DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
ONLY TWO SINS
. . . there are only two sins; the first is to interfere with the growth of another human being, and the second is to interfere with one's own growth
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 542
Happiness is such an elusive state. How often do my "prayers" for others involve "hidden" prayers for my own agenda? How often is my search for happiness a boulder in the path of growth for another, or even myself? Seeking growth through humility and acceptance brings things that appear to be anything but good, wholesome and vital. Yet in looking back, I can see that pain, struggles and setbacks have all contributed eventually to serenity through growth in the program.
I ask my Higher Power to help me not cause another's lack of growth today—or my own.
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 gotten rid of most of my boredom. One of the hardest things that a new member of A.A. has to understand is how to stay sober and not be bored. Drinking was always the answer to all kinds of boring people or boring situations. But once you have taken up the interest of A.A., once you have given it your time and enthusiasm, boredom should not be a problem to you. A new life opens up before you that can be always interesting. Sobriety should give you so many new interests in life that you shouldn't have time to be bored. Have I gotten rid of the fear of being bored?
Meditation for the Day
"If I have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Charity means to care enough about other people to really want to do something for them. A smile, a word of encouragement, a word of love, goes winged on its way, simple though it may seem, while the mighty words of an orator fall on deaf ears. Use up the odd moments of your day in trying to do some little thing to cheer up another person. Boredom comes from thinking too much about yourself.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that my day may be brightened by some little act of charity. I pray that I may try today to overcome the self-centeredness that makes me bored.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Foundation First
"As we begin to function in society, our creative freedom helps us sort our priorities and do the basic things first."
Basic Text pg. 83
No sooner do we get clean than some of us begin putting other priorities ahead of our recovery. Careers, families, relationships - all these are part of the life we find once we've laid the foundation of our recovery. But we can't build a stable life for ourselves before we do the hard, basic work of laying our recovery foundation. Like a house built on sand, such a life will be shaky, at best.
Before we begin putting all our attention to rebuilding the detailed framework of our lives, we need to lay our foundation. We acknowledge, first, that we don't yet have a foundation, that our addiction has made our lives utterly unmanageable. Then, with the help of our sponsor and our home group, we find faith in a Power strong enough to help us prepare the ground of our new lives. We clear the wreckage from the site upon which we will build our future. Finally, we develop a deep, working familiarity with the principles we will practice in our continuing affairs: honest self-examination, reliance upon our Higher Power's guidance and strength, and service to others.
Once our foundation is prepared, then we can go full steam ahead to put our new lives together. But first we must ask ourselves if our foundation is secure, for without our foundation, nothing we build can stand for long.
Just for today: I will take care to lay a secure foundation for my recovery. Upon such a foundation, I can build for a lifetime in recovery.
pg. 340
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
Lord, take me where You want me to go,
let me meet who You want me to meet,
tell me what You want me to say,
and keep me out of Your way
Father Mychal J.
Shoes of the Humble Man
Soft soles of silence
bent in prayer
cracked leather of
mind and body
Kneel in the
space where
heaven
meets
Earth.
Praise and gratitude
lace the tongue
of the once castaway
who walks now
the path of
such a life as this
His only prayer
answered:
to love
and be loved.
Angie M.
I not only get dressed on the outside each day; but prayer and meditation allow me to get dressed from the inside. (thanks Will W)
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Everything is as it is. It has no name other than the name we give it. It is we who call it something; we give it a value. We say this thing is good or it's bad, but in itself, the thing is only as it is. It's not absolute; it's just as it is. People are just as they are.
-Ajahn Sumedho, "The Mind and the Way"
Native American
"It's the most precious thing...to know absolutely where you belong. There's a whole emotional wrapping-around-of-you here. You see the same rock, tree, road, clouds, sun -- you develop a nice kind of intimacy with the world around you. To be intimate is to grow, to learn...[it] is absolutely fulfilling. Intimacy, that's my magic word for why I live here."
--Tessie Maranjo, SANTA CLARA PUEBLO
Every human being, to be mentally healthy, must have the feeling of belonging. When we have a sense of belonging we can be intimate. We can feel. We can connect. If we cannot develop this feeling of belonging, then we will feel lost of disconnected. To be disconnected from life is like walking around during the day not knowing the Sun exists. To have the feelings of intimacy is warm, glowy, joyful, loving and connected. The feeling this Elder is talking about is available to everyone.
Great Spirit, let me be intimate.
Keep It Simple
We are healed of a suffering only be experiencing it in full. --- Marcel Proust
We must never forget our past. We need to remember the power that our illness has over us. Why? So we can remember how our recovery began. So we can remember we’re not cured. So we can tell our stories.
We must remember how we acted. Why? So we don’t act and think like addicts. Most of us had a poor relationships with friends, family, and ourselves. We need to remember how lonely we felt. That way, we’ll make recovery grow stronger One Day at a Time.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me always remember how my illness almost destroyed me. Help me face the pain of these memories.
Action for the Day: I will talk about my past life with those who support my recovery. I will tell them what it is that I must remember about my past.
TWELVESTEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Tradition Twelve (pgs 186-187)
Then came our first few excursions into major publicity, which were breathtaking. Cleveland’s Plain Dealer articles about us ran that town’s membership from a few into hundreds overnight. The news stories of Mr. Rockefeller’s dinner for Alcoholics Anonymous helped double our total membership in a year’s time. Jack Alexander’s famous Saturday Evening Post piece made A.A. a national institution. Such tributes as these brought opportunities for still more recognition. Other newspapers and magazines wanted A.A. stories. Film companies wanted to photograph us. Radio, and finally television, besieged us with requests for appearances. What should we do?
As this tide offering top public approval swept in, we realized that it could do us incalculable good or great harm. Everything would depend upon how it was channeled. We simply couldn’t afford to take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing A.A. before the whole public. The promoter instinct in us might be our undoing. If even one publicly got drunk, or was lured into using A.A.’s name for his own purposes, the damage might be irreparable. At this altitude (press, radio, films, and television), anonymity—100 percent anonymity—was the only possible answer. Here, principles would have to come before personalities, without exception.
These experiences taught us that anonymity is real humility at work. It is an all-pervading spiritual quality which today keynotes A.A. life everywhere. Moved by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as A.A. members both among fellow alcoholics and before the general public. As we lay aside these very human aspirations, we believe that each of us takes part in the weaving of a protective mantle which covers our whole Society and under which we may grow and work in unity.
We are sure that humility, expressed by anonymity, is the greatest safeguard that Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have.
Big Book
"If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation
of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to
alcohol."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, pg. 33~
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I AM THE DISEASE OF ADDICTION
Hello....
Just in case you forgot me....
I am your disease...
I Hate meetings..
I Hate higher powers...
I Hate anyone who has a program.
To all who come in contact with me, I wish you death and I wish you
suffering. Allow me to introduce myself, I am the disease of addiction. I Am cunning, baffling, and powerful. That's Me.
I have killed millions and I am pleased. I love to catch you with the element
of surprise. I love pretending I am your friend and lover. I have given you comfort, haven't I?
Wasn't I there when you were lonely? When you wanted to die, didn't you call
on me? I was there, I love to make you hurt. I love to make you cry.
Better yet, I Love to make you so numb you can neither hurt nor cry.
When you can't feel anything at all. This is true gratification. And all that I ask from you is long term suffering. I've been there for you always. When things were going right in your life, you invited me.
You said you didn't deserve these good things, and I was the only one who
would agree with you. Together we were able to destroy all the good things in your life. People don’t take me seriously. They take strokes seriously, heart attacks, even diabetes, they take seriously. Fools.
Without my help these things would not be possible. I am such a hated
disease, and yet I do not come uninvited. You choose to have me. So many have chosen me over reality and peace. More than you hate me, I hate all of you who have a 12 step program. Your program, Your meeting, Your higher power. All of these things weaken me, and I can't function in the manner I am
accustomed to. Now I must lie here quietly. You don't see me but I am growing bigger than ever. When you only exist, I may live.
When you live I may only exist. But I am here... And until we meet again, If
we meet again, I wish you death and suffering.
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