes and, hopefully, begin to change them. God can be seen in the hug as well as the sacrament; in the doubt as well as the dogma. In the honest sharing of fellow addicts, God is made known. God needs to be given a human face.
Teach me to grow in the virtues of tolerance and understanding.
Daily Inspiration
November 6
Emotions can be dealt with by motion. Lord, when I feel controlled by feelings and complaints, help to get me up and get me moving to change my disposition even if it’s something simple like stretching or organizing something or starting something I’ve been putting off.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
November 6
“It is well to be good to women in the strength of our manhood because we must sit under their hands at both ends of our lives.”
–He Dog, OGLALA LAKOTA
The women bring us into this life and nurture us as we grow up. When we reach our manhood, she supports us and sings the songs to help the family grow.
The Elders say we must look at the woman in a sacred way. We must realize how special her powers are in bringing forth life. The woman will bring balance to a man. The woman will help him see. It is said, behind every successful man is a supporting woman.
Maybe we should examine how we are thinking about women. The Great Spirit says we should honor them. Are we respecting and honoring our women today?
Grandmother, Grandfather thank you for our women. Today, let me honor them.
Journey to the Heart
November 6
Value Each Moment
How often we wait for those grand moments of revelation, those intense times that blast us into transformation, those turning points that forever change us and our lives. Those are the dramatic moments we write about, see in movies, and long for in our lives. Yes, they are wonderful. But turning points such as those happen only a couple of times in a movie and a few times in a lifetime.
Each moment of each day in our lives is a valuable turning point– an important part of our spiritual growth, an important scene in the movie of our lives. Each feeling is important: boredom, fear, hate, love, despair, excitement. Each action we take has value, an act of love, an act of healing. Each word we speak, each word we hear, each scene we allow ourselves to see, and each scenario we participate in changes us.
Trust and value each moment of your life. Let it be important. It is a turning point. It is a spiritual experience.
Today’s Gift
November 6
“Work is love made visible.”
–Kahlil Gibran
Family members show love and concern for others through their work. Parents might build a bookcase or prepare the meals. Children might help by emptying the wastebaskets. All are showing love through what they do. In our lives together, our work is an important way of saying I love you. We will still want to give them lots of hugs and kisses. But our work shows how much we care, and who is important to us. Our work around the house is an investment. It makes a home for all of us, constructed of visible love.
How can I make our home a better one today?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
November 6
“The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human.”
–Pablo Casals
The “shoulds” of our lives can be found all around us. We should wear our seat belts. We should not cry. We should go to our meetings. These “shoulds” usually serve as good guides for us, but they can intrude upon us. If we give them power, they only condemn us and give no useful help. At times we jump toward the “should” because we don’t have the courage to live with the insecurity of being human.
If someone at work gets an unfair shake, it takes courage to speak up and say what we think. We may have an impulse to reach out to a stranger, but it takes courage to do it. When an inner feeling emerges from our honesty, fear may prompt us to avoid it, and we need to call on our courage. That is how we fulfill the uniqueness of each of us.
I am alive as a man and a human being. I will not shy away from opportunities to express my humanity.
Daily TAO
November 6
FRIENDSHIP
Those truly linked don’t need correspondence.
When they meet again after many years apart,
Their friendship is as true as ever.
In the distant past, there was once a young and wealthy statesman who was on a diplomatic mission. Pausing by a river at night, he heard the haunting sounds of a lute. A passionate musician himself, he took up his own lute and eventually found a goatherd sitting on an old ruin. In those days, an aristocrat would not associate with a commoner, but the two men struck up a friendship through their music. Their playing was as smooth and natural as flowing water.
Once a year, the ambassador and the goatherd would renew their friendship. Though they had the chance to play their music with others during the rest of the year, each man declared that he had found his true counterpart.
The ambassador tried for many years to lift the goatherd out of his poverty, but his friend steadfastly refused. He did not want to pollute their friendship with money.
Years later, when the ambassador was gray haired, he went to the appointed spot, but his friend was not there. He tried to play alone, but his melody was forlorn. Finally someone came to tell him that his friend had starved to death during a recent famine. This news made the ambassador despondent. He was caught in the irony of knowing that he had the money to save his friend, and yet he understood the man’s values as well. In sorrow, the ambassador broke his lute. “With my friend gone from the world, who will I play my music for?”