Daily Reflections
April 2
CHARACTER BUILDING
Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection, and love can only invite domination or revulsion …
–TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44
When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step, I didn’t think it should rank as a character defect. I wanted to think of it more as an asset (that is, the desire to please people). It was quickly pointed out to me that this “need” can be very crippling. Today I still enjoy getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to pay the price I used to pay to get it. I will not bend myself into a pretzel to get others to like me. If I get your approval, that’s fine; but if I don’t, I will survive without it. I am responsible for speaking what I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may want to hear.
Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly concerned about my reputation. Since being enlightened in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 2
A.A. Thought for the Day
Since I’ve been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I feel that the friends I’ve found in A.A. are real friends? Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and do I want to help them if I can? Do I really care now about other people?
Meditation for the Day
Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle- working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God’s grace, you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time, you throw that one aside for a yet finer one. And so from character to character, you are gradually transformed.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person.
Walk in Dry Places
April 2
Accepting Risk
Facing Reality.
Like it or not, life seems to have certain risks that just can’t be avoided. Alcoholics are not really comfortable with risk-taking. This is especially true in situations that include risk of rejection, risk of defeat, or risk of loss.
If we try to get through life without accepting some risk, however, we’re simply not being realistic. The refusal to accept risk may also mean that we miss wonderful opportunities in the process.
What should we do? We should face risk intelligently and with spiritual preparation. FIRST, we do everything possible to reduce risk in any situation (thus making it a “calculated risk”). THEN we pray for guidance and inspiration (but not a certain outcome). FINALLY, we do our very best to succeed in the situation, whether it’s a courtship, a job search, competition in sports, or whatever.
We might surprise ourselves by succeeding more times than we fail. But even in temporary failure, we gain if we follow through in accepting reasonable and necessary risks.
I’ll exercise prudence and good judgment in all my undertakings today, but I won’t expect to be able to “play it safe” in everything. As a human being, I have to take risks in life.
Keep It Simple
April 2
To know all things is not permitted.
— Horace
In recovery, we give up trying to be perfect. We give up trying to know everything. We work at coming to know and accept our short-comings. In Step Four and Five, we look at our good points and our bad points. In Step Six, we become ready to have our Higher Power remove our “defects of character.” Then in Step Seven we ask our Higher Power to remove our “shortcomings.”
Recovery is about coming to accept that we’re not prefect. We admit that trying to be perfect got in the way of being useful to ourselves, our Higher Power, and those around us. Pretending to be prefect doesn’t allow us to be real. It’s also boring and no fun–you never get to mess up.
Prayer for the Day:Higher Power, You will let me know what I need to know. Allow me to claim my mistakes and shortcomings.
Action for the Day:I will work at being okay today. Not prefect, just okay.
Xtra Thoughts
April 2
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if
you just sit there.”
–Will Rogers
Laughter is by definition healthy.
–Doris Lessing
He who laughs, lasts.
–Mary Pettibone Poole
The best portion of a good man’s life is in his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
–William Wordsworth
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
–Aesop
Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away.
–Arthur Helps
“We get so much in the habit of wearing a disguise before others that we eventually appear disguised before ourselves.”
–Jim Bishop
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 2
PROBLEMS
“The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men.”
–Albert Einstein
We are facing not so much a “drug problem” as a people problem – and this requires a solution from the people. I believe the solution and recovery has already been given by God, but it must be discovered from within. We need to seek out what is truly in our minds and hearts: what are our problems, what are our needs, what do we long for, where are we going in our lives?
Today it is not enough for me to know my problems, I need also to talk about them. Today I choose to express my feelings.
God, I thank You for the creative gift of communication.
Daily Inspiration
April 2
There are always better things to come than that which we have left behind. Lord, I look with excitement toward the unexpected joys of today.
Forget what you have done for others and remember what they have done for you. Lord, a gift is given freely with no expectation. May I become a truly giving person.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 2
“With children we always have to think about seven generations to come but yet unborn.”
–Janice Sundown Hattet, SENECA
What we do today will affect the children seven generations form now. How we treat the Mother Earth will affect the children yet to be born. If we poison the water today, our children’s children will be affected by the decision we made. Our children are the gateway to the future. Let us conscientiously think about the children and the seven generations to come.
My Creator, I thank you for my ancestors, seven generations ago.
Today’s Gift
April 2
It is wealth to be content.
—Lao-tzu
On the evening of the first day of spring, a woman gave her husband a bright red geranium in a clay pot. To celebrate, he placed it on the windowsill, and together they marveled at the delicate petals.
In the harsher light of morning, though, the man frowned at the geranium and said to his wife, “How shabby it makes the sofa look.” They spent the day at the furniture store and came home with a new couch, blue with red flowers, like the geranium. They placed the couch in front of the windowsill and admired together its grace and line and fashionable upholstery.
But the next morning, the man frowned at the couch and said, “How shabby it makes the carpet look.” Soon they had a lavish new carpet, which led to new curtains, lamps, and chairs. When the room was completely redone, they set the geranium back in the window and surveyed the finest room in the neighborhood. The man frowned. “The geranium,” he said, “it’s out of place. It will have to go.”
Will I be able to appreciate life’s simple pleasures today?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 2
The universe is the primary revelation of the divine, the primary scripture, the primary focus of divine human communion.
—Thomas Berry
In this program we learn about being receptive. A man in search of conscious contact with a Higher Power can simply stand still and open his eyes and ears to creation. Forcing a spiritual awareness is mostly wasted effort. Learning theology doesn’t create a spiritual experience either. We only need to see and hear what is around us. This is a vast and marvelous universe, and it speaks for itself. It has always been there, and when we are ready to receive the message, we will.
It stirs our spirit to be at a meeting and hear another man describe the awakening of his spirituality. As we men become more receptive to the spiritual, we open a whole new realm in our lives.
May my growing ability to be a receptive man lead me to a deeper spiritual contact.
Daily TAO
April 2
ACCURACY
Make every move count.
Pick your target and hit it.
Perfect concentration means
Effortless flowing.
A life that is spiritual requires focused action. It needs quick reflexes, accurate timing, and abundant skill. That is why followers of Tao are always compounding their self-cultivation: They want the ability to do whatever they want.
Each day your life grows a day shorter. Make every move count. All that matters is accomplishing what you envision with the greatest dispatch. Once you do, that aspect of your interest is discharged, and you can then go on to some new interest. If you do not engage in this ongoing process of action, you will never satisfy all the various aspects of the soul, and realization will never fully mature for you.
Some assert that there is no end to desire, so we should undercut our ambition. But this doesn’t address the need for satisfaction. We need to have satisfaction in what we do in order to have a good sense of well-being. If we undercut our ambition, then we will never make any achievements nor satisfy our yearnings. This only leaves us with frustration, uncertainty, and timidity. Therefore, to follow Tao, we must identify our inner longings and dispatch them with a hunter’s accuracy.
Daily Zen
April 2
Far up this cold mountain,
A steep rocky trail
Leads to places men dwell
In white clouds.
I stop my horse-drawn cart,
Sit and enjoy sunset through the maples,
Whose frosted leaves are redder
Than early spring flowers.
– Tu Mu (803-852)