Thursday, June 2, 2016
June 2, 2016 - Editorial: With its dangerous bet on Trump, is the GOP losing its religion?
June 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
It is a cheap generosity which promises the future in compensation for the present. -- J. A. Spender
Living in this moment is all we really have. We are constantly bombarded with advice to live for the future, but it perpetually exists beyond our grasp like the carrot tempting the donkey. We are told to be mindful of our career paths, to save for the future, and to sacrifice now for later rewards. We put off spending time with our children, but later they are no longer the same children. We postpone seeing friends now and discover later we have lost our relationships.
Of course, we can't be foolish about our future. We need to make some plans and delay some immediate pleasures. But for now, we can only have a rapport with ourselves and others and experience life in this moment. The present is the only time when anything can happen, any change can occur. This moment is like a fresh, cool breeze. The rest exists only in our imaginations or memories.
May I feel the exhilaration of being alive in this moment and maintain a balance in my perspective today.
It is a cheap generosity which promises the future in compensation for the present. -- J. A. Spender
Living in this moment is all we really have. We are constantly bombarded with advice to live for the future, but it perpetually exists beyond our grasp like the carrot tempting the donkey. We are told to be mindful of our career paths, to save for the future, and to sacrifice now for later rewards. We put off spending time with our children, but later they are no longer the same children. We postpone seeing friends now and discover later we have lost our relationships.
Of course, we can't be foolish about our future. We need to make some plans and delay some immediate pleasures. But for now, we can only have a rapport with ourselves and others and experience life in this moment. The present is the only time when anything can happen, any change can occur. This moment is like a fresh, cool breeze. The rest exists only in our imaginations or memories.
May I feel the exhilaration of being alive in this moment and maintain a balance in my perspective today.
You are reading from the book:
Touchstones ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation
June 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step
Thursday, June 2, 2016
"There may be some wrongs we can never fully right. We don't worry about them if we can honestly say to ourselves that we would right them if we could. Some people cannot be seen - we send them an honest letter. And there may be a valid reason for postponement in some cases. But we don't delay if it can be avoided. ...As God's people, we stand on our feet; we don't crawl before anyone." -Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6, p 83.
Today, do not take for granted the weight of Step Nine when considering to whom we must - and can - approach with amends. Some wrongs may never be made right, and there may be no recourse if making an amend only to clear our conscience risks further injury or implicates an unknowing other person. In cases in which we can honestly conclude that direct amends are not possible, our actions rather than our words may be our only atonement, and our strongest action is to get and stay sober and continue to grow in recovery. When we can and must make amends, however, we are cautioned not to "crawl before anyone," not to submit to being the proverbial doormat. In drunkenness, we lost our footing which, in turn, triggered the damage we inflicted; in sobriety, we must stand on our own feet to give integrity to our amends. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016
June 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, June 2, 2016
AA Thought for the Day
Some more things I do not miss since becoming dry: wondering if the car is in the garage and how I got home; struggling to remember where I was and what I did since my last conscious moment; trying to delay getting off to work, and wondering how I will look when I get there; dreading the day ahead of me.
I'm quite sure that I don't miss these things, am I not?
Meditation for the Day
You cannot believe in God and keep your selfish ways. The old self shrivels up and dies, and upon the reborn soul God's image becomes stamped. The gradual elimination of selfishness in the growth of love for God and your fellow human beings is the goal of life. At first, you have only a faint likeness to the Divine, but the picture grows and takes on more and more of the likeness of God until those who see you can see in you some of the power of God's grace at work in a human life.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may develop that faint likeness I have to the Divine. I pray that others may see in me some of the power of God's grace at work.
Hazelden Foundation
June 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time
A Day at a Time
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Reflection for the Day
In the process of learning to love myself and, in turn, to love others freely with no strings attached, I've begun to understand these words of St. Augustine: "Love slays what we have been, that we may be what we were not." More and more, I feel this enormous power of such love in The Program; for me, the words, "we care," also mean, "we love."
Just for today, will I try to be loving in every thought and action?
Today I Pray
I pray that I may feel the enormity and the power of the love I find in The Program. May my own caring be added to that great energy of love which belongs to all of us. May I care with my whole heart that my fellow members maintain their sobriety and are learning to live with it comfortably and creatively. May I never doubt that they care the same way about me.
Today I Will Remember
Caring makes it happen.
Hazelden Foundation
June 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener
Thursday, June 2, 2016
We come into AA and are told that we should endeavor to establish a conscious contact with our God as we understand Him; that we should, through prayer and meditation, get on speaking terms with Him. We brushed up on our rusty salutations of "Almighty" and practiced on our Thee's and Thou's only to learn that there was a simpler and more direct approach.
We found that we could "tune God in" to our hearts and consciences and that no other method was needed to send and receive messages. We learned that what we said was of no great consequence anyway, as our prayers were for His will, not ours, and we also learned that we had to make no direct request for those things that were for our good, as He knew our needs before we ever realized them ourselves.
Hazelden Foundation
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
June 1, 2016 - A polyamorist view of monogamy
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