Daily Reflections, April 19th

BROTHERS IN OUR DEFECTS

We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common strivings to overcome them.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167

The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual---almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I "feel" it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me.

It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief. I never knew how to do this---or how to try. I never even cared. The Fellowship of A.A., and God are teaching me how to care about others.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day, April 19th

A.A. Thought for the Day

Since I've been putting sobriety into my life, I've been taking out a lot of good things. I can describe it best as a kind of quiet satisfaction. I feel good. I feel right with the world, on the right side of the fence. As long as I put sobriety into my life, almost everything I take out is good. The satisfaction you get out of living a sober life is made up of a lot of little things. You have the ambition to do things you didn't feel like doing when you were drinking. Am I getting satisfaction out of living a sober life?

Meditation for the Day

It is a glorious way - the upward way. There are wonderful discoveries in the realm of the spirit. There are tender intimacies in the quiet times of communion with God. There is an amazing, almost incomprehensible understanding of the other person. On the upward way, you can have all the strength you need from that Higher Power. You cannot make too many demands on Him for strength. He gives you all the power you need, as long as you are moving along the upward way.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may see the beautiful horizons ahead on the upward way. I pray that I may keep going forward to the more abundant life.

NA - Just for Today, April 19th

Footwork

Page 113

"So many times, addicts have sought the rewards of hard work without the labor."

Basic Text, p. 34

When we first came to NA, some of us wanted everything, and right away. We wanted the serenity, the cars, the happy relationships, the friends, the closeness with our sponsor-all the things other people had gotten after months and years of working the steps and living life on life's terms.

We learned the hard way that serenity comes only from working the steps. A new car comes from showing up on the job every day and trying to "practice these principles in all our affairs," including our employment. Healthy relationships come as a result of lots of hard work and a new willingness to communicate. Friendship with our sponsor comes as a result of reaching out during the good times as well as the bad.

In Narcotics Anonymous, we have found the path to a better way of life. To reach our destination, however, we must do the footwork.

Just for Today: I want a better life. I will make an inventory of what I want, find out how to get it, talk with my sponsor about it, and do the necessary footwork.

Thought for Today

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."

- Scottish Proverb

Life is lived forward but understood backwards  

- Ralph W.

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.

-William Wordsworth 

Spring 4 Ward

 Larry R.

April comes around each year our thoughts revert to Spring

The Winter’s past, new buds appear and birds begin to sing

As Mother Earth renews Herself, and flowers start to thrive

Us human folks take heart and know it’s great to be alive

But some of us recall that it was not always that way

Spring did not foretell that we would see a kinder day

Instead we faced the same old path that led us to despair

How alcohol had captured us, we’d gone too far to care

Fast forward to a better time, we stop and look around

At some new friends that willingly had shared what they had found

A way of life away from all the wreckage of their past

A fellowship that’s there to help, we only had to ask

And when we started down that road, a journey to be sure

There were some things we’d need to do if we were to endure

Twelve Steps, they said, we’d have to work to find this inner peace

To break the chains that bound us to our self-inflicted beast

The first three steps did not demand much effort on our part

They just required willingness, that it come from the heart

Admit our problem openly, know we can’t fix ourselves

Then turn our life and will over to someone who could help

Once that is done, our work begins, it’s not a pleasant task

We’d need to look inside ourselves, out true self to unmask

The awful stuff that we had done and hidden for so long

Must now enter the light of day, admit where we were wrong

As Springtime helps to clear away the gloom that Winter brings

So does Step Four, it helps erase the baggage and the strings

That bound us to our past mistakes and things that we resent

That haunted us and made us drink away our discontent

It’s not an easy exercise to have to face the truth

The things we’d done in recent years or maybe in our youth

But old or new, if we’re to grow we have to get it out

And then confess, to God and Man, what it was all about

As days grow long, the cold recedes and Spring is in the air

It helps us to recount the way we needed to repair

Those things that led us to the edge, a place we dare not go

Spring 4 ward to a better way, begin and let it grow

Larry R.

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Having enjoyed a sweet delicious taste,

And having sometimes tasted what is bitter,

Do not greedily enjoy the sweet taste,

Do not feel aversion toward the bitter.

When touched by pleasant contact, do not be enthralled,

Do not tremble when touched by pain.

Look evenly on both the pleasant and painful,

Not drawn or repelled by anything.

-Buddha, "The Connected Discourses of the Buddha"

Native American, April 19th

"We all come from the same root, but the leaves are all different."

-John Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

We all come from one Great Spirit but we are all different and unique. Nothing in the Great Creation has a twin that is identical. Even children that are twins are different. Every single person is extremely special and unique. Each person has a purpose and reason why they are on the Earth. Just like every leaf on a tree is different, each one is needed to make the tree look like it does. No leaf is better or worse than the other—all leaves are of equal worth and belong on the tree. It is the same with human beings. We each belong here and do things that will affect the great whole.

Great Spirit, today, let me see myself as a valuable contributor to the whole

Keep It Simple, April 19th

We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.

Sacred ritual chant

Good things keep happening to us. We are sober. We can think clearly. We can see progress on how we handle our problems. We have friends. We have love. We have hope.

We are starting to feel joy. Our fears are getting smaller. We are starting to trust our new way of life. Our new life brings good things to us. It brings blessings every day. We are beginning to expect them. But we’re still surprised at how good life can be. What a difference from the days before we entered our program!

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for the blessings You keep on giving. And thanks for whatever today will bring.

Action for the Day: One way to give thanks for my blessings is to share them with others. How can I share my recovery today?

Big Book, April 19th

Chapter 3 More About Alcoholism (pg 39 & top 40)

That may be true of certain nonalcoholic people who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been damaged as ours were. But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly any exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience. Let us take another illustration.

Fred is a partner in a well known accounting firm. His income is good, he has a fine home, is happily married and the father of promising children of college age. He has so attractive a personality that he makes friends with everyone. If ever there was a successful business man, it is Fred. To all appearance he is a stable, well balanced individual. Yet, he is alcoholic. We first saw Fred about a year ago in a hospital where he had gone to recover from a bad case of jitters. It was his first experience of this kind, and he was much ashamed of it. Far from admitting he was an alcoholic , he told himself he came to the hospital to rest his nerves. The doctor intimated strongly that he might be worse than he realized. For a few days he was depressed about his condition. He made up his mind to quit drinking altogether. It never occurred to him that perhaps he could not do so, in spite of his character and standing. Fred would not believe himself an alcoholic, much less accept a spiritual remedy for his problem. We told him what we knew about alcoholism. He was interested and conceded that he had some of the symptoms, but he was a long way from admitting that he could do nothing about it himself. He was positive that this humiliating experience, plus the knowledge he had acquired, would keep him sober the rest of his life. Self-knowledge would fix it.