Daily Reflections
October 27
GLOBAL SHARING
The only thing that matters is that he is an alcoholic who has found a key to sobriety. These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, one to the other. This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today animates A.A.’s all around the globe.
-TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
October 27
A.A. Thought For The Day
Seventh, I can help other alcoholics. I am of some use in the world. I have a purpose in life. I am worth something at last. My life has a direction and a meaning. All that feeling of futility is gone. I can do something worthwhile. God has given me a new lease on life so that I can help other alcoholics. He has let me live through all the hazards of my alcoholic life to bring me at last to a place of real usefulness in the world. He has let me live for this. This is my opportunity and my destiny. I am worth something! Will I give as much of my life as I can to A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
All of us have our own battle to win, the battle between the material view of life and the spiritual view. Something must guide our lives. Will it be wealth, pride, selfishness, greed or will it be faith, honesty, purity, unselfishness, love and service? Each one has a choice. We can choose good or evil. We cannot choose both. Are we going to keep striving until we win the battle? If we win the victory, we can believe that even God in His heaven will rejoice.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may choose the good and resist the evil. I pray that I will not be a loser in the battle for righteousness.
Walk In Dry Places
October 27
Is your opinion of me important?
Inventory
A statement that is often quoted at AA meetings is Your opinion of me is not important. The purpose of this saying, apparently, is to wean us away from being people pleasers.
But the truth is that we all have legitimate interest in the opinions others hold of us. They may like or dislike us for the wrong reasons, but it is helpful for us to know this and accept it.
More important, the opinions of others can be useful in helping us take personal inventory and correct wrong behavior and attitudes. There may be a good reason why someone has a low opinion of us, and we should become aware of it.
It is true, however, that our opinions count the most in shaping our lives. If we’re thinking badly about others, that can be more damaging to us than to them. Surprisingly, they may think better of us as we change our opinions about them.
I doubt that I can go through the day without being affected by other people’s opinions of me. However, my main work will be in seeing that my own opinions aren’t being destructive in my life.
Keep It Simple
October 27
An excuse is worst and more terrible than a lie.
-Alexander Pope
Excuses. They’re lies. We use excuses to hide from ourselves. Maybe we don’t want to be honest about our anger. So we say someone else made us angry. Maybe we don’t want to admit how mean we can be. So we pretend we have no part in what happens.
Excuses keep us from ourselves. They keep us from our High Power. A lot of our program is about looking at ourselves. Steps Four, Five, and Ten tell us to be honest about our excuses. We can be honest because we are good people. We are loved.
Prayer for the day: Today, I’ll say the serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Action for the Day: I’ll list my five most often excuses. Then, I’ll share them with my friends, family, and sponsor. I’ll ask them to tell me when I make excuses.
Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile.
-Wilfred GrenfellIf you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder…you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.
-unknown“Never let yesterday use up today.”
-Richard H. NelsonForgiveness means letting go of the past.
-Gerald Jampolsky
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
October 27
JUSTICE
“Justice is truth in action.”
-Benjamin Disraeli
It is not enough for me to believe that a thing is true, it is important for me to live out my beliefs. For too long I had a thousand beliefs that only kept me silent. A fear of displeasing others played a large part in my silence.
Today I understand justice to be part of what I mean by spirituality: I need to be seen to walk as I talk! I am comfortable when I remain silent in the face of injustice. As a recovering alcoholic, this uncomfortability is dangerous because it can so easily lead to low self-esteem, anger, resentments and relapse.
Today I know I can have a slip without taking a drink. I slip from where I want to be in my life. My personal integrity combines a justice that can be seen in my lifestyle.
O God of justice, teach me never again to hide in the lie of silence.
Daily Inspiration
October 27
It is the little bits of kindness and love that make this world happy. Lord, may I do my part to make today happy for someone.
There is no personal problem that you cannot solve. Lord, Your presence within me is all power. You are my help in every need.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
October 27
“O Great Spirit Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me!
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.”
-from, PRAYER TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
The Great Spirit runs the world and the people by a set of natural laws and principles. He says we are to live our lives and make decisions that will be in harmony with these laws.
He says we should be respectful to all things and to all people.
He says we should pray for each other.
He says we should forgive one another.
It is easy to tell if a person is following the ways of the Great Spirit. You can tell by how a man walks in life. He doesn’t need to say anything. If we are dishonest or deceitful, other people will know. This is true because we are all interconnected in the Unseen World.
My Creator, let me obey Your ways. Let me Walk the Talk.
Today’s Gift
October 27
Walk. Don’t walk.
—Traffic Light
Signs direct us on our way in life. Traffic lights tell us to walk (or not), Golden Arches point us to dinner, geese flying south herald the coming winter, flashing neon tells us what to buy. We know how to read these signs of worlds and weather; they help to guide us on our journey.
We can learn to read the signs of human beings, too, to be detectives of the human spirit. Laugh lines around eyes and mouth, the texture of hands, tension in jaws and shoulders can tell much about a person, if we stop to look. All around us are signs that tell us others feel the pain and joy we feel, others need us as we need them, we are understood, and we are not alone.
The marvelous bonus in learning to read these signs in others is that we can begin to let ourselves be read, also.
Will I make good reading for others today?
The Language Of Letting Go
October 27
Step Eleven
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
-Step Eleven of Al Anon
” … praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out” means that we ask on a daily basis to be shown the plan for that day. We also ask our Source for the power we need to carry that through. We will get a yes to both requests.
We do not ask other people to show their will for us. We ask God. Then we trust that we’ll be empowered to carry God’s will through.
God never, never asks us to do anything that He would not equip us to do. He never asks us to do anything we can’t do. If we are to do it, we will be empowered. That’s the easy part of this program. We never have to do more than we can, or anything we can’t. If we want to worry and fuss we can, but we don’t need to. That is our choice.
I have learned, through difficult and good times that this Step will carry me through. When I don’t know what to do next, God does. Working this Step, one day at a time, will take us to places we could never have traveled on our own. Simple acts, done daily in accordance to God’s will for us, lead to a Grand Plan for our life.
Today, I will focus on asking God to show me what He wants me to do. I will ask God for the power to do that; then I will go ahead and get the job done. God, help me let go of my fears about living life one day at a time. Help me trust that when life is lived simply and in trust, a beautiful mosaic called “my life” will be woven. I am being divinely led, guided, and cared for.
Touchstones Meditation For Men
October 27
I feel the more I know God, that He would sooner we did wrong in loving than never love for fear we should do wrong.
—Father Andrew
Love has often been called the first rule of a spiritual life. As we awaken to our new life in this program, we learn that all of God’s creation is full of objects for us to love. A sunset repeats the creative energy at work in our world today. It appears briefly, invites our love, and slowly fades away, only to be repeated in a new form the next day. The color and markings on a little bug may inspire our love, as may the smell of moist earth, the excitement of a Broadway musical, the craftsmanship of a well-made tool, or the look of warmth on a friend’s face. These are all opportunities for us to let go and feel our love.
We men often feel awkward in expressing love. Perhaps we’re so self-conscious and guarded that we brace ourselves against saying or doing anything that wouldn’t look good. We’re learning through our spiritual development to be more fervent lovers and less perfectionistic in love.
I will be renewed today each time I appreciate something near me.
Daily TAO
October 27
RIGHTING
A deviation of a hair’s breadth at the center
Leads to an error of a hundred miles at the rim.
When the effort is so slight,
Why should you hesitate to set things right?
There are many people who endeavor to know Tao. In the greatest sincerity, they take music lessons, read scriptures, learn foreign languages, study nutrition, change their dress, and go to temples — all in the hopes that they will reach Tao. Sadly, they miss it by a hair’s breadth. For a person to awaken to Tao, someone must give them a spark. Perhaps this is what is called direct transmission. It is odd, but this is the only way that knowledge of Tao is passed on.
Book knowledge can help and give one a deep theoretical background, but the true understanding of Tao still comes person to person. There is no other way.