Daily Reflections
November 17
OVERCOMING LONELINESS
“Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness. Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn’t quite belong.”
–AS BILL SEES IT, p. 90
The agonies and the void that I often felt inside occur less and less frequently in my life today. I have learned to cope with solitude. It is only when I am alone and calm that I am able to communicate with God, for He cannot reach me when I am in turmoil. It is good to maintain contact with God at all times, but it is absolutely essential that, when everything seems to go wrong, I maintain that contact through prayer and meditation.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
November 17
A.A. Thought For The Day
Everyone has two personalities, a good and a bad. We are all dual personalities to some extent. When we were drinking, the bad personality was in control. We did things when we were drunk that we would never do when we were sober. When we sober up, we are different people. Then we wonder how we could have done the things we did. But we drink again, and again our bad side comes out. So we are back and forth, always in conflict with our other selves, always in a stew. This division of ourselves is not good; we must somehow become unified. We do this by giving ourselves wholeheartedly to A.A. and to sobriety. Have I become unified?
Meditation For The Day
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of Thy Lord.” These words are for many ordinary people whom the world may pass by, unrecognizing. Not to the world-famed, the proud, the wealthy, are these words spoken, but to the quiet followers who serve God unobtrusively yet faithfully, who bear their crosses bravely and put a smiling face to the world. “Enter into the joy of Thy Lord.” Pass into that fuller spiritual life, which is a life of joy and peace.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may not desire the world’s applause. I pray that I may not seek rewards for doing what I believe is right.
Walk In Dry Places
November 17
Are we doing well enough?
Success
Sometimes we can get off the track by mixing AA with the world’s ideas of success.
In AA, success means staying sober while using the AA principles in our daily affairs. We can be successful people in all walks of life.
We should never think that a person is unsuccessful merely because he or she holds a low-paying job or has not regained any business or professional stature that has been lost. One of our members, for example, had once been the senior member of a lucrative law partnership before drinking himself into the gutter. In his sober years, he found great satisfaction in a relatively low- paying judgeship. In worldly terms, he could be seen as less successful. In AA terms, however, this period was the truly successful part of his life.
Our Higher Power will show us where our place in life should be. That should be success enough for any of us.
I’ll do my best today in whatever job I have, grateful for the sobriety that helps me stay self-supporting and happy.
Keep It Simple
November 17
“Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”
–Herman Melville
We have hung on in hard times. We made it through our addiction. Some of us have lived through abuse. We’ve felt like our hearts were broken. But we’ve proven we are survivors. Now we’re learning that we can heal.
Being recovery doesn’t mean things will be easy. But we have a Higher Power to help us. We have friends who listen to us, care for us, and help us through the pain. Because of our recovery program, we’re able to keep hope and love in our lives–One Day at a Time.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me through the hard times. Help me trust in Your love and care.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll plan ahead with my sponsor. What will I do now so that I’ll have strong support when hard times come?
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
–Agatha Christie
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
–W.T. Purkiser
“The source of love is deep in us, and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh
“Never let the word “impossible” stop you from pursuing what your heart and spirit urge you to do. Impossible things come true every day.”
–Robert K. Cooper
“Nothing is impossible to the willing heart.”
–Thomas Heywood
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
November 17
EXPERIENCE
“Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.”
–Aldous Huxley
Today I experience the joy of sobriety. Today I experience God in my world. Today I experience the peace and serenity that for years eluded me.
Experience is the key. It locates all that is in my life. Experience allows me to appreciate what living is all about.
Love is to be felt. Forgiveness is to be experienced. Humility is to be lived in action. Hope is to be recognized in the brightness of the eye.
Life is to be experienced. That is spirituality.
May the God that I experience be reflected in daily life.
Daily Inspiration
November 17
You will not create a new life by simply forgetting the old one. Lord, help me create new values and new goals so that I will become a peaceful spirit which will bring newness and freshness to my life and allow me to greet the day with enthusiasm.
Never underestimate the power of your presence nor your ability to comfort and encourage. Lord, thank You for my opportunities to do Your work.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
November 17
“Humbleness means peace and honesty — both mean Hopi.
True, honest, perfect words — that’s what we call Hopi words. In all languages, not just in Hopi. We strive to be Hopi. We call ourselves Hopi because maybe one or two of us will become Hopi. Each person must look into their heart and make changes so that you may become Hopi when you reach your destination.”
–Percy Lomaquahu, HOPI
The Creator has made available to us all the laws, principles and values which we need to know to live in harmony. The Creator also designed each human being to learn and grow by trial and error. We have tools to help us live the right way. We have prayers, visions, nature, teachers, Elders, and we have the Great Spirit to talk to and ask for help when we have problems. We also have choice. To walk the Red Road takes courage and a lot of prayer.
Creator, give me courage to walk the Red Road.
Journey to the Heart
November 17
Discover the Power of Loving Yourself
Sometimes it’s hard to trust life with all its sudden twists, turns, and storms. When something unexpected or painful happens, when we become blocked or frustrated, when life takes a different course than we hoped it would, it’s easy to stop trusting the flow of our lives. I didn’t ask for this. It’s not fair. I don’t want this, we think. This road isn’t leading anywhere, at least nowhere I want to go. Often, when we feel life has turned on us, we respond by turning on ourselves. But turning on ourselves doesn’t help. In fact, it can compound the situation. It can prevent us from hearing and acting on the very guidance that will lead us through, get us through, and take us to the next place. It can prevent us from hearing our heart.
Keep loving yourself, and taking care of yourself, no matter what– through the storms,the twists, the turns, and the blocks. Take a moment, breathe deep, restore yourself to that sacred place of self-love and self-responsibility. Feel all your feelings. Then let them go. Love yourself until you can hear your heart and what it tells you to do. Love yourself until you find the courage to act on that guidance.
Loving yourself is a powerful tool, a powerful force for change. It can reconnect you to creativity, to universal love, to the best possible flow of events within your life. It can and will reconnect you to life’s magic.
There is a trustworthy road through whatever life brings. Loving yourself will help you find it.
Today’s Gift
November 17
“Down in a green and shady bed
A modest violet grew;
Its stalk was bent, it hung its head,
As if to hide from view.”
—Jane Taylor
Shyness can be painful. Those of us who are shy do not choose to be this way. There are no quick and easy solutions to shyness, but it isn’t the worst thing that could happen to us. And there are some things we can do about it. We can be willing to talk about it with someone we trust. We can exercise to build strength and self-confidence, and we can avoid dwelling on the problem. Most of all, we should not let shyness keep us from doing things. We may be a little uncomfortable, but that doesn’t have to stop us from doing the task at hand to the best of our ability.
We can be assured that the ability to succeed is within us, and keep in mind that, if we offer love to those around us, their answering love will help us overcome our shyness.
What am I no longer too shy to try today?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
November 17
“You cannot devalue the body and value the soul – or value anything else. The isolation of the body sets it into direct conflict with everything else in creation.”
—Wendell Berry
Our bodies are part of creation as much as trees, lakes, mountains, flowers, and animals. Part of our growth into full manhood is treating ourselves respectfully. It is a spiritual practice to be fully accepting, active, and alive physically.
We can no longer be content to be only spectator sportsmen in front of the televisIon set. We need to get our own muscles moving. What we take in as food expresses the level of respect we feel for ourselves. Our sexual expressions reflect the value we feel for our own bodies and our partners’. Our spiritual feelings become part of all the basic details of our lives.
Today, I stand in God’s creation as a physical body. My spiritual experience includes all the ways I care for and accept my body.
Daily TAO
November 17
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Be self-sufficient but not isolated.
When the king of China closed the borders,
Centuries of stagnation and decadence began.
All the philosophy of Tao is intended to lead to self-sufficiency. Whatever one needs to do in life, one should be able to do on one’s own. Whether one is trapped in the wilderness or whether one is dealing with a social gathering requiring etiquette and grace, one should be able to cope with aplomb and ease.
Being self-sufficient is not the same as being isolated. This is a very important point. When the king of China closed the borders, the country was self-sufficient enough to enjoy the isolation very well. The entire nation withdrew into a magic contentment. But eventually an inbred society developed. Stagnation and decay set in.
The same problems can arise in people who are so self-sufficient that they fail to engage life fully. Either they will implode from the sheer weight of their own decadence and stagnation, or they will explode once the outside world confronts them with something they cannot comprehend.