DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
"LET'S KEEP IT SIMPLE"
A few hours later I took my leave of Dr. Bob. . . . The wonderful, old, broad smile was on his face as he said almost jokingly. "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple!" I turned away, unable to say a word. That was the last time I ever saw him.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS COMES OF AGE, p. 214
After years of sobriety I occasionally asked myself: "Can it be this simple?" Then, at meetings, I see former cynics and skeptics who have walked the A.A. path out of hell by packaging their lives, without alcohol, into twenty-four hour segments, during which they practice a few principles to the best of their individual abilities. And then I know again that, while it isn't always easy, if I keep it simple, it works.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
In the beginning, you want to get sober, but you're helpless, so you turn to a Power greater than yourself and by trusting in that Power, you get the strength to stop drinking. From then on, you want to keep sober, and that's a matter of reeducating your mind. After a while, you get so that you really enjoy simple, healthy, normal living. You really get a kick out of life without the artificial stimulus of alcohol. All you have to do is to look around at the members of any A.A. group and you will see how their outlook has changed. Is my outlook on life changing?
Meditation for the Day
I will never forget to say thank you to God, even on the grayest days. My attitude will be one of humility and gratitude. Saying thank you to God is a daily practice that is absolutely necessary. If a day is not one of thankfulness, the practice has to be repeated until it becomes so. Gratitude is a necessity for those who seek to live a better life.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that gratitude will bring humility. I pray that humility will bring me to live a better life.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
The school of recovery
“This is a program for learning.”
Basic Text, p. 16
Learning in recovery is hard work. The things we most need to know are often the hardest to learn. We study recovery to prepare ourselves for the experiences life will give us. As we listen to others share in meetings, we take mental notes we can refer to later. To be prepared, we study our notes and literature between “lessons.” Just as students have the opportunity to apply their knowledge during tests, so do we have the opportunity to apply our recovery during times of crisis.
As always, we have a choice in how we will approach life’s challenges. We can dread and avoid them as threats to our serenity, or we can gratefully accept them as opportunities for growth. By confirming the principles we’ve learned in recovery, life’s challenges give us increased strength. Without such challenges, however, we could forget what we’ve learned and begin to stagnate. These are the opportunities that prod us to new spiritual awakenings.
We will find that there is often a period of rest after each crisis, giving us time to get accustomed to our new skills. Once we’ve reflected on our experience, we are called on to share our knowledge with someone who is studying what we’ve just learned. In the school of recovery, all of us are teachers as well as students.
Just for today: I will be a student of recovery. I will welcome challenges, confident in what I’ve learned and eager to share it with others.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"Times of stress and difficulty are seasons of opportunity when the seeds
of progress are sown." --Thomas F. Woodlock
You only live temporarily by what you take, but you live forever by what you give.
One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears—by listening to them. ~Dean Rusk (thanks Gary M.)
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Trust has nothing to do with moral courage. It occurs when we have nowhere else to turn, when we reach the end of our need to control.
-Rodney Smith, "Lessons from the Dying"
Native American
"The first factor in the revolution of consciousness is the mystic death of the ego- the death of negative thinking, negative personalities. We must purify the soul of the inner enemies. Every time a defect manifests- envy, gluttony, anger, lust, whatever-that impulse to the heart. Ask, `Do I really need to invoke this?' And then honor the heart."
--Willaru Huayta, QUECHAU NATION, PERU
Our egos have character defects. These character defects we sometimes act out and they invariably bring results to our lives that we might not want. If we continue to use these character defects, we will continue to have undesirable results in our lives. How do we change ourselves or get rid of a character defect We can go to the heart-ask a question, make a decision-then honor the heart. For example, say I get angry today. I would go to the heart and ask, would I rather be right or would I rather be happy? How we answer this question can have an enormous impact on how our day goes. Once we decide the answer to this question, we need to honor the heart by saying, "Thank you for the power of changing my thoughts. I choose to be happy and to experience peace of mind."
Great Spirit, today, let me teach only love and learn only love.
Keep It Simple
Go often to the house of your friend: for weeds soon choke up the unused path. --- Scandinavian proverb.
Our program has two parts: the Steps, and the fellowship. Both keep us sober. We can't stay sober if we go it alone. We need to work the Steps. We also need people--the help of our friends daily
Recovery is about relationships. We get new friends. We get involved. We give. We get. In times of need, we may not want to ask our new friends for help. Maybe we don't want to "burden them."
"Maybe we're afraid to ask for help." Well, go ahead. Make that call. Ask your new friend to spend time with you. You deserve and need it. They deserve it; they need it.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to get help from my friends as if my life depends on it.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll see or call two program friends and let them know how I'm doing.
Big Book
"We think it no concern of ours what religious bodies our members
identify themselves with as individuals. This should be an entirely
personal affair which each one decides for himself in the light of
past associations, or his present choice."
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, There Is A Solution, pg. 28
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If we have emotional sobriety, then thank God for it; and to keep it, we must give it away.
A.A. DOESN’T WORK (thanks Cheryl T.)
One of the saddest statements I have ever heard is, "I’ve been to A.A. and it doesn’t work." There is no way I can count the number of times over the past couple of decades I have found an alcoholic coming off a drunk who made that statement. Just today, one of my protégés called to tell me of a man, holed up in a cheap motel room, he was asked to locate and see if he could help him.
My protégé was successful in locating the suffering alcoholic and did what he had been instructed to do on a Twelve Step call. He told him some of the story of his drinking and how he had come to know it to be an illness over which he had no control nor did the medical profession have a solution.
The suffering alcoholic finally said, "You’re going to try to tell me about A.A. aren’t you?" Jake said, "That is where I found my solution. "The sick one said, "I have gone to A.A. meetings for the last eight 8 months and did what they told me to do. It doesn’t work for me."
Jake asked, "Did you take the Steps with a sponsor who had been blessed with a spiritual experience as the result of having taken the Steps?" The sick one said, "I think I did but the main thing they told me was just keep coming back and you’ll be OK. When I asked what else I should do, I was told, Don’t drink and keep on going to more meetings. I did what they told me to do and A.A. just doesn’t work."
A member of Alcoholics Anonymous found me near death in 1964 and told me he could help me. He said to me, "I understand. I have been where you are and I want to help you if you will let me." I was willing to do anything. He took me to his A.A. club and began sobering me up on orange juice with some honey mixed in it. When I began having delirium tremens, they added some Bay Rum to the mixture. There were no treatment centers in our area at that time and hospitals would not admit us for alcoholism. We either shook and sweat it out in jail or at an A.A. club. By far, most of them made it to the end sober or they still are. I wasn’t one of them. I saw an opportunity to return my ego to its earlier level by getting involved in a new and exciting profession and so I went for it. Sixteen years after my last drink; 11 years after my last meeting, on a day without a cloud in the sky, I thought having a beer would be a good idea, so being in a very dry county, I drove 70 miles for a six-pack. It took me 2 years to make it back to Alcoholics Anonymous very, very drunk.
But what a difference 13 years can make! There were no alcoholics laying around the club with dry heaves. There were no blood shot eyes, sweating faces, no vibrating bodies, the aroma of alcoholism was missing. There was no orange juice in the refrigerator nor honey near the coffee pot. There was no Bay Rum in the file cabinet. It was no longer needed because almost everyone had gone to treatment and been medicated through the process of what is termed de-tox. They had missed those wonderful golden moments of the misery, suffering and pain of sobering up. At first, I thought the new approach was good but then I began to see the results. There was less and less commitment to the group and the action necessary for long term emotional sobriety was being ignored.
There were very few Big Book study or speaker meetings but a large number of discussion/participation meetings where everyone was given an opportunity to talk about whatever was on their mind whether on not they knew anything about alcoholism or recovery from alcoholism. There were even non-alcoholics participating in these meetings. This newer approach of learning to live with alcoholism was beginning to prove to be a dismal failure.
I heard a tape of Joe McQ. and later attended a weekend of Joe McQ. and Charlie P. presenting their Big Book Comes Alive program. It then became very clear why so many were returning to the bottle. Not only were we without sick alcoholics laying around the meeting places, there was so little program in our meetings, it was almost hidden from the newcomers. No wonder so few were finding more than a few months of physical sobriety. They were denied what is required for long term emotional sobriety.
Without the sick alcoholics laying round the meeting place, I had to find a place where I could again see and smell alcoholism. I needed a frequent reminder of where I came from and what was waiting for me if I didn‘t continue to pay the price for emotional sobriety. Over the years since I have been blessed to have been given another opportunity to survive the deadliest disease known to mankind, I have volunteered in many wind-up places where those coming off a drunk are present and available to talk with. Again and again, I heard that sickening statement, "I went to A.A. and it doesn’t work."
Of course, they are right. Alcoholics Anonymous does not work! We must work it! But they were not told the truth. My basic text reads, "Rarely, have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path" The path being the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as outlined in a book titled Alcoholics Anonymous. My basic text does not read, "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of don’t drink and go to meetings." It reads, "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and practice these principles in all our affairs."
Our real problem is ego driven sponsorship with very little if any real concern for the welfare of the newcomer. Proclaimed members of our fellowship who have never taken the Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous will assume the responsibility for the life of a newcomer and will proudly announce the number of sponsees they have. As one of my dear friends said, "The manner in which we now fail our responsibility to the newcomer borders on slaughter." The demise of our sense of responsibility to those seeking help for alcoholism is one of the greatest tragedies of our time in history. It works only if we work it (working all 12 Steps, meetings/fellowship, and being of service expecting nothing in return)!
Cliff B.
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