Daily Reflections
April 18
SELF-HONESTY
The deception of others is nearly always rooted in the deception of ourselves. When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God.
–AS BILL SEES IT, p. 17
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 18
A.A. Thought for the Day
As I look back over my drinking career, have I learned that you take out of life what you put into it? When I put drinking into my life, did I take out a lot of bad things? Hospitals with the D.T.’s? Jails for drunken driving? Loss of job? Loss of home and family? When I put drinking into my life, was almost everything I took out bad?
Meditation for the Day
I should strive for a friendliness and helpfulness that will affect all who come near to me. I should try to see something to love in them. I should welcome them, bestow little courtesies and understandings on them, and help them if they ask for help. I must send no one away without a word of cheer, a feeling that I really care about them. God may have put the impulse in some despairing one’s mind to come to me. I must not fail God by repulsing that person. They may not want to communicate with me unless they are sure of a warm welcome.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may warmly welcome all who come to me for help. I pray that I may make them feel that I really care.
Walk in Dry Places
April 18
Mistakes are for
learning
Personal growth.
One sign of an alcoholic’s immaturity is revealed in responses to personal mistakes. We take each simple mistake as further proof of our inadequacy. As one person observed, “I can handle a general catastrophe, but running my nylons can ruin my day.”
Some of us may feel we’re victims of past conditioning… a parent, for example, who berated us when the slightest thing went wrong. But we’re at fault if we continue to let ourselves be victimized by such experience. We should give no person… past, present, or future—the right to set the level of our self-esteem.
Properly viewed, all mistakes are for learning purposes. We often have to make a few mistakes before we can learn anything. Sometimes a mistake can occur simply to teach us one basic lesson… that we are human and cannot be perfect in everything we do.
Above, all, we should never condemn ourselves for the countless mistakes that occurred while we were drinking. Our alcoholism, a terrible mistake in the sight of many, led to the deep learning we find in AA. Nothing that brings us this far can really be a mistake in the sight of God.
In sobriety, I’m learning tolerate the shortcomings and mistakes of others. I will extend the same grace to myself today if I make a simple mistake.
Keep It Simple
April 18
Patience is needed with everyone, but first of all with ourselves.
–St. Francis de Sales
How do you treat yourself? Do you talk to yourself in a kind and loving voice? We can’t be kind and loving to others until we learn to be kind and loving with ourselves. To live this way, we must give ourselves the gift of patience.
Let’s practice patience with ourselves daily. Practice talking to yourself in a kind, loving voice.
Your voice will be that of a loving parent who helps a child with a new task. Your Higher Power
Is willing to be patient with you. Give yourself the same gift.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I pray that I’ll treat myself and others with the same loving patience You’ve shown me.
Action for the Day: I will listen to how I talk to myself. I will practice talking to myself with a kind, loving, and patient voice.
Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
–Michael Jordan
The will of God will never take you to where the grace of God will not protect you. To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.
–Bernadette Devlin
A good mountain climber never looks up to see how far he has to go. He looks down to see how far he’s come.
–Mark Kostew
“Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see a bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.”
–Dale Carnegie
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 18
GOD
“Any God I ever felt in Church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did, too. They come to Church to share God, not find God.”
–Alice Walker
God is within us! At one time I would find that statement blasphemous or incomprehensible. I always thought God was a long way off – separate, unknowable and judgmental. He was much more a judge than a friend. I saw myself more the sinner than the son. Naturally, with such a low self-esteem it was hard to associate God with my life, let alone consider God existing within me!
Then I began to search for the spiritual path that leads to a deeper understanding of self – and I found a loving, gentle and friendly God. His love was so pervasive in His world that I was able to discover Him in my life and the lives of others. The concept of meeting together to share God made sense. The concept of discovering a God within and without made God knowable and comprehensible. Because God lives in me, I am alive.
Master, in the breaking of the bread, may I share Your life in my world.
Daily Inspiration
April 18
Spend some of your time in prayer just being with God. Lord, for the moment I am letting go of my concerns so that I can feel Your presence in my life.
Thoughts are powerful, so pay close attention to what you think about. Lord, help me to think thoughts of love, peace and abundance so that this becomes my experience.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 18
“Our people don’t come in parts. Either you are Indian, or you are not.”
–Nippawanock, ARAPAHOE
We really need to take a look at how Indian People are talking about Indian People. We say there are Rez Indians, Traditional Indians, Urban Indians and Breeds. This type of thinking will keep us separated. An Indian is an Indian, a brother is a brother, a sister is a sister. We are all related. Today, let us respect ourselves and our people. Today, let me realize Indians are Indians.
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 18
Free man is by necessity insecure; thinking man by necessity uncertain.
—Erich Fromm
We hear comments like, “Hang in there!” “Don’t quit now,” “Don’t give up the ship!” When our outlook is gloomy and pessimistic, we should remember we are not in charge and we are not all knowing. We cannot predict what will be around the next corner. If a difficult problem looms before us, we cannot be sure what help might also be there for us to meet the problem.
Our compulsion for control tempts us to quit and give ourselves over to defeat. Then the outcome would be settled and predictable. We no longer would have to live with the insecurity of not knowing the future. When we are tempted to indulge in our addictive ways, or to return to a relationship that isn’t good for us, or to face a painful problem, it helps to recall that change is a basic fact of life. However stressful this moment is, it will change. Not at our command, but it will change. We aren’t in control of outcomes, but we can choose now to “hang in there” and to give our energy only toward positive solutions.
May I have the serenity to accept the process and the courage to be true to my part. Outcomes I will leave for the future.
Daily TAO
April 18
NUMBERS
One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three,
Three gives birth to the ten thousand.
One hundred and eight counts make one cycle,
Constant turning creates all things.
Today is the one hundred and eighth day. Why are numbers so important to those who follow Tao? Even today, when numbers are more commonly yoked to the service of finance and engineering, there are those who revere numbers with the cheap version of mysticism — superstition. Numbers form a closed world with mysteries to explore and exploit if our understanding is deep enough.
Followers of Tao emphasize certain numbers: One is the unity of Tao. Two is duality. Three is the unevenness that will generate movement. Four is the seasons. Five elements generate the world. Six parts of the body are the arms, legs, head, and trunk. Seven is the day of the waxing moon by the lunar calendar. Eight is the number of divination. Nine is the number of life. Ten is heaven’s cycles.
There are twenty-four periods in a year, each with its own characteristics. Thirty-six is six squared. One hundred and eight is three cycles of thirty-six and represents a greater cycle, although there are even more esoteric connotations attached to it.
Numbers are only symbols, a way for human beings to project order upon the universe. They are a language more precise than words. But does Tao talk? Numbers are important to master, but take care to look beyond language and numbers to the true reality that they foreshadow.
Daily Zen
April 18
In this dhyana one does not
accept selfish pleasures,
one does not seek any reward,
and one is not moved by karmic records.
One enters dhyana solely for the
purpose of establishing one’s mind.
And then, out of wisdom,
one returns to life in the desire realm
for the purpose of helping all
sentient beings achieve liberation.
This dhyana is called the paramita of concentration.
– Mahaprjnaparamita Sutra