DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
FACING OURSELVES
. . . and Fear says, "You dare not look!"
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49
How often I avoided a task in my drinking days just because it appeared so large! Is it any wonder, even if I have been sober for some time, that I will act the same way when faced with what appears to be a monumental job, such as a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself? What I discover after I have arrived at the other side—when my inventory is completed—is that the illusion was greater than the reality. The fear of facing myself kept me at a standstill and, until I became willing to put pencil to paper, I was arresting my growth based on an intangible.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Is it my desire to be a big shot in A.A.? Do I always want to be up front in the limelight? Do I feel that nobody else can do as good a job as I can? Or am I willing to take a seat in the back row once in a while and let somebody else carry the ball? Part of the effectiveness of any A.A. group is the development of new members to carry on, to take over from the older members. Am I reluctant to give up authority? Do I try to carry the load for the whole group? If so, I am not being fair to the newer members. Do I realize that no one person is essential? Do I know that A.A. could carry on without me, if it had to?
Meditation for the Day
The Unseen God can help to make us truly grateful and humble. Since we cannot see God, we must believe in Him without seeing. What we can see clearly is the change in a human being, when he sincerely asks God for the strength to change. We should cling to faith in God and in His power to change our ways. Our faith in an Unseen God will be rewarded by a useful and serviceable life. God will not fail to show us the way we should live, when in real gratitude and true humility we turn to Him.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may believe that God can change me. I pray that I may be always willing to be changed for the better.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Amends Without Expectations
"Projections about actually making amends can be a major obstacle both in making the list and in becoming willing." Basic Text p.38
The Eighth Step asks us to become willing to make amends to all persons we have harmed. As we approach this step, we may wonder what the outcome of our amends will be. Will we be forgiven? Relieved of any lingering guilt? Or will we be tarred and feathered by the persons we've harmed?
Our tendency to seek forgiveness must be surrendered if we expect to receive the spiritual benefits of the Eighth and Ninth Steps. If we approach these steps expecting anything, we're likely to be very disappointed with the results. We want to ask ourselves if we are pinning our hopes on gaining the forgiveness of the person to whom we are making amends. Or maybe we're hoping we'll be excused from our debts by some sympathetic creditor moved to tears by our hard-luck story.
We need to be willing to make our amends regardless of the outcome. We can plan the amends, but we can't plan the results. Although we may not be granted a full pardon by everyone to whom we owe amends, we will learn to forgive ourselves. In the process, we will find that we no longer have to carry the burdens of the past.
Just for today: I will let go of any expectations I have on the people to whom I owe amends.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being
can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind."
--William James
If you want to go fast walk alone
If you want to go far walk with others
Reasons We Come
We all have reasons why we come to AA
The results that we get are the reason we stay
We know we need help so we started to think
Those folks may show us ways to control how we drink
But most of come for a specific reason
We do it because the law needed pleasing
Or maybe to just get our spouse off our back
Or on doctor’s advice cause our liver was wacked
Our reason may differ but deep down we knew
We needed to change as our problems accrue
The job was in danger, the boss told us so
“You either get help or you will have to go”
But my reason for coming was not due to health
Not due to a judge or for fear for my wealth
I came so that I could my old self refind
The man that I was before booze took my mind
A sense of self loathing was my ticket in
Caring only for time with my vodka or gin
Let the world pass me by, I had just given up
When a thought filled my head, I had just had enough
The family was fearful, afraid I might drown
A daughter stopped letting her kids come around
My wife was still with me, but was at her wits end
As she watched her me continue to slowly descend
I thought back to the time when I had their respect
A husband, a father, there to always protect
The children were proud of me, so was my wife
That was before alcohol took over my life
I wanted to reclaim that man I had been
He still was there somewhere, though buried within
I knew by myself I had no way to cope
The rooms of AA had become my last hope
Some years have gone by and my life sure has changed
The grandkids come over we’re no longer estranged
My own kids are once again proud of their Dad
The wife’s pleased to see the man that she once had
Whenever the thought of drink enters my head
I quickly recount all my blessings instead
Removed are those days I spent lonely and glum
I refound myself, that’s the reason I come
Larry R.
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Hearing the above, another questioner, Jatukkani, asked: "Like the sun which controls the world with its heat and light, you, Master, seem to control desire and pleasure. I have only a little understanding. How can I find and know the way to give up this world of birth and aging?"
The Buddha answered: "Lose your greed for pleasure. See how letting go of the world brings deep tranquility. There is nothing you need hold on to and nothing you need push away. Live in the present but do not cling to it and then you can go from place to place in peace. There is a state of greed that enters and dominates the individual. But when that greed has gone, it is like poison leaving a body and death will have no more terror for you."
-Sutta Nipata
Native American
"Lots of people hardly ever feel real soil under their feet, see plants grow except in flower pots, or get fare enough beyond the street light to catch the enchantment of a night sky studded with stars. When people live far from scenes of the Great Spirit's making, it's easy for them to forget His laws."
--Tatanga Mani (Walking Buffalo), STONEY
Nature is life's greatest teacher. The natural laws are hidden in nature. Hidden are solutions to everyday problems such as conflict resolution, how to forgive, lessons about differences, how to manage organizations, how to think. Hidden are feelings. You can look at something and you will feel it. At night, have you ever looked at the sky when there are no clouds? As you look at all the stars, your heart will become very joyful. You will walk away feeling joyful and peaceful. We need to visit nature so we can see and feel these things.
My Creator, let me learn nature's lessons.
Keep It Simple
If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.
--- Virginia Woolf
Working the Twelve Steps helps us learn the truth. As we struggle with Step Four, we learn the truth about ourselves. We learn even more about ourselves by doing Steps Eight and Ten. When we admit the truth about ourselves, things come into focus. Big changes happen.
As a result, we can see other people more clearly. We see bad sides in people we thought were prefect. We see good sides in people we hated. We start to know that everyone has to work hard to find what’s right for them. No one knows all the answers.
In short, we begin to trust others also who also are looking for the truth.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me clearly see myself and others.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about how doing Step Ten keeps me clear about what’s going on in my life.
TWELVESTEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Step Twelve (pgs 110-111)
Nor is this the only kind of Twelfth Step work. We sit in A.A. meetings and listen, not only to receive something ourselves, but to give the reassurance and support which our presence can bring. If our turn comes to speak at a meeting, we again try to carry A.A.’s message. Whether our audience is one or many, it is still Twelfth Step work. There are many opportunities even for those of us who feel unable to speak at meetings or who are so situated that we cannot do much face-to-face Twelfth Step work. We can be the ones who take on the unspectacular but important tasks that make good Twelfth Step work possible, perhaps arranging for the coffee and cake after the meetings, where so many skeptical, suspicious newcomers have found confidence and comfort in the laughter and talk. This is Twelfth Step work in the very best sense of the word. “Freely ye have received; freely give…” is the core of this part of Step Twelve.
We may often pass through Twelfth Step experiences where we will seem to be temporarily off the beam. These will appear as big setbacks at the time, but will be seen later as stepping-stones to better things. For example, we may set our hearts on getting a particular person sobered up, and after doing all we can for months, we see him relapse. Perhaps this will happen in a succession of cases, and we may be deeply discouraged as to our ability to carry A.A.’s message. Or we may encounter the reverse situation, in which we are highly elated because we seem to have been successful. Here the temptation is to become rather possessive of these newcomers. Perhaps we try to give them advice about their affairs which we aren’t really competent to give or ought not give at all. Then we are hurt and confused when the advice is rejected, or when it is accepted and brings still greater confusion. By a great deal of ardent Twelfth Step work we sometimes carry the message to so many alcoholics that they place us in a position of trust. They make us, let us say, the group’s chairman. Here again we are presented with the temptation “to over manage things, and sometimes this results in rebuffs and other consequences which are hard to take.
But in the longer run we clearly realize that these are only the pains of growing up, and nothing but good can come from them if we turn more and more to the entire Twelve Steps for the answers.
Big Book
"Try to remember that though God has wrought miracles among us, we
should never belittle a good doctor or psychiatrist. Their services
are often indispensable in treating a newcomer and in following his
case afterward."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 133~
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