Daily Reflections
April 9
FREEDOM FROM “KING ALCOHOL”
When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than hopes of reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free–in a kind of extended daily probation–that need never end.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
April 9
A.A. Thought for the Day
Third, alcoholics recover their proper relationship with other people. they think less about themselves and more about others. They try to help other alcoholics. They make new friends so that they’re no longer lonely. They try to live a life of service instead of selfishness. All their relationships with other people are improved. They solve their personality problems by recovering their personal integrity, their faith in a Higher Power, and their way of fellowship and service to others. Is my drink problem solved as long as my personality problem is solved?
Meditation for the Day
All that depresses you, all that you fear, is really powerless to harm you. These things are but phantoms. So arise from earth’s bonds, from depression, distrust, fear, and all that hinders your new life. Arise to beauty, joy, peace, and work inspired by love. Rise from death to life. You do not even need to fear death. All past sins are forgiven if you live and love and work with God. Let nothing hinder your new life. Seek to know more and more of that new way of living.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may let God live in me as I work for Him. I pray that I may go out into the sunlight and work with God.
Walk in Dry Places
April 9
Understanding
Compulsion
Protecting Sobriety
Often called a “compulsive illness,” alcoholism is still a baffling mystery to most people. All we really know is that a single drink, a pleasant beverage for many, becomes a deadly trigger for alcoholics. We may even think it’s unfair that we’re unable to enjoy the pleasant customs of social drinking. If we let down our guard, we can even entertain the thought that we’ve somehow been cured of the compulsion to drink.
But we don’t have to understand the exact nature of compulsion to realize that we are victims of it. Bitter experience and the tragic examples of others should tell us that our compulsion exists and is activated by the first drink. That’s really all the understanding we need for living successfully in sobriety.
If there’s anything we should question, it’s not whether we have the compulsion, but why we would have any doubts after so much bad experience with alcohol. After all, if we always had a bad reaction from any other food or beverage, we would soon give it up. Why is there so much persistence in denying that we are compulsively attached to alcohol?
We still may be trying to convince ourselves that we can take a drink safely, and this delusion is another way the compulsion works. All we have to understand is that a single drink leads to our destruction.
I’ll remember today that I’ve accepted the fact that I am alcoholic and subject to disaster with a first drink. I’ll live today with the knowledge that I only have to understand that I have a compulsion to drink.
Keep It Simple
April 9
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day a time.
–Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln did great things for the United States. He took life One Day at a time. He broke the future into manageable pieces. We can do the same. We can live in the present and focus on the task at hand.
Spirituality comes when we focus this way. When we stay in the present, we find choice. And we worry less about the future. Still, we must have goals. We must plan for the future.
Goals and plans help us give more credit to the present than to the future. And when we feel good about the present, we feel good about the future.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me focus. Help me keep my energy in the present. Have me live life One Day at a Time.
Action for the Day: When I find myself drifting into the future, I’ll work at bring myself back to the present.
You have to leave the city of your comfort and go unto the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.
–Alan Alda
Right now, this moment, is the time to celebrate by dancing beneath the warmth of the sun.
–Gary Barnes
Silence is the great revelation.
–Lao Tzu
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
April 9
SERVICE
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
-Charles Dickens
As a drunk I thought that the world owed me a living. Everybody existed for my employment and service; the world was waiting for my telephone call! For years I manipulated people, and I was such a good con artist they often left thanking me!
Today a part of my spiritual program requires service. I make the no coffee, put out the cookies, cook the meal and invite friends for dinner. I make the telephone call, give the lectures, share in groups and write articles. The life of service helps to keep me sober. I am the message that I share. And I do it for me!
Thank you for making me aware of my need to give.
Daily Inspiration
April 9
Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to go on in spite of it. Lord, may I be strong in my abilities and courageous in my beliefs.
In life it is those that persevere that will succeed. Lord, every day is a fresh beginning. With You, I will come closer to my goals each day if only I don’t give up and quit.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day – April 9
“Everything really is equal. The Creator doesn’t look at me any better than He looks at the trees. We’re all the same.”
–Janice Sundown Hattet, SENECA
Sometimes humans think we are the center of the Universe. Sometimes we think we are above or better than other people or things. The Great Spirit made a set of Laws and Principles by which all things should live. Everybody and everything live by the same Laws. We are all made of atoms just like the trees. The life force in the middle of the atom is the life force of the Great Mystery. It is the same for everything. We are all equal in the eyes of the Creator.
Great Spirit, today, I will respect your handiwork.
Today’s Gift
April 9
There are persons who have some parts like me, but no one adds up exactly like me.
–Virginia Satir
Most of us feel pretty ordinary. We probably wish we were taller or shorter. Some of us are fat rather than thin. Few of us have perfect skin or teeth. Often, we look at others, compare ourselves, and wish we were different. At these times, it’s important to remember that each of us is special. We differ from others because we’re created for different purposes.
Some of us will make a contribution to the world of sports, some to the art of music. Teaching or medicine will attract others and yet, no two of us will give to the world in the same way. Our unique mixture of looks, attitudes, and abilities will be special and very necessary to the people sharing our lifetime.
How can I give my special gift to the world today?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
April 9
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.
—SYDNEY SMITH
We are capable of far more than we think. The task before us sometimes seems mountainous, but we don’t have to do it all in one day. We can do only a little, although we want to accomplish the whole job at once. We must not let our desire for complete change all at once discourage us from doing what we can. We may need to look for a new job, or face the loneliness of ending a hurtful relationship, or hold firmly to our wisest fathering role with our children, or deal with an illness in ourselves or a loved one.
We do not have to face the tasks that challenge us by ourselves. We are all members of a large, quiet network of spiritual support for each other. We have our Twelve Step program, the loving strength of our Higher Power, and the companionship of other men and women in our group. With help, we can do what must be done. We only need to faithfully do a little at a time.
Today, I will remember that I am not alone. I have help in many forms, and I will do what I can.