DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
I DON'T RUN THE SHOW
When we become alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we would not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't. What was our choice to be?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 53
Today my choice is God. He is everything. For this I am truly grateful. When I think I am running the show I am blocking God from my life. I pray I can remember this when I allow myself to get caught up into self. The most important thing is that today I am willing to grow along spiritual lines, and that God is everything. When I was trying to quit drinking on my own, it never worked; with God and A.A., it is working. This seems to be a simple thought for a complicated alcoholic.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Since I realized that I had become an alcoholic and could never have any more fun with liquor and since I knew that from then on liquor would always get me into trouble, common sense told me that the only thing left for me was a life of sobriety. But I learned another thing in A.A., the most important thing anyone can ever learn. That I could call on a Higher Power to help me keep away from liquor. That I could work with that Divine Principle in the universe, and that God would help me to live a sober, useful, happy life. So now I no longer care about the fact that I can never have any more fun with drinking. Have I learned that I am much happier without it?
Meditation for the Day
Like a tree, I must be pruned of a lot of dead branches before I will be ready to bear good fruit. Think of changed people as trees that have been stripped of their old branches, pruned, cut, and bare. But through the dark, seemingly dead branches flows silently, secretly, the new sap, until with the sun of spring comes new life. There are new leaves, buds, blossoms, and fruit, many times better because of the pruning. I am in the hands of a Master Gardener, who makes no mistakes in His pruning.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may cut away the dead branches of my life. I pray that I may not mind the pruning, since it helps me to bear good fruit later.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Fun!
Page 42
"In recovery our ideas of fun change. "
Basic Text, p. 107
In retrospect, many of us realize that when we used, our ideas of fun were rather bizarre. Some of us would get dressed up and head for the local club. We would dance, drink and do other drugs until the sun rose. On more than one occasion, gun battles broke out. What we then called fun, we now call insanity.
Today, our notion of fun has changed. Fun to us today is a walk along the ocean, watching the dolphins frolic as the sun sets behind them. Fun is going to an NA picnic, or attending the comedy show at an NA convention. Fun is getting dressed up to go to the banquet and not worrying about any gun battles breaking out over who did what to whom.
Through the grace of a Higher Power and the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous, our ideas of fun have changed radically. Today when we are up to see the sun rise, it's usually because we went to bed early the night before, not because we left a club at six in the morning, eyes bleary from a night of drug use. And if that's all we have received from Narcotics Anonymous, that would be enough.
Just for Today: I will have fun in my recovery!
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
Gratitude is the vision to see that WE have been Gifted - Ernest Kurtz
“If you want to talk about the spiritual part of the programme, you may as well talk about the wet part of the ocean”. (thanks Diana F. Auckland, New Zealand)
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Shakyamuni Buddha said, "Judge not others; judge only yourself." What appear to be faults in others may actually be reflections of our own emotional afflictions.
A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.
~ Zen Shin (thanks John G.)
Native American
"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the dust and blood of our ancestors."
--Plenty Coups, CROW
Mother Earth is the source of life and the place all life returns to. She gives us life. She feeds us through our journey and she waits for us to return to her. The Indian way is to recognize the earth as the place of our ancestors. That is why certain places on earth are considered sacred areas and sacred land; this is the place of our ancestors. We all need to reflect upon the earth, the place where our ancestors lived. We need to have love and respect for the earth.
My Creator, let me honor the place of our ancestors, Mother Earth.
Keep It Simple
Life didn't promise to be wonderful. --- Teddy Pendergrass
Life doesn't promise us anything, except a chance. We have a chance to live any way we like. No matter how we choose to live, we'll have pain and we'll have joy. And we can learn from both.
Because of our recovery program, we can have life's biggest wonder---love. We share it in a smile, a touch, a phone call, or a note. We share it with our friends, our partners, our family. Life didn't promise to be wonderful, but it sure is full of little wonders! And we only have to open up and see them, feel them, and let them happen.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see the wonders of life today, in nature, in people's faces, in my own heart.
Action for the Day: I can help make a wonderful things happen for others, with a smile, a greeting, a helping hand. What "little" things will I do for somebody today?
Big Book
"When you discover a prospect for Alcoholics Anonymous, find out all
you can about him. If he does not want to stop drinking, don't
waste time trying to persuade him. You may spoil a later opportunity."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 90
The Power of The Pause
Larry R.
We hear about a kit of tools to help us to get by
When life decides to intervene, our peace to nullify
A tool that is most useful, no matter what the cause
Is one that we have learned to use, the one that’s called the pause
While drinking most of us rejected turning from a fight
Weather physical or verbal since we knew that we were right
Our first instinct was to lash out and make them understand
That we were right and they were wrong, we made it a demand
The bad part of this action was it always made things worse
Tempers flared, bad things were said, we’d yell and start to curse
Then walk away and carry a resentment in our brain
And drink to help forget our way of thinking was insane
Once we turned the corner and our drinking days were through
We started to think differently, a better path pursue
When faced with situations that would cause us to react
We stop and think, before we speak, some words we can’t take back
By pausing when confronted by a person, place or thing
That sets us up to lash out, makes us want to take a swing
We take the time to contemplate and let our minds rehearse
If striking back will really help or only make things worse
This does not mean we must accept what others do or say
But we have learned, most times it’s best, to put those thoughts at bay
Restrain the natural impulse to avenge what we conceive
An offence directed towards us or insensitivity
By taking time to let things cool we often realize
The thing that had upset us melts away, desensitizes
Refusing to engage what would had been an altercation
We did not add to feelings that would harm future relations
A friend or spouse just sometimes may be having a bad day
Makes a careless comment, hurts our feelings, cause dismay
They may not have meant to say it, we decide to let it pass
We think of other times when we’re the one that was the ass
So, taking time to pause before we jumped into the fray
We avoided confrontation with our defect on display
Pausing gives us power just to do the next right thing
Practice what we have been taught, serenity is king.
Larry R.
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