Daily Recovery Readings - September

[bluidkiti]

September 1

Daily Reflections

WILLINGNESS TO GROW
If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on.
As Bill Sees It, p.8

Sobriety fills the painful "hole in the soul" that my alcoholism
created. Often I feel so physically well that I believe my work is
done. However, joy is not just the absence of pain; it is the gift of
continued spiritual awakening. Joy comes from ongoing and active
study, as well as application of the principles of recovery in my
everyday life, and from sharing that experience with others. My
Higher Power presents many opportunities for deeper spiritual
awakening. I need only to bring into my recovery the willingness to
grow. Today I am ready to grow.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Be careful not to brand new prospects as alcoholics. Let them draw
their own conclusion. But talk to them about the hopelessness of
alcoholism. Tell them exactly what happened to you and how you
recovered. Stress the spiritual feature freely. If they are agnostics
or atheists, make it emphatic that they do not have to agree with
your concept of God. They can choose any concept they like,
provided it makes sense to them. The main thing is that they be
willing to believe in a power greater than themselves and that they
live by spiritual principles." Do I hold back too much in speaking
of the spiritual principles of the program?

Meditation For The Day

"I will never leave or forsake thee." Down through the centuries,
thousands have believed in God's constancy, untiringness, and
unfailing love. God has love. Then forever you are sure of His
love. God has power. Then forever you are sure, in every
difficulty and temptation, of His strength. God has patience. Then
always there is One who can never tire. God has understanding.
Then always you will understand and be understood. Unless you want
Him to go, God will never leave you. He is always ready with
power.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may feel that God's love will never fail. I pray that I
may have confidence in His unfailing power.

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As Bill Sees It

Morning Thoughts, p.243

On awakening, let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead.
We ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be
divorced from self-pity and from dishonest or self-seeking
motives. Free of these, we can employ our mental faculties with
assurance, for God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be
on a higher plane when our thinking begins to be cleared of wrong
motives.

If we have determined which of two courses to take, we ask God for
inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision. Then we relax and
take it easy, and we are often surprised how the right answers come
after we have tried this for a while.

We usually conclude our meditation with a prayer that we be shown
all through the day what our next step is to be, asking especially
for freedom from damaging self-will.

Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 86-87

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Walk In Dry Places

Are we victimizing ourselves?
Finding the New Happiness
Some believe that people create their own trouble by attracting the wrong
conditions and people in their lives. This may not be entirely
true, but we can find that some element of it was at work with us.
Time and time again during our drinking, we set ourselves up for abuse
and rejection, though our motives seemed right.
Why did we do this? Supposedly to punish ourselves, the theory has it.
If this is true, then we should now call a halt to the process
immediately. If we've emerged from the terrors of alcoholism, we've had
all the punishment anybody needs.
We can change our bad patterns by looking carefully at the people and situations
we seem to attract. Without resentment or condemnation, we
can part company with any problems these have been bringing us. We can
start building new relationships and attracting better conditions that
will be immensely successful in terms of happiness and well-being.<br>
I'll remember today that in the new life I'm seeking, there's no need
for punishment. I will not go out of my way to attract people or
conditions that create problems in my life.

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Keep It Simple

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible . . . ---First half of Step Nine
In our illness, we harmed people. In Step Nine, we are to make amends. Making amends is about asking people we have harmed what we need to do to set things right. But making amends is more than saying, “I'm sorry.” If you ran a store and someone had stolen five dollars, you wouldn't want them to just say, ”I'm sorry.” You'd want the person to pay back the money. The same is true with amends.
Many people we've harmed ask only that we don't repeat our mistakes. Respect their wishes. Step Nine has healed many wounds. Step Nine allows us to grow up. Step Nine help us regain faith in ourselves. Remember, the best amend we make to all is to stay sober.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, give me courage. Help me face the trouble caused by my disease. Make me ready to help other heals from the harm I've caused.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll pray that those I've harmed will heal. I will be responsible for my actions.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Success can only be measured in terms of distance traveled. --Mavis Gallant
We are forever moving from one experience to another, one challenge to another, and one relationship to another. Our ability to handle confidently all encounters is a gift of the program, and one that accompanies us throughout every day, providing we humbly express gratitude for it. Success is ours when we are grateful.
We are not standing still. No matter how uneventful our lives may seem, we are traveling toward our destiny, and all the thrills and tears, joys and sorrows, are contributing to the success of our trip. Every day, every step, we are succeeding.
We can reflect on yesterday, better yet, on last week or even last year. What were our problems? It's doubtful we can even remember them. We have put distance between them and us. They were handled in some manner. We have succeeded in getting free of them. We have succeeded in moving beyond them.
How far we have come! And we will keep right on traveling forward. As long as we rely on the program, we are assured of success.
I can do whatever I need to do, today, with success, when I humbly accept the program's gifts.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Foreword To Fourth Edition

As the message of recovery has reached larger numbers of people, it has also touched the lives of a vastly greater variety of suffering alcoholics. When the phrase “We are people who normally would not mix” (page 17 of this book) was written in 1939, it referred to a Fellowship composed largely of men (and a few women) with quite similar social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Like so much of A.A.’s basic text, those words have proved to be far more visionary than the founding members could ever have imagined. The stories added to this edition represent a membership whose characteristics—of age, gender, race, and culture—have widened and have deepened to encompass virtually everyone the first 100 members could have hoped to reach.

pp. xxiii-xxiv

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Doctor Bob's Nightmare

A co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The birth of our Society dates from his first day of permanent sobriety. June 10, 1935.
To 1950, the year of his death, he carried the A.A. message to more than 5,000 alcoholics men and women, and to all these he gave his medical services without thought of charge.
In this prodigy of service, he was well assisted by Sister Ignatia at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio, one of the greatest friends our Fellowship will ever know.

I WAS born in a small New England village of about seven thousand souls. The general moral standard was, as I recall it, far above the average. No beer or liquor was sold in the neighborhood, except at the State liquor agency where perhaps one might procure a pint if he could convince the agent that he really needed it. Without this proof the expectant purchaser would be forced to depart empty handed with none of what I later came to believe was the great panacea for all human ills. Men who had liquor shipped in from Boston or New York by express were looked upon with great distrust and disfavor by most of the good townspeople. The town was well supplied with churches and schools in which I pursued my early educational activities.

p. 171

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Five - "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

Yet many of us still hung back. We said, "Why can't 'God as we understand Him' tell us where we are astray? If the Creator gave us our lives in the first place, then He must know in every detail where we have since gone wrong. Why don't we make our admissions to Him directly? Why do we need to bring anyone else into this?"

p. 59

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God brings peace to me, all I need do is ask.
--Shelley

The peace that I feel in my life is growing richer every day. As I
continue to walk on my spiritual path to recovery, I let myself be
guided by truth and love. Conflict is leaving, making more and more
room for charity, serenity and usefulness.
--Ruth Fishel

Treat every person with kindness and respect, even those who are
rude to you. Remember that you show compassion to others not
because of who they are, but because of who you are.
--Andrew T. Somers

Today I know my Higher Power is guiding me through the changes I
choose to make in my life. I have all the energy I need today
to make these changes as easily and effortless as I wish.
--Ruth Fishel

Today, I will stop forcing things to happen. Instead, I will allow things
to happen naturally. If I catch myself trying to force events or control
people, I will stop and figure out a way to detach.
--Melody Beattie

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

OPTIMISM

"Optimism is a kind of heart
stimulant -- the digitalis of
failure."
-- Elbert Hubbard

Today I am an optimist. I believe in life, and more importantly, I
believe in me. I know that God cares and this brings me hope.

But when I was drinking I had a negative and destructive attitude in all
areas of life; nothing pleased me, people were not to be trusted,
everybody had a price, God seemed to be "out for lunch" and life had
lost its meaning. I was a sad man. I was a lonely man. I was an angry
man.

When I was told to put down the drink and follow some new directions,
I halfheartedly agreed. I met people who laughed, shared their pain
and lived in the realistic "now". I began to listen. Slowly I changed.
Peace was within my grasp.

Today I wonder at my halfhearted risk that started it all -- and thank
God.

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Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be
shaken but endures forever.
Psalm 125:1

Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your
heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!"
Psalm 27:14

"Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever
state I am, to be content."
Philippians 4:11

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Daily Inspiration

Get outside of yourself and be outgoing for others. Lord, help me to act in a heartwarming manner so that Your presence in me lights an entire room.

Are you too busy wishing away your day to get what you really want? Lord, help me set goals and find the means to achieve what is important to me.

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NA Just For Today

Real Values

"We become able to make wise and loving decisions based on principles and ideals that have real value in our lives."
Basic Text, pg. 101

Addiction gave us a certain set of values, principles we applied in our lives. "You pushed me" one of those values told us, "so I pushed back, hard." "It's mine" was another value generated by our disease. "Well, okay, maybe it wasn't mine to start with, but I liked it, so I made it mine." Those values were hardly values at all - more like rationalizations - and they certainly didn't help us make wise and loving decisions. In fact, they served primarily to dig us deeper and deeper into the grave we'd already dug for ourselves.

The Twelve Steps give us a strong dose of real values, the kind that help us live in harmony with ourselves and those around us. We place our faith not in ourselves, our families, or our communities, but in a Higher Power - and in doing so, we grow secure enough to be able to trust our communities, our families, and even ourselves. We learn to be honest, no matter what-and we learn to refrain from doing things we might want to hide. We learn to accept responsibility for our actions. "It's mine" is replaced with a spirit of selflessness. These are the kind of values that help us become a responsible, productive part of the life around us. Rather than digging us deeper into a grave, these values restore us to the world of the living.

Just for today: I am grateful for the values I've developed. I am thankful for the ability they give me to make wise, loving decisions as a responsible, productive member of my community.
pg. 255

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. --Sir Rabindranath Tagore
In the darkness of early morning, the bird outside the window begins to sing. Soon the eastern sky turns pink. The bird continues singing until the first yellow rays warm its soft wings. Then it flies away, not returning to the window until the next morning.
We can learn from the small bird how to have faith. We don't need to wait for something we want before having faith we'll get it. We can begin to show our faith by celebrating the things we usually take for granted. After all, when we take something for granted, isn't that a selfish form of faith? We can start by singing a song to celebrate the new day. A day that will warm our hearts and shed light on our actions. Like the bird's faith in the sunrise, we need only to have faith that God meant each day to enrich our lives.
What faith can I celebrate right now?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe. --Carl Sagan
Everything is given to us. Our lives came forth with no plan on our part. We have no lease on life and no control, ultimately, over any possession. In the addictive and codependent families most of us came from, we learned something else. We learned a lonely arrogance that said, "I should be self sufficient. I have earned everything that ever came to me." Deep down we probably knew how untrue that was, and we felt great self-doubt.
The cure we learn in this program for our lonely arrogance is a miracle and a blessing. We accept that we are part of a larger whole. Now it dawns on us - all of our friends and relatives share this basic powerlessness. We are all pilgrims. We are all guests. We are all stewards of creation. We can be close, and we must help one another because everyone is equally vulnerable.
I am grateful to my Higher Power today for the life, which has been given me. I pray for greater understanding of my responsibilities.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Success can only be measured in terms of distance traveled. --Mavis Gallant
We are forever moving from one experience to another, one challenge to another, and one relationship to another. Our ability to handle confidently all encounters is a gift of the program, and one that accompanies us throughout every day, providing we humbly express gratitude for it. Success is ours when we are grateful.
We are not standing still. No matter how uneventful our lives may seem, we are traveling toward our destiny, and all the thrills and tears, joys and sorrows, are contributing to the success of our trip. Every day, every step, we are succeeding.
We can reflect on yesterday, better yet, on last week or even last year. What were our problems? It's doubtful we can even remember them. We have put distance between them and us. They were handled in some manner. We have succeeded in getting free of them. We have succeeded in moving beyond them.
How far we have come! And we will keep right on traveling forward. As long as we rely on the program, we are assured of success.
I can do whatever I need to do, today, with success, when I humbly accept the program's gifts.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Patience
Sometimes we get what we want right away. At other times, we wonder if our desires will ever be fulfilled.
We will be fulfilled in the best way possible and as quickly as possible. But some things take time. Sometimes, we have lessons to learn first, lessons that prepare us so we can accept the good we deserve. Things are being worked out in us, and in others. Blocks in us are being removed. A solid foundation is being laid.
Be patient, Relax and trust. Let go. Then, let go some more. Good things are planned for us. We will receive them at the first available moment. We will have all our heart longs for. Relax and trust.
Today, I will identify what I want and need; then, I'll be willing to let go of it. I will devote my energy to living my life today, so I may master my lessons as quickly as possible. I will trust that what I want and need is coming to me. I will let go of my need to control the details.

Today I know I am worthy of having success in my life. I am listening what I tell myself with gentleness and love, putting a stop to any self-talk that does not make me feel good about myself. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey To The Heart

Make It a Labor of Love

The mirror was framed with a ceramic octopus. It had the sweetest, most peaceful energy. It made me smile when I saw it. “Do you like it?’ my friend asked. “Arnold made it.” That’s when I knew why it was so delightful. It’s energy– delightful, joyous, and sweet– was Arnold’s energy.

The things we create have energy. A meal we cook. A task we perform, no matter how big or small. What we do contains our energy– the emotional energy and attitude we put into it. Have you ever cooked a meal when you felt angry and disrupted, hurried and harried? Have you noticed the difference when you cooked that meal in a loving frame of mind? Merely doing the job isn’t always enough. We need to do the job with our best energy, our most positive emotional and mental attitude.

Take time before you begin a task to become conscious of the energy you want to put into it, the energy you want that task to have and reflect to yourself and others. Make conscious, deliberate choices. The larger the task, the more time you may want to spend developing your ideas about it. On particularly significant projects, you may want to spend time visualizing and writing down your ideas, so you can focus that energy into your work. Experiment with this idea. See how it comes to life as you do your daily tasks. See how much better the people around you feel when you do your tasks in love. See how much more joy and pleasure work brings to you.

There is honor in all work, in all tasks, but take it one step further. Make what you do a labor of love. Then your work will truly touch and change the world in the way you desire. The work you do, whatever your chosen field, will be work that heals.

*****

more language of letting go for September
Learn to say I am

We hear a lot about becoming whole. "Become a complete human being." "Start on the pathway to becoming whole." "You won't find romantic love until you know you're complete." Frankly, these kinds of comments often confused me. But then I decided that wholeness relates directly to the process of detaching and letting go.

It's admirable to go after our dreams and know what we want to accomplish. But after we identify what it is we're after, we need to let it go. We need to know in our hearts and souls that we're okay whether we ever get what we're after or not.

Another friend described it this way. "It's the old Zen Buddhist thing," he said. "When you're one with yourself, life becomes magical. You can get whatever you want."

The most powerful and magical words we can say in the language of letting go are these: I am.

Then we step it up one notch by learning to say, I am complete just as I am.

God, help me know the power of the words I am.

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Sending Yourself Sunshine
Good Thoughts for the Day

The more we accept our darkness as one part of the picture, the more easily we can also allow and accept our light.

When things go wrong, it is easy to get into a bad mood, and that bad mood has a way of spiraling out and affecting our life for days to come. In the same way, when we feel badly about ourselves, we tend to act in ways that have repercussions, again creating a negative vibe that can negatively influence the next several days. While it is important that we allow ourselves to feel what we feel, and to be genuine, we do not have to completely surrender to a dark mood or feelings of self-doubt. In fact, the more we simply allow and accept our darkness as one part of the picture, the more easily we can also allow and accept our light. In this vein, we can temper our grey moods with an injection of sunshine in the form of sending good wishes to ourselves for the next 24 hours.

If you feel a bad mood coming on or find yourself plagued with negative feelings, take a moment to acknowledge that. At the same time, recognize that things can and will change, and that you can still have a good day, or a good week, especially if you take the time to visualize that for yourself. This is a great way to support yourself when you are working through tough times and hard feelings. When you visualize good things for yourself, you are sending yourself love and warmth, as well as encouraging yourself to keep going.

Before you even get out of bed in the morning, you can take the time to send good wishes to yourself all the way through to the next morning. As you picture your day, take the time to fill in the details—where you are going, who you will see, what you will do—and send love and good wishes ahead to yourself, as well as everyone you encounter. It will be like arriving in a new place and finding that an old friend has sent a bouquet of flowers from back home to welcome you and remind you that you are loved. Published with permission from Daily OM

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

Based on their collective experience, The Program’s founders suggested a prayer to be said when taking the Third Step – and making a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. “God, I offer myself to Thee, to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy power, Thy Love, and Thy way of life. May I do Thy will always!” Have I abandoned myself to God as I understood Him?

Today I pray

I praise my Higher Power for my freedom to find my own understanding of God. May my life be God’s whether i think of Him as a Father whose hand and spirit I can touch with an upward reach of my own, or as a universal Spirit that I can merge with as the hard outlines of my “self”begin to melt, or as a core of Divine and absolute goodness inside myself. May I know Him well, whether I find Him within me, without me or in all things everywhere.

Today I Will Remember

I thank God, as I understand Him, for my understanding of Him.

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One More Day

Spirituality is like a bird: if you hold on to it tightly, it chokes, and if you hold it loosely, it escapes.
– Israel Salanter Lipkin

Being spiritual does not necessarily mean being religious. Instead, it can be an awakening of our deepest personal sense of caring about other people, as well as an awakening of our appreciation of the joy, symmetry, and balance of nature.

The spirituality we strive for and which comforts us best is based on our finding a similar balance within ourselves. When we possessively clutch our faith and expect all that we demand, our spirituality is weakened. Yet, if we expect nothing of it, it might seem to disappear. Our spiritual lives are strengthened as we find that precious balance between expectant trust in our Higher Power and responsible reliance on ourselves.

I am striving to find fullness and balance in my days. Certain experiences change the balance, but I can find it again.

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Food For Thought

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

We practice the OA principles in all our affairs, twenty-four hours a day. Ours is not a diet program but a way of life. When we were eating compulsively, food occupied the central place in our lives every day. Abstinence replaces food as our prime concern, and maintaining abstinence means working the program.

When we do this, we are amazed at how well the day goes. Our work is easier and more productive. We spend less time and energy hassling with ourselves and other people. Best of all, we do not always have to be right. Being able to admit mistakes delivers us from egocentricity.

Being straight with ourselves enables us to be straight with others, and they in turn respond more positively. We are less concerned that everyone likes us and more concerned about growth in the program. By placing principles before personalities, we get less snarled up in confused, game playing relationships.

May You be foremost in my mind, twenty-four hours a day.

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One Day At A Time

SELF-KNOWLEDGE
“The world we have created is a product of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Albert Einstein

The world I created before finding the Twelve Steps of recovery was a world in which I had no responsibility. Everything bad in my life was someone else’s fault: my parents’, my husband’s, society’s, and, when there was no one else to blame, it was God’s fault.

As I worked Step 4, I learned that I had been a part of all of these things for which I blamed others. I learned that I had defects of character that kept me from taking part in my life. As I recognized these defects, I asked my Higher Power to remove them, and that gradually happened.

One of the things I had tried to do for many years was bury my feelings of grief and pain. I seemed to have managed that fairly well, but in doing so, I had also buried all the other emotion. I no longer took enjoyment in anything. My child’s smile evoked no feeling and I felt no pride in anything I did. I felt none of the love that others gave to me. As I started dealing with the painful feelings, the positive emotions emerged as well.

The promise the Big Book speaks of became true for me: I no longer regretted the past nor wished to shut the door on it. I was able to feel my hurt and grief. Now I am also able to feel love and happiness. I have learned how to change my thinking through the process of working these wonderful Steps.

One Day at a Time . . .
I do a daily 10th, 11th and 12th Step and am reminded that it is my responsibility to listen to my Higher Power and do my part in creating the world around me.
~ Nancy

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that is it fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die. - Pg. 66 - How It Works

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Because our body chemistry is so damaged by our disease of addiction, it is important to pay attention to our body's nourishment needs. Are you eating regular balanced meals? It's often more important then we realize and we should never allow ourselves to be hungry or nutrient starved.

Give me the foresight to feed my body the nourishment that my disease robbed it of in the past.

Secrets

Today I will be honest with myself and with others where appropriate. At least, I will no hide from the truth of my own life and inner being. I have the strength to live with the truth and the wisdom to know that the truth can set me free. Keeping secrets is a foolish attempt to stay safe from the truth. We tell ourselves we are sparing another person or protecting ourselves, but all too often the secrets that we keep actually keep us. What people need from me in order to make sense of me is the truth. When I withhold that truth, I withhold myself. I am creating distance that no one can cross because the way across the divide is the way of honesty. I can not make something better by lying, and I cannot be fully understood if I won 't give the benefit of the truth. I can live my life in a web of lies without ever uttering a falsehood. The web of lies is composed of not just what I say, but the vast amount of honesty that I withhold. There is a difference between considerate honesty and aggressive frankness. Honesty recognizes the personhood of both people and is an act of trust; but too much frankness can border on mean.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Your life works FOR you. It hones you, teaches you, and makes you a better person. Nothing in your life happens to you, but for you.

This isn't happening to me, but for me.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

God does not hurry.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I know I am worthy of having success in my life.

I am listening to what I tell myself with gentleness and love, putting a stop to any self-talk that does not make me feel good about myself.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Take heart; it came to pass, it didn't come to stay. - Unknown origin.