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DAILY PONDERABLES

Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny

Daily Reflections

CURBING RASHNESS

When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant

evaporates on the spot.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 91

Being fair-minded and tolerant is a goal toward which I must work

daily. I ask God, as I understand Him, to help me to be loving and tolerant to my loved ones, and to those with whom I am in close contact. I ask for guidance to curb my speech when I am agitated, and I take a moment to reflect on the emotional upheaval my words may cause, not only to someone else, but also to myself. Prayer, meditation and inventories are the key to sound thinking and positive action for me.

From the book Daily Reflections

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Am I still on a "free ride" in A.A.? Am I all get and no give? Do I go to meetings and always sit in the back row and let others do all the work? Do I think it's enough just because I'm sober and can rest on my laurels? If so, I haven't gone very far in the program, nor am I getting nearly enough of what it has to offer. I will be a weak member until I get in there and help carry the load. I must eventually get off the bench and get into the game. I'm not just a spectator; I'm supposed to be one of the team. Do I go in there and carry the ball?

Meditation For The Day

Try to be thankful for whatever vision you have. Try to perform, in the little things,

faithful service to God and others. Do your small part every day in a spirit of service to God. Be a doer of God's word, not a hearer only. In your daily life try to keep faith with God. Every day brings a new opportunity to be of some use. Even when you are tempted to rest or let things go or to evade the issue, make it a habit to meet the issue squarely as a challenge and not to hold back.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may perform each task faithfully. I pray that I may meet each issue of life squarely and not hold back.

From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day

NA - Just for Today

Being Right

"When we admit that our lives have become unmanageable, we don't have to argue our point of view... We no longer have to be right all the time."

Basic Text p. 56

Nothing isolates us more quickly from the warmth and camaraderie of our fellow NA members than having to be "right." Insecure, we pretend to be some kind of authority figure. Suffering from low self-esteem, we try to build ourselves up by putting others down. At best, such tactics push others away from us; at worst, they draw attack. The more we try to impress others with how "right" we are, the more wrong we become.

We don't have to be "right" to be secure; we don't have to pretend to have all the answers for others to love or respect us. In fact, just the opposite is true. None of us have all the answers. We depend upon one another to help bridge the gaps in our understanding of things, and we depend upon a Power greater than our own to make up for our personal powerlessness. We live easily with others when we offer what we know, admit what we don't, and seek to learn from our peers. We live securely in ourselves when we cease relying on our own power and start relying on the God we've come to understand in recovery.

We don't have to be "right" all the time, just recovering.

Just for today: God, I admit my powerlessness and the unmanageability of my life. Help me live with others as an equal, dependent upon you for direction and strength. pg. 298

From the book Just for Today

Thought for Today

Today I saw a man,,, He was "simple" as a child.

He was much younger than I,,, And inside me I cried.

You see he'd been forgiven,,, but I have been blessed.

We were much the same,,, except for all of the rest.

He had drank away his mind,,, and I still have mine.

God had probably not been asked to take away his painful task,,,

So he kept on drinking,, until his mind had past.

And then it was too late,,, and no longer could he ask.

Now I had a moment some 24 years ago,,, when I asked my God if I could let it go,,,

And he took it away,,, in a moment it was gone.

So now my life's blessed,,,, ,,,, and I get to live on.

So I search for a reason,, why does one man survive,, when the very same task causes another man to die.

Might just be many lives,,,that our God Gives,,,so that sooner or later,, we may learn how to live.

I don't do anything special for me,,

I have only one thing to say,, I simply ask my God every day,, to once again take it away.

Thomas F.

"Learn to ... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not."

--Henri Frederic Amiel

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

~~ George Bernard Shaw

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind; hate is an imperfection that defiles the mind; delusion is an imperfection that defiles the mind.

-Buddha, "The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha"

Native American

"The obstacle to the internal nature is the mind. If it relies on logic such as the white man's mind, the domain of the inner nature is inaccessible. The simple fact is a man does not challenge the wisdom of the Holy Mystery.

--Turtleheart, TETON SIOUX

Why is it we need to analyze and understand everything? The Great Mystery has designed certain areas of creation to be a mystery because humans usually miss-use it. We use the Great Mystery and see It unfold only under the direction of the Great Spirit. The Creator is in charge.

Great Spirit, let me realize You are in charge. I'm to do what You want.

Keep It Simple

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not words.

--- Alfred Adler

Being sober is an event. Being sober also means movement. We go to meetings. We find and meet with a sponsor. We talk with friends. If we don’t act in these ways were not sober.

Our actions also tell us if we’re leading a spiritual life. What do you do when you see someone in need? Spirituality means helping. It’s not just kind words.

In Step Four and Ten, we check out our action, not our words. Our actions will tell us if we’re on the recovery path.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to not hide in words. I pray for the strength to take the right action. Help me walk a sober path.

Action for the Day: Today as I work Step Ten, I’ll focus only on my actions How have I acted sober today?

TWELVESTEPS

and

TWELVE TRADITIONS

Step Twelve (pgs 120-122)

Upon entering A.A., these attitudes were sharply reversed, often going much too far in the opposite direction. The spectacle of years of waste threw us into panic. There simply wouldn’t be time, we thought, to rebuild our shattered fortunes. How could we ever take care of those awful debts, possess a decent home, educate the kids, and set something by for old age? Financial importance was no longer our principal aim; we now clamored for material security. Even when we were well reestablished in our business, these terrible fears often continued to haunt us. This made us misers and penny pinchers all over again. Complete financial security we must have—or else. We forgot that most alcoholics in A.A. have an earning power considerably above average; we forgot the immense goodwill of our brother A.A.’s who were only too eager to help us to better jobs when we deserved them; we forgot the actual or potential financial insecurity of every human being in the world. And, worst of all, we forgot God. In money matters we had faith only in ourselves, and not too much of that.

This all meant, of course, that we were still far off balance. When a job still looked like a mere means of getting money rather than an opportunity for service, when the acquisition of money for financial independence looked more important than a right dependence upon God, we were still the victims of unreasonable fears. And these were fears which would make a serene and useful existence, at any financial level, quite impossible.

But as time passed we found that with the help of A.A.’s Twelve Steps we could lose those fears, no matter what our material prospects were. We could cheerfully perform humble labor without worrying about tomorrow. If our circumstances happened to be good, we no longer dreaded a change for the worse, for we had learned that these troubles could be turned into great values. It did not matter too much what our material condition was, but it did matter what our spiritual condition was. Money gradually became our servant and not our master. It became a means of exchanging love and service with those about us. When, with God’s help, we calmly accepted our lot, then we found we could live at peace with ourselves and show others who still suffered the same fears that they could get over them, too. We found that freedom from fear was more important than freedom from want.

Big Book

"We have three little mottoes which are apropos.

Here they are:

First Things First

Live and Let Live

Easy Does It."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 135~

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