11/19

DAILY PONDERABLES

Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny

Daily Reflections

"I WAS SLIPPING FAST"

We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, . . . So it isn't surprising that we often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something not really necessary.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 96

I had been slipping away from the program for some time, but it took a death threat from a terminal disease to bring me back, and particularly to the practice of the Eleventh Step of our blessed Fellowship. Although I had fifteen years of sobriety and was still very active in the program, I knew that the quality of my sobriety had slipped badly. Eighteen months later, a checkup revealed a malignant tumor and a prognosis of certain death within six months. Despair settled in when I enrolled in a rehab program, after which I suffered two small strokes which revealed two large brain tumors. As I kept hitting new bottoms I had to ask myself why this was happening to me. God allowed me to recognize my dishonesty and to become teachable again. Miracles begin to happen. But primarily I relearned the whole meaning of the Eleventh Step. My physical condition has improved dramatically, but my illness is minor compared to what I almost lost completely.

From the book Daily Reflections

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

In A.A. we do not speak much of sex. And yet putting sex in its proper place in our lives is one of the rewards that has come to us as a result of our new way of living. The Big Book says that many of us needed an overhauling there. It also says that we subjected each sex relation to this test—was it selfish or not? "We remembered always that our sex powers were God given and therefore good, neither to be used lightly or selfishly, nor to be despised or loathed." We can ask God to mold our ideals and to help us to live up to them. We can act accordingly. Have I got my sex life under proper control?

Meditation for the Day

"I will lift up my eyes unto the heights whence cometh my help." Try to raise your thoughts from the depths of the sordid and mean and impure things of the earth to the heights of goodness and decency and beauty. Train your insight by trying to take the higher view. Train it more and more until distant heights become more familiar. The heights of the Lord, whence cometh your help, will become nearer and dearer and the false values of the earth will seem farther away.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not keep my eyes forever downcast. I pray that I may set my sights on higher things.

From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day

NA - Just for Today

The Language Of Empathy

"... the addict would find from the start as much identification as each needed to convince himself that he could stay clean, by the example of others who had recovered for many years."

Basic Text p. 85

Many of us attended our first meeting and, not being entirely sure that NA was for us, found much to criticize. Either we felt as though no one had suffered like we had or that we hadn't suffered enough. But as we listened we started to hear something new, a wordless language with its roots in recognition, belief, and faith: the language of empathy. Desiring to belong, we kept listening.

We find all the identification we need as we learn to understand and speak the language of empathy. To understand this special language, we listen with our hearts. The language of empathy uses few words; it feels more than it speaks. It doesn't preach or lecture - it listens. It can reach out and touch the spirit of another addict without a single spoken word.

Fluency in the language of empathy comes to us through practice. The more we use it with other addicts and our Higher Power, the more we understand this language. It keeps us coming back.

Just for today: I will listen with my heart. With each passing day, I will become more fluent in the language of empathy.

pg. 337

From the book Just for Today

Thought for Today

"For the sake of making a living we forget to live."

--Margaret Fuller

"What they do doesn't matter. It's 'What do I do when they do what they do?' "

In AA, THAT is the question!

"There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

~Edith Wharton

Attitude of Gratitude

Larry R.

They say a grateful alcoholic never takes a drink

I've wondered if that's really so, it made me start to think

If it is true the way they say, I question how it be

That I've much to be thankful for, but didn't work for me

I've had so many good things, that's happened in my life

The first and most important is the woman that's my wife

The odds that our two paths would cross so many years ago

Were higher than extremely thin, like Key West ice and snow

We've been together all this time for over on 40 years

And had our share of ups and downs, with laughter and some tears

The kids are grown, the girls are wed, with children of their own

The family in a picture frame, yet I can fell alone

I've had success in business, been rewarded for my work

Still often times those fears would come, and dreadful feelings lurk

I'd see my glass half empty, instead of it half full

And at these times to find relief, the cork I'd have to pull

Our home is in a lovely place, the mortgage fully paid

Both cars are new, our health is good, we even have a maid

So why is it I overlook the good and start to think

That I can make it better if I only take a drink

So drink I do and for a while, I feel that friendly glow

But soon enough that feeling's gone, replaced by feeling low

I ask myself, just what the hell, has made me act this way

I've so much to be grateful for, yet choose to waste away

Gratitude's an attitude, I've heard that often said

But there are other attitudes can make you end up dead

Self loathing, desolation, are only just a few

That lead us back, away from God, alone and feeling blue

It's at these times I need to stop, reflect and start to pray

Remembering the joyous time I've had throughout my days

And understand that I'm the one must change my attitude

Life has much, much more to give, when lived with gratitude.

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

There are some who wish to perfect themselves and who train themselves in this way: "One single self we shall tame, one single self we shall pacify, one single self we shall lead to final nirvana." But those with compassion should not train themselves in such a way. On the contrary, they should say this: "My own self I will place into Suchness, and so that all the world may be helped, I will place all beings into Suchness, and I will lead to nirvana the whole immeasurable world of beings."

-Diamond Sutra

Native American

Where there is vision, the people live. They are made rich in the things of the spirit; and then, as the logical next step, they are rich in human life.

--Phil Lane, Sr., YANKTON SIOUX

Since the beginning of time, Indian people have been blessed with the ability and knowledge of the vision. The vision determines our future. The concept is, we move toward and become that which we think about. We have known that all visions are about the Great Spirit. They should include God's will in every area of our lives. We should have visions about our people, about healthy relationships, about helping others, about being happy, about being educated. Each day we should renew our vision. We should ask the Creator to give us a vision of what He wants us to be and where He wants us to go in our lives. We should be the seekers of vision.

Great Spirit, give me a vision to follow today. Let me do Your will.

Keep It Simple

What we don't live, we cannot teach others. --- Day By Day

Remember - we don't carry the message to others until we get to Step Twelve. We must first learn to live in a sober way. Sobriety takes time. We have to stop using alcohol and other drugs, but this is only the start.

Just as it takes time to build a home, it takes time to build a new way of life. We talk with friends and sponsors about the Steps. We try using them in out lives. Then we talk about how the Steps work for us. We talk about where we get stuck with the Steps. All this takes time. We aren't in a hurry. We have a lifetime ahead of us.

Remember-the better we live our program, the better we help others.

Prayer for the day: Higher Power, You'll let me know when I'm to carry the message. Until then, be with me as I build a new way of life, a spiritual way of life.

Action for the day: I'll take time to think over where I'm with my program. I'll talk about it with a friend.

TWELVESTEPS

and

TWELVE TRADITIONS

Tradition Eleven (pgs 181-183)

The way this restraint paid off was startling. It resulted in more favorable publicity of Alcoholics Anonymous than could possibly have been obtained through all the arts and abilities of A.A.’s best press agents. Obviously, A.A. had to be publicized somehow, so we resorted to the idea that it would be far better to let our friends do this for us. Precisely that has happened, to an unbelievable extent. Veteran newsmen, trained doubters that they are, have gone all out to carry A.A.’s message. To them, we are something more than the source of good stories. On almost every news front, the men and women of the press have attached themselves to us as friends.

In the beginning, the press could not understand our refusal of all personal publicity. They were genuinely baffled by our insistence upon anonymity. Then they got the point. Here was something rare in the world—a society which said it wished to publicize its principles and its work, but not its individual members. The press was delighted with this attitude. Ever since, these friends have reported A.A. with an enthusiasm which the most ardent members would find hard to match.

There was actually a time when the press of America thought the anonymity of A.A. was better for us than some of our own members did. At one point, about a hundred of our Society were breaking anonymity at the public level. With perfectly good intent, these folks declared that the principle of anonymity was horse-and-buggy stuff, something appropriate to A.A.’s pioneering days. They were sure that A.A. could go faster and farther if it availed itself of modern publicity methods. A.A., they pointed out, included many persons of local, national, or international fame. Provided they were willing—and many were—why shouldn’t their membership be publicized, thereby encouraging others to join us? These were plausible arguments, but happily our friends of the writing profession disagreed with them.

The Foundation* wrote letters to practically every news outlet in North America, setting forth our public relations policy of attraction rather than promotion, and emphasizing personal anonymity as A.A.’s greatest protection. Since that time, editors and rewrite men have repeatedly deleted names and pictures of members from A.A. copy; frequently, they have reminded ambitious individuals of A.A.’s anonymity policy. They have even sacrificed good stories to this end. The force of their cooperation has certainly helped. Only a few A.A. members are left who deliberately break anonymity at the public level.

This, in brief, is the process by which A.A.’s Tradition Eleven was constructed. To us, however, it represents far more than a sound public relations policy. It is more than a denial of self-seeking. This Tradition is a constant and practical reminder that personal ambition has no place in A.A. In it, each member becomes an active guardian of our Fellowship.

____________

* In 1954, the name of the Alcoholic Foundation, Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office.

Big Book

"We meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship they

seek."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Bill's Story, pg. 15~

---------------------------------

Dr. Bob's Last Message

Presented at The First International Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous

July 28 - 30, 1950 at Cleveland, Ohio

In Memoriam Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith August 8, 1879 - November 16, 1950 Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

"My good friends in AA and of AA. I feel I would be very remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland not only to this meeting but those that have already transpired. I hope very much that the presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you - not only to you, but may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who were not fortunate enough to be able to come. In other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable."

"I get a big thrill out of looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly some small thing that I did a number of years ago, played an infinitely small part in making this meeting possible. I also get quite a thrill when I think that we all had the same problem. We all did the same things. We all get the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness. If you will pardon the injection of a personal note at this time, let me say that I have been in bed five of the last seven months and my strength hasn't returned as I would like, so my remarks of necessity will be very brief.

"But there are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis; one is the simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual AA work. Our 12 Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words love and service. We understand what love is and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind.

"Let us also remember to guard that erring member - the tongue, and if we must use it, let's use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance."

"And one more thing; none of us would be here today if somebody hadn't taken time to explain things to us, to give us a little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting or two, to have done numerous little kind and thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never get the degree of smug complacency so that we're not willing to extend or attempt to, that help which has been so beneficial to us, to our less fortunate brothers. Thank you very much."