DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
DO I HAVE A CHOICE?
The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so called will power becomes practically nonexistent.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, up. 24
My powerlessness over alcohol does not cease when I quit drinking. In sobriety I still have no choice-- I can't drink.
The choice I do have is to pick up and use the "kit of spiritual tools " (Alcoholics Anonymous up. 25). When I do that, my Higher Power relieves me of my lack of choice-- and keeps me sober one more day. If I could choose not to pick up a drink today, where then would be my need for A.A. or a Higher Power?
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Everyone who comes into A.A. knows from bitter experience that he or she can't drink. I know that drinking has been the cause of all my major troubles or has made them worse. Now that I have found a way out, I will hang onto A.A. with both hands. Saint Paul once said that nothing in the world, neither powers nor principalities, life nor death, could separate him from the love of God. Once I have given my drink problem to God, should anything in the world separate me from my sobriety?
Meditation for the Day
I know that my new life will not be immune from difficulties, but I will have peace even in difficulties. I know that serenity is the result of faithful, trusting acceptance of God's will, even in the midst of difficulties. Saint Paul said: "Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may welcome difficulties. I pray that they may test my strength and build my character.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Growing up
“Our spiritual condition is the basis for a successful recovery that offers unlimited growth.”
Basic Text, p. 44
When our members celebrate their recovery anniversaries, they often say that they’ve “grown up” in NA. Well, then, we think, what does that mean? We start to wonder if we’re grownups yet. We check our lives and yes, all the trappings of adulthood are there: the checkbook, the children, the job, the responsibilities. On the inside, though, we often feel like children. We’re still confused by life much of the time. We don’t always know how to act. We sometimes wonder whether we’re really grownups at all, or whether we’re children who’ve somehow been put into adult bodies and given adult responsibilities.
Growth is not best measured by physical age or levels of responsibility. Our best measure of growth is our spiritual condition, the basis of our recovery. If we’re still depending on people, places, and things to provide our inner satisfaction, like a child depending on its parents for everything, we do indeed have some growing to do. But if we stand secure on the foundation of our spiritual condition, considering its maintenance our most important responsibility, we can claim maturity. Upon that foundation, our opportunities for growth are limitless.
Just for today: The measure of my maturity is the extent to which I take responsibility for the maintenance of my spiritual condition. Today, this will be my highest priority.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with
what happens to him." --Aldous Huxley
“A Big Book falling apart is normally an AA member that is not.”
Wherever you see God pass mark that spot and go sit there again
Carla R. (SIG Saturday Night Zoom)
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.
~Buddha
Native American
"Native Americans are essentially calling for righteousness. By this they mean a shared ideology developed by all people using their purest and most unselfish minds."
--Lorraine Canoe/Tom Porter, MOHAWK
The Native way is to first focus on decisions that will be good for the people and then for yourself. Righteousness means "to think right." Our way is to consider the good of all first. This helps our minds to be unselfish and pure. This it he spiritual way. This can be very hard to do because the world we live in says to take care of yourself first. A man of God cannot be taken advantage of unless it is the will of the Creator. The Creator really controls everything. To have a good future, the people must gather in a circle and pray for the highest good for the people.
Great Mystery, today let me love instead of being loved. Le me be giving instead of receiving. Show me the advantages of having a giving heart.
Keep It Simple
Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the light, even though for the moment you do not see. --- Bill W.
At times, we'll go through pain and hardship, At times, we'll have doubts. At times, we'll get angry and think we just don't care anymore. These things can spiritually blind us. But this normal. Hopefully, we'll be ready for those times. Hopefully, we will have friends who will be there for you. Thank God for these moments! Yes, hard times can make our spirits deep and strong. These moments tell us who we are as sober people. These moments help us grow and change. Spirituality is about choice. To be spiritual, we must turn ourselves over to the care of our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: God, help me find You in my moments of blindness. This is when I really need You.
Action for the Day: Today I'll get ready for the hard times ahead. I will list my friends who will be there for me
Big Book
"Faith without works is dead."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, Page 7
Changes in Gratitude
“Changes in Attitude, Changes in Latitude”, Jimmy Buffett had made it a song
A look at life from his point of view, changing places to keep going on
We AA’s knew attitude had to be changed if we had a chance to survive
Some tried moving away to a new latitude, but old thinking refused to subside
Geographical cures almost never achieve the results they were meant to attain
Moving away from the place where we’d been won’t erase those old thought from our brain
We’ve tried it before, only to fail, the old patterns return in a flash
Again hanging out with the same type of folks that resemble the ones from our past
The change that’s required is not where we live, but rather inside of our mind
An attitude change is required to get to the peace we we’re hoping to find
A most difficult task when one’s life has been ruled by a misguided styled gratitude
Just to be left alone, with our friend alcohol, content in our own solitude
The things that we should have been grateful for, we often times took them for granted
Our family and friends, a roof over our heads, we had somehow become disenchanted
We became grateful for the wrong kind of things, like getting us out of a scrape
Or for not getting stopped at that checkpoint last night, we were grateful that we had escaped
But this friend turned on us, kept demanding we put all our focus completely on him
“Just be grateful”, he’d say,” that you have me nearby, for without me your life would be grim”
We accepted his lies and rejected the truth, that he’d taken us towards our destruction
If we were to be free, we were forced to agree, that our gratitude needed adjustment
We had mostly been grateful for what we possessed, the new car, bigger house, a promotion
Yet we still wanted more of those things we adored, a completely misguided devotion
It had never occurred to accept what we had and be grateful without the desire
To stand out from the rest, to be always the best, be the one who was leading the choir
So, when things fell apart, as our drinking increased, we replaced gratitude with our ego
We deserve to get drunk, to get out of this funk, alcohol was our valued amigo
Then a man came to call, he had heard of our plight, and described just what he had gone through
With him we could relate, was it chance or by fate, yet we knew that his story was true
He had traveled the same road we found our selves on, a road that led to the abyss
We had got nearly there, loss of hope and despair, we had lost our will to resist
But this fellow said he’d found a way to get back, and to live with a new attitude
To put down the drink, change the way he must think, gained a hold on a new gratitude
He said this may sound strange, since he always was grateful, for things that his money could buy
But he’d since come to learn that those things would get old, fade away in a blink on an eye
What he’d found through AA, was a much better way, to appreciate things that endured
Like regained self-respect, love of family and friends, that a life of sobriety secured
Sometimes changing your latitude will change you attitude, but we alcoholics need something more
To put self-will aside, even swallow our pride, and walk through that clubhouse front door
For it’s there that we see, it’s not all about ME, that old attitude needs amending
Lend a hand to a friend, help relations to mend, lead a life that will need no defending
So, if Jimmy should call, to ask my advice, for a title to put on a song
Though the old one was great, it would help us relate, to see where we may have gone wrong
Latitude’s just a place, it will never erase, the old thinking that drinking arranged
I’d suggest using gratitude, instead of latitude, as the way to effect a real change
Larry R.
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