DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
LISTENING DEEPLY
How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just
what we shall think and just how we shall act.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 37
If I accept and act upon the advice of those who have made the
program work for themselves, I have a chance to outgrow the limits of
the past. Some problems will shrink to nothingness, while others may
require patient, well-thought-out action. Listening deeply when others
share can develop intuition in handling problems which arise
unexpectedly. It is usually best for me to avoid impetuous action.
Attending a meeting or calling a fellow A.A. member will usually
reduce tension enough to bring relief to a desperate sufferer like me.
Sharing problems at meetings with other alcoholics to whom I can
relate, or privately with my sponsor, can change aspects of the
positions in which I find myself. Character defects are identified and I
begin to see how they work against me. When I put my faith in the
spiritual power of the program, when I trust others to teach me what I
need to do to have a better life, I find that I can trust myself to do
what is necessary.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
We in A.A. are offering a spiritual program. The fundamental basis of A.A. is belief in some Power greater than ourselves. This belief takes us off the center of the universe and allows us to transfer our problems to some power outside of ourselves. We turn to this Power for the strength we need to get sober and stay sober. We put our drink problem in God's hands and leave it there. We stop trying to run our own life and seek to let God run it for us. Do I do my best to give spiritual help?
Meditation for the Day
God is your healer and your strength. You do not have to ask Him to come to you. He is always with you in spirit. At your moment of need He is there to help you. Could you know God's love and His desire to help you, you would know that He needs no pleading for help. Your need is God's opportunity. You must learn to rely on God's strength whenever you need it. Whenever you feel inadequate to any situation, you should realize that the feeling of inadequacy is disloyalty to God. Just say to yourself: I know that God is with me and will help me to think and say and do the right thing.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may never feel inadequate to any situation. I pray that I may be buoyed up by the feeling that God is with me.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
The shape of our thoughts
Page 227
"By shaping our thoughts with spiritual ideals, we are freed to become who we want to be."
Basic Text, p. 105
Addiction shaped our thoughts in its own way. Whatever their shape may once have been, they became misshapen once our disease took full sway over our lives. Our obsession with drugs and self molded our moods, our actions, and the very shape of our lives.
Each of the spiritual ideals of our program serves to straighten out one or another of the kinks in our thinking that developed in our active addiction. Denial is counteracted by admission, secretiveness by honesty, isolation by fellowship, and despair by faith in a loving Higher Power. The spiritual ideals we find in recovery are restoring the shape of our thoughts and our lives to their natural condition.
And what is that "natural condition"? It is the condition we truly seek for ourselves, a reflection of our highest dreams. How do we know this? Because our thoughts are being shaped in recovery by the spiritual ideals we find in our developing relationship with the God we've come to understand in NA.
No longer does addiction shape our thoughts. Today, our lives are being shaped by our recovery and our Higher Power.
Just for Today: I will allow spiritual ideals to shape my thoughts. In that design, I will find the shape of my own Higher Power.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
Thomas Merton, the American monk, pointed out that we may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find when we get to the top that our ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.
(Thanks Jim H. Little Rock)
"Everything is broken."-Bob Dylan
Say this when you are discouraged about things being imperfect in your life. Remember that there will always be, for everyone, something wrong or imperfect. It's an impossibility to have everything right in your life. If you are waiting for everything to be right in your life before you allow yourself to be happy or at peace, you are never going to be happy or at peace.
Money can't do it. Rich people are not immune to broken faucets, fraudulent sales pitches, diseases, etc. Often managing money and things causes more difficulties than predicted.
Healthy people have broken lives too. Computers break, roofs leak. Children and parents hurt.
Recovery teaches us to be at peace even though everything (and everyone) is broken. The longer we are in recovery, the less the broken things get us into trouble.
TO DO: Tell yourself: "Everything is broken, but if I stay clean and sober, the broken things won't be an interference to the basic necessities of my life."
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Focus,
not on the rudeness of others,
not on what they've done
or left undone,
but on what you
have & haven't done
yourself.
-Dhammapada, 4, translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Native American
"It is a paradox in the contemporary world that in our desire for peace we must willingly give ourselves to struggle."
--Linda Hogan, CHICKASAW
The Grandfathers have taught us about sacrifice. We have been taught to pray for the people in a pitiful way. Struggle and conflict is neither good nor bad, it just is. Everything that grows experiences conflict. When the deer is born it is through conflict. When the seed first grows, it is through conflict. Conflict precedes clarity. Everything has the seasons of growth. Recognize - acknowledge - forgive and change. All of these things are done through conflict.
Great Spirit, give me the courage today to see that struggle and conflict are here to teach me lessons that are a gift from you.
Keep It Simple
You're only human, you've suppose to make mistakes. Billy Joel
Listen to the kind voice inside. Listen to the voice that tells you you're good enough. Listen to the voice that tells you it's okay to make mistakes---you'll learn from them. Listen to the voice that tells you to go to your meeting even though it's cold outside and you're tired. Listen and let this voice become more and more clear. Listen, and welcome it in your heart. Talk with the voice.
Ask it questions and seek it out when you need a friend. This voice is your Higher Power. Listen as your Higher Power speaks to you. Listen as your Higher Power tells you what a great person you are.
Prayer for the Day: I pray to the gentle, loving voice that lives in me. Higher Power, You've always been kind to me. You've always loved me. Help me to remember You're always there---inside me.
Action for the Day: I will take time from my busy day to listen and talk with the loving voice that lives inside me.
Big Book
Chapter 11 A Vision For You (pg 153 & top 154)
It may seem incredible that these men are to become happy, respected, and useful once more. How can they rise out of such misery, bad repute and hopelessness? The practical answer is that since these things have happened among us, they can happen with you. Should you wish them above all else, and be willing to make use of our experience, we are sure they will come. The age of miracles is till with us. Our own recovery proves that!
Our hope is that when this chip of a book is launched on the world tide of alcoholism, defeated drinkers will seize upon it, to follow its suggestions. Many, we are sure, will rise to their feet and march on. They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find a way out.
In the chapter "Working With Others" you gathered an idea of how we approach and aid others to health. Suppose now that through you several families have adopted this way of life. You will want to know more of how to proceed from that point. Perhaps the best way of treating you to a glimpse of your future will be to describe the growth or the fellowship among us. Here is a brief account:
Years ago, in 1935, one of our number made a journey to a certain western city. From a business standpoint, his trip came off badly. Had he been successful in his enterprise, he would have been set on his feet financially which, at the time, seemed vitally important. But his venture would up in a law suit and bogged down completely. The proceeding was shot through with much hard feeling and controversy.
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What Is the Alcoholic's Moral Responsibility?
AA Grapevine November 1945
Alcoholism has been traditionally regarded as a vice, with the implication of moral responsibility that such a characterization involves.
The modern tendency is to consider any obsessional aberration to be pathological. Hence, alcoholism is sometimes diagnosed as a disease, and the victim is accordingly absolved of moral responsibility.
Do the foregoing views constitute a conflict in which intellectual honesty compels us to take sides --or may they be reconciled and integrated?
If alcoholism is a disease it is one of which science has found so far neither cause nor cure. Dr. Silkworth in an article in the June, 1945, issue of The Grapevine says that "physically science does not know why a man cannot drink in moderation." The doctor also states that he is only "sure of one scientific fact --that detoxication by medical treatment must precede any psychiatric approach."
Thus, the "physical issue" is reduced to the routine of a mere dealcoholizing process, preliminary to the really fundamental matter of dealing with what Dr. Silkworth refers to as the "moral issue."
The A.A. Program of Recovery is devoted principally to the resolution of this "moral issue." The alcoholic is assisted in developing the personality change essential to permanent rehabilitation.
In so doing the A.A. plan proceeds on the assumption that we have "defects of character" the removal of which is requisite to a restoration of sanity. The removal is to be accomplished not alone by the revelations of psychiatric treatment (self-knowledge), but by the application of spiritual force emanating from a Power in which we have faith (Steps 6-7).
Defects of character cannot, of course, be rooted out by knowledge alone. The authors of Alcoholics Anonymous were well aware of the limitations of the aphorism that knowledge is power, for at page 50 of the book, they assert: "But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and reemphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience" (italics theirs).
Elsewhere in the same text the same thought is expressed in different form and with varied application. It is said, for example, that "the alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a higher Power" (page 55).
Finally, for those of us who accept it, the predominance of the moral factors in the A.A. plan is summarized in the following statement at pages 35-36 of the book:
"The great fact is just this and nothing else: that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences, which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do for ourselves."
Here, then, seems to be the answer to the question posed at the outset. Both moralist and scientist agree that there can be no blame imposed for a condition over which one has no control. Both agree that an alcoholic has been reduced to a state of powerlessness over alcohol. It follows that an alcoholic should not be held morally accountable for acts committed while in the grip of the obsession.
The syllogism suggests a corollary.
When an alcoholic realizes the nature of his malady, and that help, human and otherwise, is at hand and that "there is a solution," is it not reasonable to assume that an element of moral responsibility enters into the situation? Tolerance for the sinner but none for the sin is a noble sentiment. And alcoholics will probably always require understanding. But may we, who have accepted A.A. and assume to practice its precepts, continue to expect, under the new dispensation, condonation when the rules of society are broken? If the truth has made us free and the spirit has given us strength, shall we not take and maintain our places in the ranks of society without favor as well as without fear?
It is submitted that a lively sense of moral responsibility should be assiduously cultivated, the more so because of our newly found power to accept it and because in the very acceptance of it, we wax stronger and stronger as we "grow by what we feed on."
R.F.S.
Montclair, New Jersey
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