June 3rd

DAILY PONDERABLES

Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny

Daily Reflections

ON A WING AND A PRAYER

. . . we then look at step Six. We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 76

Steps Four and Five were difficult, but worthwhile. Now I was stuck on Step Six and, in despair, I picked up the Big Book and read this passage. I was outside, praying for willingness, when I raised my eyes and saw a huge bird rising in the sky. I watched it suddenly give itself up to the powerful air currents of the mountains. Swept along, swooping and soaring, the bird did things seemingly impossible for mortal birds to do. It was an inspiring example of a fellow creature "letting go" to a power greater than itself. I realized that if the bird "took back his will" and tried to fly with less trust, on its power alone, it would spoil its apparent free flight. That insight granted me the willingness to pray the Seventh Step prayer.

It's not easy to know God's will in each circumstance. I must search out and be ready for the currents, and that's where prayer and meditation help! Because I am, of myself, nothing, I ask God to grant me the knowledge of His will and the power and courage to carry it out---today.

From the book Daily Reflections

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

Some more things I do not miss since becoming dry: running all over town to find a bar open to get that "pick-me-up"; meeting my friends and trying to cover up that I feel awful; looking at myself in a mirror and calling myself a damn fool; struggling with myself to snap out of it for two or three days; wondering what it is all about. I'm positive I don't miss these things, am I not?

Meditation for the Day

Love is the power that transforms your life. Try to love your family and your friends and then try to love everybody that you possibly can, even the "sinners and publicans" everybody. Love for God is an even greater thing. it is the result of gratitude to God and it is the acknowledgment of the blessing that God has sent you. Love for God acknowledges His gifts and leaves the way open for God to shower yet more blessings on your thankful heart. Say "Thank you, God," until it becomes a habit.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may try to love God and all people. I pray that I may continually thank God for all His blessings.

From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day

NA - Just for Today

Direct and indirect amends

Page 161

"We make our amends to the best of our ability."

Basic Text, p. 40

The Ninth Step tells us to make direct amends wherever possible. Our experience tells us to follow up those direct amends with long-lasting changes in our attitudes and our behavior - that is, with indirect amends.

For example, say we've broken someone's window because we were angry. Looking soulfully into the eyes of the person whose window we've broken and apologizing would not be sufficient. We directly amend the wrong we've done by admitting it and replacing the window - we mend what we have damaged.

Then, we follow up our direct amends with indirect amends. If we've acted out on our anger, breaking someone's window, we examine the patterns of our behavior and our attitudes. After we repair the broken window, we seek to repair our broken attitudes as well - we try to "mend our ways." We modify our behavior, and make a daily effort not to act out on our anger.

We make direct amends by repairing the damage we do. We make indirect amends by repairing the attitudes that cause us to do damage in the first place, helping insure we won't cause further damage in the future.

Just for Today: I will make direct amends, wherever possible. I will also make indirect amends, "mending my ways," changing my attitudes, and altering my behavior.

From the book Just for Today

Thought for Today

Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve.

~ Dr. Ishee

If you find yourself easily provoked, then just change the channel.

- Toba Beta

When your life is degrading faster than you can lower your standards, you are ready for recovery.

Compound Interest

Financial people tell us that to have your savings grow

Letting interest compound is the better way to go

By keeping funds invested will increase total return

And add to your investment by the money that you earn

Recovery from booze and drugs is not an easy task

But neither was the life we lived in our addicted past

Mired in our misery from alcohol or dope

We found a room with folks like us to finally give us hope

They told us of their struggles, stories where we could relate

Of how they reached their bottom, feeling lost and desolate

But somehow, they had managed to recover from despair

And learned just how to live again, an answer to their prayer

To reach their goal, sobriety, required certain steps

A list of things they’d need to do to regain self-respect

Admit defeat, commit to do whatever it would take

And join the AA fellowship, its practices partake

When we arrived, we were confused, unsure of what to do

But as we kept on coming back, we started to accrue

The answers to the task at hand, a proper way to live

Not just release from alcohol, to get we had to give

This lesson was not one we alcoholics understood

Our lives been lived, consumed with self, not for a common good

Yet, we were told we had to change, assist our fellow man

Through service work and sponsorship, that’s how AA began

For some of us it took a while to fully comprehend

The effort we would have to make to help ourselves to mend

We thought a meeting twice a week should surely keep us straight

Then wondered why it did not work, old ways reactivate

We’d heard the words but did not act, results had been the same

Back at the bottle once again, with just ourselves to blame

We’d try again, but this time we would do what they suggest

And change our lives by all the time and effort we’d invest

We’d make a meeting every day and call some AA friend

Do service work, be ready with a helping hand to lend

And as we did, we realize we had found the best solution

To battle our addiction and remove our destitution

To work the program properly we needed to invest

By doing what’s suggested, be a member, not a guest

The more we are committed to our AA way of living

We add another chapter to the gift that we’ve been given

We put away some money, get the interest, let it grow

Sobriety’s the same, more we invest the more we sew

We compound our investment every day that we commit

To do the next right thing, day by day and bit by bit

Larry R.

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Meditate on that which is beyond words and symbols. Forsake the demands of the self. By such forsaking you will live serenely.

- Sutta Nipata

Native American

"IN THE BEGINNING were the Instructions... The Instructions was to live in a good way and be respectful to everybody and everything."

--Vickie Downey, TEWA/Tesuque Pueblo

A long time ago, in the beginning, the Creator gave to all people and to all things the Wisdom and the knowledge of how to live in harmony. Some tribes call these teachings the original Instructions, the original teachings, or the Great Laws. All of Nature still lives and survives according to these teachings. In modern times, human beings are searching for the Instructions. Many churches claim they have these Instructions. Where are these teachings? The Instructions are written in our hearts.

Great Spirit, today, whisper to me the secrets of the original Instructions.

Walk in Dry Places

Why admitting we're wrong is right

Right action

Sometimes it's painful or almost impossible to admit that we've been wrong. This means we'll probably go on making the same mistakes until we're forced to face the truth. Why does this happen?

The problem lies with what we call the EGO in our Twelve step program discussions. We commit ourselves in defending this ego at all times, especially around people who seem to put us down. Far from being a minor correction, any admissions of wrong feels like total defeat, at least in our warped way of looking at things.

We can release ourselves from this bondage simply by coming to see that admitting and facing our wrongs is essential to growth. A store manager who overstocks a certain item "admits" the mistake by putting the goods on a clearance sale and getting rid of them. We can cut any loss in the same way by admitting a mistake and going on to a better course of action.

I'll not plan to make any mistakes today, but I'll hold myself in readiness to admit them if they occur. This is no threat to my ego. I am much more than my mistakes.

Big Book

Chapter 6 Into Action (pg 86)

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. we relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.