Daily Reflections
May 20
Daily Reflection
February 24
A THANKFUL HEART
“I try to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know.”
—AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
February 24
A.A. Thought For The Day
When we came to our first A.A. meeting, we looked up at the wall at the end of the room and saw the sign: “But for the Grace of God.” We knew right then and there that we would have to call on the grace of God in order to get sober and get over our soul-sickness. We heard speakers tell how they had come to depend on a Power greater than themselves. That made sense to us and we made up our minds to try it. Am I depending on the grace of God to help keep me sober?
Meditation For The Day
Share your love, your joy, your happiness, your time, your food. Give freely with a glad, free heart and hand. Do all you can for others and back will come countless stores of blessings. Sharing draws others to you. Take all who come as sent by God and give them a royal welcome. You may never see the results of your sharing. Today they may not need you, but tomorrow may bring results from the sharing you did today.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may make each visitor desire to return. I pray that I may never make anyone feel repulsed or unwanted.
Walk In Dry Places
February 24
Selfishness
Self-improvement
We’re told again and again that we have to be selfish about our own recovery, but this seems to be in conflict with the fact that selfishness is the root of our problem. How can selfishness be both good and bad?
The selfishness we need for recovery is a devotion to self-improvement, rather than the selfish indulgence that made us sick. One is a giving of ourselves, the other is frantic taking that leads to destruction. The person who seeks self-improvement is competing only against his or her former self. The sick brand of selfishness, on the other hand, is usually involved in unhealthy competition with others.
There is no easy way to test whether our selfishness is the right kind. If our conduct leads to long-term happiness and higher self-esteem, it is probably right. If it harms us or others, something is wrong. We can correct this by getting back to the basics of the program and pursing self-improvement rather than self-indulgence.
Just for today, I will take part in that which will obviously benefit everyone.
Keep It Simple
February 24
“Failure is impossible.”
—Susan B. Anthony
Failure is an attitude. Having an attitude of failure can’t help us. It can only hurt us. If we’re not careful, it can grow into a way of life. So, when we feel like failures, we better look at our attitudes.
An attitude of failure often comes from making mistakes. But we can learn to see our mistakes as lessons. This turns mistakes into gains, not failures. Sometimes, we try to do things that just can’t be done.
When we act like we know everything, we’re going to fail. if we try to act like God, we’re going to fail.
We can’t control others. We can’t know everything. We’re not God. We’re human. If we act human, we’ve already won.
Prayer for the Day: Higher power, help me to learn from my attitudes. Whatever the outcome, help me learn.
Action for the Day: Facing our past “failures” is the first step to learning from them. I’ll talk to my sponsor about a past “failure” and the good that came from it.
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
February 24
SELF
“Wherever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.”
—William James
Part of my spiritual journey involves the discovery of “self”. For years I pretended to be what I was not; for years I pretended to be what I imagined myself to be; for years I pretended to be what you wanted me to be—always my real “self” eluded me.
Today I am beginning to know myself. I know my needs. I understand my strengths. I accept my weaknesses and I live with my confusions. From the time I decided to put down the glass of alcohol, it progressively got better—but there is still a great deal I do not understand. Man’s inhumanity to man, the daily violence and suffering, my own personal greed, cowardice and arrogance—where does it come from? I don’t know and today that is okay. However, I still search; my suspicion is that the answer lies within my own insecurities.
In Your time, Master, may I grow in my understanding of self.
“Turn a perceived risk into an asset.”
—Aaron Patzer“Every feature has some maintenance cost, and having fewer features lets us focus on the ones we care about and make sure they work very well.”
—David Karp“It’s not we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.”
—Edwin Land“Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.”
—Tony Hsieh“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
—Thomas Edison“Markets come and go. Good businesses don’t.”
—Fred Wilson
Daily Inspiration
February 24
Talent is the ability to do easily that which others find difficult. Lord, help me to recognize and value the abilities that I have been given and use them gratefully.
Simple trust in God is all that is required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Lord, I love You. I trust in You. I am Your child.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
February 24
“But each of us must find out for himself or herself what their gift is, so that they can use it in their life.”
—Jimmy Jackson, OJIBWAY
The old people say, everyone has a song to sing. This song is the reason we are on this earth. When we are doing what we came on this earth to do, we know true happiness. How will we know our song? Pray. Ask the Great Mystery, “What is it you want me to do during my stay on earth?” Ask. He will tell you. He will even help you develop yourself to accomplish His mission.
Great Spirit, help me find my song and let me sing it.
Journey to the Heart
February 24
There Is Power in Stillness
Our miracles and life’s magic don’t appear when we’re restless and frantic. The miracles and magic happen when we’re still, quiet, calm, and trusting.
Each of us has favorite items and places that help to calm and quiet us. What stills our mind? A walk in the park, a special place in the city, a quiet room? An old chenille robe? A rock, a cross, a picture, a lit candle?
Use these places and things to find that place of stillness in yourself. Find the power in stillness. It’s a power that comes gently, like the morning sunrise or the evening stars.
Take time each day to seek out stillness, to find that sacred spot. Let your mind and soul be at ease. Don’t grasp and grab for the magic and miracles. When you reside in that place of stillness, the joy, miracles, and magic you’re seeking will find you.
Daily TAO
February 24
DIVISION
Problems cannot be
Resolved at once.
Slowly untie knots
Divide to conquer.
In order to solve problems, it is helpful to first understand whether they are puzzle, obstacle, or entanglement. A puzzle need only be analyzed carefully. It is like unraveling a ball of yarn and requires patience more than anything else. An obstacle must be overcome. We must use force and perseverance to either destroy or move away from what is blocking us. An entanglement mires us in a maze of limitations. This most dangerous of situations requires that we use all our resources to extricate ourselves as quickly as possible.
No matter what the problem, however, it is important not to take the thing on whole. Break it down into smaller, more easily handled components. Most problematic situations are combinations of puzzles, obstacles, and entanglements. By fracturing them into these more basic elements, they can be managed easily. Even the greatest of difficulties can be resolved when they are slowly reduced. Then the knots of life are untied as easily as if we had a magic charm.
Touchstones
February 24
“It doesn’t happen all at once … You become. It takes a long time.”
—Margery Williams
Our spiritual awakening is partly a process of becoming real. We’re moving from the external controls of image and others’ opinions to the internal controls of honesty, listening to our inner voice, and having true relationships. We are shedding the games that maintained our old style of life—”macho” or “hero” or “poor me.”
In place of the old phony surface, we are developing a real relationship with ourselves. We are becoming more aware – of emotions, of need for rest, of violations of our values. Sometimes change comes in a flash of insight or a moment of sudden, piercing awareness, but more often it comes a little bit at a time. As we work the Steps, as we are true to our inner voice, as we keep returning to conscious contact with our Higher Power, as we get closer to our friends, we become more real to ourselves.
As I grow, I see that I was always real. I was just looking at the outside.
Food for Thought
February 24
Values
What do I value most? What is number one in my life? What is at the center?
When I was overeating, I was the center. I was the biggest thing in my universe, and all else revolved around me – a frightening state of affairs, since egotism does not bring peace of mind or security. Self was most important to me, and that egotism was my downfall. When I fell off my high horse and hit bottom, I had nowhere to go except to something outside of myself.
As we compulsive overeaters take Step Two and come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity, then we begin to shift the center of our consciousness from ourselves to God. This is our only hope. As long as our weak selves are at the center, we cannot make real progress, either in controlling our addiction or in living useful lives.
When we hit bottom, we are humbled. When we are humbled, we are able to perceive and acknowledge that God is primary and that abstinence is our most important task. Values are sorted out and order brings inner peace and security.
You, Lord, are the center of my life.
Today’s Gift
February 24
“Thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison.”
—Frances Hodgson Burnett
The truck was in mud to its axles. Three lumberjacks sat in stony silence in the cab. There they were, stuck in the woods on their way to the cutting site. The first man slammed the steering wheel, cursed, and stormed out of the truck. The second thought the early morning woods inviting and said he’d just crawl under a pine to nap until someone came along to pull them out. The third man, left alone, grabbed an axe and a saw and set about cutting wood to slide under the wheels. Within an hour he managed to pull the truck out of its muddy bath and they got on their way.
We can choose how we respond to an obstacle. As with the three men, our response may be to curse and give up, to sit back and wait for someone else to help us, or to set to work fearlessly to try to overcome it ourselves. The event itself isn’t important; how we think about it is.
Is there an obstacle in my way today?
Daily Zen
February 24
The dharma of one mind has two doors.
What are those two?
The first is the door of the tathagata
And the second is the door of
Phenomenal change.
Together these two doors are
The summation of all dharmas.
—Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana