DAILY PONDERABLES
Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny
Daily Reflections
FREEDOM FROM FEAR
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.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 122
Material values ruled my life for many years during my active alcoholism. I believed that all of my possessions would make me happy, yet I still felt bankrupt after I obtained them. When I first came into A.A., I found out about a new way of living. As a result of learning to trust others, I began to believe in a power greater than myself. Having faith freed me from the bondage of self. As material gains were replaced by the gifts of the spirit, my life became manageable. I then chose to share my experiences with other alcoholics.
From the book Daily Reflections
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Step One is, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable." This step states the membership requirement of A.A. We must admit that our lives are disturbed. We must accept the fact that we are helpless before the power of alcohol. We must admit that we are licked as far as drinking is concerned and that we need help. We must be willing to accept the bitter fact that we cannot drink like normal people. And we must make, as gracefully as possible, a surrender to the inevitable fact that we must stop drinking. Is it difficult for me to admit that I am different from normal drinkers?
Meditation for the Day
"Show us the way, O' Lord, and let us walk in Thy paths." There seems to be a right way to live and a wrong way You can make a practical test. When you live the right way, things seem to work out well for you. When you live the wrong way, things seem to work out badly for you. You seem to take out of life about what you put into it. If you disobey the laws of nature, the chances are that you will be unhealthy. If you disobey the spiritual and moral laws, the chances are that you will be unhappy. By following the laws of nature and the spiritual laws of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love, you can expect to be reasonably healthy and happy.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may try to live the right way. I pray that I may follow the path that leads to a better life
From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day
© Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Going Beyond Step Five
pg. 271
"We may think that we have done enough by writing about our past. We cannot afford this mistake."
Basic Text p.32
Some of us aren't too keen on writing out our Fourth Step; others take it to an obsessive extreme. To our sponsor's growing dismay, we inventory ourselves again and again. We discover everything there is to know about why we were the way we were. We have the idea that thinking, writing, and talking about our past is enough. We hear none of our sponsor's suggestions to become entirely ready to have our defects removed or make amends for the harm we've caused. We simply write more about those defects and delightedly share our fresh insights. Finally, our worn-out sponsor withdraws from us in self-defense.
Extreme as this scenario may seem, many of us have found ourselves in just such a situation. Thinking, writing, and talking about what was wrong with us made us feel like we had it all under control. Sooner or later, however, we realized we were stuck in our problems, the solutions nowhere in sight. We knew that, if we wanted to live differently, we would have to move on beyond Step Five in our program. We began to seek the willingness to have a Higher Power remove the character defects of which we'd become so intensely aware. We made amends for the destruction we had caused others in acting out on those defects. Only then did we begin to experience the freedom of an awakening spirit. Today, we're no longer victims; we are free to move on in our recovery.
Just for today: Although necessary, Steps Four and Five alone will not bring about emotional and spiritual recovery. I will take them, and then I will act on them.
From the book Just for Today
© Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"If you focus on results, you will never
change. If you focus on change, you will
get results."
-- Jack Dixon
"Respect is one of the greatest expressions of love."
~Don Miguel Ruiz (thanks Stu C. ... gone but not forgotten)
“HE KNOWS”
I am an Alcoholic. He knows
I did not know
But my Higher Power always knew
I am not a writer, nor a poet
But my Higher Power is
I don’t know how or what to write
But My Higher Power does
I don’t know how to live sober
or how to live Happy, Joyous and Free
But My Higher Power does
I needed help. Nobody knew.
But He did
I found my way I don’t know how.
He knew the way
I do know my Higher Power loves me and you
I know, You know, We know
Our Higher Power knows
He loves us all.
He does!
Do I? He knows.
James Patrick M.
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
If we live our lives continually motivated by anger and hatred, even our physical health deteriorates. -His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger." Buddha
Native American
"The old people must start talking and the young people must start listening."
--Thomas Banyacya, HOPI
We are at a critical time in transferring cultural knowledge, spiritual ways. During the last few years the young people have not been interested in learning the old ways. The only place this knowledge is found is among the Elders. We must encourage the young to visit with the Elders. The adults need to think also about learning the culture. The Elders are getting old and soon will go to the other side. Each of us must pause and think about our individual responsibility to learn the culture and teach this to our young.
Great Spirit, help us to learn and remember the old ways.
If you're dog-tired at night, it may be because you growled all day.
--War Cry
Keep It Simple
It is better to be wanted too much than not a all. --- Anonymous
It may seem that so many people want our time and love. Parents say we don’t call often enough. Children demand our time. Our partners say we’re gone to much. Our sponsor tells us to check in more often.
When we feel off balance by all these people, we need to stop and rest. We need to remember how lonely we were when we were using. No one wanted our time and love then! Now we’re important to others again.
You can handle all this by giving people what they need and ask for, within reason---not what you think they need, which may be way too much. Maybe you need Al-Anon, to learn to love others while taking care of yourself.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me put my time and energy to best use today. Help me find the balance I need between work, play, loving others, and self-care.
Action for the Day: When I feel I have to give too much today, I’ll stop and ask my Higher Power for guidance.
TWELVE STEPS
and
TWELVE TRADITIONS
Step Seven (pgs 71-73)
True, most of us thought good character was desirable, but obviously good character was something one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied. With a proper display of honesty and morality, we’d stand a better chance of getting what we really wanted. But whenever we had to choose between character and comfort, the character-building was lost in the dust of our chase after what we thought was happiness. Seldom did we look at character-building as something desirable in itself, something we would like to strive for whether our instinctual needs were met or not. We never thought of making honesty, tolerance, and true love of man and God the daily basis of living.
This lack of anchorage to any permanent values, this blindness to the true purpose of our lives, produced another bad result. For just so long as we were convinced that we could live exclusively by our own individual strength and intelligence, for just that long was a working faith in a Higher Power impossible. This was true even when we believed that God existed. We could actually have earnest religious beliefs which remained barren because we were still trying to play God ourselves. As long as we placed self-reliance first, a genuine reliance upon a Higher Power was out of the question. That basic ingredient of all humility, a desire to seek and do God’s will, was missing.
For us, the process of gaining a new perspective was unbelievably painful. It was only by repeated humiliations that we were forced to learn something about humility. It was only at the end of a long road, marked by successive defeats and humiliations, and the final crushing of our self-sufficiency, that we began to feel humility as something more than a condition of groveling despair. Every newcomer in Alcoholics Anonymous is told, and soon realizes for himself, that his humble admission of powerlessness over alcohol is his first step toward liberation from its paralyzing grip.
Big Book
"Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to
Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give
freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the
Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you
trudge the Road of Happy Destiny."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 164
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This is a view of prayer by Dr. Robert Smith, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Camels in a caravan would kneel down in the evening, and the men would unload their burdens. And in the morning, they would kneel down again, and the men would put the burdens back on.
Dr. Bob said. " It's the same with prayer, we get on our knees at night to unload at night. And in the morning when we get on our knees again, God gives us just the load we are able to carry for that day."