May 31, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The crucial task of old age is balance. — Florida Scott-Maxwell

Finding balance is important at any age, not just when we’re old. We need balance in our diet, between work and rest, in our emotional life — any activity is more rewarding, more life enhancing when done in moderation.

Most of us developed a belief that if a little of something is good, then a whole lot is better. Had we been able to practice moderation, we would not be sharing this fellowship today. It’s paradoxical that our drive to live on the edge, doing everything to extreme, has rewarded us with a program for living quite a distance from the edge.

Many a friend or sponsor has suggested Easy Does It; Let Go and Let God; One Day at a Time. These slogans are simple and yet profound reminders to find balance and quiet moderation in all our activities. We can only fully know and appreciate this moment if we’re participating in it, not racing to the next thought, hour, or day.

Today I can enjoy moderation with the knowledge it will enhance my life.

Hazelden Foundation

May 31, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

"...(D)eep down in every man, woman and child is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 4 ("We Agnostics"), p 55.

Today, if I expect the Program to work for me, I must work with it, and I must knock down the wall that separates me from a Power greater than myself in my recovery. If I am struggling or even rejecting the possibility of such a Power, let me read and embrace these words and accept on blind faith the hope that somewhere inside me is a "fundamental idea of God." He, God, need not be a religious entity but a spiritual one, and a "spiritual awakening," even if it is a basic change in my psyche or character, is required if I am to achieve any kind of quality recovery. Today, I must put aside any resistance and open myself to the idea of a Power greater than myself so that I can earn the benefits of recovery. If alcohol is stronger than me, I have to believe that a force stronger than alcohol can restore me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 31, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
I shall not wait to be drafted for service to AA. I shall volunteer. I shall be loyal in my attendance, generous in my giving, kind in my criticism, creative in my suggestions, loving in my attitudes. I shall give to AA my interest, my enthusiasm, my devotion and, most of all, myself.

Do I also accept this as my AA credo?

Meditation for the Day
Prayer is of many kinds but, of whatever kind, prayer is the linking up of the soul and mind to God. So, if prayer is only a glance of faith, a look or a word of love or just a feeling of confidence in the goodness and purpose in the universe, still the result of that prayer is added strength to meet all temptations and to overcome them. Even if no supplication is expressed, all the supply of strength that is necessary is secured because the soul, being linked and united to God, receives from Him all spiritual help needed. The soul, when in its human body, still needs the things belonging to its heavenly habitation.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be taught how to pray. I pray that I may be linked through prayer to the mind and will of God.

Hazelden Foundation

May 31, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Reflection for the Day
Giving love is a fulfillment in itself. It must not matter whether love is returned or not. If I give love only to get a response on my terms, my love is cancelled out by my motives. If I have the capacity to give love, then any return I get for it is a special bonus. It is through giving love freely and without expectation of return, that we find ourselves and build ourselves spiritually.

Have I begun to believe, in the words of Goethe, that, "Love does not dominate; it cultivates ...?"

Today I Pray
May I, the inveterate people-pleaser and approval-seeker, know that the only real love does not ask for love back. May God be patient as I try to practice this principle. May I rid myself of pride that throws itself in the way of love. May I discard my silly cat-and-mouse games that have no place in real love.

Today I Will Remember
I will not give love to get love.

Hazelden Foundation

May 31, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

For a person to attempt to live apart from this world is as useless as for a drop of water to live apart from the ocean. God put everything in this world, and He takes nothing out. To endeavor to withdraw from the world's activities is another way of fooling yourself. We are an influence for good or evil regardless of our attempts to hide from society at large.

When a rock falls from a cliff into the sea, it is not merely that the land is one rock less, it means the contour of the whole continent has changed. However, it is still a part of God's Universe whether it can be seen by man or not.

Hazelden Foundation

May 31, 2022 - Good morning and let's get to work on making today a magnificent Tuesday

 

Good morning and head out on this fabulous Tuesday with optimism and faith that nothing and no one has the power to make it miserable

May 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, May 30, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust. — Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady

Memorial Day is a time for solemn reflection on those who gave the ultimate gift—life itself—for our freedom. Depending on our own or our loved ones’ wartime experiences, this day comes and goes with much or little observance.

Recovering adult children can find meaning in this day by thinking of those who have gone before them — both those who died without knowing that recovery was possible and those who paid dearly for the opportunities we now have. The meetings we attend were started somewhere by someone who was, no doubt, hesitant and uncertain. The first people who identified themselves as adult children and struggled to tell their story may or may not still be alive. Most certainly they are little remembered, if they were ever known at all.

We have many blessings available to us today because someone was willing to pay the price yesterday. Let us gratefully remember those who cleared the path that we now walk.

Today, I feel at one with all adult children. I am grateful for the opportunities they created for me.

Hazelden Foundation

May 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, May 30, 2022

"The old pattern reasserted itself, but it was no longer once every six months. The intervals grew shorter. The binges were longer. They were harder to get off. I wasn't the type that could taper off. I had to stop cold. My last binge followed the previous one by two weeks. I had just come off a good one, and I went back on to the next one." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 3 ("Desperation Drinking"), p 514. 

Today, guard against the passage of time and my last drunk from fading the memory of what my drinking days were really like - pure desperation. If it is true that the best predictor of my future is my past conduct, I cannot afford to "romanticize" my drinking, that it was "fun" and that it didn't rip a path of destruction through myself and others. God grant me the honesty and wisdom to remember the desperation that finally pushed me to seek help after I exhausted all the denials, justifications and rationalizations. Let me understand and accept that desperation is all that awaits me again if I am not honest with myself in remembering what active alcoholism is truly like. Today, the desperation that is always there to greet me again can wait. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, May 30, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
I am part of AA, one among many, but I am one. I need the AA principles for the development of the buried life within me. AA may be human in its organization, but it is Divine in its purpose. The purpose is to point men toward God and a better life. Participating in the privilege of the movement, I shall share in the responsibilities, taking it upon myself to carry my fair share of the load, not grudgingly but joyfully. To the extent that I fail in my responsibilities, AA fails. To the extent that I succeed, AA succeeds.

Do I accept this as my AA credo?

Meditation for the Day
"Praise the Lord."  What does praising God mean? It means being grateful for all the wonderful things in the universe and for all the blessings in your life. So praise God by being grateful and humble. Praise of this kind has more power to vanquish evil than has mere resignation. The truly grateful and humble person who is always praising God is not tempted to do wrong. You will have a feeling of security because you know that fundamentally all is well. So look up to God and praise Him.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be grateful for all my blessings. I pray that I may be humble because I know that I do not deserve them.

Hazelden Foundation

May 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Monday, May 30, 2022

Reflection for the Day
Since I've been in The Program, I've learned to redefine love. I've come to understand, for example, that sometimes it's necessary to place love ahead of indiscriminate "factual honesty." No longer, under the guise of "perfect honesty," can I cruelly and unnecessarily hurt others. Today, I always must ask myself, "What's the best and most loving thing I can do?"

Have I begun to sow the seeds of love in my daily living?

Today I Pray
May God, in His love, show me how to be loving. May I first sense the feelings of love and caring within me and then find ways to show those feelings. May I remember how many times I cut myself off from relationships because I did not know how either to let myself feel love or to show what I did feel.

Today I Will Remember
When I feel love, I will be loving.

Hazelden Foundation

May 30, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Monday, May 30, 2022

We are all familiar with that class of people who have a drinking problem; they know they have it and they know that they can do nothing about it themselves. They also know that we had a similar problem and that we did something about it; their own eyes bear testimony to that effect - yet they refuse to take the message we bring them. They have ears, yet they will not hear. It is not our purpose to sell them a bill of goods. Our message is only for those who want it. They aren't ready yet, so conserve your efforts for those who are hungry for what we have to give.

Hazelden Foundation

May 30, 2022 - Rise 'n shine for a holiday Monday and brand new week

 

Good morning to this marvelous Monday and make the day count for something productive and worthwhile even if you've got the day off for the holiday -- and don't waste any of the day on people and things that can ruin it

May 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve. — Michel de Montaigne

One of our tools of recovery is reading. Most of our groups have daily meditation books from which we read aloud, and many of us read a meditation each day at home. We find that the writing, short and compressed, helps us to collect our thoughts, and then our minds and feelings expand outward beyond our reading.

Reading is not only entertainment; it is a kind of silent conversation with ourselves. And as we browse through our favorite books, we carry on a dialogue with old friends. We are taken out of ourselves and moved more deeply into the process of living.

As addicts, we need this dialogue. Most of us are often locked away in our worlds of fantasy and fear. We need the kind of intimacy that can come from reading, and we need the interaction and stimulus that inspiring books give us. We can move out and talk about them with our friends and enlarge our circle of knowledge and experience.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to read, which takes me out of myself.

Hazelden Foundation

May 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Sunday, May 29, 2022

"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." - Step Two

Today, whether a newcomer or veteran of the Program, if the term Higher Power discourages me because my faith has been ravaged by alcohol or a less than serene sobriety, let me re-read and understand the literal interpretation of Step Two. We are not asked to believe but come to believe in the possibility of a Higher Power. If I shrug off that possibility, I need only look to why I sought recovery. And in doing that, I also reached for the possibility that some help I desperately needed exists. But if I cannot yet grasp the concept of a Higher Power, let me believe that Step Two is telling me that coming to believe in and accepting a Higher Power is a dynamic process, or one that might evolve. Just as I did not become sober after my last drink however long ago it was and went from dry to sober, so it goes with developing an understanding of the Principles of the Twelve Steps. Today, I will not give up if I do not  believe in that Higher Power and instead will proceed with the promise of Step Two that I will one day find it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, May 29, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
We who have learned to put our drink problem in God's hands can help others to do so. We can be used as a connection between an alcoholic's need and God's supply of strength. We in Alcoholics Anonymous can be uniquely useful just because we have the misfortune or fortune to be alcoholics ourselves. Do I want to be a uniquely useful person?

Will I use my own greatest defeat and failure and sickness as a weapon to help others?

Meditation for the Day
I will try to help others. I will try not to let a day pass without reaching out an arm of love to someone. Each day I will try to do something to lift another human being out of the sea of discouragements into which he or she has fallen. My helping hand is needed to raise the helpless to courage, to strength, to faith, to health. In my own gratitude, I will turn and help other alcoholics with the burden that is pressing too heavily upon them.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be used by God to lighten many burdens. I pray that many souls may be helped through my efforts.

Hazelden Foundation

May 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Sunday, May 29, 2022

Reflection for the Day
When we first reached The Program and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was exhilarating. We felt that the problem of isolation had been solved. We soon discovered, however, that while we weren't alone any more, in a social sense, we still suffered many of the old pangs of anxious apartness. Until we had talked with complete candor of our conflicts and had listened to someone else do the same thing, we still didn't belong. Step Five was the answer.

Have I found through the Fifth Step the beginning of true kinship with my fellows and God?

Today I Pray
May God help me learn to share myself, my attributes and my failings, not just as I take the Fifth Step but in a continuing give-and-take process with my friends. May I cultivate an attitude of openness and honesty with others, now that I have begun to be honest with myself. May I remember who I used to be - the child in a game of hide-and-seek, who hid so well that nobody could find her/him and everyone gave up trying and went home.

Today I Will Remember
I will be open to friendship.

Hazelden Foundation

May 29, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Life has been hard on us, but most of it was made hard by ourselves. The hard life, however, taught us much: it strengthened our muscles; it broadened our experiences. We are better men because of it. We have known much of hunger, pain, defeat, mental anguish, despair and shame. Only the good survived this ordeal, and we can alleviate the sufferings of the world all the better because we have suffered also.

God was not punishing us ...He was conditioning us.

Hazelden Foundation

May 29, 2022 - Good morning and let's do a kick back and just relax Sunday

 

Good morning and how about we just put aside all our worries and fears aside and simply savor this gorgeous Sunday? Have a truly terrific but productive and worthwhile day, and don't let anything and anyone say otherwise

May 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day‑to‑day basis. — Margaret Bonnano

It is said, “The moment is our link to eternity, to the Divine.” Recovery gives us many messages about living in the moment: “Easy does it,” “One day at a time,” and “Just for today.”

As active addicts, we used chemicals to alter our relationship with the present. By getting high, we lived disconnected from the moment. Now we are learning that the present moment is our best point of influence. In this moment, we can choose to act from our values or to betray our values. By living in the moment, we stay connected to our Higher Power and our values. With each new day of staying sober and living a life of principles before personality, we increase our chances of doing the same in the future.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, you are found in every moment. Help me seek you out in my everyday life, not in the past or in the future, but now.

Today’s Action

Today I will practice living in the moment. If I find myself drifting into the past or the future, I will come back to the moment.

Hazelden Foundation

May 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Today, my character defects in my Fourth and the amends in my Eighth steps are not confined to wrongs of commission but also to my wrongs of omission. With that, my Fourth and Eighth steps, hopefully, will be more honest. My moral inventory and amends I have tried before have focused on things I have done or said, but they have not included my wrongs done by not saying or doing what I should have. Maybe I neglected or refused to return love or support that someone who stood beside me in my darkest days, or maybe I didn't answer someone's call for help. Today, I return to my Fourth and Eighth steps to decide if I owe restitution not for what I did and said, but for what I didn't do and say. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, May 28, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
In AA, we learn that since we are alcoholics we can be uniquely useful people. That is, we can help other alcoholics when perhaps somebody who has not had our experience with drinking could not help them. That makes us uniquely useful. The AA's are a unique group of people because they have taken their own greatest defeat and failure and sickness and used it as a means of helping others. We who have been through the same thing are the ones who can best help other alcoholics.

Do I believe that I can be uniquely useful?

Meditation for the Day
I should try to practice the presence of God. I can feel that He is with me and near me, protecting and strengthening me always. In spite of every difficulty, every trial, every failure, the presence of God suffices. Just to believe that He is near me brings strength and peace. I should try to live as though God were beside me. I cannot see Him because I was not made with the ability to see Him else there were no room for faith. But I can feel His spirit with me.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may try to practice the presence of God. I pray that by doing so I may never feel alone or helpless again.

Hazelden Foundation

May 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Saturday, May 28, 2022

Reflection for the Day
We've all had times when we felt alienated, when it seemed we had nowhere to turn and no one to turn to. When we don't know which way to turn, when there seems to be no one to help us, even then we're not alone or without help - the presence of God is always with us. When we need strength or courage or comfort, God is there with us as the help we need. Even before we turn to God, His love reaches out to us; His loving Spirit in us hears our cry and answers us.

Do I truly believe that I no longer need be alone?

Today I Pray
May I never be alone, even in a place by myself, if I take time to talk to my Higher Power. May He be my companion, my joy, my ever-present help in trouble. May the knowledge of His constant presence fill me with calm, so that I will not fear either the solitude of my own room or alienation in a roomful of people.

Today I Will Remember
Listen for the presence of God.

Hazelden Foundation

May 28, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Saturday, May 28, 2022

Love is as necessary to a human being as sunshine is to a plant. Without it, the soul of man withers, shrivels and dies. Fortunate is the man who has love given to him, but even more fortunate is he who earns it. The only way to earn love is to love. Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself.

He who hoards love shall lose it, but he who scatters love about him as he moves through life finds that it takes root and surrounds him on every side.

Hazelden Foundation

May 28, 2022 - Good morning to another perfect Saturday and holiday weekend

 

Good Saturday morning, beautiful people, and let's start the day with a smile and gratitude for what we have instead of pining for what we don't have and simply ignore people and things who offer nothing but despair and ruin

May 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, May 27, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Prayer

Who comes from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered. — George Meredith

We learn that prayer is only a wish away. When we wished for recovery more than anything in the world, we found it. Thus our wishes became our prayers. It was that simple.

We discover in recovery that prayer is best when it is a conversation with a Higher Power. It isn’t just a one-way speech where we tell God what we expect to have happen. It isn’t a time to try to bargain with God. We listen as well as ask. Then meditation joins with prayer.

When life beats us to our knees, our only recourse is to stay on our knees and start praying.

When my prayers aren’t answered right away, that doesn’t mean that God is denying them. The answers will come in God’s time, not mine. The answers will be God’s answers, not mine.

Hazelden Foundation

May 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Friday, May 27, 2022

Today, appreciation of the spouse, companion, brothers and sisters, parents, children and friends who wanted to help me as I spiraled out of control but who I shut out, who were and are still there in my recovery. In being focused on my recovery and working the Steps, I have probably been negligent to admit that the hell I put someone else through might have been worse than my own. And I have to acknowledge that they, too, have their own recoveries to work. Today, I will be grateful and offer to anyone who stayed with me a simple thank you and, to them, my superior amend is that, today, I can and will stay sober. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

May 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, May 27, 2022

AA Thought for the Day
In Twelfth-Step work, the fifth thing is continuance. Continuance means our staying with prospects after they have started on the new way of living. We must stick with them and not let them down. We must encourage them to go to meetings regularly for fellowship and help. They will learn that keeping sober is a lot easier in the fellowship of others who are trying to do the same thing. We must continue to help prospects by going to see them regularly or telephoning them or writing them so that they don't get out of touch with AA. Continuance means good sponsorship.

Do I care enough about other alcoholics to continue with them as long as necessary?

Meditation for the Day
Every strong and beautiful flower must have a strong root in the ground. It must send a root down so that it may be rooted and grounded while at the same time it sends a shoot up to be the flower that shall gladden the world. Both growths are necessary. Without a strong root, it would soon wither. The higher the growth upward, the deeper must be the rooting. My life cannot flower into success and helpfulness until it is rooted in a strong faith, or unless it feels deeply secure in the goodness and purpose of the universe.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that my life may be deeply rooted in faith. I pray that I may feel deeply secure.

Hazelden Foundation

May 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Friday, May 27, 2022

Reflection for the Day
When I have only myself to talk to, the conversation gets sort of one-sided. Trying to talk myself out of a drink or a pill or a "small wager" or just one chocolate eclair is sort of like trying self-hypnosis. It simply doesn't work; most of the time, it's about as effective as trying to talk myself out of a case of diarrhea. When my heart is heavy and my resistance low, I can always find some comfort in sharing with a true and understanding friend in The Program.

Do I know who my friends are?

Today I Pray
May I be convinced that, as part of God's master plan, we were put here to help each other. May I be as open about asking for help as I am ready to give it, no matter how long I have been in The Program. May the experiences of countless others be enough to prove to me that "talking myself out of it" seldom works, that the mutual bolstering that comes from sharing with a friend usually does.

Today I Will Remember
When I ask for help, I am helping.

Hazelden Foundation

May 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Friday, May 27, 2022

To follow the letter of the law is not enough. You can be moral without difficulty in "solitary."

Do not let your morality be simply restraining and abstaining. Be constructive in your goodness. Be good for something.

Hazelden Foundation

May 27, 2022 - Good morning and let's make today a fantastic Friday

 

Good morning and let's shoot for a productive and worthwhile but paced and safe day ...and kick anything and anyone out to trip us up to the curb

May 26, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Intimacy

We can let ourselves be close to people.

Many of us have deeply ingrained patterns for sabotaging relationships. Some of us may instinctively terminate a relationship once it moves to a certain level of closeness and intimacy.

When we start to feel close to someone, we may zero in on one of the person’s character defects, then make it so big it’s all we can see. We may withdraw, or push the person away to create distance. We may start criticizing the other person, a behavior sure to create distance.

We may start trying to control the person, a behavior that prevents intimacy.

We may tell ourselves we don’t want or need another person, or smother the person with our needs.

Sometimes, we defeat ourselves by trying to be close to people who aren’t available for intimacy—people with active addictions, or people who don’t choose to be close to us. Sometimes, we choose people with particular faults so that when it comes time to be close, we have an escape hatch.

We’re afraid, and we fear losing ourselves. We’re afraid that closeness means we won’t be able to own our power to take care of ourselves.

In recovery, we’re learning that it’s okay to let ourselves be close to people. We’re choosing to relate to safe, healthy people, so closeness is a possibility. Closeness doesn’t mean we have to lose ourselves, or our life. As one man said, we’re learning that we can own our power with people, even when we’re close, even when the other person has something we need.

Today, I will be available for closeness and intimacy with people, when that’s appropriate. Whenever possible, I will let myself be who I am, let others be who they are, and enjoy the bond and good feelings between us.

Hazelden Foundation