Daily Recovery Readings - July 30

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God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom to know the difference.
Thy will, not mine, be done.

July 30

Daily Reflections

GIVING BACK

. . . . he has struck something better than gold. . . . He may not see at
once that he has barely scratched a limitless lode which will pay
dividends only if he mines it for the rest of his life and insists on giving
away the entire product.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 129

My part of the Seventh Tradition means so much more than just giving
money to pay for the coffee. It means being accepted for myself by
belonging to a group. For the first time I can be responsible, because I
have a choice. I can learn the principals of working out problems in my
daily life by getting involved in the "business" of A.A. By being
self-supporting, I can give back to A.A. what A.A. gave to me! Giving
back to A.A. not only ensures my own sobriety, but allows me to buy
insurance that A.A. will be here for my grandchildren.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow, with its possible
adversities, its burdens, its large promise, and perhaps its poor
performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow's sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of
clouds, but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for
it is as yet unborn. Do I still worry too much about tomorrow?

Meditation For The Day

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen." Faith is not seeing, but believing. Down through the ages, there
have always been those who obeyed the heavenly vision, not seeing
but believing in God. And their faith was rewarded. So shall it be to
you. Good things will happen to you. You cannot see God, but you
can see the results of faith in human lives, changing them from defeat to
victory. God's grace is available to all who have faith-not seeing, but
believing. With faith, life can be victorious and happy.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may have faith enough to believe without seeing. I pray
that I may be content with the results of my faith.

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As Bill Sees It

Reaching for Humility, p. 211

We saw we needn't always be bludgeoned and beatened into
humility. It could come quite as much from our voluntary reaching
for it as it could from unremitting suffering.

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"We first reach for a little humility, knowing that we shall perish
of alcoholism if we do not. After a time, though we may still
rebel somewhat, we commence to practice humility because this is
the right thing to do. Then comes the day when, finally freed in
large degree from rebellion, we practice humility because we
deeply want it as a way of life."

1. 12 & 12, p. 75
2. Letter, 1966

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Walk In Dry Places

Founders with clay feet
Sound thinking
With any organization or society, the time comes when people find fault with the founders. The faults of these pioneering leaders are examined and perhaps even used to discredit them.
Founders are only human beings, and they are likely to exhibit the human shortcomings all of us have. If these founders turn out to have clay feet, perhaps the fault is ours for idolizing them in the first place.
The real role of a founder is to lay the foundation for further building. Unless the society grows, improving over what the founder had in mind, it is not likely to survive. Its real work should be to surpass the fonder so as to be of greater service to others.
I'll be careful not to put anyone on a pedestal and then complain about his or her clay feet.

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Keep It Simple

Beauty may be said to be God's trademark in creation.---Henry Ward Beecher
Our addiction was like a veil over our heads. We saw the world as an ugly place.
We saw people as trouble. We thought our drinks and drugs were beautiful. But even they became ugly over time. Life became ugly because we had put distance between our Higher Power and ourselves.
Now we are blessed because the veil is lifted, and we are part of the healing process. We help others step into the beauty of recovery.
Our spirits are again free to seek a relationship with God and others. Through these relationships, we get our hope back. This hope help us focus on the beauty of the world. Hope is the rain that helps our souls grow.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, the world is both beautiful and ugly. For to long I only saw the ugly. Help me focus on the beauty.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll keep an eye out for the beauty recovery holds for me. Throughout the day, I'll pray for this.

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Each Day a New Beginning

It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God. --Mary Daly
God's presence is within us, now and always, even though we feel alone, alienated, scared, and forgotten much of the time. We often overlook God's presence because we don't recognize it. Our talents, our desires, and our pursuits are the evidence--all the evidence we'll ever need once we understand it--that God is present within and about us all the time.
The creative potential goes unrealized among so many of us, perhaps because we have a rigid definition of what creativity is. We are creative. We are all, each of us, creative. We must be because God's presence is here now. When we choose to let it guide us, we'll be able to offer our own unique gifts to the world of friends around us. Encouraging creativity, our own and someone else's, may mean breaking old habits. It surely does mean stepping out of our own way. It also means giving ourselves fully to the experience of the moment and trusting that God's presence will prompt the deliverance of our special gift.
In the moment lives God within us. In the moment I am creative, blessed with gifts like no other. I will stay in the moment and offer them, guided by the God within.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Doctor's Opinion

What is the solution? Perhaps I can best answer this by relating one of my experiences.
About one year prior to this experience a man was brought in to be treated for chronic alcoholism. He had but partially recovered from a gastric hemorrhage and seemed to be a case of pathological mental deterioration. He had lost everything worthwhile in life and was only living, one might say, to drink. He frankly admitted and believed that for him there was no hope. Following the elimination of alcohol, there was found to be no permanent brain injury. He accepted the plan outlined in this book. One year later he called to see me, and I experienced a very strange sensation. I knew the man by name, and partly recognized his features, but there all resemblance ended. From a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment. I talked with him for some time, but was not able to bring myself to feel that I had known him before. To me he was a stranger, and so he left me. A long time has passed with no return to alcohol.

p. xxxi

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

A.A. TAUGHT HIM TO HANDLE SOBRIETY - "God willing, we . . . may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day."

God willing, we members of A.A. may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day. How do we do it? By learning--through practicing the Twelve Steps and through sharing at meetings--how to cope with the problems that we looked to booze to solve, back in our drinking days.

pp. 558-559

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Foreword

This starting expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no means sure that such great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.

pp. 17-18

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Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread,
remade all the time, made new.
--Ursula K. Le Guin

If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of
tomorrow, you have no today for which you can be thankful.
--Anonymous

God will never give you more than you & Him together can handle.
--unknown

"As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for
helping yourself, the other for helping others."
--Audrey Hepburn

AA is my "God with skin on."
--unknown

If you drink at the bad news you got today, you'll never know you
could get through it without drinking.
--unknown

"Every single act of love releases blocked energy in your body.
Unconditional love heals the body and the mind. Keep reminding
yourself of this truth until it becomes your reality. Love is a frequency
that you can choose to tune into, just as you tune into a frequency on
the radio."
--Wayne Dyer

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

WORDS

"Hear the meaning within the word."
--William Shakespeare

When I hear or see the word "sobriety", I am made to think of
relationships: my relationship with God, man and, more importantly,
myself. Sobriety means humor, hope and joy. It means a silence at the
center of my being that "wonders" at it all. Sobriety means a sexuality
that is both noble and free -- that risks rejection and criticism.
Sobriety argues against prejudice and bigotry. It builds a bridge to
"the different" and reflects on the creative variety of man. It allows
me a God as I understand Him but also respects tradition and the
ancient philosophies of the world.

Sobriety evokes a feeling that is beyond words. It echoes the spiritual
life.

Let me learn to pray beyond words. Let my relationship with You
grow in silence.

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"Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me."
Micah 7:8

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking,
be put away from you, with all malice.
Ephesians 4:31

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with
the glory that will be revealed in us."
Romans 8:18

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to
listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger
does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore,
get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and
humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."
James 1:19-21

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Daily Inspiration

Much can be said by the look on your face. Lord, may I be quick to smile and display an attitude of graciousness and peace so that I am able to put those around me at ease and bring out the best in them.

God's blessings come in packages both large and small. Sometimes they are expected and sometimes not. Sometimes they are recognized and sometimes not. Lord, thank you for the joy You light in me, even in times of sorrow. Please use me to bless someone else.

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NA Just For Today

Regular Inventory

"Continuing to take a personal inventory means that we form a habit of looking at ourselves, our actions, attitudes, and relationships on a regular basis."
Basic Text, p.41

Taking a regular inventory is a key element in our new pattern of living. In our addiction, we examined ourselves as little as possible. We weren't happy with how we were living our lives, but we didn't feel that we could change the way we lived. Self- examination, we felt, would have been a painful exercise in futility.

Today, all that is changing. Where we were powerless over our addiction, we've found a Power greater than ourselves that has helped us stop using. Where we once felt lost in life's maze, we've found guidance in the experience of our fellow recovering addicts and our ever-improving contact with our Higher Power. We need not feel trapped by our old, destructive patterns. We can live differently if we choose.

By establishing a regular pattern of taking our own inventory, we give ourselves the opportunity to change anything in our lives that doesn't work. If we've started doing something that causes problems, we can start changing our behavior before it gets completely out of hand. And if we're doing something that prevents problems from occurring, we can take note of that, too, and encourage ourselves to keep doing what works.

Just for today: I will make a commitment to include a regular inventory in my new pattern of living.

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
The hopeful man sees success where others see failure, sunshine where others see shadows and storm. --O. S. Marden
When wise men say, "Hope springs eternal," they are reminding us that no matter how great are the obstacles, the hope of winning out in the long run still exists. Hope is our friend when all else has failed. When we have strength of character and an energetic mind, hope always flourishes.
We discover that, at the very brink of despair, we will find courage to keep trying as long as there is hope for success. After all, what have we got to lose? Without hope, we have no chance, anyway. Our chance for glory comes when we keep trying even though all seems lost. Our hearts remain strong and brave when hope reminds us that challenges last until a game is over.
What light of hope can I keep burning within me today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Many could forego heavy meals, a full wardrobe, a fine house, et cetera; it is the ego they cannot forego. --Mohandas Gandhi
We inevitably confront our ego in this program. We face our macho self, our powerful self, or our always-right self. We have developed many trappings, which give us an identity: our car, our stereo system, our job, our popularity, or our place to sit in church. The more attached we are to these trappings, the tougher it is for us to make progress on this spiritual path.
In stepping across a stream we must leave the side we are on in order to get to the other side. The repeated challenge in our spiritual life is to leave the secure trappings we know and take comfort in the still unknown new self. That is the leap of faith. We take the risk and trust something will be there for us. We have faith that letting go of our immediate attachments will bring us to a better place, that God will be there for us.
I will let go of external images and use my faith to take the leap forward.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God. --Mary Daly
God's presence is within us, now and always, even though we feel alone, alienated, scared, and forgotten much of the time. We often overlook God's presence because we don't recognize it. Our talents, our desires, and our pursuits are the evidence--all the evidence we'll ever need once we understand it--that God is present within and about us all the time.
The creative potential goes unrealized among so many of us, perhaps because we have a rigid definition of what creativity is. We are creative. We are all, each of us, creative. We must be because God's presence is here now. When we choose to let it guide us, we'll be able to offer our own unique gifts to the world of friends around us. Encouraging creativity, our own and someone else's, may mean breaking old habits. It surely does mean stepping out of our own way. It also means giving ourselves fully to the experience of the moment and trusting that God's presence will prompt the deliverance of our special gift.
In the moment lives God within us. In the moment I am creative, blessed with gifts like no other. I will stay in the moment and offer them, guided by the God within.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Accepting Powerlessness
Since I've been a child, I've been in an antagonistic relationship with an important emotional part of myself: my feelings. I have consistently tried to ignore, repress, or force my feelings away. I have tried to create unnatural feelings or force away feelings that were present.
I've denied I was angry, when in fact I was furious. I have told myself there must be something wrong with me for feeling angry, when anger was a reasonable and logical response to the situation.
I have told myself things didn't hurt, when they hurt very much. I have told myself stories such as "That person didn't mean to hurt me." . . . "He or she doesn't know any better." . . . "I need to be more understanding." The problem was that I had already been too understanding of the other person and not understanding and compassionate enough with myself.
It has not just been the large feelings I have been at war with; I have been battling the whole emotional aspect of myself. I have tried to use spiritual energy, mental energy, and even physical exertion to not feel what I need to feel to be healthy and alive.
I didn't succeed at my attempts to control emotions. Emotional control has been a survival behavior for me. I can thank that behavior for helping me get through many years and situations where I didn't have any better options. But I have learned a healthier behavior - accepting my feelings.
We are meant to feel. Part of our dysfunction is trying to deny or change that. Part of our recovery means learning to go with the flow of what we're feeling and what our feelings are trying to tell us.
We are responsible for our behaviors, but we do not have to control our feelings. We can let them happen. We can learn to embrace, enjoy, and experience - feel - the emotional part of ourselves.
Today, I will stop trying to force and control my emotions. Instead, I will give power and freedom to the emotional part of myself.


I am developing new and positive habits today. I am putting all my energy into moving forward and building a healthy life. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey To The Heart

Find Your Own Healing Places

When I arrived in Sedona, I met Marianne. She and her husband ran the lodge where I stayed.

“You’ll like it here,” she said. “You’ll find the healing you need.”

“Where should I look?” I asked. “Where should I go? What things should I be sure to do?”

“There is no map for that,” she quietly replied. “You’ll find your own places. They’ll call to you or you’ll call them to you. You’ll be drawn to what you need.”

Sometimes, along the way, people specifically point things out to us. We get a clear plan about where to go next. But we can also reach a place for which there is no map, no itinerary, no set agenda for how to find our way. That’s because we’re supposed to be trusting our heart.

This is an important place on the journey. It tells us our heart can be trusted. It’s a time of joy, a time of trusting what we’ve learned and what we know, a time of trusting the universe and discovering that that trust is well placed.

You don’t need to be shown what to do next. Your heart and soul will lead the way. You’ll learn to tell when something is right, when something works.

Learn to find places of healing. Learn to find people, places, events, and rituals that work for you. Don’t worry about how to find them or wait for someone to point them out. They’ll call to you, or you’ll call them into your life.

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More Language Of Letting Go

Trust that feeling

“Let’s turn here,” he said, turning down a short road. We had been looking for a new restaurant to try, and lately they had all been disappointments. The sign at the start of the road was weathered, and I remembered eating at the place it adveritsed years ago. I didn’t like it very much.

The restaurant had changed some inside. We sat at a walk-in table next to a window looking out on the Pacific Ocean. Our server was gracious and genuine. We ordered crab cakes for breakfast. They were the best crab cakes that I ever had, and we ended up going back for dinner that same night.

The restaurant has become a regular place for us because we ignored what we thought we knew and went with a feeling instead.

After all the omelets, waffles, and crab cakes that we’ve eaten at that restaurant since then, I’m glad that my boyfriend trusted his intuition and his intuitive whim. Both men and women have been given the gift of intuition. It’s not a gender-specific thing, though sometimes we encourage men to focus more on the logical than the intuitive.

Open up. Trust your heart when it whispers quietly to you. Start small. Go for a drive and on a whim take a road you’ve never traveled before. Gradually, as you become more tuned in to your intuitive feelings, they will guide you along your path. Sometimes your intuition will help you find a nice place to eat; sometimes they’ll guide you to a winning career path and sometimes to a best friend.

Listen to your heart. Sometimes you need to ignore what you think you know, and go with your intuition.

God, teach me to listen to my heart.

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In God’s Care

Conscience is, in most men, an anticipation of the opinions of others. ~~Sir Henry Taylor

We are no longer in doubt about the right actions to take toward others. The program’s Steps clarify what is appropriate behavior. Thus we know that doing any injury — physical or emotional — to other people harms us as well as them.

One of the many rewards of recovery is being free to live without guilt. Name-calling, harmful gossip, intentional put-downs, hateful rejections no longer provide the perverse pleasure of years gone by. We now recognize the subtle joy of sincere and loving efforts. We find this joy in calling a frend who is faced with a painful decision, picking up groceris for an elderly neighbor, extending our friendship to the new person at work. We no longer need the fear of what others will think to curb our spiteful actions.

Our conscience may still guide our actions at times, but as we grow in our recovery, we begin to intuitively now what keeps us on track and in sync with God.

I will follow my God-given intuition today

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Day By Day

Realizing the consequences

No matter who we are as individuals, we all bear the consequences of our lifestyle and behavior. High, we experience pain, suffering, grief, and eventually insanity or premature death. Clean and sober, we experience rewarding lives.

Getting clean and sober doesn’t mean that we suddenly become conformists. But whoever or whatever we become, we must practice kindness and tolerance. If we do, our lives will be meaningful in ways we cannot imagine.

Am I fully aware of the consequences of my choices?

Higher Power, help me become more thoughtful and patient.

Today I will take stock of my lifestyle by…

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Food for Thought

Focus on Living

Before we found this program, we were obsessed with food and preoccupied with eating. Instead of concentrating our energies on love and work and play, we were side tracked into the unsatisfactory substitute of overeating.

Abstinence gives us a new lease on life. We can develop more satisfying relationships with our family and friends. Since it has been our habit to withdraw and please ourselves with food, it takes time and effort to learn to relate more closely to those we love. It also takes courage and the willingness to be open and vulnerable.

In our work, we have renewed energy and greater ability to concentrate. Where before we may have avoided difficult tasks, we now have the strength and confidence to attempt them.

When we give up eating as a favorite form of recreation, we can find other activities to enjoy. Being released from bondage to food and fat opens the door to all sorts of new possibilities. Less eating means much more living.

We are grateful for new life.

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Parental Fears
Breaking Family Ties that Bind by Madisyn Taylor

So often we come into this world carrying the fear of our parents as it is passed down to us and lived through us.

When we really examine our fears about something, we sometimes notice that the fear we have is not based on our own experience. Often, if we trace our fear back to its source, we find that one of our parents may have handed it down to us. For example, your mother or father may have had an intense fear of lack of money, stemming from their own life experiences. If that fear was not resolved by the time you came into the picture, chances are you inherited it. Meanwhile, you may have no actual experience of lacking money, so being fearful doesn’t make sense, and it may even block you from doing certain things you want to do.

Keeping in mind that your parents were only trying to protect you, and that most of the errors in judgment they made were made with the best intentions, it might be time to release this fear symbolically. You cannot resolve someone else’s fear for them, but you can decide to let go of it on your own behalf. Whether your parents are still alive or not, it is best to do this in a symbolic way, using visualization and, if you like, ritual. One simple visualization involves inviting your parent to sit across from you in your heart space and sharing your desire to move on from this fear, letting them know that you will not carry it anymore. You may be surprised at the response you get, because it’s possible they will be proud of you, grateful, and proud of your courage.

The more we do this deep inner work with our fears, the better we will be able to parent our own children without burdening them with fears that don’t belong to them. Some of us will do as much of this work as we can before we become parents, while others will be working on this even as our children become adults. Either way, the effects will be felt, because once we break our ties to the fears of the past, our children’s ties to those fears are greatly weakened, so it’s important to remember that it’s never too late. Published with permission from Daily OM

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

When we first come to The Program, the most common variety of self-pity begins: “Poor me! Why can’t I (fill in your own addiction) like everybody else? why me?” Such bemoaning, if allowed to persist, is a surefire invitation for a long walk off a pier — right back to the mess we were in before we came to The Program. When we stick around The Program for a while, we discover that it’s not just “me” at all; we become involved with people, from all walks of life, who are in exactly the same boat. Am I losing interest in my comfortably familiar “pity Pot?”

Today I Pray

When self-pity has me droopy and inert, may I look up, look around and perk up. Self-pity, God wills, vanishes in the light of other people’s shared troubles. may I always wish for friends honest enough to confront me if they see me digging my way back down into my old pity pit.

Today I Will Remember

Turn self-involvement into involvement.

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One More Day

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
– Joseph Addison

As children, most of us were unreceptive to advice. Our parents offered words of warning and frequently we refused to hear because we needed independence.

Today, when friends or family members make suggestions, we might have some of the same reactions as we did as children. We still need independence, and some advice — no matter how well meant — carries with it the implication that we are less than capable of clearly seeing dangers or knowing our options. We;re better able now to weigh the messages we receive. We have two choices. When our loved ones offer suggestions that we know to be bad or inappropriate for us, we can remind ourselves that they are meant well and merely say thank you. When the advice is good, we can do the same thing.

I will listen carefully to all the loving advice given me.

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One Day At A Time

~ FORGIVENESS ~
Forgiveness for ourselves
is the journey from guilt
over what we have done or not done
to the celebration of what we have become.
Dr. Joan Borysenko

Steps 8 and 9 are very important to our recovery from compulsive eating. The 8th Step says that we need to make a list of those people we have harmed because of our disease, and to be willing to make amends to them.

The 9th Step says that we need to make direct amends to those people, if possible.

I would never condemn a sick person for being sick, yet I was ready to level blame at myself for being a compulsive overeater. I was mentally cruel to myself.

I abused my physical body with food and excess weight. While working Step 8, I needed to realize that I didn’t hurt just my family or friends when I was deep in my disease. I had to understand that I hurt myself as well. I said and did things that I’m not proud of because I didn’t know that I had a disease of compulsion. I had to place myself at the top of my amends list.

Some of the ways I can work Step 9 include remembering that I am a good person who just happens to be sick with a potentially fatal disease of compulsion. If I can remember that I am sick, then I won’t add more pain to what the disease already heaps on me. I can remember that a slip in abstinence is just that...a slip. It doesn’t reflect on my worth as a human being. I can be gentle with myself whenever times are rough. I can lean more on my Higher Power, so that I don’t have to depend upon my own unsteady willpower. I can forgive myself for the past pain I’ve caused myself and resolve not to hurt myself any more.

One Day at a Time . . .
I give myself the gift of forgiveness and amends.
~ Jeff ~

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

The alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his way through the lives of others. Hearts are broken. Sweet relationships are dead. Affections have been uprooted. Selfish and inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turmoil. We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough. He is like the farmer who came up out of his cyclone cellar to find his home ruined. To his wife, he remarked, 'Don't see anything the matter here, Ma. Ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin'?' - Pg. 82 - Into Action

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Whatever upset you right now, whether a feeling of terror, someone is frustrating you, you are angry or bored--try living in the solution, not the problem. Pick up your program book, close your eyes and leaf through. Run your finger down the page and where ever you stop, read the next three paragraphs. It's a random solution but often guided by Divine Presence.

May a Divinely Inspired solution find me now.

Inner Belief

I believe in this world; it is the place that I have been born into. I love the breeze and the grass, the sky and the water. I have an intimate exchange with nature - like a lover. I feel held and nourished. Caressed and soothed. I believe in people - they are the species to which I belong. I recognize that, underneath our superficial differences, we all want and need the same things. I believe that truth and goodness will prevail. I feel good with small gains. I see deep meaning in quiet things, and I am moved by a power that I cannot explain but that I sense inside and out. Today, I feel good, I am aware of the gifts of nature, of being alive. I am open to what lies around me.

I believe in life

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Some members of the fellowship say 'Our mind is a dangerous neighborhood to be in alone.' But together we can be on block watch! Don't let your mind get the better of you. Turn that 'M' in me upside down, like we are asked to turn it over, and make a 'We' out of that 'Me.'

It isn't 'me' and 'you' anymore; it's 'we' and 'us.'

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Going to a meeting doesn't make you sober any more than going to church makes you a minister.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I am developing new and positive habits today. I am putting all my energy into moving forward and building a healthy life.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

There's a test in the Big Book (p31) It says 'Try some controlled drinking, try to drink and stop abruptly. Try it more than once. Well that sounds real good, but that's not a viable test for me. I'd go into a bar, have two drinks and it would become very clear that this is just not a good test day. It's a good test, but tomorrow is a much better test day. - Bob D.

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AA Thought for the Day

July 30

Growing Up in AA
Life is meant to be lived by facing the challenges it brings. Otherwise, I'm not living, just existing.
God didn't give me this gift of sobriety to sit in a rocking chair,
imagining myself as some old wise woman who has arrived somewhere.
There is no easier, softer way.
- The Best Of The Grapevine [Vol.3], p. 320

Thought to Ponder . . .
Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional, growing spiritually is up to me.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G R O W T H = God Reveals Other Wways To Heal.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Daybreak
"On awakening let us think about the
twenty-four hours ahead.
We consider our plans for the day.
Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking,
especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity,
dishonest or self-seeking motives.
Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties
with assurance,
for after all God gave us brains to use.
Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane
when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives."
1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 86

Thought to Consider . . .
At first, I thought the "God thing" was a crutch.
Turns out to be stilts.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A S A P = Always Say A Prayer

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Friendship and Respect
From: "Another Chance"
Since I have been in A.A., I have more friends than I ever had in my life - friends who care about me and my welfare, friends who don't care that I am black and that I have been in prison. All they care about is that I am a human being and that I want to stay sober. Since I've been home, I have been able to gain the respect of my two sons again.
2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, page 534

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he takes his sobriety for granted."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1949
"A Suggestion for Thanksgiving"
The Language of the Heart

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"...I humbly offered myself to God, as I then I understood Him, to do
with me as He would. I placed myself unreservedly under His care and
direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was
nothing; that without Him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and
became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and
branch."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Bill's Story, pg. 13~

"As each member of a resentful family begins to see his shortcomings
and admits them to the others, he lays a basis for helpful discussion. These
family talks will be constructive if they can be carried on without heated
argument, self-pity, self-justification or resentful criticism."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 127~

"The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us."
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 17 (There is a Solution)

"So why shouldn't we share our way of life with everyone?"
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 156 (Tradition Six)

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

We saw we needn't always be bludgeoned and beaten into humility. It could come quite as much from our voluntary reaching for it as it could from unremitting suffering.
We first reach for a little humility, knowing that we shall perish of alcoholism if we do not. After a time, though we may still rebel somewhat, we commence to practice humility because this is the right thing to do. Then comes the day when, finally freed in large degree from rebellion, we practice humility because we deeply want it as a way of life.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank You for all that You have given me to share with my fellows.