DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
THE ONLY REQUIREMENT
"At one time . . . every A.A. group had many membership rules. Everybody was scared witless that something or somebody would capsize the boat. . . The total list was a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, . . ."
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 139-40
I'm grateful that the Third Tradition only requires of me a desire to stop drinking. I had been breaking promises for years. In the Fellowship I didn't have to make promises, I didn't have to concentrate. It only required my attending one meeting, in a foggy condition, to know I was home.
I didn't have to pledge undying love. Here, strangers hugged me. "It gets better," they said, and "one day at a time, you can do it." They were no longer strangers, but caring friends. I ask God to help me reach out to people desiring sobriety, and to, please, keep me grateful!
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
"Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure
immunity from drinking as extensive work with other alcoholics.
Carry the message to other alcoholics. You can help when no one
else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Life
will take on new meaning for you. To watch people recover, to see
them help others in turn, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a
fellowship grow about you, to have a host of friends, this is an
experience you must not miss." Am I always ready and willing to help
other alcoholics?
Meditation For The Day
One secret of abundant living is the art of giving. The paradox of
life is that the more you give, the more you have. If you loose your
life in the service of others, you will save it. You can give
abundantly and still live abundantly. You are rich in one respect – you
have a spirit that is inexhaustible. Let no mean or selfish thought
keep you from sharing this spirit. Of love, of help, of
understanding, and of sympathy, give and keep giving. Give your
personal ease and comfort, your time, your money, and most of all,
yourself. And you will be living abundantly.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may live to give. I pray that I may learn this secret of
abundant living.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Doing good, feeling good
Page 252
"We examine our actions, reactions, and motives. We often find that we've been doing better than we've been feeling."
Basic Text, p.43
The way we treat others often reveals our own state of being. When we are at peace, we're most likely to treat others with respect and compassion. However, when we're feeling off center; we're likely to respond to others with intolerance and impatience. When we take regular inventory, we'll probably notice a pattern: We treat others badly when we feel bad about ourselves.
What might not be revealed in an inventory, however, is the other side of the coin: When we treat others well, we feel good about ourselves. When we add this positive truth to the negative facts we find about ourselves in our inventory, we begin to behave differently.
When we feel badly, we can pause to pray for guidance and strength. Then, we make a decision to treat those around us with kindness, gentleness, and the same concern we'd like to be shown. A decision to be kind may nurture and sustain the happiness and peace of mind we all wish for. And the joy we inspire may lift the spirits of those around us, in turn fostering our own spiritual well-being.
Just for Today: I will remember that if I change my actions, my thoughts will follow.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional
acceptance of life and what it brings."
--Arthur Rubinstein
The Way...
So many came before us,
and still so many come...
A doorway opened for us,
we shall enter one by one...
Have faith God could restore us,
thy will not ours be done...
First we must be willing,
"willingness is the only key"!!!
Emphasized as indispensable, without action willingness is fantasy.
We cross the threshold onto a path, into a fourth dimension…
Castaway our woes and wrath,
tear down the walls of apprehension
Entirely ready and so humbly asked, to remove that which we abhor...
Remove all we admitted
objectionable, now and heretofore.
Leave behind your bedraggled ghost,
make peace with all your battles...
Free yourself from the whipping post,
that bound you to your shackles.
As you sally do not stray,
He'll guide you on your way...
Do not dally nor delay,
no harm or evil lurks…
"This is The Way...to a faith that works".
Gordon R.
Inspired by "12 Steps and 12 Traditions" page 14 first paragraph.
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
We have a saying in Tibet. "If you lose your temper and get angry, bite your knuckles." This means that if you lose your temper, do not show it to others. Rather, say to yourself, "Leave it."
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Native American
"I started drinking more seriously, seeking refuge, seeking death actually, from a world that was feeling more and more unnatural to me. Following a painful accident related to drinking, I finally realized that I must decide whether I want to follow my grandparents or truly take up this life. Circumstances that followed led me to choose life."
--Barney Bush, SHAWNEE
My life is run by choices and decisions. Every choice I make today will carry with it the consequences of that choice. Every decision I make today will carry with it the consequences of that decision. The question I will ask myself today is, "Do I want to be happy or do I want to be right?" Which ever one I choose will have a lot to do with the consequences I will experience today. If today was the last day of my life, what choices and what decisions would I make?
Oh Great Spirit, guide my path today and help me see the value of choosing the Red Road.
Keep It Simple
Love is something if you give away, you end up having more.
--- Malvina Reynolds
Service is how we give love away. It’s the “self” of self-help. Service is not a duty; a gift that’s been given to us. We help ourselves by helping others. It’s how we make sure the program will be here tomorrow. We “carry the message.” It’s just one way we see how important we are to others. The world needs us. The world needs our love.
Prayer for the Day: I pray for help in making service a big part of my program. Higher Power, help me to “carry the message.”
Action for the Day: Which people could use a kind word and a little love? I will go visit them or give them a call.
TWELVE STEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Step Three(pgs 33-40)
Step Three (pgs 33-35)
“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
PRACTICING Step Three is like the opening of a door which to all appearances is still closed and locked. All we need is a key, and the decision to swing the door open. There is only one key, and it is called willingness. Once unlocked by willingness, the door opens almost of itself, and looking through it, we shall see a pathway beside which is an inscription. It reads: “This is the way to a faith that works.” In the first two Steps we were engaged in reflection. We saw that we were powerless over alcohol, but we also perceived that faith of some kind, if only in A.A. itself, is possible to anyone. These conclusions did not require action; they required only acceptance.
Like all the remaining Steps, Step Three calls for affirmative action, for it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God—or, if you like, a Higher Power—into our lives. Faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives. Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means shall we be able to let Him in? Step Three represents our first attempt to do this. In fact, the effectiveness of the whole A.A. program will rest upon how well and earnestly we have tried to come to “a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
To every worldly and practical-minded beginner, this Step looks hard, even impossible. No matter how much one wishes to try, exactly how can he turn his own will and his own life over to the care of whatever God he thinks there is? Fortunately, we who have tried it, and with equal misgivings, can testify that anyone, anyone at all, can begin to do it. We can further add that a beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.
Maybe this all sounds mysterious and remote, something like Einstein’s theory of relativity or a proposition in nuclear physics. It isn’t at all. Let’s look at how practical it actually is. Every man and woman who has joined A.A. and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three. Isn’t it true that in all matters touching upon alcohol, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of Alcoholics Anonymous? Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one’s own will and one’s own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A. Any willing newcomer feels sure A.A. is the only safe harbor for the foundering vessel he has become. Now if this is not turning one’s will and life over to a newfound Providence, then what is it?
But suppose that instinct still cries out, as it certainly will, “Yes, respecting alcohol, I guess I have to be dependent upon A.A., but in all other matters I must still maintain my independence. Nothing is going to turn me into a nonentity. If I keep on turning my life and my will over to the care of Something or Somebody else, what will become of me? I’ll look like the hole in the doughnut.” This, of course, is the process by which instinct and logic always seek to bolster egotism, and so frustrate spiritual development. The trouble is that this kind of thinking takes no real account of the facts. And the facts seem to be these: The more we become willing to depend upon a Higher Power, the more independent we actually are. Therefore dependence, as A.A. practices it, is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit.
***********************************
MY BLUES AND DUES
by Larry R.
An old song said to get ahead, you had to pay your dues
I was not sure just what that meant, but soon I had to chose
Play by the rules, I had been told, was the right thing to do
Yet I had chose another way, a path I'd come to rue
I never felt real comfortable with who I really was
To compensate and act secure, I'd need to feel the buzz
That feeling that convinces me that I can do what's needed
To rise above the rest and let them know I have succeeded
At first this seemed to really work, go fortune came my way
Advanced at work, the family sound, and time enough to play
And play I did, not caring then, but friends began to tell
That happy buzz was changing me, it had me in it's spell
You've got that wrong, I'd say out loud, I have too much to lose
I've worked real hard for what I've got, I've always paid my dues
There's no way that I've lost control, could stop an any time
I'm still the master of myself, have mountains yet to climb
But before long, things start to change, the joy I always knew
Was different now, more insecure, alone and feeling blue
To try and get that feelin back, I'd need to fill my glass
By drinking more and more each day, the world could kiss my ass
But that day came, I'm not sure how, twas in my darkest hour
A friend appeared who'd seen my fall and told me of a Power
A Power that had saved his from a life of grief and horror
He said I could receive it too, just come with him tomorrow
So I agreed, he led the way, I followed right behind
We reached the door of this old church, not sure what I would find
To my surprise, I heard a sound, I had not heard in years
Twas happy people laughing and it drove away my fears
Then folks would tell their stories, but for me not to compare
But rather to identify with things that got us there
I heard my own tale more than once, and it was then I knew
If these old drunks could make it back, then I could do it too
Some time has passed, I'm sober now, have been for quite a while
When I look back on how things were, I break out in a smile
A miracle had taken place, that helped me to survive
I'd paid my dues and lost those blues and finally came alive.
To subscribe click the link below:
http://www.getresponse.com/site/dailyponderables/webform.html?wid=108246