Daily Reflections
FACING OURSELVES
. . . . and Fear says, “You dare not look!”
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49
How often I avoided a task in my drinking days, just because it appeared so large! Is it any wonder even if I have been sober for some time, that I will
act that same way when faced with what appears to be a monumental job, such as a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself? What I discover after I have arrived at the other side–when my inventory is completed–is that the illusion was greater than the reality. The fear of facing myself kept me at a standstill and, until I became willing to put pencil to paper, I was arresting my growth based on an intangible.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
Is it my desire to be a big shot in A.A.? Do I always want to be up front in the limelight? Do I feel that nobody else can do as good a job as I can? Or am I
willing to take a seat in the back row once in a while and let somebody else carry the ball? Part of the effectiveness of any A.A. group is the development of new members to carry on, to take over, from the older
members. Am I reluctant to give up authority? Do I try to carry the load for the whole group? If so, I am not being fair to the newer members. Do I realize that no one person is essential? Do I know that A.A. could carry on without me, if it had to?
Meditation For The Day
The Unseen God can help to make us truly grateful and humble. Since we cannot see God, we must believe in Him without seeing. What we can see clearly is the change in a human being, when he sincerely asks God for the strength to change. We should cling to faith in God and in His power to change our faith in God and in His power to change our ways. Our faith in all Unseen God will be rewarded by a useful and serviceable life. God will not fail to show us the way we should live. When in real gratitude and true
humility we turn to Him..
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may believe that God can change me. I pray that I may be always willing to be changed for the better.
As Bill Sees It
To Lighten Our Burden, p.277
Only one consideration should qualify our desire for a complete
disclosure of the damage we have done. That will arise where a
full revelation would seriously harm the one to whom we are
making amends. Or–quite as important–other people. We
cannot, for example, unload a detailed account of extramarital
adventuring upon the shoulders of our unsuspecting wife or husband.
It does not lighten our burden when we recklessly make the crosses
of others heavy.
In making amends, we should be sensible, tactful, considerate, and
humble without being servile or scraping. As God’s people, we stand
on our feet; we don’t crawl before anyone.
1. 12 & 12, p.86
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p.83
Walk In Dry Places
By Their fruits
Inventory.
An old saying reminds us that the value of any spiritual effort can be measured by how well it work: “A good tree is known by its fruits.”
By that standard, the 12 Step movement fares very well. Its life-changing work has won consistent praise and has had continuous success ever since it became known to the public.
We can apply that same statement to new ideas as they appear in our lives. If somebody has suggestions or advice, we might ask how well such ideas are working out for them. We would not take investment advice, for example, from someone who had repeatedly lost money.
We should always be wary of ideas that go counter to the basic principles of our program. some people may invite us to share their resentments, for example, but we have no obligation to do so. We will be even less inclined to do so when we look at the results they’re getting from their resentments, Evaluating ideas “by their fruits” is a good test.
I’ll be careful to look at all the facts in connection with any idea presented today.
I have a right to judge everything by results.
Keep It Simple
If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.
—Virginia Woolf
Working the Twelve Steps helps us learn the truth. As we struggle with Step Four, we learn the truth about ourselves. We learn even more about ourselves by doing Steps Eight and Ten. When we admit the truth about ourselves, things come into focus. Big changes happen.
As a result, we can see other people more clearly. We see bad sides in people we thought were prefect. We see good sides in people we hated. We start to know that everyone has to work hard to find what’s right for them. No one knows all the answers.
In short, we begin to trust others also who also are looking for the truth.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me clearly see myself and others.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about how doing Step Ten keeps me clear about what’s going on in my life.
Each Day a New Beginning
Many people are living in an emotional jail without recognizing it.
–Virginia Satir
Each of us is blessed with an internal guide, a source able to direct our actions if we but acknowledge it. Never are we in doubt for long about what path to take. The courage to take it might not be immediately forthcoming; however, it, too, is one of the gifts with which we’ve been blessed. Courage is ours for the asking. Right direction is ours for the taking.
Trusting our inner selves takes practice, followed by attention to the results of our risks.
Before recovery, many of us passively waited for others to orchestrate our behavior, our feelings, and our attitudes. Stepping forward as the leading lady, with our own script in hand is quite a change, but one we are being coached, daily, to make.
The Steps help us to know who we are. More importantly, they help us become the women we long to be. But most important, they offer us the spiritual strength to risk listening to the message within and the strength to go forth as directed. Right results, again and again, are elicited by right action. And my knowledge of the right action is always, and forever, as close as myself.
I have held many things in my hands and have lost them all, but whatever I placed in God’s hands I still possess.
–GGDNER
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.
–Mother Teresa
Live your life and forget your age.
–Norman Vincent Peale
In a world that is constantly changing, there is no one subject or set of subjects that will serve you for the foreseeable future, let alone for the rest of your life. The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn.
–John Naisbitt
“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.”
–Flora Edwards
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
FORGIVENESS
“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.”
–Hannah Arendt
Early in sobriety I found it easy to forgive others but hard to forgive myself. This kept me sick and negative, even in recovery, because I was unable to practice self-love. I still blamed me and felt responsible for being alcoholic. I had not surrendered to the reality of alcoholism as a disease.
Then a moment of sanity was granted me whereby I understood that I was not responsible for being alcoholic, but that I am responsible for my recovery. And my recovery involves a love and respect of self. This knowledge brought a tremendous joy and freedom that led to action within the recovering community. Only by loving me will I be able to love you, and in both these ways I show my love of God.
May I always hold on to the spiritual power of forgiveness.
Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men
Forgiveness is another word for letting go.
–Matthew Fox
Learning forgiveness – both granting it to others and accepting it for ourselves – is one of the primary means of a man’s spiritual recovery. Many of us, after entering this program, are plagued with strong feelings of guilt. We have finally become accountable, and we see our lives in a new perspective. We long for a chance to undo our mistakes. Many men carry guilt for years as if they deserved to be punished. Our recovery program tells us to let go.
Simply going through the motions of forgiving or accepting forgiveness will not get us very far. We must squarely face our feelings and tell someone so we are no longer alone with our guilt. Then, if there is the possibility for repair without further hurt, we must make repair. In this concrete way we can be genuinely forgiven and fully accept forgiveness. When a man has a spiritual experience like this, he matures and gains the ability to forgive others.
I am grateful for the relief of being forgiven and letting go of past mistakes.
Journey To The Heart
What Are Your Priorities?
I was working away in my cabin, trying to print out the pages I had typed into my computer. It was taking half an hour to print each page. I had one hundred pages to go. For the umpteenth time I checked my computer, checked the program, checked the printer, checked everything I knew to see why it was printing so slowly. It all seemed to be set up properly. Then I accidentally touched a control setting, one I hadn’t noticed before. It was my priority control. It was set on low. I switched it to high priority. The pages now began to print at top speed.
Priorities are important. Learning how to focus our energy according to priorities– even though we’re going with the flow– is an important part of our lives. It’s one of the powers we’re learning.
What are your priorities? Is living from your heart one of them? Are there tasks you’d like to accomplish? Skills you’d like to acquire? Is meditation being centered, and living your life from a place of balance an area you’ve designated as critical?
Is loving yourself a priority? How important is your spiritual growth? What priority have you assigned to other areas like pleasure, having fun, feeling joy? Are your priorities set on high, medium,or low?
Look around and you’ll see your answers. Your life as it is now reflects the priorities you have chosen so far. If something is happening too slowly, try switching your priority setting from low to high.
One Day At A Time
LONGINGS
“The great question – which I have not been able to answer – is, ‘What does a woman want?’”
–Sigmund Freud
All my life I have been searching for what I “really want”. I tried sports, different jobs, friends, lovers and traveling. I even tried therapy. None of these ever worked. Once I had what I thought I wanted, I didn’t want it anymore. The urge to want — to long for the best things — was an inner, unsatisfied hunger. Excessive food became my sedating drug. When using food, I was numb to my longings. I felt it was impossible to fill this void. It seemed I would never know or receive what I wanted.
The 12 step program of recovery taught me that I could have anything I wanted — if God gave it to me. When I stopped wanting everything so badly, and I surrendered to be His child and employee, I learned that what I’d thought of as “wanting”, was actually what I was “missing”. I missed everything important in my life, so I wanted everything. It was never enough ~ never the right thing or the right person. I felt that even I was “wrong” because I was without love, patience, tolerance or companionship. In OA I found all of that. With God’s help, I now have those things in my life every day when I ask for it and accept it as part of me today.
One day at a time…
I no longer want so much, and I am thankful for what I receive. I am receiving more than I have ever dreamed of.
~ Trine