Daily Reflections
June 11
FAMILY OBLIGATIONS
… a spiritual life which does not include … family obligations may not be so perfect after all.
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129
I can be doing great in the program–applying it at meetings, at work, and in service activities–and find that things have gone to pieces at home. I expect my loved ones to understand, but they cannot. I expect them to see and value my progress, but they don’t–unless I show them. Do I neglect their needs and desire for my attention and concern? When I’m around them, am I irritable or boring? Are my “amends” a mumbled “Sorry,” or do they take the form of patience and tolerance? Do I preach to them, trying to reform or “fix” them? Have I ever really cleaned house with them? “The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.”
(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83).
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
June 11
A. A. Thought for the Day
We alcoholics have to believe in some Power greater than ourselves. Yes, we have to believe in God. Not to believe in a Higher Power drives us to atheism. Atheism, it has been said before, is blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere. That’s practically impossible to believe. So we turn to that Divine Principle in the universe that we call God. Have I stopped trying to run my own life?
Meditation for the Day
“Lord, we thank Thee for the great gift of peace, that peace which passeth all understanding, that peace which the world can neither give nor take away.” That is the peace that only God can give in the midst of a restless world and surrounded by trouble and difficulty. To know that peace is to have received the stamp of the kingdom of God. When you have earned that peace, you are fit to judge between true and false values, between the values of the kingdom of God and the values of all that the world has to offer.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that today I may have inner peace. I pray that today I may be at peace with myself.
Walk in Dry Places
June 11
What can we change?
Handling limitations.
There’s always danger that resignation will masquerade as acceptance. In 12 Step programs, we must learn the difference between the two. Resignation refers to putting up with conditions that we should actually change; it regards self-imposed limitation. Acceptance means recognizing reality and becoming comfortable with it.
We might resign ourselves to bad treatment that is unacceptable, or we might put up with personal shortcomings that we could change. When someone points this out, we defend ourselves by asserting points this out., we defend ourselves by asserting that we’re practicing acceptance.
As human beings and children of God, we are entitled to live with dignity and to receive fair treatment. We should never resign ourselves to anything that robs us of this basic humanity. Our Higher Power will show us how to eliminate resignation if we have been practicing it. The message of the program is that we never have to accept the things we can and should change.
Today if I am uncomfortable with something, I’ll ask myself if I’ve been practicing resignation instead of acceptance. There may be many things in my life that can and should be changed.
Keep It Simple
June 11
Who is the bravest hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.
— Hebrew Proverb
In recovery we take our worst enemy, addiction, and turn it around. We were ashamed of our addiction. Over time we become proud of our recovery. We were our own worst enemy. Now we’re our own best friend. We are brave people.
Being brave is about facing our fears. Often we think brave people don’t get afraid, but this isn’t true. Brave people learn to stay put, even when their knees are shaking. Many times in recovery, we will want to run when we should stay put. We may even think about using chemicals again.
We need to remember our bravery and how we turned our worst enemy into a friend.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, teach me when to run and when to stay put. Help me be brave.
Action for the Day: I will claim bravery today. I’ll hold my head up high and be proud of how far I’ve come. I now have nothing to be ashamed of.
“No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.”
–Abraham Lincoln
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
The right time for the journey is when you begin it. Why not today? God, motivate me to live a fuller, richer life.
–An excerpt from Melody Beattie – (More Language of Letting Go)
“There is a very little difference between people; it is called attitude; and it makes a really big difference. The big difference is whether it’s positive or negative.”
–W. Clement Stone
“Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.”
–Eric Hoffer
Look past the body, past the personality, past the behavior, into the window of one another’s souls. There we make a connection. The God in me recognizes and honors the God in you.
–Mary Manin Morrissey
Wish not so much to live long, as to live well.
– Benjamin Franklin
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
–Epictetus
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
June 11
SOLITUDE
“Everyone should try to find a spot to be alone.”
–Queen Juliana (Netherlands)
Greta Garbo was reported to have said, “I want to be alone.” Life brings its pressures, but we all need to find a place where we can be “alone”.
Alone – not to “think” or “do” – simply to be. We need time to simply rest in our lives. A time in the day which we can call our own, to have a visit with the most important person we have got in our lives – ourselves.
To rest in self is to experience “spiritual selfishness” – the joy of self-love.
And how much we look forward to setting aside a time just for heart and mind to center on the pathway to listening to God.
Daily Inspiration
June 11
It is laughter that helps us cope with the upsets and chaos of everyday living. Lord, lighten my spirit so that I will not take myself so seriously and be able to find more moments to laugh.
Take care of yourself so that you may give care to others. Lord, may I never totally ignore myself and my feelings for the sake of others and fit in time daily to refresh my spirit.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
June 11
“Behold, my bothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love!”
–Sitting Bull, SIOUX
Spring is the season of love. Spring is the season of new life, new relationships. It is the springtime that really reacts to the new position of Father Sun. New life forms all over the planet. Life is abundant. New cycles are created. Mother Earth changes colors, the flowers are abundant. It is the time for humans to observe nature and let nature create within us the feeling of Spring. We should let ourselves renew. We should let go of the feeling of Winter. We should be joyful and energetic.
My Maker, let me, today, feel the feelings of Spring.
Today’s Gift
June 11
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength.
—A. J. Cronin
There is always something to worry about. What if it rains tomorrow on the family picnic? What if the baby gets sick and we can’t go? What if we can’t find a shady spot for our lunch table? Will the water be too cold for swimming? Will the boat motor conk out in the middle of the lake? What if we forget the charcoal? Or the lighter fluid?
Today, while preparing the potato salad for tomorrow’s picnic, all we need to know is whether the potatoes are cool enough to peel and slice. Our worries about tomorrow change nothing but ourselves, and they have nothing to do with
what we are doing right now. Tomorrow will become today soon enough, and today is the day we have.
Which of my worries belong only to tomorrow and should be left alone until then?
Touchstones
Meditations For Men
June 11
We are each so much more than what some reduce to measuring.
—Karen Kaiser Clark
Our society places great emphasis on how well each person is doing. It makes us judgmental and competitive. As children we may have thought that our real value was measured by the grades we got in school or the scores of our baseball games. As grown men we continue measuring our worth by things like the size of our wages, the model of the car we drive, or even how many months or years we have in recovery.
We can’t stop the measuring, but we are in a program that helps us step outside this system. We seek to know and do the will of our Higher Power, which is beyond the limitations of such measurements. Submitting our own will to our Higher Power releases us from the competition and the judgments in these games of measurement. Our loyalties are to values like honesty, respect, peace, and wholeness.
Today, I will remember that my value as a man isn’t measured on a man-made scale.
Daily TAO
June 11
Accessibility
As long as the sun rises
And your heart beats,
Tao is at hand.
People think that Tao can only be known through fairy-tale stories of old men in the mountains or obscure poetry about gods riding dragons. Others declare that elaborate ritual, frightening talismans, and mumblings from the depths of spirit possession are necessary for understanding. This is imply not true. Why put another’s experience before your own? Tao is in each of us. Admittedly, an individual’s common ignorance usually obscures awareness of Tao, but this does not mean there is no Tao or that it is not important. Tao is there for us to experience any time that can open ourselves to it.
Is the sun shining? Does night follow day? Is the sky blue? Do you have feeling? Then it is possible to know Tao directly and immediately. Don’t delay, don’t think yourself too insignificant. Feel for it. Right now. As long as you are alive, Tao is right at hand.