Daily Reflections
September 27
WITHOUT RESERVATION
When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love.
-AS BILL SEES IT, p.37
While practicing service to others, if my successes give rise to grandiosity, I must reflect on what brought me to this point. What has been given joyfully, with love, must be passed on without reservation and without expectation. For as I grow, I find that no matter how much I give with love, I receive much more in spirit.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
September 27
A.A. Thought For The Day
Continuing the consideration of the term “spiritual experience”: “What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self-discipline. With few exceptions, our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves. Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves the essence of spiritual experience. Some of us call it God-consciousness. In any case, willingness, honesty, and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery.”Have I tapped that inner resource which can change my life?
Meditation For The Day
God’s power in your life increases as your ability to understand His grace increases. The power of God’s grace is only limited by the understanding and will of each individual. God’s miracle-working power is only limited in each individual soul by the lack of spiritual vision of the soul. God respects free will, the right of each person to accept or reject His miracle-working power. Only the sincere desire of the soul gives Him the opportunity to bestow it.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may not limit God’s power by my lack of vision. I pray that I may keep my mind open today to His influence.
Keep It Simple
September 27
Honesty is the backbone of our recovery program. Honesty opens us up. It breaks down the walls we had built around our secret world. Those walls made a prison for us. But all of that is now changed. We are free.
Honesty has made us wise. We aren’t sneaking drinks anymore. We don’t have a stash to protect.
People who didn’t trust us now depend on our honesty. People who worked hard to avoid us, now seek us out. Self-honesty is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You are truth. I pray that I may not turn away from truth. I will not lie. My life depends on honesty.
Action For the Day: For twenty or thirty minutes, I will think about how learning to be honest has changed my life.
Walk In Dry Places
September 27
The Test Of My Ideas
Change
Early in its existence, the AA fellowship tended to resist new ideas, yet did accept many good purpose, because it screened out practices that could have destroyed the fellowship.
But other, new ideas have been accepted and have benefited the fellowship. How can we test a new idea before we decide to accept it?
Whatever the idea, it should be beneficial in promoting personal recovery. If it is somehow harmful to those seeking recovery, it should not be accepted.
If this simple test is applied honestly and with fairness, new ideas can be considered on their own merits and can usually be discussed in an atmosphere of reason and understanding. The AA traditions will support most sound ideas.
Knowing that God is the source of new ideas, we can be open to additional guides that can help us along the way. I’ll be on the lookout today for any helpful ideas.
Come, let us give a little time to folly… and even in a melancholy day let us find time for an hour of pleasure.
–Saint Bonaventura“Good habits are as addictive as bad habits, and a lot more rewarding.”
–Harvey MackayIt is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
–Antoine de Saint-ExupéryReal success requires respect for and faithfulness to the highest human values – honesty, integrity, self-discipline, dignity, compassion, humility, courage, personal responsibility, courtesy, and human service.
–Michael DeBakey, M.D.Hope never abandons you, you abandon it.
–George WeinbergEach day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.
–May Sarton
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
September 27
ACHIEVEMENT
“Do not mistake activity for achievement.”
– Mabel Newcomber
Often I am running in circles and not getting anywhere. I spend forever “doing” things and yet I know I am not achieving anything. I am going nowhere in my life!
“Be still and know that I am God.” I need to stop. I need to listen to the pain that is within. I need to relax in my gratitude. I need to rest in myself. Tomorrow has not yet come — today I take time for me.
Lord, I hear Your still small voice. Today I rest in me and discover Thee.
Daily Inspiration
September 27
Get rid of the excuses for not doing those things that make you happy. Lord, Your peace within me calms my spirit and opens my heart to recognize the joy of this day.
Forget the useless and unhealthy things of your past that clutter your mind so that you can live a life that is alive and vibrant. Lord, help me to discard all that clouds my day so that I am able to live the life that You intend me to live.
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
September 27
“I got my education from my culture. My teachers were my grandmothers, and I am really thankful for that.”
–Mary One Spot, SARCEE
Our often unrecognized, but most powerful teachers are our women. In order for men to learn a balanced way, we need to learn from our men Elders and our women Elders. Learning from the women Elders will teach us a whole different set of values and insights to life. When we have life problems, we need to go to the grandmothers to get their advice.
Grandmothers, teach me the values of the Great Mystery.
Today’s Gift
September 27
Let me fly, says little birdie,
Mother, let me fly away.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Don’t we all want to fly away? Isn’t there a better place out there away from home? The boy can’t fly, but he can climb a tree and ride the wind. The girl, high on imaginary wings, flies to her own land of dreams. Even mothers and fathers, together and alone, need to fly – away from work, house, and the everyday same old things. But we all need to return as well. We need to know that home is the one safe place to land, that there we can rest, recover our strength, tell our tales to family and friends.
Our home is safe and comfortable, but if we never leave, even for a short while, we will never take the action necessary to bring our dreams to life.
What small comfort might I give up for today in order to make a dream come true?
Touchstones Meditations For Men
September 27
What I have wanted is consistency, ever since the day back in Wyncote when my mom and dad split. I have wanted to be liked. I have wanted to be loved. I have wanted to be in a family-type atmosphere.
—Reggie Jackson
How many of us gave ourselves away trying to fix painful childhood longings? We thought if we were good boys, good men, caretakers, we would have the love we wanted. Sadly, our remedies for childhood pain have often been childish solutions. Our need for security may have become a self-centered obsession and blocked our ability to hear our loved ones. We may have become so fervent about accepting others that we failed to stand up for ourselves and lost their respect.
Most of us reach adulthood with leftover pain no person could ever fix. We learn grown up responses by accepting our load of pain and by asking others for help. Intimacy and companionship reduce the weight. We tell our friends about our burdens, and we learn what they are carrying. In the process we grow in wisdom and maturity.
Today. I will remember I do not have to be alone with my pain.
Daily TAO
September 27
SWEEPING
Gold dawn disk edges purple cliffs.
Old woman bends to sweep temple steps.
She bathes each stone with loving care.
How many worshipers think of her work.
I went at dawn to a magnificent temple. Its architecture was such a supreme expression of the human spirit that it was a treasure. Generations of worshipers had left offerings at the shrines, hundreds of monks had reached their enlightenment on the consecrated grounds, and thousands had been blessed in life and in death in the venerable halls.
Yet my most moving observation was an old woman silently sweeping the steps. Her concentration was perfect. Her devotion was palpable. Her thoroughness was complete. Her uncelebrated act showed a true holy spirit.
Later in the day, wealthy people came to worship. Children with brightly colored toys ran over the gray stones. The abbot walked to his ceremonies. Monks passed in silent prayer. Of all who passed, how many were aware of the saintly service that had made their own devotion possible?
When the way is all we have to walk, those who prepare the way should be truly honored.
Daily Zen
September 27
When the mind is properly adjusted
And quietly applied
The Way is attainable;
But when you are too fervently bent
On it, your body grows tired;
When your body is tired, your spirit
Becomes weary.
When you spirit is weary, your discipline
Will relax, and with relaxation of
Discipline, there follows many distractions
-Sutra of Forty Two Chapters