Daily Reflections
May 23
SPIRITUAL HEALTH
When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p 64
It is very difficult for me to come to terms with my spiritual illness because of my great pride, disguised by my material successes and my intellectual power. Intelligence is not incompatible with humility, provided I place humility first. To seek prestige and wealth is the ultimate goal for many in the modern world. To be fashionable and to seem better than I really am is a spiritual illness.
To recognize and to admit my weakness is the beginning of good spiritual health. It is a sign of spiritual health to be able to ask God every day to enlighten me, to recognize His will, and to have the strength to execute it. My spiritual health is excellent when I realize that the better I get, the more I discover how much help I need from others.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
May 23
A.A. Thought for the Day
The Twelfth Step of A.A., working with others, can be subdivided into five parts, five words beginning with the letter C; confidence, confession, conviction, conversion, and continuance. The first thing in trying to help other alcoholics is to get their confidence. We do this by telling them our own experiences with drinking, so that they see that we know what we’re talking about. If we share our experiences frankly, they will know that we are sincerely trying to help them. They will realize that they’re not alone and that others have had experiences as bad or worse than theirs. This gives them confidence that they can be helped. Do I care enough about other alcoholics to get their confidence?
Meditation for the Day
I fail not so much when tragedy happens as I did before the happening, by all the little things I might have done, but did not do. I must prepare for the future by doing the right thing at the right time now. If a thing should be done, I should deal with that thing today and get it righted with God before I allow myself to undertake any new duty. I should look upon myself as performing God’s errands and then coming back to Him to tell Him in quiet communion that the message has been delivered or the task done.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may seek no credit for the results of what I do. I pray that I may leave the outcome of my actions to God.
Walk in Dry Places
May 23
Avoid the paralysis
of analysis
Practical Spirituality
The good news of the Twelve step program is that we have a Higher Power whose presence serves as a source of guidance and understanding as we go through each day. Letting this power work through us is only a matter of will….. God draws as near to us as we wish to draw near to God.
As we let our Higher Power work, we remember that no scientific explanation for this process is necessary. We could paralyze our spiritual activity by trying to analyze it, thus bringing about an undesirable “paralysis or analysis.” It’s also not necessary to win another’s endorsement of what we’re trying to do. We must not be influenced by any scorn or ridicule of our efforts.
All that’s necessary is that we know God in our own lives and stay faithful to our program. We let the presence of God work freely and smoothly as we go about our business.
I’ll work today with the comfortable knowledge that God is really doing work through me.
Keep It Simple
May 23
The present will not long endure.
-Pindar
At certain moments, our best friend is time. Time is a gift given us. Time helps us heal. We need to know that when things are tough, these times will pass, and peace will return. Our Higher Power can be like a parent who comforts a child when there’s a storm outside. The parent gently reminds the child the sun will shine again.
Tough times come and go. There will be times when life is ugly and very painful. We can’t be happy all the time. Remember, our Higher Power is always there. We must have faith in this. A saying often heard in the program is, “This too shall pass.”
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, remind me that things will get better. Even if they get worst for a while, they will get better. Let this be my prayer in hard times.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list times in my life when I thought I couldn’t go on. I’ll remember the pain, but I’ll also remember how time was my friend.
Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa said: “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
–Cited in BITS & PIECES
Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
–Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.”
–Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“If we take care of the inches, we will not have to worry about the miles.”
–Hartley Coleridge
This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess.
–Rainer Maria Rilke
Father Leo’s Daily
Meditation
May 23
EFFORT
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
–Theodore Roosevelt
Because we are not perfect, we need only do our best. Because our recovery from addiction is an on-going process, we will discover that our best is improving on a daily basis. It is so easy to beat ourselves up emotionally by thinking that our best is not good enough. Even after years of recovery we still hear the old tapes: “People do not want to listen to you.” “Is that all that you can do?”
We need to remember that the disease of addiction still lives in our recovery. However, our honest attempts at dealing with a problem or helping another with a problem – provided they are honest attempts – will usually be more than sufficient.
Today I accept my best attempts with gratitude and I am not too proud to seek the advice of another.
God, accept the best that I can offer as an instrument of Your peace.
Daily Inspiration
May 23
Instead of overreacting, try under-reacting because this response shows wisdom, patience and peace. Lord, help me respond to situations in a manner that allows me to solve problems rather than create more.
Be sensitive to the feelings of others and show the same forgiveness and compassion that the Lord gives to you. Lord, give me the wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen.
Elder’s Meditation
of the Day
May 23
“To me, if you’re Indian, you’re Indian. You don’t have to put on your buckskin, beads, and feathers, and stuff like that.”
–Cecilia Mitchell, MOHAWK
The most important thing that determines who we are is on our insides, not our outsides. If we are Indian inside, that’s all that matters. Being Indian means to think right, to be spiritual, and to pray. Feathers and beads don’t make us Indian. Being Indian means to have a good heart and a good mind.
Great Spirit, today, let me think Indian.
Journey to the
Heart
May 23
Trust That Guidance Will Come
Trust and act on the guidance you have now.
Some parts of our lives appear like a long, paved highway. We can see exactly where to go; we have a panoramic view. Other times, it may feel like we’re driving in the dark with only one headlight on a winding road through the fog. We can only see a few feet in front of the car.
Don’t worry if you can’t see that far ahead, if you only have a glimmer of light to guide your path. Slow down. Listen to your heart. Guidance will come. Trust what you hear. Do the small thing. Take the one step. Go as far as you can see.
Then go back to your heart, and you’ll hear the next step. It may be a step of immediate action, or deliberate inaction. Sometimes you may have to quiet down, wait, and prepare yourself to hear what you’re to do next.
Trust and act on the guidance you have now, and more will come.
Today’s Gift
May 23
The prayer of the chicken hawk does not get him the chicken.
—Swahili Proverb
Imagine flying high over the grassy plains searching with piercing eyes for dinner down below. The sun is warm on our backs as we catch the heated updrafts and rest, always watching, always praying, that dinner will be provided for the little ones back in the nest.
Dinner will be provided, of that the hawk is sure. It has faith. But the faith and the prayer will not put the chicken in its talons. It is going to have to keep looking, and, when it spots the prey, its wings will fold back, and its sleek body will plummet out of the sky. It will brake quickly with broad wings and clasp the unsuspecting supper on the fly.
Like the hawk, once we have prayed, we must get to work. Our goal isn’t going to be done for us. We can pray for the strength and wisdom we will need to get it done, and that prayer will be answered. But, as the hawk knows, it’s up to us to do the work.
What is my goal today, and my first step toward it?
Touchstones
Meditation For Men
May 23
You see, I just can’t stop! Or tie myself to any one. I have
affairs that last as long as a year, a year and a half, months and months of
love, both tender and voluptuous, but in the end – it is as inevitable as death
– time marches on and lust peters out.
—Philip Roth
Fears of intimacy, of learning about ourselves in a committed relationship, have kept many of us lonely. Focusing on the need for a sexual high helps us avoid the intimacy we fear. Whether we are in a long-term relationship or not, thinking that sex is love limits our chances for a comfortable intimacy. Sex is an expression of an intimacy that already exists, rather than a way to become intimate.
Many of us fear closeness beyond the romantic stage. Others of us have pursued closeness, but when we met our own emptiness we said that wasn’t the right person for us and ran in search of another excitement. The problem for us isn’t the choice between singleness and marriage, but between letting someone truly know us or not.
I will set aside my fears and learn the pleasure of intimacy.
Daily TAO
May 23
INTUITION
Hawk doesn’t think during the hunt.
It does not care for theory or ethics.
All that it does is natural.
Animals live simple lives close to Tao. They do not need to think or reason : They never doubt themselves. When they are hungry, they eat. When they are tired, they sleep. They respond to the cycles of the day according to their intuition. They mate at the proper season, and they nurture their young according to their own understanding. When they die, they fall under the teeth of predators or the dispassionate turning of the seasons.
By contrast, we as human beings depart from the natural norm, and worry about ethical action. Extremes of behavior have become more varied running the gamut from the sadistic to the moralistic. Tao considers all this artificial and unnatural. Why divorce ourselves from nature?