Daily Reflections
May 8
A RESTING PLACE
All of A.A.’s Twelve Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural desires … they all deflate our egos. When it comes to ego deflation, few Steps are harder to take than Five. But scarcely any Step is more necessary to longtime sobriety and peace of mind than this one.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 55
After writing down my character defects, I was unwilling to talk about them, and decided it was time to stop carrying this burden alone. I needed to confess those defects to someone else. I had read – and been told – I could not stay sober unless I did. Step Five provided me with a feeling of belonging, with humility and serenity when I practiced it in my daily living.
It was important to admit my defects of character in the order presented in Step Five: “to God, to ourselves and to another human being.” Admitting to God first paved the way for admission to myself and to another person . As the taking of the Step is described, a feeling of being at one with God and my fellow man brought me to a resting place where I could prepare myself for the remaining Steps toward a full and meaningful sobriety.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
May 8
A.A. Thought for the Day
I’m grateful that I found a program in A.A. that could keep me sober. I’m grateful that A.A. has shown me the way to faith in a Higher Power, because the renewing of that faith has changed my way of life. And I’ve found a happiness and contentment that I had forgotten existed, by simply believing in God and trying to live the kind of a life that I know He wants me to live. As long as I stay grateful, I’ll stay sober. Am I in a grateful frame of mind?
Meditation for the Day
God can work through you better when you are not hurrying. Go very slowly, very quietly, from one duty to the next, taking time to rest and pray between. Do not be too busy. Take everything in order. Venture often into the rest of God and you will find peace. At work that results from resting with God is good work. Claim the power to work miracles in human lives. Know that you can do many things through the Higher Power. Know that you can do good things through God who rests you and gives you strength. Partake regularly of rest and prayer.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not be in too much of a hurry. I pray that I may take time out often to rest with God.
Walk in Dry Places
May 8
Regrets over roads not taken
Releasing the past.
Looking back, every one of us can point to moment when we made choices that helped set the course of our lives. It?s easy to waste time and energy wondering what our lives would have been like if other choices had been made at these critical points.
Such thinking is mostly a waste of time and may reflect dissatisfaction with our lives today. Whatever our past mistakes, the decisions we made that brought us sobriety were the correct ones. Realizing this, many of us even come to feel gratitude for the problem that brought us into the program.
We are never able to say with certainty that different choices made earlier in life would have been better in the long run. Bill W., an AA co-founder, said that a business setback moved him to make the calls that led him to Dr. Bob, the other co-founder. Had his business venture succeeded, it?s doubtful that Bill would have been thinking about helping another alcoholic.
The best choice any of us can make is to turn such maters and questions over to our Higher Power. We have a duty to do the best we can with today?s opportunities and conditions.
I’ll live today in the present. The good experiences from the past are always with me, and I can benefit from any lessons learned by my mistakes.
Keep It Simple
May 8
The only way to speak truth is to speak lovingly.
-Thoreau
Recovery teaches us to tell the truth. We must be honest if we want to save our lives. We must learn to speak with care—care for ourselves and for others. To be honest means to speak in a fair and truthful way. To be honest and loving means learning when to speak, and how to speak, in a caring way. We can help others by honestly telling them what we think and feel and see–but only when we do this with love. We must be careful when we speak. Speaking the truth is like using a sharp knife–it can be used for good, or it can be used to hurt others. We should never handle it carelessly of use it to hurt someone.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know the truth. Help me speak the truth to others with love.
Action for the Day: I’ll make a list of three times I’ve hurt someone be being honest, but not with love. I’ll also list three times I’ve helped someone by being truthful, with love.
Accept and be thankful for the abundance that is yours. Dust off your dreams and find a way to follow them. Life is precious and beautiful. Every breath you take is an opportunity to live life to the fullest.
–Ralph S. Marston, Jr.
“Today, I will relax. I am being prepared. I can let go of timing. I can stop manipulating outcomes. Good things will happen when the time is right, and they will happen naturally.”
–Melody Beattie
“We find comfort among those who agree with us; growth among those who don’t.”
–Frank A. Clark
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
May 8
HONESTY
“Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?”
–Marcus Cicero
The cornerstone of my life today is honesty. It is the quality I most desire in my life because I believe that with honesty comes a knowledge of God, self and relationships. It is the key to my recovery from addiction. It is the key to the meaning of spirituality. Honesty affords me hope for tomorrow.
As an alcoholic I was a dishonest man. I was not just dishonest because I told lies and manipulated the truth, I was dishonest because I refused to risk the journey into self. My dishonesty was not about what I said but what I did not say! Not so much about what I did but what I did not do. My dishonesty stopped me from discovering my God-given dignity.
Today I risk the journey into self and I am discovering more about God “as I understand Him”. My level of honesty helps me to be happy and relaxed with who I am today.
“Be still and know that I am God.” In the silence of self-honesty may I know myself.
Daily Inspiration
May 8
When we want things around us to change, the best place to start in within ourselves. Lord, grant that my frustrations can be a motivation to better myself and my environment.
Tragedy and suffering often opens the soul to the heights of spiritual growth. Lord, let the hardships of my life be my prayer and work to draw You closer and closer.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
May 8
“Anyways, with medicine there’s a time and a place for everything. It only comes around once. You have to get it at the right time.”
-Cecilia Mitchell, MOHAWK
The old ones say two things must be present for a miracle to take place. One, the right time. Two, the right place. This is why we need to honor our ceremonies. Ceremonies are done in an order. This order is applied to open a “door” to the right time and place of the medicine. This door opens to the Spiritual World. The Spiritual World is available to us at the right time and the right place.
My Creator, let me be patient today so the timing is right.
Journey to the Heart
May 8
Love Yourself
No matter what, love yourself.
Love yourself, even if it feels like the world around you is irked with you, even if it feels like those you’ve counted on most have gone away, even if you wonder if God has abandoned you.
When it feels like the journey has stopped, the magic is gone, and you’ve been left sitting on the curb, love yourself. When you’re confused and angry about how things are going or how they’ve gone, love yourself. No matter what happens or where you are, love yourself. No matter if you aren’t certain where you’re going or if there’s anyplace left to go, love yourself.
This situation will change, this time will pass, and the magic will return. So will joy and faith. You will feel connected again– to yourself, God, the universe, and life. But the first thing to do is love yourself. And all the good you want will follow.
Today’s Gift
May 8
Talking little, and with the low, tender part of our voices, as in nodding to one who already knows what you mean.
—Tess Gallagher
Once there was a small child whose only word was no. When she wanted to indicate yes, she nodded her head emphatically. What she liked to do instead of talk was play. She liked to play outside in the meadow with the bugs and rocks and plants.
The mullein was her favorite plant. She rubbed the soft, furry leaves across her cheek. Her mother told her that in the old days, American Indians used these leaves as bandages. Several years later, Lucy picked a mullein leaf and took it in the house to her mother. “Look, Mama. Indian owee.”
We, too, can remember some surprising things from the dim past, before we could talk or understand all that went on around us. Communication does not always depend on words alone but on the tenderness with which they are spoken. Walking through the world in a tender, loving way is a form of communication that goes beyond words to our deepest feelings.
What are some of the ways we show our love without words?
Touchstones Meditation For Men
May 8
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
—Oscar Wilde
The mature man eventually forgives his parents. Any adult can look back and see childhood wrongs and unfairness. Many of us were disappointed by our parents, even neglected or hurt by them. We certainly didn’t get all we wanted or needed. Yet, upon joining the ranks of grown men and women, we become responsible for ourselves. Every situation has limited choices, and we work with what we’ve got. As adults, we realize this is exactly where our parents were when we were children. They, too, were born into an imperfect world and had to do the best they could.
When we can forgive our parents, we are free to accept them as they are, as we might a friend. We can accept them, enjoy the relationship, and forget about collecting old debts. Making peace with them imparts to us the strengths of previous generations and helps us be more at peace with ourselves.
I pray for the maturity and the wisdom to be more forgiving of my parents.
Daily TAO
May 8
LIMITS
Every river has its banks,
Every ocean has its shores.
Constant expansion is not possible. Everything reaches its limits and the wise always try to identify these limits. In the environment, they do not willfully expand civilization at the expense of natural wilderness. In economics, they do not spend beyond the market. In personal relationships, they do not demand more than others can fairly give. In exercise, they do not strain beyond their capacities. In health, they do not go beyond the limits of their age. With such attitudes, the wise can even exploit what others think to be barriers.
When one senses that one has come to the limits of the time and situation, one should conserve one’s energy. Often, this will be in preparation for a challenge to the limits, or a changing over to a new set of constraints. Whenever one comes upon the circumference, it is best to consider carefully and marshal one’s resources before crossing the line. There is always uncertainty, and we must be wary.