Just a nice blog about recovery and today's news

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

April 2, 2014 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Today, I will not carry the pattern of compulsive and habitual behavior I perfected in my drinking days to other areas of my life. As a drinking alcoholic, I established the pattern of feeling and taking everything to an unhealthy and inappropriate extreme - all or nothing. That pattern is not necessarily in remission simply because my active alcoholism is. To shift the habitual and compulsive nature of my drinking to work, play, service or any other activity can be almost as self-defeating. And it is through the Steps of character rehabilitation that I need to tame the behavioral patterns of my character. Today, I will seek a balance between giving everything, taking all and retaining what I need for myself by seeking the guidance of my Higher Power and reciting a potpourri of the Program's mottoes, including "A Day at a Time," "First Things First," "Keep It Simple" and "Easy Does It." And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2014

April 2, 2014 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

AA Thought for the Day

Since I've been in AA, have I made a start towards 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 AA 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 yet a 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.

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2014 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

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 inactions 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.

Hazelden Foundation

April 2, 2014 - The Eye Opener

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Group with ties to white supremacists files brief backing Michigan's same-sex marriage ban

LGBTQ Nation: April 1, 2014 - Group with ties to white supremacists files brief supporting gay marriage ban – LGBTQ Nation

April 1, 2014 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

When people don't forgive, they probably shorten their lives.
-- Doris Donnelly

Sometimes forgiveness seems impossible and we feel stuck in the quicksand of our own resentment. When everything else fails, we can try the "First Five People Forgiveness Plan." Each morning we make a decision to forgive the first five people we come in contact with who make us mad. We forgive all five people without analyzing or deciding if they deserve to be forgiven. We promptly forgive each one of them without exception.

This simple plan can work wonders for those of us who usually hold on to resentments and anger. Letting go of anger and resentment lets us feel our loving side. In learning to forgive others we can begin learning about how to forgive ourselves, too.

Today let me also remember that I, too, deserve forgiveness.

From the book:

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast

April 1, 2014 - Step by Step

Step by Step

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Today, I will put my faith in the Program and my Higher Power to work by offering to someone else what I think I need or want for myself. Today, I will hand over to my Higher Power all that is selfish and which impedes or blocks my progress, my growth, and extend a hand of service to someone in need. Borrowing from Mother Teresa, if I grieve, I will find someone who needs consoling; if I am hungry, I will find someone to feed; if I am thirsty, I will quench another's thirst; and, if I am cold, I will give warmth to someone else. If someone seeking release from active alcoholism calls on me, I will not turn him away because I am too busy or for any other reason and instead offer what I have - hope, promise and rebirth in a Program that has been passed on to me through grace. Today, I will accept that I can keep what I have been gifted with in this Program only by giving it away. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2014

April 1, 2014 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

AA Thought for the Day

Since I've been in AA, have I made a start towards becoming more honest? Do I no longer have to lie to my husband or wife? Do I try to have meals on time, and do I try to earn what I make at work? Am I trying to be honest? Have I faced myself as I really am and have I admitted to myself that I'm no good by myself, but have to rely on God to help me do the right thing?

Am I beginning to find out what it means to be alive and to face the world honestly and without fear?

Meditation for the Day

God is all around us. His spirit pervades the universe. And yet we often do not let His spirit in. We try to get along without His help and we make a mess of our lives. We can do nothing of any value without God's help. All our human relationships depend on this. When we let God's spirit rule our lives, we learn how to get along with others and how to help them.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may let God run my life. I pray that I will never again make a mess of my life through trying to run it myself.

Hazelden Foundation

April 1, 2014 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Reflection for the Day

If we don't want to slip, we'll avoid slippery places. For the alcoholic, that means avoiding old drinking haunts; for the over-eater, that means by-passing a once-favorite pastry shop; for the gambler, that means shunning poker parties and race tracks. For me, certain emotional situations can also be slippery places; so can indulgence of old ideas such as a well-nourished resentment that is allowed to build to explosive proportions.

Do I carry the principles of The Program with me wherever I go?

Today I Pray

May I learn not to test myself too harshly by "asking for it," by stopping in at the bar or the bakery or the track. Such "testing" can be dangerous, especially if I am egged on, not only by a thirst or an appetite or a craving for the old addiction, but by others still caught in it whose moral responsibility has been reduced to zero.

Today I Will Remember

Avoid slippery places.

Hazelden Foundation

April 1, 2014 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

What exists in the life to come, we can leave to the theologians. But the actual existence of Heaven and Hell here on earth is indisputable to us who have lived in both.

If most of the Bible thumpers that continually rave about the threats of Hell could know the Hell the poor practicing alcoholic is going through, it would scare them to death.

Hazelden Foundation