Daily Reflections
November 23
HOLD YOUR FACE TO THE LIGHT
Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the moment you do not see.
-AS BILL SEES IT, p. 3
One Sunday in October, during my morning meditation, I glanced out the window at the ash tree in our front yard. At once I was overwhelmed by its magnificent, golden color! As I stared in awe at God’s work of art, the leaves began to fall and, within minutes, the branches were bare. Sadness came over me as I thought of the winter months ahead, but just as I was reflecting on autumn’s annual process, God’s message came through. Like the trees, stripped of their leaves in the fall, sprout new blossoms in the spring, I had had my compulsive, selfish ways removed by God in order for me to blossom into a sober, joyful member of A.A. Thank you, God, for the changing seasons and for my ever-changing life.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
November 23
A.A. Thought For The Day
I no longer refuse to do anything because I cannot do it to perfection. Many of us alcoholics use the excuse of not being able to do something perfectly to enable us to do nothing at all. We pretend to be perfectionists. We are good at telling people how a thing should be done, but when we come to the effort of doing it ourselves, we balk. We say to ourselves: I might make a mistake, so I’d better let the whole thing slide. In A.A. we set our goals high, but that does not prevent us from trying. The mere fact that we will never fully reach these goals does not prevent us from doing the best we can. Have I stopped hiding behind the smoke-screen of perfectionism?
Meditation For The Day
“In the world ye shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” Keep an undaunted spirit. Keep your spirit free and unconquered. You can be undefeated and untouched by failure and all its power, by letting your spirit overcome the world; rise above the earth’s turmoil into the secret chamber of perfect peace and confidence. When a challenge comes to you, remember that you have God’s help and nothing can wholly defeat you.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may have confidence and be of good cheer. I pray that I may not fear the power of failure.
Walk In Dry Places
November 23
The only reason to drink
Staying sober
“There’s only one real reason I can ever have for taking a drink, and that’s because I want to.”
This remark at a meeting sums up AA’s position on why we drink. We never really drink because of pressures and troubles. We drink because we want to, because we feel like taking a drink.
It’s true that a serious crisis, like going into bankruptcy, may make us conscious of an urger to drink. But we know that we’re also likely to have such urges in the face of good fortune. The alcoholic who would drink over a bankruptcy would also probably get drunk if he or she won the lottery.
By refusing to accept all of these alleged “reasons” for drinking, AA simplified our problem so we can deal with it. We either want to drink or we don’t want to drink, period. Even if we want to drink… and some members do.. AA can show us how to stay sober and eventually lose such desires.
Nothing has the power to make me drink today. It is only my own willingness that can destroy my sobriety.
Keep It Simple
November 23
Let me listen to me and not to them.
-Gertrude Stein
Often we try to please everyone around us. But this may not make us happy, and so we get angry. We feel taken advantage of.
We may be kind to others, but first we must love ourselves. How? By learning to listen to ourselves. To our dreams. To our higher power. By doing this we’ll be more happy. And those around us will probably be more happy too. As our AA medallions say, “To Thine Own Self Be True.”
Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll listen to that gentle, loving voice inside me. Higher Power, help me make me make my “conscious contact” with You better.
Action for the Day: I will write down why I need to be true to myself.
Silence is also a form of speech.
-West Africa ProverbEach day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.
-Ruth Ann SchabackerGratitude is our most direct line to God and the angels. If we take the time, no matter how crazy and troubled we feel, we can find something to be thankful for. The more we seek gratitude, the more reason the angels will give us for gratitude and joy to exist in our lives.
-Terry Lynn Taylor“Our personal dispositions are as window panes through which we see the world either as rosy or dull. The way we color the glasses we wear is the way the world seems to us.”
-Bishop Fulton J. Sheen“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
-Brian TracyYou will get nothing out of life unless you make the decision to go after it. Persistence is the key to winning.
-unknown
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
November 23
MEMORIES
“History is the SEEDBED of the future.”
-Leo Booth
I talk about my drinking history, remembering the incidents and losses, because I believe “there is no gain without pain.” To enjoy my sobriety I must share, on a daily basis, the reality of my disease. My pain is rooted in my history. I must live with my disease on a daily basis. I need to be aware of the disease process in my life.
This awareness requires a “rigorously honest” inventory of my past attitudes and behaviors; ignorance is bliss for the disease of addiction! The acceptance and awareness of my past is my treatment for today. The more I understand about my yesterdays the better my recovery will be today. My life has a history and my spiritual program demands that I understand it.
Teach me to face my past so that I can realistically live in my today.
Daily Inspiration
November 23
One of life’s greatest pleasures is meeting and conquering our most difficult moments. Lord, teach me to trust myself and trust that You will never abandon me or my needs.
See opportunity in your difficulties, not difficulty in your opportunities. Lord, I will focus on the goodness today brings to me and look for the many reasons I have to feel joy.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
November 23
“We’re sitting on our blessed Mother Earth from which we get our strength and determination, love and humility, all the beautiful attributes that we’ve been given. So turn to one another; love one another; respect one another; respect Mother Earth; respect the waters-because that’s life itself!”
-Phil Lane, Sr. YANKTON SIOUX
Our entire point of view can be altered by making one change to align with the principles of the Great Spirit.
Let’s say we decide to become respectful. As we become respectful, our attitude will change. We will automatically draw into our lives knowledge about the other principles of the Great Spirit such as love, appreciation, trust, beauty, and peace of mind.
By focusing on these principles, we will let go of selfishness, self centeredness, self pity, dishonesty, and fear. You focus on respect, you get respect; you focus on love, you get love; you focus on the Red Road, you get peace of mind.
Great Spirit, let me learn the lessons of respect.
Journey to the Heart
November 23
Discover the Power of You Heart
Much of the journey has held lessons about power. Many of us have experimented with different kinds of power. At times we may have used force, brute strength. Certainly most of us have experimented with power plays– only to find that they aren’t the answer either. Along the way, some of us may have gotten hard, cold, rigid, even angry– thinking that was a way to own our power.
Often, these attempts don’t signal power. They signal fear. True, for many of us, learning to experience, express, and release our anger has been an important milestone on our path to power. But the power we’re seeking is different from force, coldness, hardness, or power plays. We aren’t learning to flex our muscles that way.
Open to a new kind of power– the power of the heart. Clarity. Compassion. Gentleness. Love. Understanding. Comfort. Forgiveness. Faith. Security with acceptance of ourselves, and all our emotions. Trust. Commitment to loving ourselves, and to an open heart. That’s the power we’re seeking. That’s true power, power that lasts, power that creates the life and love we want. In those situations that call for power, we can trust that brute strength, coldness, or rage won’t get us what we want.
Relax. Stop flexing your muscles. Instead, open your heart. Let power come gently. Let a new strength flow through you. Defend yourself when necessary, but avoid any actions that take you away from peace and joy. Whatever your situation, relax your body, relax your mind, and trust your soul.
Your heart will lead the way, not just to love, but also to power. Let it come gently. Let it come freely. Then the power you receive will be true.
Today’s Gift
November 23
All of the fantasies in your life will never match those I once tried to attain. Now older, it’s more important reaching the more realistic goals, and having them come true.
—Deidra Sarault
Simply knowing that we are important creatures of the universe offers too little security for most of us. We do have a role to play; our talents are special and unique to each of us. Using them in a well-planned manner will benefit us emotionally and spiritually. Others will profit from our talents as well.
Fantasies have their place in our lives, too. They often tempt us to even greater heights. We can’t always collar our fantasies, but we can take the necessary steps to realize the goals that our fantasies have birthed.
Recovery is freeing us to achieve those goals we’d only dreamed of or perhaps feared tackling in the past. The defects that we hid behind before are, with patience, giving way to positive behavior. We can accomplish our heart’s pure desires. We need not let the fear of failure trap us again as it did so many of us for so long.
I will set my sights high and trust the program to coach my progress. My goals are attainable. It only takes one small step at a time.
Touchstones Meditations For Men
November 23
We shall not cease from exploration.
And at the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
—T. S. Eliot
Our spiritual path is like a search leading home. We carry within us a yearning for the ideal, the perfect acceptance and love from our fathers and mothers. We long for fulfillment of our dreams, we long to feel strong and capable, and we want to understand, to truly come into our own.
As we peel back the layers of our defenses, we find what we knew all along. On a deep level, we knew no man could be totally self-sufficient. Now we are coming back to it as if it’s brand new. The best images of our parents’ love and acceptance of us are what we return to as models for how we can be. It is true we can never go home again. Yet our spiritual journey mysteriously leads us back to explore what we knew deeply all along.
I will make peace with my past and explore the deeper knowledge I’ve always held within me.
Daily TAO
November 23
COLORLESS
What’s the difference between the erotic and spiritual?
Temples and lovers are equally gaudy.
What’s the difference between eroticism and spirituality? Both refer to ecstasy. Both lead to transcendence of the self. Both lead to unification with a larger order. Both are vulnerable to the excesses of perversion, lust, sadism, obsession, and madness. Eroticism and spirituality — the two deepest endeavors of humanity are twins.
Both eroticism and spirituality mean intense involvement in the diversity and color of the world. But there is a higher order, a state where one is holiness itself. Then nothing of the world of color matters to you anymore. The pleasures of the couch will mean nothing. Neither will the glories of the ascetic’s efforts mean anything. Only by entering the colorless state of pure, blinding light can there be freedom from the twins.