Daily Reflections
April 10
GROWING UP
The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.
–AS BILL SEES IT, p. 115
Sometimes when I’ve become willing to do what I should have been doing all along, I want praise and recognition. I don’t realize that the more I’m willing to act differently, the more exciting my life is. The more I am willing to help others, the more rewards I receive. That’s what practicing the principles means to me. Fun and benefits for me are in the willingness to do the actions, not to get immediate results. Being a little kinder, a little slower to anger, a little more loving makes my life better–day by day.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 10
A.A. Thought for the Day
When I came into A.A., I came into a new world. A sober world. A world of sobriety, peace, serenity, and happiness. But I know that if I take just one drink, I’ll go right back into that old world. That alcoholic world. That world of drunkenness, conflict, and misery. That alcoholic world is not a pleasant place for an alcoholic to live in. Looking at the world through the bottom of a whiskey glass is no fun after you’ve become an alcoholic. Do I want to go back to that alcoholic world?
Meditation for the Day
Pride stands sentinel at the door of the heart and shuts out the love of God. God can only dwell with the humble and the obedient. Obedience to God’s will is the key unlocking the door to God’s kingdom. You cannot obey God to the best of your ability without in time realizing God’s love and responding to that love. The rough stone steps of obedience lead up to where the mosaic floor of love and joy is laid. Where God’s spirit is, there is your home. There is heaven for you.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that God may make His home in my humble and obedient heart. I pray that I may obey His guidance to the best of my ability.
Walk in Dry Places
April 10
Protecting Sobriety
Though AA members never criticize drinking customs, we do tell newcomers that it’s wise to avoid situations involving alcohol. Even this is not an absolute, because we also concede that it’s sometimes necessary to attend a cocktail reception or to lunch with a friend in a bar. So how do we distinguish between what’s safe and what’s likely to lead to trouble. The litmus test is always to look at our own motives and spiritual guidance. A drink has no power over us unless we want to take the drink. If we are not deliberately seeking out drinking situations, our motives are probably good. If our spiritual house is in order, our Higher Power will also protect us in any situation.
Wherever we go, however, we should also make our sobriety the first priority of business. Whatever the importance of any social event, it is insignificant compared with the importance of sobriety. Keep sobriety at the top of your list, and the other decisions will follow in proper order. We should hole the additional thought that “walking in dry places” is really thinking of our selves as always being in dry places under God’s guidance.
Today I will focus on the sober world I want to enjoy and share. The world of drinking has nothing for me. I may encounter situations involving casual drinking today, but I will not be part of them in mind and spirit. I will think and walk in dry places.
Keep It Simple
April 10
You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making their nest in your head.
–Chinese proverb
Life is full of feelings. We can be happy, sad, mad, scared. These feelings can come and go quickly. Or we may hang on to them. As recovering addicts, we used to hang on to feelings that made us feel bad. We let them make” nest” in our hair. We used our feelings as excuse to drink or use other drugs. Now we’re learning to hang on to our good feelings. We can let go of anger, hurt, and fear. We can shoo away the birds of sadness and welcome the birds of happiness.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me become a “bird watcher.” Help me learn from my feelings. And help me let go of the bad one so I can be happy.
Action for the Day: If I need to get rid of the sadness or anger that I’m hanging on to, I’ll get help from my sponsor, a counselor, or a clergy person.
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
–Eric Hoffer
“One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention.”
–Jim Rohn
“Develop a benevolent world view; look for the good in the people and circumstances around you.”
–Brian Tracy
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 10
TODAY
“Real generosity towards the future consists in giving all to what is present.”
–Albert Camus
Much of the gratitude that I talk about needs to be centered in what I do with today; I need to focus on the present, rather than procrastinate for the future.
As a sick alcoholic I lived either in the guilt of yesterday or the fear of tomorrow – missing the reality of the present. The present moment is all that I have and through this “moment” I live and breathe and have my existence!
My understanding of prayer is centered in the present moment because any understanding of relationship and communication, especially with God, must begin from where one is, rather than where one would like to be. Spirituality is the reality of the moment.
Master, thank You for the life that is experienced in the moment.
Daily Inspiration
April 10
Let life’s lessons grow into wisdom so that you may be the light for someone else’s darkness. Lord, help me put to good use that which today brings so that I am better prepared for tomorrow.
To know someone doesn’t mean to know every detail of that person’s life. It means to feel affection, confidence and to believe in that person. Lord, may I really know You and have it reflect in how I treat others.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 10
“Together we can end the Holocaust against the environment.”
–Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders
We are all familiar with the Holocaust against the people. When this happens, we feel bad and we vow never to let it happen again. We need to seriously examine what human beings are doing to the Earth and the environment. Many species are extinct and many more will become extinct during the next 10 years. We are methodically eliminating life that will never return again. Today, we should take time to pray really hard, so we wake up before it is too late.
Great Spirit, today, I pray for us to awaken to what we are doing.
Today’s Gift
April 10
But don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden.
—Beatrix Potter
Since we are members of a family, we are not free to do anything we like. We may not be able to go as far from home as we would like. We may have to get up earlier in the morning than we would like. We may have only limited use of the car. Families set up limits in order to maintain order and happiness. If each of us demanded something different for supper each night, the situation would be unmanageable.
Limits also keep us safe. When Peter Rabbit was told not to go into Mr. McGregor’s garden, it was for his own good. Limits and restrictions are a form of love and protection, and we all have them. When we bump up against one of these limits, we can be assured they serve to point us in another direction, one with freedoms of its own which we may never have explored without being forced to.
What freedom can I discover in a limitation today?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 10
Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.
—Hermann Hesse
The forces of chaos and forces of order are always at work in the world. While many things are being built up, many are wearing down. It is a good thing because life would be very boring in an unchanging state. But the chaos we met in our lives was often extreme and unusually destructive. We had to recognize it and feel the pain of it before we could build a new order. Looking back we can see that our First Step was just such an event.
All people have small chaotic events in their lives every day. If we take a moment and reflect on our present lives, we can certainly become aware of some ways in which things are in disarray. By simply letting ourselves know it in this moment, we get ready for the new order to begin.
I pray for courage and honesty to see the chaos, which exists today. Help me become ready for the new order to evolve.
Daily TAO
April 10
IMAGINATION
Imagination is pale and fragile,
Dreams grip with a false reality.
Imagination can build bridges,
Dreams can deceive.
When we dream, the experience is often deeply involving. Frightening dreams make us awake trembling and sweating. Pleasurable dreams leave us with lingering desires. Certain dreams are a form of healing, a way for our minds to recircuit and adjust themselves. No matter what, these dreams have no objective reality in our waking world.
Imagination is also a form of mental involvement. It is a way of projecting our thoughts into believable images to be contemplated and manipulated. We can play with our imagination, use it to inspire creative projects.
Both imagination and dreams are similar activities of the mind, and yet they differ in the level of conscious participation that they permit. In the case of the dream, there is a total suspension of rationality and consciousness, so there is little or no direction possible. There is no mode of control. By contrast, imagination is a tool through which we can make our lives better, different, and creative. By cooperating with it, we can achieve things that “we never dreamed possible.”
Daily Zen
April 10
In meditation we leave
The fires of defilement
For the coolness of clear Samadhi.
And this feels just like the joy
Of falling into cool, clear water
After burning in the heat of the sun.
– Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom