Daily Reflections, April 2nd

CHARACTER BUILDING

Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection, and love can only invite domination or revulsion....

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44

When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step, I didn't think it should rank as a character defect. I wanted to think of it more of an asset (that is, the desire to please people). It was quickly pointed out to me that this "need" can be very crippling. Today I still enjoy getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to pay the price I used to pay to get it. I will not bend myself into a pretzel to get others to like me. If I get your approval, that's fine; but if I don't, I will survive without it. I am responsible for speaking what I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may want to hear.

Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly concerned about my reputation. Since being enlightened in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day, April 2nd

A.A. Thought for the Day

Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I feel that the friends I've found in A.A. are real friends? Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and do I want to help them if I can? Do I really care now about other people?

Meditation for the Day

Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle-working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace, you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time, you throw that one aside for a yet finer one. And so from character to character, you are gradually transformed.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person.

NA - Just for Today, April 2nd

Attraction

Page 96

"Our public image consists of what we have to offer: a successful, proven way of maintaining a drug-free lifestyle."

Basic Text, p. 75

Yes, we are attracting new members. More and more addicts are finding Narcotics Anonymous. But how do we treat our newest members when they arrive, worn out from their struggles with addiction? Do we reach out to newcomers who are standing by themselves at our meetings, confused and uncertain? Are we willing to give them rides to meetings? Do we still work one-on-one with the addict who suffers? Do we give out our phone numbers? Are we eager to go on a Twelfth Step call, even if it means getting up from our comfortable beds in the middle of the night? Will we work with someone who has a different sexual orientation or is from another culture? Are we generous with the gift of our time?

No doubt we were met with love and acceptance by our fellow addicts. What attracted many of us to Narcotics Anonymous was the feeling that we had finally found a place where we belonged. Are we offering that same sense of belonging to our newer members? We cannot promote Narcotics Anonymous. But when we put principles into action in our lives, we attract newer members to the NA way, just as we were attracted to recovery.

Just for Today: I will work with a newcomer. I will remember that I was once a newcomer myself. I will seek to attract others with the same sense of belonging I've found in NA.

Thought for Today, April 2nd

"The AA message does not carry itself; somebody must carry it."

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.

Leo Buscaglia

If you look at what you have in life, You'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, You'll never have enough.

-Oprah Winfrey

"Progress is making the same old mistake a little less often "

Scott L.  (2022 Appalachian Regional Roundup)

Buddha/Zen Thoughts, April 2nd

So much fear and desire come from that commitment to 'I am'--to being somebody. Eventually they take us to anxiety and despair; life seems much more difficult and painful than it really is.

But when we just observe life for what it is, then it's all right: the delights, the beauty, the pleasures are just that.

-Ajahn Sumedho, "Seeing the Way"

Native American, April 2nd

"With children we always have to think about seven generations to come but yet unborn."

-Janice Sundown Hattet, SENECA

What we do today will effect the children seven generations from now. How we treat the Mother Earth will affect the children yet to be born. If we poison the water today, our children's children will be affected by the decision we made. Our children are the gateway to the future. Let us conscientiously think about the children and the seven generations to come.

My Creator, I thank you for my ancestors, seven generations ago.

Keep It Simple, April 2nd

To know all things is not permitted.   

- Horace

In recovery, we give up trying to be perfect. We give up trying to know everything. We work at coming to know and accept our short-comings. In Step Four and Five, we look at our good points and our bad points. In Step Six, we become ready to have our Higher Power remove our "defects of character." Then in Step Seven we ask our Higher Power to remove our "shortcomings." Recovery is about coming to accept that we're not prefect. We admit that trying to be perfect got in the way of being useful to ourselves, our Higher Power, and those around us. Pretending to be prefect doesn't allow us to be real. It's also boring and no fun---you never get to mess up.

Prayer for the Day: 

Higher Power, You will let me know what I need to know. Allow me to claim my mistakes and shortcomings.

Action for the Day: 

I will work at being okay today. Not prefect, just okay.

Big Book, April 2nd

Chapter 2 THERE IS A SOLUTION (pg 21 & top 22)

But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.

Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom mildly intoxicated. He is always more or less insanely drunk. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplace the night before. If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Then comes the day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative with which to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.