DAILY REFLECTIONS
SEPTEMBER 10
RECOVERY BY PROXY?
They [the Promises] will always materialize if we work for them.
-ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS p. 84
Sometimes I think: “Making these amends is going too far! No one should have to humble himself like that!” However, it is this very humbling of myself that brings me that much closer to the sunlight of the spirit. A.A. is the only hope I have if I am to continue healing and gain a life of happiness, friendship and harmony.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
September 10
A.A. Thought For The Day
Here are answers to the question of how a person can live without liquor and be happy: “The things we put in place of drinking are more than substitutes for it. One is the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. In this company, you find release from care, boredom, and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Among other A.A.s you will make lifelong friends. You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties.” Does life mean something to me now?
Meditation For The Day
Do you want the full and complete satisfaction that you find in serving God and all the satisfactions of the world also? It is not easy to serve both God and the world. It is difficult to claim the rewards of both. If you work for God, you will still have great rewards in the world. But you must be prepared to sometimes stand apart from the world. You cannot always turn to the world and expect all the rewards that life has to offer. If you are trying sincerely to serve God, you will have other and greater rewards than the world has to offer.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may not expect too much from the world. I pray that I may also be content with the rewards that come from serving God.
Walk In Dry Places
September 10
Watch those feelings
Feelings.
In AA’s early years, there was very little talk about “feelings’ or “emotions.” The phrase “getting in touch with your feelings” had not been popularized, yet the AA pioneers knew that bitter and resentful feelings were destructive, while warm and optimistic feelings enhanced sobriety.
Now we know that feelings are extremely are extremely important for groups as well as individuals. We know that some AA groups can give off feelings that make them more attractive than others. Some groups are considered “cold,” while others are “warm.” Such differences are rooted in the feelings of each member of the group.
How can we be sure that our feelings will make our groups warm and inviting to others? We can “tune” our feelings by looking at our attitudes. If we are truly dedicated to our principles and want to share them with others, the feelings we project will be welcoming. Whatever we really feel will be expressed in our daily affairs and in our group activities.
I’ll check my attitude today for good feelings as I go about my work and activities. These feelings will, in turn, send out signals that everyone can understand and appreciate.
Keep It Simple
September 10
If you want a thing done “right,” you have to do it yourself.
—Anonymous
We addicts can be very picky. We think there’s only one way to do things. It’s our way,
But we call it the right way. When we think like this, three things happen. First, we put down other people. Second, we end up doing all the work. Third, everyone feels bad. The other person feels hurt that we don’t respect him or her. And we feel angry because we “had” to do all the work.
We need to know that there are many ways to do things. It’s okay when others don’t do things our way. Their way probably works just fine for them. If they want your advice they’ll ask for it.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me accept other people and their ways.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll watch how other people do things. Maybe I’ll learn a better way to do some things.
Today, I will be open to growing in my understanding of my Higher Power. I will be open to letting go of old, limiting, negative beliefs about God. No matter how I understand God, I will be grateful that God understands me.
–Melody Beattie
We are enrolled in a full time, informal school called, “Life.” Each day of this school, we have the opportunity to learn lessons. We may like the lessons or hate them, but they are part of the curriculum. The greatest lessons we learn are about love and fear, that every action is either an expression of love, or a call for love. And the great blessing is that every lesson repeats itself until we learn it.
–Mary Manin Morrissey
Those who withhold forgiveness only withhold it from themselves.”
–Paul Ferrini
Do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?
–Gerald Jampolsky
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
September 10
NEIGHBORS
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
As a drunk I said cruel things about other people. My prejudices hid my fears and insecurities. I condemned in others what I saw in myself. I deflected attention from me by the name-calling others: sick manipulations. “Neighbor” was only a word that I could spell and interpret, useful for religious homilies or pretentious innuendoes but not something I really experienced.
Today I am able to be the “good neighbor” to many people, known and unknown. My recovery has brought people into my life. Relationships mean something; friends are important; the world is one. Black, Asian, Hispanic — all add a variety to my life that enable me to get in touch with buried feelings of my “difference”. In the stranger I discover something of myself; the foreigner has become both friend and neighbor.
God, I never cease to be amazed at the mystery and variety that is “me”.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
September 10
“One of the first things Seneca children learned was that they might create their own world, their own environment, by visualizing actions and desires in prayer. The Senecas believed that everything that made life important came from within. Prayer assisted in developing a guideline toward discipline and self control.”
–Twylah Nitcsh, SENECA
All permanent and lasting change starts first on the inside and works its way out. Having constant prayer and Creator directed visions helps us to live in harmony. This is the best way to grow strong and become a Warrior. No matter what is going on outside of ourselves, it is our projection that makes it so. It is our projections that even give it any meaning. Another way is each day to turn our life and our will over to the care of the Great Spirit. Then He will show us His desire for us. When we are in alignment to His desire, we become very joyful and very happy.
Oh Great Spirit, You take care of me today and tell me what I can do for You today. Give me the discipline to talk to You whenever I am in doubt or fear. Let me come to You if I get irritated. You are my solution.
Touchstones Meditations For Men
September 10
It is not a question of how a husband and wife can be equal and alike. But rather, it is a problem of how a couple can be equal and different.
—Pierre Mornell
In seeking closeness with loved ones, we have often made the mistake of looking only for similarities. Although common ground helps understanding, we must learn how to get close to others by “borrowing their eyes and ears.” We expand our understanding of others by accepting that what we see, hear, think, and feel will not be exactly what anyone else does. We can deepen our relationships by exchanging our experiences with others.
We don’t have to agree on everything. Simply learning about each other’s differences and letting each other know that we hear and understand will create a feeling of intimacy.
I will be receptive and appreciate differences in those I love.
Daily TAO
September 10
PATIENCE
This apple is like a jewel,
With every shade of red and green
And a perfect shape.
What a miraculous fruit.
The owner of an orchard came to visit me one day. He kindly remembers me every year with the best of his crop. As we shared a lunch, the talk turned to fishing. He told me that he had once had a great love of fishing, but that he now had little time for it. “I am an impatient man,” he told me.
I replied that I thought him very patient. After all, not everyone can plant trees and tend them until they bear good fruit. He insisted that therem was something to do every moment and that his orchards needed constant attention. “This year’s apples are a bit smaller,” he apologized. “I could have made them bigger by thinning the trees. It takes a man an entire day to prune a tree properly, and with over 500 trees, you can imagine the difficulty and expense of the task. So I let the trees grow as they wanted, and was still able to send my crop to market.” The apples were sweet, of course, and not nearly as small as he said they were.
Those who follow Tao say that all things happen in their own time. What is lazy and what is hard work? Those who follow Tao say to follow nature. That requires patience. By knowing when to let the trees grow as they wanted, the orchard owner still had a good crop.
Daily Zen
September 10
Clad in black robe
I should have no attraction to
The shapes and scents of this world
But how can I keep the precept
Of detachment
Gazing at today’s crimson maple leaves?
– Rengetsu (1791-1875)