Daily Reflections
July 6
IDENTIFYING FEAR …
The chief activator of our defects has been self – centered fear.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 76
When I feel uncomfortable, irritated, or depressed, I look for fear. This “evil and corroding thread” is the root of my distress: Fear of failure; fear of other’s opinions; fear of harm, and many other fears. I have found a Higher Power who does not want me to live in fear and, as a result, the experience of A. A. in my life is freedom and joy. I am no longer willing to live with the multitude of character defects that characterized my life while I was drinking. Step Seven is my vehicle to freedom from these defects. I pray for help in identifying the fear underneath the defect, and then I ask God to relieve me of that fear. This method works for me without fail and is one of the great miracles of my life in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
July 6
A. A. Thought for the Day
We tried to study our alcoholic problem, wondering what was the cause of our strange obsession. Many of us took special treatments, hospitalization, even confinement in institutions. In every case, the relief was only temporary. We tried through crazy excuses to convince ourselves that we knew why we drank, but we went on regardless. Finally drinking had gone far beyond even a habit. We had become alcoholics, men and women who had been destroying themselves against their own will. Am I completely free from my alcoholic obsession?
Meditation for the Day
“Ask and ye shall receive.” Never let yourself think you cannot do something useful or that you never will be able to accomplish a useful task. The fact is that you can do practically anything in the field of human relationships, if you are willing to call on God’s supply of strength. The supply may not be immediately available, because you may not be entirely ready to receive it. But it will surely come when you are properly prepared for it. As you grow spiritually, a feeling of being plentifully supplied by God’s strength will possess you and you will be able to accomplish many useful things.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may claim God’s supply of strength by my faith in Him. I pray that it shall be given to me according to my faith.
Walk In Dry Places
July 6
Should we Intervene?
Recovery
The method of conducting interventions is considered an effective way of confronting alcoholics and drug addicts. Interventions are done with the hope that this confrontation will “raise the bottom,” and that the addict will face the condition before there’s further anguish.
However effective interventions may be, they’re not part of the 12 Step program. Our work is based on attraction, not the admitted coercion that’s part of intervention.
If we take part in interventions, this separation should be clearly understood. The person who still suffers should know that the 12 Step program depends on attraction, not any of the other methods that might be available.
It’s important to make this point clear, because the intervention may fail. Whether it does or not, the individual must not be left with the idea that intervention is a 12 Step activity. At any stage, the fellowship is always available to him or her.
I’ll probably see lots of people today who need help in facing their addiction. I’ll know that their recovery comes in God’s good time.
Keep It Simple
July 6
When fate hands us a lemon, let’s try to make lemonade.
—Dale Carnegie
Our illness is one big lemon, but our recovery is lemonade. None of us signed up to be drunks or druggies, but we all signed up for recovery. That’s when the happiness began. Yes, there will be pain, but the joy will far outweigh the pain. The sweet joy of recovery becomes our drink—our lemonade. And, do we drink!
We have new friends. We love ourselves, our Higher Power, our family, and much more. We are creative when we give joy, love and help to others and to ourselves. If your lemonade isn’t sweet enough, add more of your program.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, it’s easy to forget how much You’ve given me. Thank you for all the joy and love You have given me.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll write down what part of recovery I really enjoy. I will then share this list with my group or friend.
Alcoholics
Anonymous
July 6
The Vicious Cycle
How it finally broke a Southerner’s obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A. A. at Philadelphia.
I had completely forgotten the January 8 when I found the Fellowship, and I spent the next four days wandering around New England half drunk, by which I mean I couldn’t get drunk and I couldn’t get sober. I tried to contact the boys in New York, but telegrams bounced right back, and when I finally got Hank on the telephone he fired me right then. This was when I really took my first good look at myself. My loneliness was worse than it had ever been before, for now even my own kind had turned against me. This time it really hurt, more than any hangover ever had. My brilliant agnosticism vanished, and I saw for the first time that those who really believed, or at least honestly tried to find a Power greater than themselves, were much more composed and contented than I had ever been, and they seemed to have a degree of happiness I had never known.
pp. 228-229
Love yourself and all your emotions.
Be as honest with yourself as you can be.
Say how you really feel.
–Melody Beattie
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
–Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it within us or we will find it not.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
God, help me to lower my defenses today, to be open to the good in the people around me and to the good that I have to offer them.
–Melody Beattie
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
–John Wooden
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
July 6
POWER
“The measure of man is what he does with power.”
–Pittacus
With my recovery has come a certain success, and with the success comes power. Power comes with the spiritual program, but it must be exercised responsibly. Just as the disease used alcohol to destroy my life, so it can use power to destroy me in sobriety. Power is a doubled-edged sword that has led many back to drinking. Certainly an abuse of power is not consistent with sobriety.
Today I am respectful of power because I know it can lead to an inflated ego or an arrogant personality that continues to destroy the quality of life. Today I surround myself with friends who will remind me of my roots.
Teach me not to use my White Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage to belittle or patronize those from minority groups.
Teach me to exercise power responsibly.
Daily Inspiration
July 6
Make few promises and keep the ones you make. Lord, grant me the strength to keep my commitments, especially the ones that I make to myself.
Life is what our thinking makes it. Lord, help me visualize myself richly living each day, believing, achieving, and then succeeding.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day – July 6
“Silence is the cornerstone of character.”
–Charles Alexander Eastman, OHIYESA SANTEE SIOUX
Be still and know. Anyone can verbally attack another. Anyone can be a smart aleck. Anyone can be angry and tell other people things that will hurt them.
Anyone can be sarcastic, devaluating and belittling. It takes a Warrior to be silent. Silence is so powerful. Silence can be so loving.
My Creator, if I get into a situation today that needs me to respond with silence, help me to use my silence in a good and sacred way. In my silence, let me be talking to You and You talking to me. Silence is the way of the warrior.
Today’s Gift
July 6
Forgiveness is all-powerful. Forgiveness heals all ills.
—Catherine Ponder
Getting mad at someone, a friend perhaps, is normal. Everybody gets mad sometimes. But when we stay mad for very long, it ruins all the fun we’d planned on having throughout the day. Staying mad multiplies. Sometimes it seems we are mad at the dog, our mom, and another friend, even the TV.
Forgiving the people we’re mad at works like magic. We don’t even have to forgive them out loud. We can forgive them in our own minds. The result is the same. Pretty soon the whole day looks bright again. When we’re mad, we are the ones who suffer most.
Who can I forgive today, and make my day a better one?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
July 6
Is the inventor of the ear unable to hear? Is the creator of the eye unable to see?
—Psalms 94:9
The way we have been restored to our spiritual path is partly a mystery. Our willingness to accept mystery in our lives has taught us we are part of a larger whole. There is more at work in the world than we can know. Acceptance of the larger whole restores us to health.
We are not just separate beings with a private world. Our existence is part of a larger process. We came into being with no control and no forethought on our own part. We arise from a past that no one remembers.
It was when we didn’t see our place – as part of creation – that we were in the greatest pain and difficulty. Now each day, each hour, when we remember we are not in charge, and our will is not in control, we are restored again.
I am thankful for the mystery of recovery. I accept this mystery as part of all the mysteries beyond my control.
Daily TAO
July 6
Artist
Facing blank paper
Is an artist’s terror.
When an artist creates, he or she is like a shaman. Inspiration comes as a gift. Those who follow Tao are the same. Their awareness of Tao is not something they have cleverly formulated, nor is it something they possess. Tao comes to them like a gift. That is why the arts and Tao are so closely allied: The act of receiving and expressing is the same.
Just as an artist dreads not being able to make art, so too does one who follows Tao dread not feeling Tao.
There are many times when we are called upon to be creative: an athlete on the field, a lecturer before an audience, a musician on stage, a cook at the stove, a parent with a child. How do we keep the channel open? Some try by maintaining tidy and regular lives, others by being constantly active. We are all different, and there is no right or wrong. The only thing that counts is feeling Tao in your own life and maintaining that feeling as much of the time as possible. If you find those special things that are latent within and learn to express them, then Tao will be known.