Daily Reflections
May 11
A NEW SENSE OF BELONGING
Until we had talked with complete candor of our conflicts, and had listened to someone else do the same thing, we still didn’t belong.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 57
After four years in A.A. I was able to discover the freedom from the burden of buried emotions that had caused me so much pain. With the help of A.A., and extra counseling, the pain was released and I felt a complete sense of belonging and peace. I also felt a joy and a love of God that I had never experienced before. I am in awe of the power of Step Five.
Twenty-Four Hours A
Day
May 11
A.A. Thought for the Day
We can depend on those members of any group who have gone all out for the program. They come to meetings. They work with other alcoholics. We don’t have to worry about their slipping. They’re loyal members of the group. I’m trying to be a loyal member of the group. When I’m tempted to take a drink, I tell myself that if I did I’d be letting down the other members who are the best friends I have. Am I going to let them down, if I can help it?
Meditation for the Day
Wherever there is true fellowship and love between people, God’s spirit is always there as the Divine Third. In all human relationships, the Divine Spirit is what brings them together. When a life is changed through the channel of another person, it is God, the Divine Third, who always makes the change, using the person as a means. The moving power behind all spiritual things, all personal relationships between people is God, the Divine Third, who is always there. No personal relationships can be entirely right without the presence of God’s spirit.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be used as a channel by God’s spirit. I pray that I may feel that the Divine Third is always there to help me.
Walk in Dry Places
May 11
Unfair People
Relations
Now and then, we encounter people who are almost blatant in their unfairness to others. We may make a 200-mile drive to a customer who is completely unprepared to see us, despite having had advanced notice. Or we may have a friend who is openly critical of our shortcomings while completely overlooking his or her own.
Unfair though these people may be, they give us the opportunity to exercise spiritual muscles. We can improve ourselves and the world by refusing to retaliate when such unfairness occurs.
The long-term benefit is that many of these unfair people change or fade out of our lives. As we handle such things spiritually, we recall times when we too were unfair, and we realize that such faults are part of the human condition. We are lucky people because we’re being given the opportunity to raise the human condition to a higher level. We also hear that "life’s isn’t fair", it’s just there" Not understanding life completely , we’re not sure about its fairness. What we are sure about is that we value fairness and can show more of it now that we’re sober.
I will not seek out unfair treatment today, but neither will I be upset if it occurs. If it does, I’ll deal with it as another lesson in my spiritual growth.
Keep It Simple
May 11
An honest man’s the noblest work of God.
-Alexander Pope
Step five says, “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” When we did this Step, the person we admitted our wrongs to didn’t run away or reject us. That person stuck with us. Chances are, we were told that we are quite human. And working Step Five helped us to see that we can change, now that we’re sober.
The most important part of Step five is the act of being totally honest about ourselves. Then we know that relationships–with our Higher Power, ourselves, and others–can be built. We have faced the truth. Now we know we never have to lie.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I know no Fifth Step is perfect. Please help me be as honest as I can in doing my Fifth Step and at other times.
Action for the Day: If I’ve avoided doing a Fifth Step, I’ll talk to my sponsor about it today.
“The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.”
–Jim Rohn
What men and women need is encouragement. . . Instead of always harping on a man’s faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits.
–Eleanor H. Porter
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
–Chinese Proverb
An airport is where you go to waste time waiting that you’re going to save flying.
–Cited in BITS & PIECES
I know that what comes to me today is a tiny part of God’s big plan for my life. I am not alone.
–A Woman’s Spirit
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
May 11
PROCRASTINATION
“Procrastination – the art of keeping up with yesterday.”
–Don Marquis
Today I try to do all that I have set myself to do in a given day. I make a list of things that I need to do and a list of those things that I want to do – the things I “need” to do usually take priority.
This was not always the case. As a drinking alcoholic my life was littered with promises that were never kept, intentions that were never honored, appointments and meetings that did not happen. I pushed everything into tomorrow – and tomorrow never came.
My understanding of spirituality involves a responsibility for those things that I need to do. When I awake, I thank God for my sleep and I make a silent intention not to drink today; then I face my responsibilities. I separate my “needs” from my “wants” and I remember that I have a responsibility to other people: family, friends and colleagues. Today I am learning to live in my day.
Lord, may I do the things I should do and may I find time for those things I want to do.
Daily Inspiration
May 11
Stand tall and smile often and it will be very difficult to be unhappy. Lord, may my disposition reflect the joy and peace that is Your Will.
When we give in to fears and worries they will take charge of our lives. Lord, I place my trust in You so that I may experience every opportunity and not miss in life that which is meant for me.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
May 11
“[The Old People] would gather words as they walked a sacred path across the Earth, leaving nothing behind but prayers and offerings.”
-Cleone Thunder, NORTHERN ARAPAHOE
Whenever we walk on the Earth, we should pay attention to what is going on. Too often our minds are somewhere else, thinking about the past or thinking about the future. When we do this, we are missing important lessons. The Earth is a constant flow of lessons and learnings which also include a constant flow of positive feelings. If we are aware as we walk, we will gather words for our lives, the lessons to help our children; we will gather feelings of interconnectedness and calmness. When we experience this, we should say or think thoughts of gratitude. When we do this, the next person to walk on the sacred path will benefit even more.
My Creator, today, let me be aware of the sacred path.
Journey to the
Heart
May 11
Love Yourself Enough to Relax
Our bodies react to the world around us– and within us– in many ways. Our bodies act like sponges– they can soak up healing energy or they can absorb and trap the negative energy of stress and tension. Some of us are so used to keeping our body tense and bound up we don’t even notice how much they hurt, how strained and tight our muscles are.
Connect with your body. Learn to tell how tense it is. Take a few moments throughout the day to see what hurts, what aches, what muscles are being strained. Although tension can affect the entire body, many of us have favorite places in our body to store stress, places that usually become tense, rigid, and full of aches. Necks, shoulders, lower backs are favorite traps. Become familiar with your body and where it stores stress and tension.
Then, learn to relax. Explore different options. Therapeutic massage. Self-hypnosis. Meditation. Soaking in a hot bath. Sitting in the steam room. Exercise. Visualization. Taking time to do activities that bring you pleasure. If you make the effort to explore relaxation techniques, you will find ways to relax that you like and can afford.
If you’ve been soaking up too much stress, give yourself a break. Let your body start soaking up some healing energy,too. Love yourself enough to help your body relax.
Today’s Gift
May 11
I’m delighted that the future is unsure. That’s the way it should be.
—William Sloane Coffin
Some of life’s richest moments are the most unexpected: the old friend met by chance, or the new one discovered when neither of us were really looking; the toy at the bottom of the toy box, rediscovered and loved anew; the book, the flower, the shaft of light we were in the right place at the right time to notice and embrace.
It is important to dream and plan, to work toward goals, to mark the milestones we pass on life’s journey. No less important, though, is to open ourselves to the unexpected joys awaiting us every day.
Am I ready, today, to expect the unexpected?
Touchstones
Meditation For Men
May 11
There is no shortcut to life. To the end of our days, life
is a lesson imperfectly learned.
—Harrison E. Salisbury
There are no perfect days. We have struggled hard against this truth. In our demanding ways, we haven’t wanted life to be a process; we have wanted to reach a secure point of arrival. We have struggled against the dialogue and learning process of experience. We’ve looked for a “fix” and for perfection. Even now in recovery we long to “get it right.” We continue to learn and to grow, but the lessons we learn are not the things we expected. We grieve the lateness of our learning, and then we go on to learn more.
As we grow in this program, we learn how to learn. We become more accepting of life as a process with no shortcut to the truth. We learn to engage in the process and accept that there usually is no right or wrong answer at the end of our search.
Today, may I accept the truth, which comes from the lessons of my experience – and be tolerant of its incompleteness.
Daily TAO
May 11
MEANING
Lightning tears temple asunder.
Divine wrath, or natural disaster?
There was a seaside temple in India that was struck by lightning. That minor storm was the vanguard to a full hurricane that eventually ravaged the entire countryside. The old temple was split from its roof line to its foundations. One entire end of the building was parted from its body like a severed head. Was this karma? Was this the punishment of the gods? Or was it simply an old building and an unfortunate accident?
What you say shows your attitude about nature, reality, and whether you believe gods intervene in human affairs. If you insist that there was some reason that lightning cleaved the temple, then you live in a world where uncertainty is the by-product of some supreme being’s emotional whims. If, however, you accept this incident solely as a natural disaster, then you also accept random occurrences in life. Such a viewpoint does not preclude any notion of the divine, of course. It merely states that not everything in nature is administered by some heavenly bureaucracy.