Daily Reflections
April 24
LEARNING TO LOVE OURSELVES
Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were
surrounded by people who loved us. We were trying to find emotional security
either by dominating or by being dependent upon others. We still vainly tried
to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence.
-AS BILL SEES IT, p. 252
When I did my personal inventory, I found that I had unhealthy relationships with most people in my life- my friends and family, for example. I always felt isolated and lonely. I drank to dull emotional pain. It was through staying sober, having a good sponsor and working the Twelve Steps that I was able to build up my low self-esteem. First the Twelve Steps taught me to become my own best friend, and then, when I was able to love myself, I could reach out and love others.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 24
A.A. Thought for the Day
It’s been proved that we alcoholics can’t get sober by our willpower. We’ve failed again and again. Therefore I believe there must be a Higher Power which helps me. I think of that power as the grace of God. And I pray to God every morning for the strength to stay sober today. I know that power is there because it never fails to help me. Do I believe that AA. works through the grace of God?
Meditation for the Day
Once I am “born of the spirit,” that is my life’s breath. Within me is the life of life, so that I can never perish. The life that down the ages has kept God’s children through peril, adversity, and sorrow. I must try never to doubt or worry, but follow where the life of the spirit leads. How often, when little I know it, God goes before me to prepare the way, to soften a heart, or to overrule a resentment. As the life of the spirit grows, natural wants become less important.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in self. I pray that my will may be directed toward doing His will.
Walk in Dry Places
April 24
Do I trigger
gossip?
Personal inventory.
There is a saying that “listening to gossip is gossip”. How true! If there were no listeners, there would never be any gossip.
Some of us who pride ourselves in refraining from gossip may still have a problem with it. It’s possible we still keep our ears open for any juicy gossip that could fall our way. We might also “shake the tree” if we believe another person has some gossip to share with us. This is done in seemingly innocent ways, sometimes just by mentioning the name of a person to another who may have strong opinions to express.
The harm of gossip lies in what we do to ourselves when we engage in it. There is no way we can continue to have spiritual growth if we practice gossip, even as passive listeners. Spiritual growth takes place within us, and it needs an environment completely free of an ill will.
Let’s beware of any tendency to say things that induce others to gossip. At the same time, let’s tune out gossip that seems to occur spontaneously. Gossip is the enemy of the growth we desire.
It is a real relief to know that today I have no desire to spread gossip or listen to it. This includes things I might read in magazines or newspapers.
Keep It Simple
April 24
The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn.
–David Russell
Making big decisions is like crossing bridges. Sometimes, these decisions change our lives. We find that turning back will be very hard. This is why we have to be very careful when we decide to burn bridges. When we decide to make changes, we act carefully. We don’t want to make decisions out of anger or envy. Instead, we can think about what we want and how our program can help us make wise decisions.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me cross those bridges that are on my path.
Action for the Day: What do I really want in life? What decisions do I need to make to get there?
“With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing.”
–Catherine de Hueck Doherty
“Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.”
–Shirley MacLaine
Take a break. Move around. Learn to change your perspective. Maybe you don’t need to change what you’re looking at. You just need to change where you stand.
–Melody Beattie
One step at a time. That’s how you will get where you are going. You are being led, each step of the way.
–Melody Beattie
Focus not on circumstances but on our loving and unchanging God.
–Robert Truesdale
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 24
MAN
“Man is what he believes. ”
-Anton Chekhov
My miracle is that I now believe in me. Today I accept my disease of addiction and I do not resist or deny it. I believe that I am an alcoholic. I believe that I am an overeater. I am a co-dependent. I believe that I am an adult child of an alcoholic. And this belief enables me to be free.
For too long I played the game of control; blaming and bargaining – and I lost. Now I choose to surrender to the reality of who I am. I accept my disease on a daily basis and I make choices with the awareness of my disease. And it is getting better.
My belief about my addiction has also given me an insight into God and His gift of freedom. He loves me enough to give me choice and with this gift comes responsibility. I believe that I am responsible for how I live with my addictions. Today I accept that responsibility.
What I believe reflects the God I believe in; I believe in Freedom.
Daily Inspiration
April 24
To allow past problems into your present moments can make you feel depressed, worried and overwhelmed. Lord, help me to let go of that which I can do nothing about so that I can take care of that which I can.
If you would be ashamed to sign your name to your conversation, don’t say it. Lord, my words can have far reaching effects. May the effect always be good.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
April 24
“Each person’s prayers can help everyone.”
-Thomas Yellowtail, CROW
Prayer is our entrance into the Unseen World. It is by prayer we can call upon the powers and laws of the Great Spirit. The Spirit World has powers and laws that are different from the Physical World. The spiritual laws allow healing to take place; they allow forgiveness to occur; they cause miracles to happen; they cause hate to disappear; they heal broken relationships; they guide every moment of our lives; they allow us to love even when it’s hard. Prayer allows us access to the Spirit World.
Creator, teach me to pray.
Today’s Gift
April 24
My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue, An everlasting vision of the ever changing view, A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold, A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold.
—Carole King
Our lives are patchwork quilts of mismatched fabrics, all stitched together by an invisible seamstress. The tattered, blood-red scraps of quarrels, the beige of pastry crust baked on Saturdays in a grandmother’s kitchen that always smelled sweet, the brilliant colors of our happy moments-picnics and sunsets and laughter-all these are necessary pieces of the tapestry of our lives, even our cold, white doubts and emptiness.
All the colors of life sewn together with the green thread of growth. We are a mixture of feelings and experiences. Often, we want to cut away a square of painful memory. But without it, our quilt would lose its beauty, for contrast would disappear. If a piece is removed, the rest is weakened and incomplete.
How well can I accept any pain I feel today as a part of my own beauty?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 24
I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day.
—Albert Camus
We live our program in one-day portions – and our actions
today have immediate consequences. For instance, if we listen to a brother or a
sister in the program, we may be enriched and the other person strengthened for
today’s challenge. We don’t have to confront every temptation of life on this
day – only the portion we can handle. Our old insanity would have us predict
the entire story of our future from today’s limited viewpoint. But our
spiritual orientation
guides us to restrain ourselves. We simply live in this moment.
The rewards of recovery are granted every day. We begin with the gift of a new day and new possibilities. We now have relationships that sustain us through difficulty and give us reason to celebrate. We have a new feeling of self-respect and hope.
I am grateful for the rewards of each day in my spiritual awakening.
Daily TAO
April 24
FAITH
In spite of knowing,
Yet still believing.
Though no god above,
Yet god within.
There is no god in the sense of a cosmic father or mother who will provide all things to their children. Nor is there some heavenly bureaucracy to petition. These models are not descriptions of a divine order, but are projections from archetypal templates. If we believe in the divine as cosmic family, we relegate ourselves to perpetual adolescence. If we regard the divine as supreme government; we are forever victims of unfathomable officialdom.
Yet it does not work for us to totally abandon faith. It does not follow that we can forego all belief in higher beings. We need faith, not because there are beings who will punish us or reward us, but because gods are wonderful ways of describing things that happen to us. They embody the highest aspects of human aspiration. Gods on the altars are essential metaphors for the human spiritual experience.
Faith shouldn’t be shaken because bad things happen to us or because our loved ones are killed. Good and bad fortune are not in the hands of gods, so it is useless to blame them. Neither does faith need to be confirmed by some objective occurrence. Faith is self-affirming. If we maintain faith, then we have its reward. If we become better people, then our faith has results. It is we who create faith, and it is through our efforts that faith is validated.
Daily Zen
April 24
The mountain stones were rough, the path narrow.
Bats flew in the twilight when I reached the temple.
I climbed to the hall and sat on the steps,
Where the fresh rain had washed
The great palm leaves and sleek gardenias.
The monk said there were fine Buddhas
Painted on the old walls:
He took a lamp to show me some of them.
He spread the bed, dusted the mats,
And set out rice for me:
It was coarse but satisfied my hunger.
Late at night it was quiet,
And not an insect murmured
As the clear moon came over the mountains,
And entered my door
I left at dawn, alone, and lost my way,
Up and down the twisting mountains in the mist
Where the red hills glittered in the jade green brooks.
I saw pines and oaks full ten spans around
And my bare feet in swift water stepped over rocks
Where the water boiled and the wind tore my clothes.
A man could make himself happy here.
Why should I bridle myself in crowded towns?
O my own few disciples:
What if I grew old here and never returned?
– Han Yu