DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
I CANNOT CHANGE THE WIND
It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85
My first sponsor told me there were two things to say about prayer and mediation: first, I had to start and second, I had to continue. When I came to A.A. my spiritual life was bankrupt; If I considered God at all, He was to be called upon only when my self-will was incapable of a task or when overwhelming fears had eroded my ego.
Today I am grateful for a new life, one in which my prayers are those of thanksgiving. My prayer time is more for listening than for talking. I know today that if I cannot change the wind, I can adjust my sail. I know the difference between superstition and spirituality. I know there is a graceful way of being right, and many ways to be wrong.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
I have hope. That magic thing that I had lost or misplaced. The future looks dark no more. I do not even look at it, except when necessary to make plans. I try to let the future take care of itself. The future will be made up of todays and todays, stretching out as short as now and as long as eternity. Hope is justified by many right nows, by the rightness of the present. Nothing can happen to me that God does not will for me. I can hope for the best, as long as I have what I have and it is good. Have I hope?
Meditation for the Day
Faith is the messenger that bears your prayers to God. Prayer can be like incense, rising ever higher and higher. The prayer of faith is the prayer of trust that feels the presence of God which it rises to meet. It can be sure of some response from God. We can say a prayer of thanks to God every day for His grace, which has kept us on the right way and allowed us to start living the good life. So we should pray to God with faith and trust and gratitude.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may feel sure of some response to my prayers. I pray that I may be content with whatever form that response takes.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Awakening
"God helps us as we help each other."
Basic Text p.51
Our addiction caused us to think almost exclusively of ourselves. Even our prayers - if we prayed at all - were self-centered. We asked God to fix things for us or get us out of trouble. Why? Because we didn't want to live with the problems we'd created for ourselves. We were insecure. We thought life was about getting, and we always wanted more.
And in recovery we get more - more than just not using. The spiritual awakening we experience in working the Twelve Steps reveals to us a life we never dreamed possible. We no longer need to worry about whether there will be "enough," for we come to rely on a loving Higher Power who meets all our daily needs. Relieved of our incessant insecurity, we no longer see the world as a place in which to compete with others for the fulfillment of our desires. Instead, we see the world as a place in which to live out the love our Higher Power has shown us. Our prayers are not for instant gratification; they are for help in helping each other.
Recovery awakens us from the nightmare of self-centeredness, strife, and insecurity that lies at the core of our disease. We wake up to a new reality. All that is worth having can be kept only by giving it away.
Just for today: My God helps me as I help others. Today, I will seek help in giving away the love my Higher Power has given me, knowing that is the way to keep it.
pg. 319
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of
its immense benefits to the one who forgives."
--Lawana Blackwell The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark
The seven main aspects of God
are: Life, Truth, Love, Intelligence, Soul, Spirit, Principle.
When you dwell upon one of these aspects you are
developing that quality in yourself. When you think
of that aspect as being in another person,
you develop that quality in him.
~Emmet Fox~ ~The Seven Main Aspects of God~ pg 31
"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."
~Khalil Gibran
Like the stars in the Universe, that of which we are made.
Bright lights, powerful, necessary.
Powerless to explode, destroyed, magnificent destruction, only to create again, the process of rebirth.
The Gift of Desperation that encompasses the soul. Born of a Spiritual Malady, covering up....Trying to fill the "hole in the donut" which cannot be filled with anything but the Power Greater than the ego, ourselves.
"Pain is the threshold of growth". Desperation is a gift of Presence, the Essence, Divine, That which connects Everything, Everyone!
Like a star, ego must be destroyed, and like a stars destruction, the destruction ignites being reborn...again.
Ginny A.
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Irrigators guide the water. Fletchers shape the arrow shaft. Carpenters shape the wood. The wise control themselves.
- Dhammapada, 6, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Let the whirlybirds whirl
Sandy B. MOT Boca Men's virtual
Native American
Times change but principles do not. Times change but lands do not. Times change but our culture and our language remain the same. And that's what you have to keep intact. It's not what you wear - it's what's in your heart."
--Oren Lyons, ONONDAGA
Going back to the old ways doesn't mean giving up electricity, homes, and cars. It means living by the same principles, laws, and values that our ancestors lived by. This will allow us to live successfully in today's world. The spirituality our ancestors lived is the same spirituality we need in these modern times. There are too many influences from TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and negative role models that are guiding our lives in a bad way. Our stability is in the laws, principles, and values that our ancestors were given and that our Elders teach us.
Great Spirit, let me live my life in a spiritual way.
Keep It Simple
Sought through pray and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him. First half of Step Eleven
Through Step Eleven, we develop a lasting, loving relationship with our Higher Power. Conscious contact means knowing and sensing God in our lives throughout the day. God is not just an idea. We talk with our Higher Power through prayer. As we meditate, we sense God’s love for us, and we get answers to our questions. When we pray and meditate, we become aware that God is always with us. Our Higher Power becomes our best friend. Our Higher Power is there for advice, support, celebration, comfort.
Prayer for the Day: Dear Higher Power, I pray that our relationship grows stronger every day. I accept the friendship You offer me.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll seek out God through prayer and meditation.
TWELVESTEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Tradition Five (pgs 151-154)
Highlighting the wisdom of A.A.’s single purpose, a member tells this story:
“Restless one day, I felt I’d better do some Twelfth Step work. Maybe I should take out some insurance against a slip. But first I’d have to find a drunk to work on.
“So I hopped the subway to Towns Hospital, where I asked Dr. Silkworth if he had a prospect. ‘Nothing too promising,’ the little doc said. ‘There’s just one chap on the third floor who might be a possibility. But he’s an awfully tough Irishman. I never saw a man so obstinate. He shouts that if his partner would treat him better, and his wife would leave him alone, he’d soon solve his alcohol problem. He’s had a bad case of D.T.’s, he’s pretty foggy, and he’s very suspicious of everybody. Doesn’t sound too good, does it? But working with him may do something for you, so why don’t you have a go at it?’
“I was soon sitting beside a big hulk of a man. Decidedly unfriendly, he stared at me out of eyes which were slits in his red and swollen face. I had to agree with the doctor—he certainly didn’t look good. But I told him my own story. I explained what a wonderful Fellowship we had, how well we understood each other. I bore down hard on the hopelessness of the drunk’s dilemma. I insisted that few drunks could ever get well on their own steam, but that in our groups we could do together what we could not do separately. He interrupted to scoff at this and asserted he’d fix his wife, his partner, and his alcoholism by himself. Sarcastically he asked, ‘How much does your scheme cost?”
“I was thankful I could tell him, ‘Nothing at all.’
“His next question: ‘What are you getting out of it?’
“Of course, my answer was ‘My own sobriety and a mighty happy life.’
“Still dubious, he demanded, ‘Do you really mean the only reason you are here is to try and help me and to help yourself?’
“‘Yes,’ I said. ‘That’s absolutely all there is to it. There’s no angle.’
“Then, hesitantly, I ventured to talk about the spiritual side of our program. What a freeze that drunk gave me! I’d no sooner got the word ‘spiritual’ out of my mouth than he pounced. ‘Oh!’ he said. ‘Now I get it! You’re proselyting for some damn religious sect or other. Where do you get that “no angle” stuff? I belong to a great church that means everything to me. You’ve got a nerve to come in here talking religion!’
“Thank heaven I came up with the right answer for that one. It was based foursquare on the single purpose of A.A. ‘You have faith,’ I said. ‘Perhaps far deeper faith than mine. No doubt you’re better taught in religious matters than I. So I can’t tell you anything about religion. I don’t even want to try. I’ll bet, too, that you could give me a letter-perfect definition of humility. But from what you’ve told me about yourself and your problems and how you propose to lick them, I think I know what’s wrong.’
“‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Give me the business.’
“‘Well,’ said I, ‘I think you’re just a conceited Irishman who thinks he can run the whole show.’
“This really rocked him. But as he calmed down, he began to listen while I tried to show him that humility was the main key to sobriety. Finally, he saw that I wasn’t attempting to change his religious views, that I wanted him to find the grace in his own religion that would aid his recovery. From there on we got along fine.
“Now,” concludes the oldtimer, “suppose I’d been obliged to talk to this man on religious grounds? Suppose my answer had to be that A.A. needed a lot of money; that A.A. went in for education, hospitals, and rehabilitation? Suppose I’d suggested that I’d take a hand in his domestic and business affairs? Where would we have wound up? No place, of course.”
Years later, this tough Irish customer liked to say, “My sponsor sold me one idea, and that was sobriety. At the time, I couldn’t have bought anything else.”
Big Book
"Whether the family goes on a spiritual basis or not, the alcoholic
member has to if he would recover. The others must be convinced of
his new status beyond the shadow of a doubt. Seeing is believing to
most families who have lived with a drinker."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 135~
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