Daily Reflections
November 30
PROTECTION FOR ALL
At the personal level, anonymity provides protection for all members from identification as alcoholics, a safeguard often of special importance to newcomers. At the level of press, radio, TV, and films, anonymity stresses the equality in the Fellowship of all members by putting the brake on those who might otherwise exploit their A.A. affiliation to achieve recognition, power, or personal gain.
-UNDERSTANDING ANONYMITY p. 5
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
November 30
A.A. Thought For The Day
We have slips in A.A. It has been said these are not slips but premeditated drunks, because we have to think about taking a drink before we actually take one. The thought always comes before the act. It has been suggested that people should always get in touch with an A.A. before taking that first drink. The failure to do so makes it probable that they decided to take the drink anyway. And yet the thoughts that come before taking a drink are often largely subconscious. People usually don’t know consciously what made them do it. Therefore, the common practice is to call these things slips. Am I on guard against wrong thinking?
Meditation For The Day
“The eternal God is thy refuge.” He is a sanctuary, a refuge from the cares of life. You can get away from the misunderstanding of others by retiring into your own place of meditation. But from yourself, from your sense of failure, your weakness, your shortcomings, whither can you flee? Only to the eternal God, your refuge, until the immensity of His spirit envelopes your spirit and it loses its smallness and weakness and comes into harmony again with His.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may lose my limitations in the immensity of God’s love. I pray that my spirit may be in harmony with His spirit.
Walk In Dry Places
November 30
Spiritual pride
Seeking humility
Those of us who have found a Higher Power in our lives can feel truly blessed. We know we’re on the right path by witnessing the wonderful changes that continue to come into our lives.
One pitfall in this, however, is the risk of becoming “spiritually proud.” We sometimes feel that our beliefs are so superior that others should accept them as well. We even become critical of the beliefs of others.
If this happens, we actually will be severing our own conscious contact with our higher power. False pride is a new form will be back in charge. Others will sense this too, and may withdraw from us.
Our best safeguard against this trap of spiritual pride is a reminder that we don’t have all the answers. We can share our understanding with others, but we should never imply that we know what’s best for them. Spiritual growth should being humility, not more of the pride that was destroying us.
I can leave all outcomes in God’s hands today, knowing that everything is being controlled in a spiritual way.
Keep It Simple
November 30
The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.
-Bernard Malamud
Sobriety is freedom. With this freedom, we have a responsibility to help other addicts who still suffer. The program tells us this in Step Twelve. We do this by telling our stories and offering hope.
We must be ready to care, to give ourselves. This is what spirituality is about. When we help others, we prepare the road for those who enter the program after us.
Tradition Five of the Twelve Traditions says, “Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.” It means we get better by helping others.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me create more freedom. Bring me to where I’m needed. Help me carry the message well.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think of ways I can help the addict who still suffers. Then I’ll chose one way I can be of help. I’ll talk with my sponsor about it, and I’ll follow through with my plan.
A loving heart is the truest wisdom.
-Charles Dickens“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
-unknownHe is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
-Henry Ward BeecherAll I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
-Victor Hugo
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
November 30
FATE
“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
-William E. Henley
Things do not just happen, we make them happen. For years I thought that my getting well was dependent upon my family getting well. I rooted my recovery in the recovery of others. I was the typical co-dependent.
Then somebody said, “Why don’t you start taking responsibility for your own life?” I thought about that remark for weeks. I spent nights dwelling on the implications of those words. I am sure that I had heard similar sentiments a hundred times but that night, that special night, I was ready to hear them. A spiritual moment.
Today I believe that such spiritual moments produce a spiritual process that I must keep alive. I am the deciding factor in what happens to me and what I can achieve. God has created me to be involved in my recovery.
May I always steer my life in the direction of truth and love.
Daily Inspiration
November 30
You cannot really listen to someone and do something else at the same time. Lord, teach me to truly pay attention when someone speaks to me because it is in listening that I will gain wisdom.
God doesn’t always end the storm, but He will calm your spirit and give you the courage you need. Lord, I have come to know and believe in the love You have for me.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
November 30
“Someone must speak for them. I do not see a delegation for the four footed. I see no seat for eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior, but we are after all a mere part of the Creation.”
-Oren Lyons, ONONDAGA
Whenever we make decisions, we need to look around to see who would be affected. If we change the course of a river, who, what will be affected? If we put poison on the gardens, who, what will be affected? If wee cut the trees and too many are cut, who, what will be affected? We need to become aware of the consequences of our actions. We need to pay attention to our thoughts. We are accountable to our children to leave the Earth in good shape.
My Creator, help me make right decisions
Journey to the Heart
November 30
Trust Each Moment
Trust. Trust. Trust. Again and again, that’s the issue. See how much of your pain, your anguish, your tension arises simply from not trusting the absolute perfection of the present moment. I’ve lost my way. I’m off track. I’m somehow wrong– in the wrong place at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing. Where I’m going is a dead end. Oh, dear …
You are not off track. You haven’t lost your way. You’re going somewhere worth going. Somewhere magnificent beyond the ability of your mind to comprehend. By trusting the perfection of each moment, you give yourself a gift: permission to enjoy the journey.
Don’t just take the trip. Let yourself enjoy the ride.
Today’s Gift
November 30
I’ve never sung anything that I wasn’t ready to sing.
—Claudia Schmidt
Most of us are curious about the “olden days” before we were born. We ask our parents what life was like when they were kids, what they did, what they looked like, and what they thought about. But most of us, even those who are parents ourselves, have probably never asked our parents, “Were you ready to go to school, to grow up, to get married, to get a job, to have me?”
So often we are afraid to take even a small new step, afraid of change. We feel so alone in our uncertainty. From our point of view, if often looks as though everybody’s ready except us.
Perhaps another way to look at it is that, for most of our lives, readiness really isn’t much of an issue. Were we ready to be born? Were we ready to walk, to read, to sing? Maybe we were; maybe not. What’s important is what we did, not what we were ready to do. For life is mostly a matter of jumping in feet first shouting, “Here I come, ready or not!”
What am I going to do today, ready or not?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
November 30
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
—Mark Twain
It is hard for many of us to learn to admit the wrongs we do. We have followed lifestyles that led us away from recognizing our true feelings. Remnants of this blindness continue into our recovery. In this quiet time we can deepen and nourish a relationship with ourselves. Facing our disapproval and admitting it lead us to comfort and self-respect. Right now we can ask ourselves, “What messages do 1 receive from myself? What is my Higher Power telling me? Do I sense some gut feeling? Am I true to my relationships with loved ones? Have I been open to the feelings of my spouse. Of my friends? Of my boss? Do I owe anyone an apology which I can promptly make?”
Some of us indulge in worry, fear, and anger beyond a useful or meaningful point. What can we do about these excesses of feeling? First, we admit them to ourselves and to others. Then, we trust our Higher Power for the outcome, and they will fall away.
Today, I will nourish a relationship with myself by facing my own disapproval and growing toward greater comfort.
Daily TAO
November 30
DIPPER
Bamboo dipper, granite basin.
Crust of ice over inky reservoir.
Moon shimmers in the dipper
Until fullness drains away.
Some people are like dippers. No matter what they try to gather up, it ends up flowing out again. For such people it is exceedingly difficult to accumulate anything in life.
If you are like the dipper, that is all the more reason to concentrate the resources that you have. Poverty of any kind need not be a deterrent if you know how to utilize the wealth you possess. You must embrace your fate, work with it, and take advantage of it.
Ultimately, we cannot truly grasp anything permanently in life. We are born naked, we die naked, and in point of fact we live naked. What we take to us — our clothes, our wealth, our relationships — are all external to us. They are easily taken away from us by bruising fate.
We try to internalize our experiences and our understanding. Even that can be taken away by stress, senility, poor memory, disorganized thinking, drugs, or shock. Truly, we are all dippers. The little that life offers us dribbles away.