Daily Reflections
August 23
BRINGING THE MESSAGE HOME
Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our A.A. group?
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS , pp. 111 -112
My family members suffer from the effects of my disease. Loving and accepting them as they are – just as I love and accept A.A. members – fosters a return of love, tolerance and harmony to my life. Using common courtesy and respecting other’s personal boundaries are necessary practices for all areas of my life.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
August 23
A.A. Thought For The Day
“We who have accepted the A.A. principles have been faced with the necessity for a thorough personal housecleaning. We must face and be rid of the things in ourselves that have been blocking us. We therefore take a personal inventory. We take stock honestly. We search out the flaws in our make-up that caused our failure. Resentment is the number one offender. Life that includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. If we are to live, we must be free of anger.” Am I free of resentment and anger?
Meditation For The Day
Keep in mind the goal you are striving for, the good life you are trying to attain. Do not let little things divert you from the path. Do not be overcome by the small trials and vexations of each day. Try to see the purpose and plan to which all is leading. if, when climbing a mountain, you keep your eyes on each stony or difficult place, how weary is your climb. But if you think of each step as leading to the summit of achievement from which a glorious landscape will open out before you, then your climb will be endurable and you will achieve your goal.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may realize that life without a goal is futile. I pray that I may find the good life worth striving for.
Walk In Dry Places
August 23
Planning for others.
Letting Go.
There are times when we think we see perfectly what others ought to be doing. It pains and disturbs us when loved ones….. our children, perhaps… do not heed our advice. In planning for others, we can easily fall into the trap of enabling. An enabler is a person who supports others in an unhealthy addiction or dependency.
We must not plan the lives of others, no matter how dear they are to us or how attached we become to them. They must have the freedom to live without obligation or the belief that they could not have succeeded without our help. Freedom of choice is a precious right that includes the freedom to make mistakes.
I’ll release any tendency I have to plan for others. At all times, my responsibility is to keep on the right track and let others be free.
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
August 23
CONFIDENCE
“There is no sort of work that could ever be done well if you minded what fools say.”
– George Eliot
Part of the risk in my recovery is arousing the displeasure of others. I know that I cannot please all the people — and yet my disease tells me that I must! For years I missed life’s opportunities because I listened to negative and frightened people. Today I choose to shout my “yes” to life, and I ignore the fools. The fools are rarely friends. Rather, they seek to keep me in the same prison as themselves. If they truly loved me, they would encourage me to be imaginative and creative.
Today I have a joyride “letting go and letting God” because God is a great risk-taker!
I pray that I may always listen to the advice of others, but never miss my power of decision.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
August 23
“They also learned, and perhaps this was the most important thing, how to look at things through the eyes of the Higher Powers.”
–Fools Crow, LAKOTA
Our eyes can only see our beliefs. Our beliefs cause us to make assumptions, draw conclusions, and cause confusion. Our five senses are very limiting. The Creator has a way of allowing us to see or know in the spiritual world. This is called the Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense is like a radar system; our personal radar system. It will help us “see” opportunities and help us avoid disaster. This Sixth Sense is controlled by God. We must learn to listen to it. We must learn to trust it. We must learn to act on it even if our head says differently. We must learn to look at things through the eyes of God.
My Creator, guide me today. If my eyes cause confusion, let me close them and see through Your eyes. If my ears hear confusion, let me listen to my heart. Let me let You guide me.
A Day At A Time
August 23
Reflection For The Day
I heard someone in The Program once read, “Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well, regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house.” That is what Step Seven means to me – that I’m going to clean house and will have all the help I need. Do I realize, by taking the Seventh Step, that I’m not really giving up a thing, but, instead, getting rid of whatever might lead me back to my addiction and away from the peace of mind?
Today I Pray
May I know that if I should give up that key word “humbly,” which combines all in one — my humility, my awe, my faith, I would once again be taking too much on my shoulders and assuming that the Power in my own. May God in His wisdom make His will mine, His strength mine, His goodness mine. As He fills me with these Divine gifts, there can be little space left in me for looming defects.
Today I Will Remember
Trust in God and clean house.
Today’s Gift
August 23
Whenever you fall, pick something up.
—Oswald Avery
There was once a very active boy who fell and broke his leg. He could run again in the spring, the doctors said, but only if he stayed in bed for an entire month and kept his leg still. At first the boy fought the rule, but he found that the more he thought about things he couldn’t do, the more tired and angry he felt.
His parents put in a phone by his bed and friends called every day. He’d never much liked talking on the phone, but he felt better when they called. He wrote letters and got replies, and was surprised at what fun it was. Usually, he didn’t have time to write letters.
He learned to play chess and began to enjoy reading. His days were slower and quieter than he’d been used to, but he learned a month really isn’t a very long time. When spring came, he was running again, a little more joyfully than before.
When we can learn to accept our troubles, we find, like the boy, that they are just packages in which new growth and discoveries are wrapped.
If something unexpected slows me down today, what joys might I find at the slower pace?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
August 23
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.
—Stevie Wonder
It has been easy for many of us to meet our limitations with self-pity. Maybe we think being a real man means always being strong, capable, good looking, and in charge. If we have a handicap, like blindness or a learning disability, we may have thought we were less masculine or less worthy.
All of us have handicaps. Some are greater than others, and some are more visible than others. These handicaps confront us with our powerlessness. We do not find our finest human qualities until we have met our limitations and accepted them. A new side of our strength develops when we accept our powerlessness and yield to it rather than trying to take charge of it. We develop greater vision when we stop feeling sorry for ourselves about our handicap and surrender to its truth. We then see our kinship with all men and women who struggle with their limitations.
Today, I will set aside self-pity and remember to be grateful for the lessons my limitations have taught me.
Daily TAO
August 23
Stress
Job pressures are overwhelming.
Responsibilities are heavy.
When I close my eyes,
The demands of others are all I see.
Sometimes responsibilities can become so great you cannot keep your mental equilibrium. Your attention is scattered. Feelings of frustration lead to tremendous unhappiness. Your insides ache. You don’t get enough sleep, you eat poorly,and you quarrel with others.
The sages may breezily pronounce all of this to be the folly of humanity. The are undoubtedly right, but the words of the sages are too lofty when we are scrounging in the dust for our survival. Many of us must face these pressures, at least for the moment. Even if we would like a way out of the madness, we will not be able to forsake society all at once.
When one is under stress, awareness of Tao is impossible. If you are fighting on the battlefield, or fighting in the office, or fighting in your home, or fighting in your mind, there is no such thing as being with Tao. If you are involved in this type of life, then you must content yourself to face your problems bravely – until you can do nothing other than renounce it.
Every moment you are with your problems, you are not with Tao. The best you can do is to remember our stress is not absolute reality.