May 21, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.

-- Mortimer Adler

In some areas of our lives, we are right on target. Our level of maturity is exactly as it should be, and we are going through the stages that people of our age ought to be going through. In other areas, this is not so. We are complex people, irregular, uneven. In all of us, there are areas fixated in some emotional ice age, areas that have not felt the freeing warmth of the sun.

We cannot expect ourselves to move forward all at once. Not only is it okay to move slowly -- it's often the only way it can be. Confusion, conflict, or pain may have caused us to let our memories or feelings be frozen safely away. This has been a long process, and we can allow ourselves more time to heal. The task now is not to deny or hide from these changes, but to have confidence that the healing warmth of the program will reflect on all areas of our lives and help make us whole.

I am thankful I am given both time and patience in which to continue my growth.

Hazelden Foundation

May 21, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

“When I am hungry, give me someone that I can feed. And when I am thirsty, give me someone who needs a drink. When I’m cold, give me someone to keep warm. And when I grieve, give me someone to console.” — Mother Teresa

Today, embrace the prayer of a religious and spiritual icon who evokes two essential philosophies of a recovery worth achieving: humility and service. By encountering the person who is hungrier than I, whose thirst is more parched, who is not as warm as I and who mourns losses more painful than mine, may I have the charity to feel compassion and realize — finally — that my own hunger, thirst, cold and grief might be less than someone else’s. And in that humility, may I be compelled into service to feed the one who is hungrier, whose thirst needs quenched more than mine, who needs my coat more than I and whose heart needs consolation more than mine. In humility and service, may I see that my recovery hinges on not making myself the center of my and anyone else’s universe, and may I treasure forever the gratitude of the one person who I can help. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

May 21, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, May 21, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
One of the finest things about AA is the sharing. Sharing is a wonderful thing because the more you share, the more you have. In our old drinking days, we didn’t do much sharing. We used to keep things to ourselves, partly because we were ashamed but mostly because we were selfish. And we were very lonely because we didn’t share. When we came into AA, the first thing we found was sharing. We heard other alcoholics frankly sharing their experiences with hospitals, jails and all the usual mess that goes with drinking.

Am I sharing?

Meditation for the Day
Character is developed by the daily discipline of duties done. Be obedient to the heavenly vision and take the straight way. Do not fall into the error of calling, “Lord, Lord,” and doing not the things that should be done. You need a life of prayer and meditation, but you must still do your work in the busy ways of life. The busy person is wise to rest and wait patiently for God’s guidance. If you are obedient to the heavenly vision, you can be at peace.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be obedient to the heavenly vision. I pray if I fall, I will pick myself up and go on.

Hazelden Foundation

May 21, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Reflection for the Day
“The language of friendship is not words, but meanings,“ wrote Thoreau. Life indeed takes on new meanings, as well as new meaning in The Program. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends — this is an experience not to be missed.

Can I recall my initial reactions when I came to The program? Do I believe that I’ve finally come home?

Today I Pray
As The Program has given life new meanings for me, may I pass along to others that same chance to re-evaluate their lives in the light of sobriety, common purpose, friendships and spiritual expansion. Praise God for my new vision of human life. Praise Him for restoring for me the value and purpose of living.

Today I Will Remember
I value my life.

Hazelden Foundation

May 21, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, May 21, 2024

If we deny the fatherhood of God and our divine relationship to Him and each other, then we are but animated pieces of clay, each one independent of and unconnected with each other. If that be so, then we are foolish to love and labor for others. But are love and charity nonsense? Would life be a pleasant and interesting experience without them? No, if we removed these characteristics from our lives, we would be left with only that which the baser animals possess.

Hazelden Foundation

May 21, 2024 – Good morning and let’s have a great and worthwhile Tuesday

 

Good morning and let’s have a great and worthwhile Tuesday ...and don't be discouraged by people and things that don't deserve our attention and time

May 20, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, May 20, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Send me the right thought, word or action. Show me what my next step should be. In times of double and indecision, please send me Your inspiration and guidance.

-- Alcoholics Anonymous

The good news of surrendering ourselves and our life to a Power greater than ourselves is that we come into harmony with a Grand Plan, one greater than we can imagine.

We are promised Divine Guidance if we ask for it, if we work the Twelve Steps. What greater gift could we receive than knowing our thoughts, words, and actions are being directed?

We aren't a mistake. And we don't have to control or repress ourselves or others for life to work out. Even the strange, the unplanned, the painful, and those things we call errors can evolve into harmony.

We will be guided into understanding what we need to do to take care of ourselves. We will begin to trust our instincts, our feelings, our thoughts. We will know when to go, to stop, to wait. We will learn a great truth: the plan will happen in spite of us, not because of us.

I pray today and each day that my thoughts, words, and actions may be Divinely led. I pray that I can move forward in confidence, knowing my steps are guided.

Hazelden Foundation

May 20, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Monday, May 20, 2024

“In spite of (a) great increase in the size and the span of this Fellowship, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, Forward to the Third Edition, 1976.

Today, do not diminish the enormity of personal recovery by thinking that ours are insignificant among the millions of others who have found recovery in AA or any other means. The Program empowers us and our recovery by telling us that our own and another person’s hope begins one-on-one when two alcoholics talk to each other and share their experience, strength and hope. In turn, the alcoholic whose recovery began by talking to another alcoholic passes on his own experience, strength and hope. Today, we embrace with gratitude and humility the significance of our recovery along with those millions of others because, without our experience, strength and hope to pass on, our Fellowship will not increase in size, span or influence in its message of reconciliation and redemption. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2024

May 20, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, May 20, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
If we get up in a meeting and tell something about ourselves in order to help the other person, we feel a whole lot better. It’s the old law of the more you give, the more you get. Witnessing and confession are part of keeping sober. You never know when you may help somebody. Helping others is one of the best ways to stay sober yourself. And the satisfaction you get out of helping a fellow human being is one of the finest experiences you can have.

Am I helping others?

Meditation for the Day
Without God, no real victory is ever won. All the military victories of great conquerors have passed into history. The world might be better off without military conquerors. The real victories are won in the spiritual realm. “He that conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city.”  The real victories are victories over sin and temptation, leading to a victorious and abundant life. Therefore, keep a brave and trusting heart. Face all your difficulties in the spirit of conquest. Remember that where God is, there is the true victory.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that the forces of evil in my life will flee before God’s presence. I pray that with God, I will win the real victory over myself.

Hazelden Foundation

May 20, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Monday, May 20, 2024

Reflection for the Day
Alcoholism is called the “lonely disease;” almost without exception, alcoholics are literally tortured by loneliness. Even before the end of our drinking — before people began to shun us and we were “eighty-sixed” from bars, restaurants or people’s homes — nearly all of us felt that we didn’t quite belong. We were either shy and dared not draw near others, or we were noisy good fellows craving attention and approval but rarely getting it. There was always that mysterious barrier we could neither surmount nor understand. Finally, even Bacchus betrayed us; we were struck down and left in terrified isolation.

Have I begun to achieve an inner calm?

Today I Pray
May I know the tenderness of an intimate relationship with God and the calm I feel when I touch His spirit. May I translate this tenderness and calm to my relationships with others. May God deliver me from my lifelong feeling of loneliness and show me how to be a friend.

Today I Will Remember
God can teach me to be a friend.

Hazelden Foundation

May 20, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Monday, May 20, 2024

Our lives today are a series of compromises. Legislators enact laws which are compromises to both contending factions. Juries bring in verdicts which they don’t even profess to be in accordance with the law and the evidence and excuse their verdicts on the grounds that it was a necessary compromise. Even the religions of the day are frequently adjusting their codes of do’s and don’t’s in order to effect a compromise with their more liberal elements. Our national and international relations are based upon political expediency rather than sound political principles of justice.

Where moral principles are involved, there is no such thing as compromise — it must be either morally right or morally wrong.

Hazelden Foundation

May 20, 2024 – Good morning and make it a marvelous Monday and new week

 

Good morning and here's a classy pussy kitty to help get your Monday and new week off to a great start ...let’s make it a drama- and trauma-free day without the weight of all the baggage heaped on us by people and things that don't deserve our time

May 19, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The hard rain and wind are ways the cloud has to take care of us..

--- Rumi

It's the nature of human life to keep changing. Sometimes, instead of joy, life seems to bring only problems. At times we may feel overwhelmed with frustration and disappointment. As a problem is resolved, it explodes with myriad seeds of new ones. The more we embrace life, the more we risk.

We can no longer withdraw into isolation or retreat from involvement with other people and life for more than a brief time. That option is no longer open to us. Whether through coming out or entering recovery -- both, for many of us -- we’ve taken an irrevocable step into a life touched by the lives of others. We are blessed to experience both joy and sadness as part of this life. Our griefs, instead of diminishing us, can expand our hearts with compassion for others.

Today, grief teaches me to be more compassionate and loving.

Hazwelden Foundation

May 19, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Sunday, May 19, 2024

” …(W)hat about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 2, p 21.

Today, no searching for an excuse to deny my addiction by twisting the reference to a “real” alcoholic. If I drank only beer, how can I be an alcoholic? If I drank only on weekends or even one day a weekend, how can I be an alcoholic? If I drank only to relax or calm my nerves, how can I be an alcoholic? If I never lost a job, a spouse or partner, if I never got nailed for a DUI or spent a night in the county jail’s drunk tank, how can I be an alcoholic compared to the “real” one who drank every day, to the “real” alcoholic whose job history makes him now virtually unemployable, or to the “real” alcoholic who has been in jail so many times that he has his name engraved in the cell? Today, may I understand and finally accept that because I lost control over drinking regardless of how much or how often I drank, I am as much a “real” alcoholic as the one who now languishes in the gutter. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

May 19, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, May 19, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
Fellowship is a big part of staying sober. The doctors call it group therapy. We never go to an AA meeting without taking something out of it. Sometimes we don’t feel like going to a meeting and we think of excuses for not going. But we usually end up by going anyway. And we always get some lift out of every meeting. Meetings are part of keeping sober. And we get more out of a meeting if we try to contribute something to it.

Am I contributing my share at meetings?

Meditation for the Day
“He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.” The first part, “He brought me up out of a horrible pit,” means that by turning to God and putting my problems in His hands, I am able to overcome my sins and temptations. “He set my feet upon a rock” means that when I trust God in all things, I have true security. “He established my goings” means that if I honestly try to live the way God wants me to live, I will have God’s guidance in my daily living.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that my feet may be set upon a rock. I pray that I may rely on God to guide my comings and goings.

Hazelden Foundation

May 19, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Sunday, May 19, 2024

Reflection for the Day
“When I was driven to my knees by alcohol, I was made ready to ask for the gift of faith,” wrote AA co-founder Bill W. “And all was changed. Never again, my pains and problems notwithstanding, would I experience my former desolation. I saw the universe to be lighted by God’s love; I was alone no more.”

Am I convinced that my new life is real and that it will last so long as I continue doing what The Program and Twelve Steps suggest that I do?

Today I Pray
May God be the ever-present third party in my relationships with others, whether they are casual or involve a deep emotional commitment. May I be aware that if there is real friendship or love between human beings, God’s spirit is always present. May I feel His spirit in all my human relationships.

Today I Will Remember
God is the Divine Third.

Hazelden Foundation

May 19, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Sunday, May 19, 2024

Until man looks upon the face of God, he cannot – with his limited faculties — know God. We can and do not know some of His attributes as He has disclosed them to us in the world.

We can, however, study ourselves. We can cultivate those good qualities we discern and we can eradicate the bad. We do know many of the attributes of God and we can emulate them. We can aspire to Godlike virtues and, if we then do not know God, perhaps God will know us.

Hazelden Foundation

May 19, 2024 – Good morning and here’s hoping for a peaceful and productive Sunday for everyone

 

Good morning and head out on this beautiful Sunday with determination to make it productive, worthwhile and fulfilling …and don’t blow any of it on people and things who don’t deserve our attention

May 18, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Impulsive reactions never benefit us.

Immediate responses to every situation aren't necessary. But sometimes we make snap decisions because we fear looking inadequate or stupid. Unfortunately, because we don't pause long enough to think through a response or to ask God for guidance, we often do look ignorant -- just what we had hoped to avoid.

Our recovery program gives us permission to slow down, to wait for guidance from our Higher Power. It also helps us assess our strengths along with our weaknesses. Understanding that each of us is a worthwhile human being with a unique purpose is a gift of this program.

My contribution to every experience today can be according to God’s will, if I ask for knowledge of it.

Hazelden Foundation

May 18, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Saturday, May 18, 2024

Today, no inflated pride in a job or thing well done to the extent that I elevate myself above others, nor will I embellish any mistake to the degree that my self-confidence is so devastated that I con myself into believing I can do nothing right. Either way, the source of excess pride and a shattered self-image is an ego not centered but too far to the left or right. In the end, egoism is the character defect that, had I been thorough and honest in my Fourth Step, remains with me. And I ask my Higher Power to strike the proper balance through humility. May I understand that a job well done is no license to toot my own horn and that deep disappointment with myself for making a mistake blinds me to a basic edict of the Program — progress over perfection. Today, I will strive for progress and leave perfection to the Power that is truly perfect. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

May 18, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, May 18, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

We’re in AA for two main reasons: to keep sober ourselves and to help others to keep sober. It’s a well-known fact that helping others is a big part of keeping sober yourself. It’s also been proved that it’s very hard to keep sober all by yourself. A lot of people have tried it and failed. They come to a few AA meetings and then stay sober alone for a few months, but usually they eventually get drunk.

Do I know that I can’t stay sober successfully alone?

Meditation for the Day

Look by faith into that place beyond space or time where God dwells and whence you came and to which you shall eventually return. “Look unto Him and be saved.” To look beyond material things is within the power of everyone’s imagination. Faith’s look saves you from despair. Faith’s look saves you from worry and care. Faith’s look brings a peace beyond all understanding. Faith’s look brings you all the strength you need. Faith’s look gives you a new and vital power and a wonderful peace and serenity.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have faith’s look. I pray that by faith I may look beyond the now to eternal life.

Hazelden Foundation

May 18, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Saturday, May 18, 2024

Reflection for the Day
I considered myself a “loner” in the days when I was actively addicted. Although I was often with other people — saw them, heard them, touched them — most of my important dialogues were with my inner self. I was certain that nobody else would ever understand. Considering my former opinion of myself, it’s likely that I didn’t want anybody to understand. I smiled through gritted teeth even as I was dying on the inside.

Have my insides begun to match my outside since I’ve been in The Program?

Today I Pray
May my physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual selves become one, a whole person again. I thank my Higher Power for showing me how to match my outside to my inside, to laugh when I feel like laughing, to cry when I feel sad, to recognize my own anger or fear or guilt. I pray for wholeness.

Today I Will Remember
I am becoming whole.

Hazelden Foundation

May 18, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Saturday, May 18, 2024

Think back to those days when we would creep off to our dens where we were holed up, and there like animals try to satisfy our appetites alone — so horribly alone. Just drinking, drink after drink, and dying slowly of despair. If we had a friend in the world, we didn’t know it. We just wanted to drink and die alone.

It was people who brought us out of this pit, people of marvelous sympathy and understanding and now, joining hands with these people, we have learned the joy of living – not alone but with, and a part of a community, of people.

Hazelden Foundation

May 18, 2024 – Good morning and let’s have a worthwhile and great Saturday

 

Good morning with hopes of a fantastic Saturday for everyone and without the bother of people and things that aren’t worth our time

May 17, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, May 17, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Reflection for the Day 

Can I be wholeheartedly grateful for today? If so, I'm opening doors to more and more abundant good. What if I can't be thankful for the "rain" that has fallen in my life -- for the so-called bad times? What then? I can begin by giving thanks for all the sunshine I can remember, and for every blessing that has come my way. Perhaps then I'll be able to look back over the rainy periods of my life with new vision, seeing them as necessary; perhaps then, hidden blessings I've overlooked will come to my attention.

Am I grateful for all of life -- both the sunshine and the rain?

Today I Pray

May I be grateful for all that has happened to me, good and bad. Bad helps to define good. Sorrow intensifies joy. Humility brings spirituality. Disease turns health into a paradise. Loneliness makes love, both human and Divine, the greatest gift of all. I am grateful for all of the contrasts that have helped me connect more deeply with my Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember

I am grateful for the whole of life.

Hazelden Foundation

May 17, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Friday, May 17, 2024

“He was drinking to hold on to his job, to hold on to his wife, to hold on to his sanity. Finally, he was drinking to keep away those little men, and those strange voices, and the organ music that came out of the walls.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 8, p 512.

Today, the reasons and excuses to justify drinking are now the reasons I cannot drink — and don’t want to.. If I drank out of fear of losing a job, let me not drink to keep it. If I drank with uncertainty that I might lose a spouse or loved one, let me not drink to have a chance at salvaging the relationship. If I drank to stop the hallucinations that were not real, let me not drink to extinguish them forever. The desperate excuses I used to drink can now, ironically, become the reasons not to drink. In the end, I am only drying out and not recovering if I hinge my recovery on something other than for myself. Today, I choose not to drink for myself and not to avoid a possible consequence. Today, if I can be sober for myself, I may find the strength and courage to deal effectively with whatever consequences of my alcoholism await me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

May 17, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, May 17, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
A lot of well-meaning people treat an alcoholic like the priest and the Levite. They pass by on the other side by scorning him and telling him what a low person he is, with no willpower. Whereas, he really has fallen for alcohol in the same way as the man in the store fell among robbers. And the member of AA who is working with others is like the Good Samaritan. Am I moved with compassion?

Do I take care of another alcoholic whenever I can?

Meditation for the Day
I must constantly live in preparation for something better to come. All of life is a preparation for something better. I must anticipate the morning to come. I must feel, in the night of sorrow, that understanding joy that tells of confident expectation of better things to come. “Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Know that God has something better in store for you, as long as you are making yourself ready for it. All your existence in this world is a training for a better life to come.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that when life is over, I will return to an eternal, spaceless life with God. I pray that I may make this life a preparation for a better life to come.

Hazelden Foundation

May 17, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Friday, May 17, 2024

Reflection for the Day
If we felt guilty, degraded or ashamed of either our addiction itself or the things we did while “under the influence,” that served to magnify our feelings of being outcasts. On occasion, we secretly feared or actually believed that we deserved every painful feeling; we thought, at times, that we truly were outsiders. The dark tunnel of our lives seemed formidable and unending. We couldn’t even voice our feelings and could hardly bear to think about them. So we soon drank or used again.

Do I remember well what it used to be like?

Today I Pray
May I remember how often, during my days of using chemicals, I felt alone with my shame and guilt. The phony jollity of a drinking party or the shallow relationships struck up at a bar could not keep me from feeling like an outsider. May I appreciate the chance to make new friends through the fellowship of the group. May I know that my relationships now will be saner, less dependent, more mature.

Today I Will Remember
Thank God for new friends.

Hazelden Foundation

May 17, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Friday, May 17, 2024

Our great triumph was not because of our victory over alcohol, but because of our complete defeat. It was only when we were beaten to our knees that we sought the only help that could save us. So we came into AA, not as boastful conquerors but as cringing and bloody casualties of an unequal fight. We were whipped; we knew it; we gave not a damn who else knew it. For us, it was unconditional surrender. There were and could be no reservations.

Hazelden Foundation

May 17, 2024 – Good morning and let’s work for a productive and worthwhile Friday

 

Good morning and who’s not going to have a serene and worry-free Friday ... have a truly great and productive day, and don’t be discouraged by people and things that offer nothing good

May 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Avoiding blame

It is not uncommon to hear in group, "Why do these things always happen to me?" If these things are always happening to us, the obvious answer is that we somehow bring them on ourselves. We are largely unconscious of what we're doing (wrong) until, slowly, eventually, we manage to dig ourselves out from the results. (It seems incredible that we actually seek to be hurt, but in a way many of us do so, with regularity.)

But blaming others for our problems and indulging in self-pity don’t move us along in our program.

Am I still blaming others?

Higher Power, help me take responsibility for myself and my actions, because blaming others will only keep me stuck.

I will take greater responsibility for myself today by...

Hazelden Foundation

May 16, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Thursday, May 16, 2024

“The fact is that most alcoholics …have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically non-existent. We are unable …to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 2, p 24.

Today, the lie of “just one” and the truth that my defense rests on a Higher Power of my understanding. I need only to review with honesty my drinking history and its trail of broken bottles that were opened on the promise of “just one.” And if the Big Book is correct that the memory of “the suffering and humiliation” of my last try at just one drink doesn’t last more than a month at best, I pray for the wisdom to search beyond the powerlessness of my own devices to overcome any temptation. Today, that search leads me to my Higher Power in whom I must place my trust, faith, hope and confidence to rise above temptation. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024