Daily Reflections
April 1
LOOKING WITHIN
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 42
Step Four is the vigorous and painstaking effort to discover what the liabilities in each of us have been, and are. I want to find exactly how, when, and where my natural desires have warped me. I wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and myself. By discovering what my emotional deformities are, I can move toward their correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or contentment for me.
To resolve ambivalent feelings, I need to feel a strong and helpful sense of myself. Such an awareness doesn’t happen overnight, and no one’s self-awareness is permanent. Everyone has the capacity for growth, and for self-awareness, through an honest encounter with reality.
When I don’t avoid issues but meet them directly, always trying to resolve them, they become fewer and fewer.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 1
A.A. Thought for the Day
Since I’ve been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more honest? Do I no longer have to lie to my loved ones? Do I try to have meals on time, and do I try to earn what I make at work? Am I trying to be honest? Have I faced myself as I really am and have I admitted to myself that I’m no good by myself, but have to rely on God to help me do the right thing?Am I beginning to find out what it means to be alive and to face the world honestly and without fear?
Meditation for the Day
God is all around us. His spirit pervades the universe. And yet we often do not let His spirit in. We try to get along without His help and we make a mess of our lives. We can do nothing of any value without God’s help. All our human relationships depend on this. When we let God’s spirit rule our lives, we learn how to get along with others and how to help them.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may let God run my life. I pray that I will never again make a mess of my life through trying to run it myself.
Walk in Dry Places
April 1
There are no
coincidences
Guidance
Here’s an exercise that can strengthen your belief in a Higher Power: Review your life for seemingly insignificant things that were actually major turning points. A chance meeting, for example, may have resulted in an astonishing career opportunity for lifelong romance. Such surprises come to everybody, and people often wonder what their lives would have been like without these “coincidences.”
The founding of AA also seemed to be a series of coincidences and chance happenings. The message reached Bill W. by a circular route, and then an unexpected business opportunity took him to Akron, Ohio, where he finally met Dr. Bob. The unusual aspect was that Akron just “Happened” to have stalwart members of the Oxford Group, the same fellowship that had helped Bill W.
People with strong spiritual foundations in AA have come to see these happenings not as coincidences but as the guidance of a Higher power. This Higher Power was, and is, continuously working through inspired people.
We’ll find similar chance happenings for good in our own lives. We don’t control them except by keeping our own house in order. This assures us that the outcome of any “coincidence” will be favorable.
I’ll carry on my activities today without trying to second-guess what my Higher Power has in mind for me. At the same time, I’ll know that a superior intelligence is directing my affairs in wonderful ways.
Keep It Simple
April 1
We avoid the Fourth Step. We put it off. We’re scared of what we will find inside of us. We may find out we’re mean, angry, selfish, afraid. We might see how badly we’ve acted to others, to ourselves. We have all these things inside us. We also have love, trust, faith, and hope. We love art, music, nature, or sports. We have power to heal, and we have used it too. The Fourth Step helps us to know our inner power. As we learn about our own power, we can use it carefully, on purpose, to do good.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me use my power to do Your will. Let your power work through me, too.
Action for the Day: Today I’ll watch my own actions and words. I’ll see how my power affects others. I’ll talk about this with my sponsor.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
–Kahlil Gibran
God, help me own my power to love and appreciate myself. Help me give myself validity instead of looking to others to do that.
–Melody Beattie
Fear is everywhere, and many fears lie within us, whether screaming loudly or sitting dormant. We must cast away fear, as we would the plague.
–SweetyZee
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 1
TIME
“I would I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg
people throw me their wasted hours.”
–Bernard Berenson
I enjoy my sobriety so much that I hate to waste my time. Part of my spiritual program involves a correct use of time. I will not spend time with negative or destructive people. I will not spend time in useless gossip or doing things I do not enjoy to please other people.
I am enjoying life so much I do not wish to waste any of it. Spirituality involves a creative stewardship of time.
As an alcoholic I wasted so much time. For most of my life I was “out to lunch”! Today I spend time enjoying my life – and I spend quality time alone with “self”. I enjoy my little conversations with self – the thoughts I have and need to ponder upon. I need time to rest in the peace of my life. Time is a precious gift from God that should not be wasted.
Lord, let me live each day as if it were my last.
Daily Inspiration
April 1
It is the little bits of kindness and love that make this world happy. Lord, may I do my part to make today happy for someone.
Have the courage to forgive. Lord, may I bring myself to a place of peace by never holding a grudge.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 1
“People think other things are more important than prayer,
but they are mistaken.”
–Thomas Yellowtail, CROW
An Elder once said the most important thing you can do in the course of a day is to pray.
If we get up late or oversleep, which is more important? Rush to work without praying or pray first and then go to work?
The Elders say it’s more important to pray. If we get angry, should we act on our anger or should we pray first?
The Elders say it’s more important to pray first. If, during the day, we face indecision, what should we do? PRAY.
If, during the day, we become irritated or we experience fear, what should we do first? PRAY.
The Warrior who prays first will lead a different life from those who pray last.
Great Spirit, teach me to pray first!
Today’s Gift
April 1
Then Bacchus gave him the choice of making a wish come true.
So Midas said, “Make everything I touch turn gold.”
—Ovid
Poor King Midas, already rich as a king, was made poorer by his poor wish. Everything he touched–small shoots, wet clay, a ripe head of wheat, apples from a tree – all suddenly went bad, turned into gold, pure gold. And how could he eat when bread and fruits, even fresh running water, suddenly shined at him, yellow, hard, and cold? He could have wished for a wiser, smaller success. He could have had all familiar things turn kind at his touch, or loving and good. Then imagine how he would have touched everyone he came near.
If some wishes are too good to be true, are others too bad?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 1
Any idea, person or object can be a Medicine Wheel, a mirror
for man. The tiniest flower can be such a mirror, as can a wolf, a story, a
touch, a religion, or a mountaintop.
—Hyemeyohsts Storm
The ancient spiritual teachings of the Cheyenne Indians tell us that we meet ourselves in almost everything we confront. A group of men spending a night on a mountaintop will each have a different experience. One may be overcome with a sense of awe, another may spend every moment gripped by fear, and another may sleep the night away. While the mountain is the same, each has brought himself to it and has a different experience. When we meet an animal, feel a touch, or take a hike down the street, we see a reflection of ourselves and of humanity.
This day is a Medicine Wheel for each of us. Our response to today’s circumstances will tell us more about ourselves. We need not waste energy judging ourselves harshly, but learn from our feelings and reactions. Our reflections point the way for further growth.
Today, I will look for my own reflection in what I meet and for the reflection of all humanity.
Daily TAO
April 1
FUNERAL
Hearse of weathered black enamel,
Undertakers fingering cigarettes.
Family, some crying, some bored,
Some only thinking of themselves.
Hired marching band out of tune.
Even in death we find no accord.
If you look closely at a dead person, can you truly see a soul? Is there anything left of the person that you knew? No. There is only a corpse, one that doesn’t even look familiar; whatever animates people is gone. Have they flown to heaven? Have they gone into some cycle of transmigration? I don’t know. Theories about what happens after death can only be conjecture.
A funeral is for those left behind. It is a ritual for us to come to grips with what has happened. Sometimes, one wonders if the weeping is more out of fear for ourselves than it is sympathy for the deceased.
All our lives, we seek union. We try to please our parents, we try to do well for our teachers and society, we try to make love and get married, we try to touch the universal through art, music, and meditation. Yet all our lives, our every attempt is flawed. Accord and harmony are transitory states. Their duration and quality come only from our determination. Once our mind gives way, we can no longer hold the connections that we want.
Don’t wait for death to solve your difficulties. Do what you must while you are alive.
Daily Zen
April 1
Rain has washed the Eastern Slope,
The moon shines clear;
Where townsmen walked earlier,
Farmers pass.
Why mind jagged stones
On the hillside path?
I like the ringing sound my staff
Makes when it strikes
– Su Tung-p’o (1073)