Daily Reflections
March 22
NO MORE STRUGGLE
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone — even alcohol.
–ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84
When A.A. found me, I thought I was in for a struggle, and that A.A. might provide the strength I needed to beat alcohol. Victorious in that fight, who knows what other battles I could win. I would need to be strong, though. All my previous experience with life provided that. Today I do not have to struggle or exert my will. If I take those Twelve Steps and let my Higher Power do the real work, my alcohol problem disappears all by itself. My living problems also cease to be struggles. I just have to ask whether acceptance — or change — is required. It is not my will, but His, that needs doing.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
March 22
A.A. Thought For The Day
We’re all looking for the power to overcome drinking. A fellow comes into A.A. and his first question is: How do I get the strength to quit? At first, it seems to him that he will never get the necessary strength. He sees older members who have found the power he is looking for, but he doesn’t know the process by which they got it. This necessary strength comes in many ways. Have I found all the strength I need?
Meditation For The Day
You cannot have a spiritual need which God cannot supply. Your fundamental need is a spiritual need, the need of power to lead the good life. The best spiritual supply is received by you when you want it to pass on to other people. You get it largely by giving it away. God gives you strength as you pass it on to another person. That strength means increased health; increased health means more good work, and more good work means more people helped. And so it goes on, a constant supply to meet all spiritual needs.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that my every spiritual need will be supplied by God. I pray that I may use the power I receive to help others.
Walk in Dry Places
March 22
Let Go and Let God
Guidance.
Though it came from outside AA, the idea of “letting go and letting God” has taken root in the fellowship. The trouble comes when we try to decide what it really means. We obviously need to continue working and we still have to make important decisions. So how do we let God take charge?
Surrendering to God’s will is a shift that takes place in our attitude. We take whatever actions seem reasonable and proper according to our view of things. We remember, however, that a better plan may be unfolding in every situation. In many cases, it can even be a case of wanting too little rather than too much. One member, for example, sought guidance in a business decision. He was disappointed when the deal feel through, but discovered, only a few weeks later, an even better opportunity that worked out perfectly.
“Letting God” is really a form of working Step Eleven.. Seeking “Knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” As we do that, our lives must become enriched and improved in every way.
I’ll approach the day with the idea that God is working it out for the highest good of everybody. Temporary setbacks won’t bother me if I know that God’s plan is unfolding in my life.
Keep It Simple
March 22
If anything, we have tended to be people who wanted it all now. To hope is not
Not to demand.
— On Hope
Maybe we were a bit demanding. Maybe we were a bit impatient. Maybe that’s why we had such little hope.
Hope is believing good will come even in bad time. Hope is knowing that “this, too, shall pass.”
Hope is knowing that no matter how afraid we are, God will be with us. Hope is knowing we never have to be alone again. It is knowing that time that time is on our side. Hope is giving up control. Hope is knowing we never had control in the first place. Hope is believing in ourselves. Hope is what our program is all about.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, in our program we share our experiences, our strengths, and our hopes. Thank you for giving all three of these to me to share.
Action for the Day: I will share my hope for the future with myself, my Higher Power, and my friends. I also will share this with someone who has lost hope.
God, please show me how to put ideas like fun and joy back into my life. Show me how to have more fun in work, in love, and in play.
–Melody Beattie“There are lessons to be learned in every place. The mark of spiritual mastery is the ability to remember God wherever we go, and through whatever we experience.”
–Alan Cohen“A friend will see us at our worst, as well as our best. A friend will not close his or her heart when we have made a mistake. A friend will not condemn us but will compassionately support our return to a state of grace.”
–Marianne WilliamsonSomeone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.
–Les BrownHowever I pray, God hears my prayers.
–Katrina Cassel
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
March 22
FORGIVENESS
“God will forgive me; that’s his business.”
— Heinrich Heine
It took me a long time to accept that God had forgiven the deeds done in my addiction. It took me a long time to comprehend that God is forgiveness, “forgiving love”. Forgiveness unites us with God because it is His nature to forgive.
When I am living the spiritual life, I can unite myself with Him by my acts of forgiveness. And when I forgive others, I am doing a kindness, an act of forgiveness, to myself. Hate used to drain me of energy and it still can if I get caught up in resentments. Forgiveness restores energy and peace.
When I forgive, I am at one with God.
In the forgiveness of others I discover me.
Daily Inspiration
March 22
Think often of your friends and seldom of your enemies and you will surround yourself with good thoughts, leaving little or no room for darkness. Lord, help me search for goodness so that it is goodness that I find.
We take for granted so much of what God has planned for us. Lord, may I have sufficient preparation to meet the challenges of today and rejoice in the person that I am.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
March 22
“Everything’s so simple, and we make everything so complicated. That’s why we’re confused.”
–Vickie Downey, TEWA / Tesuque Pueblo
The Creator designed a very simple set of Laws for us to follow. If we follow these simple things, we’ll be happy. If we don’t follow these simple things, our lives become complicated. For example:
•Respect Mother Earth
•Love one another
•Be truthful
•Give to your brother and sisters
•Be gentle with each other
•Be happy
Following these simple Laws will have great rewards.
Great Spirit, let me lead a simple life.
Journey to the Heart
March 22
Don’t Be Controlled by Love
Using love to control and manipulate is heartbreaking. It can break the heart of the person doing it, it can break the heart of the person it’s being done to.
So often, controlling through love is done almost unconsciously. It’s a dance people do out of habit to get their needs met. Their reasons don’t matter, although it’s easier to have compassion for those who control unknowingly than those who use the power of love maliciously and viciously.
What matters is how you respond if it’s being done to you. What matters is that you don’t do it to other people.
Open your heart and see the truth. Set yourself free. If someone is controlling you by using your love for them or your need to be loved, acknowledge it. If you are doing it to someone else, acknowledge that,too. Once you see the truth, you can set yourself free.
So much of what we need to do to free our hearts and souls is simply to acknowledge the truth. The rest will happen naturally.
Love has no price. It’s only love if it’s free.
Today’s Gift
March 22
Real men don’t vacuum.
—Anna Genich
Once, not so long ago, there was a family who tried to divide up housework equally. The father signed up for vacuuming, but he never got around to doing it.
One morning he told everyone about his dream the night before. He was lined up in the dining room with an entire football team, and they all ran in a line through the house, pushing the clutter and dirt up against the walls and out of the way. They came to a finish at the picture window, where the father turned and raised his arms in victory. Then he saw his wife watching him, so he explained, “Heroes don’t vacuum.”
Perhaps each of us is a hero at one time or another. In that case, we might take turns at different chores, rewarding the day’s hero with a day off from vacuuming or dish washing. When we work together to get the chores done, we become a family of heroes, and can feel a healthy pride in our warm, loving, and clean home.
How can we share housework more equally?
Touchstones Meditation For Men
March 22
Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the path can substitute for putting one foot in front of the other.
—M. C. Richards
Recovering men know this path is not always easy. We usually talk about the benefits of recovery and the many promises of the program. Today, in our fellowship, we talk of the challenges we must face in order to recover. Honesty may be the greatest challenge. It is frightening to be honest with ourselves about things we have never really admitted or faced before.
Sometimes we have new and confusing feelings and think something must be wrong with us. But we may be just experiencing the logical outcome of our earlier commitment to be honest. No one recovers by thinking about it. We must actively take each Step and meet the challenges presented. We are not alone with our difficulties. We are part of a large movement of men committed to recovery, and this quiet moment is one way in which we are simply putting one foot in front of the other.
Today, I pray for the courage to remain faithful when the fears and pains of my transformation are overwhelming.
Daily TAO
March 22
SAILING
Infinite expanse, sleek ocean teaming with life,
Turbulent, virile, ever-moving spread,
Seamlessly laid to the brilliant sky,
I float on you in my fashioned womb,
Sustained against your green-black depths.
Those on land never understand maritime life.
Those of the sea are intimate with your moods;
They navigate but are ultimately helpless.
Destinations become useless, drifting the sole reality:
A sailor’s fears dissolve into acceptance.
Tao is sometimes compared to the ocean. Its depth is immeasurable, its power rules all who enter it. We seek to sail it with our knowledge of knots, direction, mathematics, and charts, yet our understanding is incomparable to its vastness. The young have great ambitions about exploring both above and below the surface, while the old have given in: They know that there is no other alternative than to accept the ocean and float upon it. One who accepts is sustained. Those who go beyond its terms meet death. Thus the wise say that they float here and there without care; they trust in the overwhelming power of Tao.
Daily Zen
March 22
To find a Buddha,
you have to see your nature.
Whoever sees his or her nature is a Buddha.
If you don’t see your nature,
invoking Buddhas results in good karma.
Reciting sutras results in good memory.
Keeping precepts results in a good rebirth.
And making offerings results in future blessings.
But no Buddha.
– Bodhidharma (d. 533)