DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
YESTERDAY'S BAGGAGE
For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 88
I have more than enough to handle today, without dragging along yesterday's baggage too. I must balance today's books, if I am to have a chance tomorrow. So I ask myself if I have erred and how I can avoid repeating that particular behavior. Did I hurt anyone, did I help anyone, and why? Some of today is bound to spill over into tomorrow, but most of it need not if I make an honest daily inventory.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Do I have any hard feelings about other group members or for any other A.A. group? Am I critical of the way a group member thinks or acts? Do I feel that another group is operating in the wrong way and do I broadcast it? Or do I realize that all A.A. members, no matter what their limitations, have something to offer, some good, however little, that they can do for A.A. in spite of their handicaps? Do I believe that there is a place for all kinds of groups in A.A., provided they are following A.A. traditions, and that they can be effective, even if I do not agree with their procedure? Am I tolerant of people and groups?
Meditation for the Day
"The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and even forever more." The Unseen Spirit can guide all your movements, your goings and comings. Every visit to help another, every unselfish effort to assist, can be blessed by that Unseen Spirit. There can be a blessing on all you do, on every interview with one who is suffering. Every meeting of a need may not be a chance meeting, but the Unseen Spirit may have planned it. Led by the Spirit of the Lord, you can be tolerant, sympathetic, and understanding of others and so accomplish much.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that the spirit of God may lead me. I pray that the Lord will preserve my goings and my comings.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Ask For Mercy, Not Justice
"Many of us have difficulty admitting that we caused harm for others... We cut away our justifications and our ideas of being a victim."
Basic Text p.37
Our lives are progressing nicely. Things are going good, and each year in recovery brings more material and spiritual gifts. We may have a little money in the bank, a new car, or a committed relationship. We have a little self-confidence, and our faith in a Higher Power is growing.
Then, something happens. Someone breaks into our new car and steals the stereo, or the person we're in the relationship with becomes unfaithful. Right away, we feel victimized. "Where's the justice?" we wail. But if we take a look back on our own behavior, we may find that we've been guilty of what's just been done to us. We realize we wouldn't really want justice - not for ourselves, and not for others. What we want is mercy.
We thank a loving God for the compassion we've been shown, and we take the time to appreciate all the precious gifts that recovery brings.
Just for today: I will pray for mercy, not justice. I am grateful for the compassion I've been shown, and will offer mercy to others.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
"Thoughts in Solitude" Thomas Merton
You Can't Take It Back
She'd heard it now so many times, how sorry that he feels
You swore that this time is the last, this time it's for real
Some weeks go by, you're feeling good, your dues have now been paid
Just one can't hurt and so it starts, forget that pledge you made
This scene for many years replays, yet each time you're so sure
If she'll forgive this one last time it will replay no more
She says that you're exactly right and your tears start to pour
Sorry does not work this time, she's walking out the door
It's then you come to realize that this is not a game
Excuses fail, your life's a wreck and you're the one to blame
She told you time and time again you need to get some help
Can't fix yourself, you're all alone, so on your knees you knelt
You've never been a praying man and not sure what to do
You've heard it said God answers prayers and wonder if it's true
But since your options are so few, sometimes you wish you'd die
You've not much else, so what the hell, you'd give this thing a try
Some time has passed, you've kept it up, and things begin to change
The urge to drink has been removed, your life's been rearranged
But there is still more work to do, remember what you've done
To people that you owe amends, to each and every one
Now that your head has finally cleared and you want this to last
Begin it first by cleaning up the wreckage of your past
What's done is done, it can't be changed, so just accept that fact
No matter how you wish you could, you cannot take it back
Now since you cannot take it back, there's just one thing to do
Find those you hurt, both friend and foe and tell them that you knew
That you were wrong and going forth you'll stay on the right track
And never be like that again nor wish to take it back
Larry R.
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Set your heart on doing good ... Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.
- Buddha
Native American
"The dances are prayers."
--Pop Chalee, TAOS PUEBLO
When we dance to the drum we pray to the Creator and attract the heartbeat of the earth. We never dance without reason; every dance has a purpose. We dance for rain; we dance for healing; we dance for seasons; we dance for joy; we dance for our children; we dance for the people; we dance for courage. The drum plays to the beat of the heart, to the beat of the Earth. The drum connects us to the Earth while we dance our prayers.
Oh, Great One, let my dance and prayer be heard by You.
Keep It Simple
It is often easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them
--- Adlai Stevenson
It easy to talk about our values. But when the clerk at the store gives extra change my mistake, those values get put to the test. It feels good to read about spirituality in a comfortable chair at home. But when we get stuck in a traffic jam, it’s hard to live by our values.
That’s why practicing our program daily helps. Practice prepares us for the tough times.
Maybe we’ll feel like drinking or using other drugs once a year. Maybe we’ll only get the wrong amount of change once a year. But if we live our values daily, we’ll be ready when the hard times come. Remember: “It’s not enough to talk the talk. You have to walk the walk.”
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me live this program each day. Help me “walk the walk.”
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll do a Step Ten, Taking an inventory tells me if I’m living up to my values.
TWELVESTEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Step Twelve (pgs 109-110)
So, practicing these Steps, we had a spiritual awakening about which finally there was no question. Looking at those who were only beginning and still doubted themselves, the rest of us were able to see the change setting in. From great numbers of such experiences, we could predict that the doubter who still claimed that he hadn’t got the “spiritual angle,” and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.
Now, what about the rest of the Twelfth Step? The wonderful energy it releases and the eager action by which it carries our message to the next suffering alcoholic and which finally translates the Twelve Steps into action upon all our affairs is the payoff, the magnificent reality, of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Even the newest of newcomers finds undreamed rewards as he tries to help his brother alcoholic, the one who is even blinder than he. This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him. And then he discovers that by the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether his brother has yet received anything or not. His own character may still be gravely defective, but he somehow knows that God has enabled him to make a mighty beginning, and he senses that he stands at the edge of new mysteries, joys, and experiences of which he had never even dreamed.
Practically every A.A. member declares that no satisfaction has been deeper and no joy greater than in a Twelfth Step job well done. To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives—these things are the substance of what we receive as we carry A.A.’s message to the next alcoholic.
Big Book
"Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, the dark past is the
greatest possession you have—the key to life and happiness for
others. With it you can avert death and misery for them."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 124~
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