DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
OUR SURVIVAL
Since recovery from alcoholism is life itself to us, it is imperative that we preserve in full strength our means of survival.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 177
The honesty expressed by members of A.A. in meetings has the power to open my mind. Nothing can block the flow of energy that honesty carries with it. The only obstacle to this flow of energy is inebriation, but even then, no one will find a closed door if he or she has left and chooses to return. Once he or she has received the gift of sobriety, each member is challenged on a daily basis to accept a program of honesty.
My Higher Power created me for a purpose in life. I ask Him to accept my honest efforts to continue on my journey in the spiritual way of life. I call on Him for strength to know and seek His will.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
My relationships with my children have greatly improved. Those children who saw me drunk and were ashamed, those children who turned away in fear and even loathing have seen me sober and like me, have turned to me in confidence and trust and have forgotten the past as best they could. They have given me a chance for companionship that I had completely missed. I am their father or their mother now. Not just "that person that Mom or Dad married and God knows why." I am a part of my home now. Have I found something that I had lost?
Meditation for the Day
Our true measure of success in life is the measure of spiritual progress that we have revealed in our lives. Others should be able to see a demonstration of God's will in our lives. The measure of His will that those around us have seen worked out in our daily living is the measure of our true success. We can do our best to be a demonstration each day of the power of God in human lives, an example of the working out of the grace of God in the hearts of men and women.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may so live that others will see in me something of the working out of the will of God. I pray that my life may be a demonstration of what the grace of God can do.
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Living In The Now
"Living just for today relieves the burden of the past and the fear of the future."
Basic Text, pp. 90-91
Thoughts of how bad it was - or could be - can consume our hopes for recovery. Fantasies of how wonderful it was - or could be - can divert us from taking action in the real world. That's why, in Narcotics Anonymous, we talk about living and recovering "just for today."
In NA, we know that we can change. We've come to believe that our Higher Power can restore the soundness of our minds and hearts. The wreckage of our past can be dealt with through the steps. By maintaining our recovery, just for today, we can avoid creating problems in the future.
Life in recovery is no fantasy. Daydreams of how great using was or how we can use successfully in the future, delusions of how great things could be, overblown expectations that set us up for disappointment and relapse - all are stripped of their power by the program. We seek God's will, not our own. WE seek to serve others, not ourselves. Our self-centeredness and the importance of how great things could or should be for us disappears. In the light of recovery, we perceive the difference between fantasy and reality.
Just for today: I am grateful for the principles of recovery and the new reality they've given me.
pg. 315
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
AA is not something you join, it's a way of life.
"When I accept myself, I am freed of the burden of needing you to accept me."
Dr. Steve Maraboli
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
[I]ndulge in lust a little, and like the child it grows apace.
The wise man hates it therefore; who would take poison for food? Every sorrow is increased and cherished by the offices of lust.
If there is no lustful desire, the risings of sorrow are not produced, the wise man seeing the bitterness of sorrow, stamps out and destroys the risings of desire;...
-Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King
Native American
"Mothers must protect the lives they have helped to bring into the world."
--Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders
Every child is subject to the seeds each adult plants in his/her mind. If we plant praise and "you can do it", the child will grow up with certain predictable behavior patterns. If we plant ideas that there's something wrong with you or you're good for nothing, the child will grow up with predictable behavior patterns. We need to honor and respect the mothers who protect the children and plant positive seeds for their growth.
Great Spirit, bless each mother and give her courage and faith.
Keep It Simple
Each morning puts a man on trial and each evening passes judgment ... Ray L. Smith
In many ways, the Tenth Step is very natural. We continue to take a personal inventory.
And when we’re wrong, we promptly admit it.
At the end of each day we ask ourselves, “How did my day go?” As we think about our day, we bring order to our life. The Tenth Step teaches us about order. It also teaches us how to correct mistakes. We do this by admitting our wrongs. This way, we have no backlog of guilt. It’s good to start each day fresh, free from guilt. Admitting our wrongs is a loving thing to do. It’s another way the program teaches us to love ourselves.
Prayer for the Day: Today, I’ll face many choices. Higher Power, be with me as I choose. When the day is done, remind me to think about how I lived today. This will help me learn.
Action for the Day: Tonight, I’ll list three choices I made today. Would I make the same choices again?
TWELVESTEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Tradition Four (pgs 146-147)
“Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.”
AUTONOMY is a ten-dollar word. But in relation to us, it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened. Comes now the same question raised in Tradition One. Isn’t such liberty foolishly dangerous?
Over the years, every conceivable deviation from our Twelve Steps and Traditions has been tried. That was sure to be, since we are so largely a band of ego-driven individualists. Children of chaos, we have defiantly played with every brand of fire, only to emerge unharmed and, we think, wiser. These very deviations created a vast process of trial and error which, under the grace of God, has brought us to where we stand today.
When A.A.’s Traditions were first published, in 1946, we had become sure that an A.A. group could stand almost any amount of battering. We saw that the group, exactly like the individual, must eventually conform to whatever tested principles would guarantee survival. We had discovered that there was perfect safety in the process of trial and error. So confident of this had we become that the original statement of A.A. tradition carried this significant sentence: “Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.”
This meant, of course, that we had been given the courage to declare each A.A. group an individual entity, strictly reliant on its own conscience as a guide to action. In charting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found it necessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought not do anything which would greatly injure A.A. as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else. There would be real danger should we commence to call some groups “wet,” others “dry,” still others “Republican” or “Communist,” and yet others “Catholic” or “Protestant.” The A.A. group would have to stick to its course or be hopelessly lost. Sobriety had to be its sole objective. In all other respects there was perfect freedom of will and action. Every group had the right to be wrong.
Big Book
"This painful past may be of infinite value to other families still
struggling with their problem. We think each family which has been
relieved owes something to those who have not, and when the occasion
requires, each member of it should be only too willing to bring
former mistakes, no matter how grievous, out of their hiding places.
Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing
which makes life seem so worth while to us now."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 124~
**********************
THE OTHER TWENTY-THREE
by Larry R.
The chairman says we must begin, the meeting has to start
We pray for our serenity, our worries to discard
And next we hear just “How It Works”, and we believe it’s true
Good things will surely come to us if we will follow through
Then someone reads a page or two, some passage from our Book
To help us to remember what our founders said it took
To end this life of misery and live one that is free
From the horror of our past and it begins on bended knee
We go around the room and say our name and why we’re here
Some say it’s due to what they smoke while others say it’s beer
But booze or drugs, it matters not, we know we have to face
It’s time we came to realize we’re all in the right place
And one by one, we start to share and let our fellows know
The things we’ve done, both bad and good, and let our true self show
If ever we’re to change our ways and hope to make it stick
We must begin to open up and learn to drop the brick
We’ve reached the end, our time is up, the chips have been passed out
It’s time to go our separate ways, but not forget about
What we have learned, this hour past, for we cannot foresee
The things that we may have to face in the next twenty-three
We drive away and before long some jerk cuts in our lane
We want to yell and beep our horn and somehow cause him pain
Just then one of the Steps kicks in and we begin to calm
Repeat the prayer we said before and save us both from harm
We stop our drive and go to buy some items at a store
But when we pay the clerk miscounts and we end up with more
More change that we’re entitled to, we can’t believe our luck
Then realize what we’d give up if we kept those few bucks
It’s easy to feel safe and good each time we’re at a meeting
An hour spent to help us keep our old ways from repeating
But when it’s done, we can’t forget, there is no guarantee
We need to live our program in the other twenty-three.
To subscribe click the link below:
https://app.getresponse.com/site/dailyponderables/webform.html?wid=108246