Daily Recovery Readings - April

[bluidkiti]

April 2

Daily Reflections

CHARACTER BUILDING

Demands made upon other people for too much attention,
protection, and love can only invite domination or
revulsion....
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44

When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step,
I didn't think it should rank as a character defect. I
wanted to think of it more as an asset (that is, the desire
to please people). It was quickly pointed out to me that
this "need" can be very crippling. Today I still enjoy
getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to
pay the price I used to pay to get it. I will not bend
myself into a pretzel to get others to like me. If I get
your approval, that's fine; but if I don't, I will
survive without it. I am responsible for speaking what
I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may
want to hear.
Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly
concerned about my reputation. Since being enlightened
in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character.

************************************************** *********

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward
becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit
my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was
before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with
me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I
feel that the friends I've found in A.A. are real friends?
Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and
do I want to help them if I can? Do I really care now about
other people?

Meditation For The Day

Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle-
working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of
God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company
with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace,
you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time,
you throw that one aside for a yet finer one. And so from
character to character, you are gradually transformed.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each
acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better
person.

************************************************** *********

As Bill Sees It

Walking Toward Serenity, p. 92

"When I was tired and couldn't concentrate, I used to fall back on an
affirmation toward life that took the form of simple walking and deep
breathing. I sometimes told myself that I couldn't do even this--that I
was too weak. But I learned that this was the point at which I could
not give in without becoming still more depressed.

"So I would set myself at a small stint. I would determine to walk a
quarter of a mile. And I would concentrate by counting my
breathing--say, six steps to each slow inhalation and four to each
exhalation. Having done the quarter-mile, I found that I could go on,
maybe a half-mile more. Then another half-mile, and maybe another.

"This was encouraging. The false sense of physical weakness would
leave me (this feeling being so characteristic of depressions). The
walking and especially the breathing were powerful affirmations
toward life and living and away from failure and death. The counting
represented a minimum discipline in concentration, to get some rest
from the wear and tear of fear and guilt."

Letter, 1960

************************************************** *********

Walk in Dry Places

Accepting Risk
Facing Reality.
Like it or not, life seems to have certain risks that just can't be avoided. Alcoholics are not really comfortable with risk-taking. This is especially true in situations that include risk of rejection, risk of defeat, or risk of loss.
If we try to get through life without accepting some risk, however, we're simply not being realistic. The refusal to accept risk may also mean that we miss wonderful opportunities in the process.
What should we do? We should face risk intelligently and with spiritual preparation. FIRST, we do everything possible to reduce risk in any situation (thus making it a "calculated risk"). THEN we pray for guidance and inspiration (but not a certain outcome). FINALLY, we do our very best to succeed in the situation, whether it's a courtship, a job search, competition in sports, or whatever.
We might surprise ourselves by succeeding more times than we fail. But even in temporary failure, we gain if we follow through in accepting reasonable and necessary risks.
I'll exercise prudence and good judgment in all my undertakings today, but I won't expect to be able to "play it safe" in everything. As a human being, I have to take risks in life.

************************************************** *********

Keep It Simple

To know all things is not permitted.--- Horace
In recovery, we give up trying to be perfect. We give up trying to know
everything. We work at coming to know and accept our short-comings. In
Step Four and Five, we look at our good points and our bad points. In Step
Six, we become ready to have our Higher Power remove our "defects of
character." Then in Step Seven we ask our Higher Power to remove our
"shortcomings."
Recovery is about coming to accept that we're not prefect. We admit that
trying to be perfect got in the way of being useful to ourselves, our
Higher Power, and those around us. Pretending to be prefect doesn't allow
us to be real. It's also boring and no fun---you never get to mess up.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You will let me know what I need to know. Allow me to claim
my mistakes and shortcomings.
Action for the Day: I will work at being okay today. Not prefect, just okay.

************************************************** *********

Each Day a New Beginning

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. --Amelia Earhart
We have learned from experience that a wave of peacefulness washes over us after we have successfully finished a task that was difficult to face. Courage has its reward. However, from time to time, and from task to task, we find we need the reminder that peace will come once the loose ends have been tied by us.
Our search for peace was desperate and unending in past years. Our fears overwhelmed us more often than not. Courage was seldom displayed. Tasks were often left half done or not done at all. Challenges went unmet. And peace eluded us.
We are so lucky that the program found us, and that we found the program! We are looking forward, at last, with the courage that trusting a higher power has given us. Peace is ours, now and always, as we go forth with the strength of the program to bolster us. New jobs, new friends, new situations may still elicit our old fears. But their hold on us is gone. We have learned that we face nothing alone. What relief that simple truth brings.
Courage is one of the program's gifts. I will have courage to go forward: to meet the new day, to handle whatever confronts me. Peace is coupled with courage, now and forever.

************************************************** *********

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Doctor's Opinion

The doctor’s theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us. As laymen, our opinion as to its soundness may, of course, mean little. But as exproblem drinkers, we can say that his explanation makes good sense. It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account.

p. xxvi

************************************************** *********

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

THE PERPETUAL QUEST - This lawyer tried psychiatrists. biofeedback, relaxation exercises, and a host of other techniques to control her drinking. She finally found a solution, uniquely tailored, in the Twelve Steps.

Until I was four years old, I lived upstairs from a tavern, where I saw drunks bounced around. My mother worked for relatives who also lived over the tavern, and whoever had time looked after me. Despite my pleas, my mother married a violent man, and we moved away to a life that made my tavern life look really holy. I kept running away back to the tavern until it was demolished. I still fondly look at pictures of that place.

p. 389

************************************************** *********

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Nine - "A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve."

It is clear now that we ought never to name boards to govern us, but it is equally clear that we shall always need to authorize workers to serve us. It is the difference between the spirit of vested authority and the spirit of service, two concepts which are sometimes poles apart. It is in this spirit of service that we elect the A.A. group's informal rotating committee, the intergroup association for the area, and the General Service Conferences of Alcoholics Anonymous for A.A. as a whole. Even our Foundation, once an independent board, is today directly accountable to our Fellowship. Its trustees are the caretakers and expediters of our world services.

pp. 174-175

************************************************** *********

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
there."
--Will Rogers

Laughter is by definition healthy.
--Doris Lessing

He who laughs, lasts.
--Mary Pettibone Poole

The best portion of a good man's life is in his little nameless,
unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
--William Wordsworth

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
--Aesop

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never
thrown away.
--Arthur Helps

"We get so much in the habit of wearing a disguise before others that
we eventually appear disguised before ourselves."
--Jim Bishop

************************************************** *********

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

PROBLEMS

"The real problem is in the
hearts and minds of men."
--Albert Einstein

We are facing not so much a "drug problem" as a people problem - and
this requires a solution from the people. I believe the solution and
recovery has already been given by God, but it must be discovered from
within. We need to seek out what is truly in our minds and hearts: what
are our problems, what are our needs, what do we long for, where are
we going in our lives?

Today it is not enough for me to know my problems, I need also to talk
about them. Today I choose to express my feelings.

God, I thank You for the creative gift of communication.

************************************************** *********

O, come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the
LORD our maker.
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and
the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice.
Psalm 95:6-7

When you lie down you will not be afraid; when you lie down , your sleep
will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:24

************************************************** *********

Daily Inspiration

There are always better things to come than that which we have left behind. Lord, I look with excitement toward the enexpected joys of today.

Forget what you have done for others and remember what they have done for you. Lord, a gift is given freely with no expection. May I become a truly giving person.

************************************************** *********

NA Just For Today

Attraction

"Our public image consists of what we have to offer: a successful, proven way of maintaining a drug-free lifestyle."
Basic Text p. 72

Yes, we are attracting new members. More and more addicts are finding Narcotics Anonymous. But how do we treat our newest members when they arrive, worn out from their struggles with addiction? Do we reach out to newcomers who are standing by themselves at our meetings, confused and uncertain? Are we willing to give them rides to meetings? Do we still work one-on-one with the addict who suffers? Do we give out our phone numbers? Are we eager to go on a Twelfth Step call, even if it means getting up from our comfortable beds in the middle of the night? Will we work with someone who has a different sexual orientation or is from another culture? Are we generous with the gift of our time?

No doubt we were met with love and acceptance by our fellow addicts. What attracted many of us to Narcotics Anonymous was the feeling that we had finally found a place where we belonged. Are we offering that same sense of belonging to our newer members? We cannot promote Narcotics Anonymous. But when we put principles into action in our lives, we attract newer members to the NA way, just as we were attracted to recovery.

Just for today: I will work with a newcomer. I will remember that I was once a newcomer myself. I will seek to attract others with the same sense of belonging I've found in NA.

************************************************** *********

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
It is wealth to be content. --Lao-tzu
On the evening of the first day of spring, a woman gave her husband a bright red geranium in a clay pot. To celebrate, he placed it on the windowsill, and together they marveled at the delicate petals.
In the harsher light of morning, though, the man frowned at the geranium and said to his wife, "How shabby it makes the sofa look." They spent the day at the furniture store and came home with a new couch, blue with red flowers, like the geranium. They placed the couch in front of the windowsill and admired together its grace and line and fashionable upholstery.
But the next morning, the man frowned at the couch and said, "How shabby it makes the carpet look." Soon they had a lavish new carpet, which led to new curtains, lamps, and chairs. When the room was completely redone, they set the geranium back in the window and surveyed the finest room in the neighborhood. The man frowned. "The geranium," he said, "it's out of place. It will have to go."
Will I be able to appreciate life's simple pleasures today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
The universe is the primary revelation of the divine, the primary scripture, the primary focus of divine human communion. --Thomas Berry
In this program we learn about being receptive. A man in search of conscious contact with a Higher Power can simply stand still and open his eyes and ears to creation. Forcing a spiritual awareness is mostly wasted effort. Learning theology doesn't create a spiritual experience either. We only need to see and hear what is around us. This is a vast and marvelous universe, and it speaks for itself. It has always been there, and when we are ready to receive the message, we will.
It stirs our spirit to be at a meeting and hear another man describe the awakening of his spirituality. As we men become more receptive to the spiritual, we open a whole new realm in our lives.
May my growing ability to be a receptive man lead me to a deeper spiritual contact.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. --Amelia Earhart
We have learned from experience that a wave of peacefulness washes over us after we have successfully finished a task that was difficult to face. Courage has its reward. However, from time to time, and from task to task, we find we need the reminder that peace will come once the loose ends have been tied by us.
Our search for peace was desperate and unending in past years. Our fears overwhelmed us more often than not. Courage was seldom displayed. Tasks were often left half done or not done at all. Challenges went unmet. And peace eluded us.
We are so lucky that the program found us, and that we found the program! We are looking forward, at last, with the courage that trusting a higher power has given us. Peace is ours, now and always, as we go forth with the strength of the program to bolster us. New jobs, new friends, new situations may still elicit our old fears. But their hold on us is gone. We have learned that we face nothing alone. What relief that simple truth brings.
Courage is one of the program's gifts. I will have courage to go forward: to meet the new day, to handle whatever confronts me. Peace is coupled with courage, now and forever.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Facing Our Darker Side
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. --Step Four of Al Anon
By the time we get to the Fourth of the Twelve Steps, we are ready to face our darker side, the side that prevents us from loving others, from letting others love us, and from enjoying life and ourselves. The purpose of Step Four is not to make ourselves feel worse; our purpose is to begin to remove our blocks to joy and love.
We look for fears, anger, hurt, and shame from past events--buried feelings that may be affecting our life today. We search for subconscious beliefs about others and ourselves that may be interfering with the quality of our relationships. These beliefs say: Im not lovable. . .. Im a burden to those around me. . .. People cant be trusted. . . . I cant be trusted . . .. I don't deserve to be happy and successful. . .. Life isn't worth living. We look at our behaviors and patterns with an eye toward discerning the self-defeating ones. With love and compassion for ourselves, we try to unearth all our guilt - earned and unearned - and expose it to the light.
We perform this examination without fear of what we shall find, because this soul searching can cleanse us and help us feel better about ourselves than we ever dreamt possible.
God, help me search out the blocks and barriers within myself. Bring what I need to know into my conscious mind, so I can be free of it. Show me what I need to know about myself.


Today I wait in peace and rest in the knowledge that God is working for me while I am resting. --Ruth Fishel

******************************************

Journey To The Heart

Discover the Power of Meditation

I saw Spirit Rock Center, a meditation center, as I drove along the highway in Northern California. I turned into the parking lot and watched as people moved about the grounds very slowly. They were practicing a walking meditation.

Meditation teaches us to relax, to connect with our body, to let spirit and body become one. Many of us spent years abandoning ourselves, our emotions, and our bodies. We’ve been present for others, and now is the time for us to stay present for ourselves, fully and completely.

Meditation helps us leave our routine for a bit and slow down. We deliberately exhale stress, tension, and fear. Then we inhale light, beauty, peace, and love. We slow our minds and slow our bodies until we reach that quiet place. Meditation can renew us and help us return to our lives refreshed.

Meditate. Take time to inhale peace and exhale fear. Then take your meditation back to your life. Walk slowly. Stay present for yourself, more fully and completely than ever before. You too can turn your life into a walking, waking, deliberate meditation.

******************************************

More Language Of Letting Go

Learn to say yes

Learn to say yes, and mean it.

How long has it been since you’ve said yes to someone in your life? Yes, I’d like to do that. Yes, that sounds good to me. Yes, I’ll take a chance.

How long has it been since you’ve said yes to yourself? Yes, I recognize what you’re feeling. Yes, I heard what you want. Yes, I realize you’re tired. Yes, we’ll rest for a while.

When opportunities come our way– whether for personal, spiritual, or business growth– don’t always be so cautious and shy. So what if yes means you’re not living up to someone’s expectations? Sometimes we learn to say no so well that saying no becomes a habit. We don’t even consider what we’re turning down.

A well timed yes is as important in manifesting our power as learning to say no. It’s a sign of an open heart.

Next time someone asks you out, suggests an opportunity, or your body tries to talk to you, stop, Instead of immediately saying no, like a parent on automatic pilot, listen to the offer. Could it be an important one? Something that might help guide you along your path? Maybe you’re scared. Maybe you’re worried that you aren’t up to the occasion. Maybe you like the safety of saying no all the time.

Learn to say yes to life.

Honesty, openness, and willingness to try. Hmmmm. Sounds a lot like yes to me.

God, help me learn to say yes and mean it, when that’s the appropriate response.

******************************************

In God’s Care

God does not comfort us to make us comfortable but to make us comforters.
~~J. H. Jowett

We weren’t in any kind of condition to comfort others when we were in the grips of our addictions. It’s only now when we have been blessed with comfort for ourselves, that we can turn our attention to others. Now that we can, we discover another spiritual paradox: We find comfort in giving comfort. It is part of the “to-give-is-to-receive” principle.

Perhaps we didn’t come by our addictions accidentally. There’s a purpose for each of us, and comforting others is part of our purpose. God relies on us to carry the message, as those who went before us brought it to us. That’s why we can never be complacent about our progress. The minute we isolate ourselves from others, discomfort sets in – for us and for those who need the comfort of our presence.

My comfort depends on being a comforter.

******************************************

The Life Cycle
Bud and Blossom and Beyond

by Madisyn Taylor

It is through watching the cycles of nature that we more fully understand the cycles of our own lives.


Flowers and leaves both begin their lives as organisms so tiny we cannot see them with the naked eye. With time, they become visible, curled in upon themselves, colorful buds slowly softening and releasing. With the proper warmth and moisture, they unfold little by little, revealing with each degree of opening a new color, shape, or dimension. Sometimes buds open seemingly all at once, unfolding the full majesty of their potential, of what looks to the human eye like courage, openness, and generosity.

As days go by, the bloom slowly moves through more stages, revealing still more colors, shapes, and dimensions of its essence. It falls apart, strewing its petals on the ground, or it wilts, or it closes back in on itself. When we can appreciate the full beauty of each stage of the cycle of life, from bud to blossom to disintegration, we feel more at home with our own earthly process. We can be inspired not to hold back the fullness of what we have to offer, knowing that our time to give of ourselves in this way will come to pass. At the same time, we can honor others, and the little processes that go on within the larger process of living our lives.

Each stage we go through has its time of fulfillment and recession, as do all living things. Every moment of every stage has its own particular beauty, and we can appreciate that, even as most of us tend to love the spectacular moment of full blossoming most of all. When we feel the wisdom contained in the budding, blossoming, and dissolution of a simple flower, we begin to feel it everywhere, in each moment that comes and goes, in each sunrise and sunset, in every hello and goodbye, as the very essence of the pulsating ebb and flow of existence. Published with permission from Daily OM

******************************************

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

What causes slips? What happens to a person who apparently seems to understand and live the way of The Program, yet decides to go out again? What can I do to keep this from happening to me? Is there any consistency among those who slip, any common denominators that seem to apply? We can each draw our own conclusions, but we learn in The Program that certain in-actions will all but guarantee an eventual slip. When a person who has slipped is fortunate enough to return to The Program, do I listen carefully to what he or she says about the slip?

Today I Pray

May my Higher Power — if I listen to Him — show me if I am setting myself up to get high again. May I glean from the experiences of others that the reasons for such a lapse of resolve or such an accident of will most often stem from what I have not done rather than from what I have done. May I “keep coming back” to meetings.

Today I Will Remember

Keep Coming Back.

******************************************

One More Day

The joy of life is to put out one’s power in some natural and useful or harmless way. There is no other, and the real misery is not to do this.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

If our health changes and fatigue are frequent problems, we may become unable to do all we did for ourselves in the past. If we push ourselves too far, something will suffer. We may pay with our joints or we may pay with depression. But we do pay.

If we liken our daily energy level to money in a bank account, we realize we can make only so many withdrawals before our resources run out. We decide each day how we want to spend — or waste — that precious energy. It takes a while to get our priorities rearranged, but living a good life is important, and eventually we learn how to invest our energy well.

Each day presents itself new and fresh. It’s up to me to decide how to spend my energy.

*****************************************

One Day At A Time

~ Love ~
There is only one happiness in life ... to love and be loved.
George Sand

It took me many, many years to really and truly discover what turned out to be something that I have yearned for all of my life. That "something" was love ~ both the ability to love and to accept love.

As a child, I felt I had to achieve to be loved and, in the process of achieving, lost a great deal of my childhood. This carried over to adulthood and thus began the years of doing what was expected of me (or so I thought) in order to be loved, valued and respected.

Recovery has taught me so much about myself and about love. One of the greatest truths I have learned about myself and my ability to love is that for me to love someone, it is not necessary that they love me back. My loving someone else never depends on their loving me ... but how wonderful it is when they do.

One Day at a Time . . .
Let me realize that love is something that just happens ... I can't make it happen ... and I can't stop it from happening.
~ Mari ~

*****************************************

AA 'Big Book' - Quote

We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn't make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn't seem to be of real help to other people - was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight? Of course it was. - Pg. 52 - We Agnostics

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

The darker the shadow, the brighter the Light. As we stop using and leave the shadow of drug addiction, we slowly begin to see the new light of our life. Sometimes its so bright, it hurts. We are not used to it.

God, as I understand You, as I clean up and the Light of recovery hurts, help me understand, adjust, and be grateful to leave the shadow.

I Have Faith

I rely on faith. Faith sustains me and guides me. Faith is my constant companion. It leads me through passages of terrifying darkness and blinding light. Faith allows me to weave my life into a coherent whole, to walk on a path that others have lit, to strike out on my own and cut my way through the underbrush. There is nothing in my life that faith doesn't make better. There is no day that faith doesn't give meaning and purpose to. There is no relationship that faith doesn't guide and sustain.

I need my faith to live

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Some people quote the Bible, Qur'an, Torah, or some other holy text claiming that it is your only road to recovery. You may or may not find that comforting. Whether or not it is comforting you, remember it is comforting them. Be tolerant and gracious.

I may not find something personally helpful, but I find it helpful to be personable.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

First we work the program because we have to. Then we work the program because we are willing to. Finally we work the program because we want to.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I wait in peace and rest in the knowledge that God is working for me while I am resting.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

The thing I have to do for my personal recovery is to apply the Steps into my life. But the thing I owe to future generations of suffering alcoholics - and maybe my own children - is to maintain the fellowship with the simplicity, purity and integrity that I found when I came in. And the only way to do that is to pay careful attention to the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. - Doug D.