Jan. 2, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Embracing virtues and new attitudes

Because of our addiction, our actions (and inaction) have fostered cynicism, futility, and distrust. How could we ever have hoped to succeed with attitudes like that?

Now we are cultivating the virtues of understanding, love, and patience. It is often slow and difficult. We know that our Higher Power loves us and will lead us, if we only ask.

Am I developing new virtues?

Higher Power, take my hand and lead me from the old attitudes toward new virtues.

You are reading from the book:

Day by Day – Second Edition by Anonymous

Day by Day © 1974, 1998 by Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 2, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019 

“I looked around me at people who seemed happy and tried to analyze their happiness, and it seemed to me that without exception these people had something or somebody they loved very much. I didn’t have the courage to love; I was not even sure I had the capacity. Fear of rejection and its ensuing pain were not to be risked, and I turned away from myself once more for the answer, this time to the drinks I had always refused before, and in alcohol I found a false courage.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 12 (“Freedom From Bondage”), pp 546-47.

Today, ...”in alcohol I found a false courage.” Whether I am far into recovery or just beginning, the time has come to be done with all that is not true. If I am hinging my sobriety on my spouse or partner not leaving me, keeping my job or convincing a judge I deserve a break from my latest DUI, my motivation to get sober is linked to something that may never happen and, if it doesn’t, my sobriety likely will not last. Whatever the untruths in my life and even in sobriety, the Fourth Step is my road map to honesty – the truth of my own life, my drinking, my recovery. May I not rely on some bottled courage as I set out to find my own truth. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2019

Jan. 2, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

AA Thought for the Day

What makes AA work? The first thing is to have a revulsion against myself and my way of living. Then I must admit I was helpless, that alcohol had me licked and I couldn’t do anything about it. The next thing is to honestly want to quit the old life. Then I must surrender my life to a Higher Power, put my drinking problem in His hands and leave it there. After these things are done, I should attend meetings regularly for fellowship and sharing. I should also try to help other alcoholics.

Am I doing these things?

Meditation for the Day

You are so made that you can only carry the weight of 24 hours, no more. If you weigh yourself down with the years behind and the days ahead, your back breaks. God has promised to help you with the burdens of the day only. If you are foolish enough to gather again that burden of the past and carry it, then indeed you cannot expect God to help you bear it. So forget that which lies behind you and breathe in the blessing of each new day.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may realize that, for good or bad, past days have ended. I pray that I may face each new day, the coming 24 hours, with hope and courage.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 2, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

Reflection for the Day

Before I came to The Program, I hadn’t the faintest idea of what it was to “Live In The Now.” I often became obsessed with the things that happened yesterday, last week or even five years ago. Worse yet, many of my waking hours were spent clearing away the “wreckage of the future.” “To me,” Walt Whitman once wrote,“every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.”

Can I truly believe that in my heart?

Today I Pray

Let me carry only the weight of 24 hours at one time, without the extra bulk of yesterday’s regrets or tomorrow’s anxieties. Let me breathe the blessings of each new day for itself, by itself and keep my human burdens contained in daily perspective. May I learn the balance of soul that comes through keeping close to God.

Today I Will Remember

Don’t borrow from tomorrow.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 2, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

Probably in the history of the world no tyrant can be found who welded chains so strong upon his victims as did that “Ol’ Debil Rum.”

Even our most secret desires were controlled by his influence, and our families, our health and our very lives themselves were disregarded when opposed to the demands for a drink.

Fortunately for us in AA, we still had a freedom of choice of master and when we decided to “turn our will and our lives over to the care of God,” we accepted a new Master, one even more demanding than the first, but with this one vast difference – our chains were now bonds of love.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 2, 2019 - With the holiday season done, let's get back to our routines with a productive and terrific Wednesday

Jan. 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019

Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Has it been a year of growth?

As any year draws to a close, we should reflect on how we have grown in sobriety. We should also identify changes during the year that enabled us to overcome bad habits and to move closer to better patterns of living.

Though we never are guaranteed favorable outcomes, we should always remember that sobriety is its own best reward. We want a full life, of course, but it must begin with a decision to seek and to maintain sobriety at all costs.

We find that with sobriety, lots of other problems seem to solve themselves. Even if they don’t, we have the tools to move forward and to achieve goals that always eluded us while we were drinking. Every year in sobriety is a year of growth.

I’ll be conscious today of recent improvements I’ve made in my life and all my affairs. With sobriety, these improvements will go on for a lifetime.

You are reading from the book:

Walk in Dry Places by Mel B.

Walk in Dry Places by Mel B. © 1996 by Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019

“FOREWORD TO SECOND EDITION

Figures given in this foreword describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955“Since the original Foreword to this book was written in 1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest printing voiced the hope ‘that every alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already,’ continues the early text, ‘twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities.’

“Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Foreword to the Second Edition,” p xv.

Today, when tradition prods us to think in terms of new beginnings and resolutions, the history of AA as measured in the years between 1939 and 1955 assures us of a new start – if we work toward and apply the steps and principles of the Program. In the years since this foreword, the number of recovering alcoholics has multiplied by more than 10 times. If the Program has worked for that vast a number of people, why, then, can’t it work for me? It can, and if I have failed in the past, it is because I failed the Program and not that the Program failed me. On this day when we are encouraged to let go of the old and ring in the new, my recovery somehow appropriately begins with the hope that I, too, can be in that number of recovering alcoholics. So let the new begin. And our common journey continues. Step by step.– Chris M., 2019

Jan. 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019

AA Thought for the Day

When I came into AA, was I a desperate person? Did I have a soul-sickness? Was I so sick of myself and my way of living that I couldn’t stand looking at myself in a mirror? Was I ready for AA? Was I ready to try anything that would help me to get sober and to get over my soul-sickness?

Should I ever forget the condition I was in?

Meditation for the Day

In the new year, I will live one day at a time. I will make each day one of preparation for better things ahead. I will not dwell on the past or the future, only on the present. I will bury every fear of the future, all thoughts of unkindness and bitterness, all my dislikes, my resentments, my sense of failure, my disappointments in others and in myself, my gloom and my despondency. I will leave all these things buried and go forward, in this new year, into a new life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that God will guide me one day at a time in the new year. I pray that for each day, God will supply the wisdom and the strength that I need.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019

Reflection for the Day

In the old days, I saw everything in terms of forever. Endless hours were spent rehashing old mistakes. I tried to take comfort in the forlorn hope that tomorrow “would be different.” As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud.

Do I still think in terms of “forever?”

Today I Pray

May I set my goals for the New Year not at the year-long mark, but one day at a time. My traditional New Year’s resolutions have been so grandly stated and so soon broken. Let me not weaken my resolve by stretching it to cover “forever” – or even one long year. May I reapply it firmly each new day. May I learn not to stamp my past mistakes with that indelible word “forever.” Instead, may each single day in each New Year be freshened by my new-found hope.

Today I Will Remember

Happy New Day.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019

Without the introduction of a purpose into our lives, we would be but dried-up drunks, wallowing in self-pity for the loss of that which we were forced to deny ourselves in order to bring about some semblance of order in our lives. We would be “off the bottle” but not for a moment happy about it – never with any sense of security.

We who have found AA have introduced that something into our lives that enabled us, with the Grace of God, to “fix” ourselves.

We have not given up anything – we have acquired something; we are no longer frustrated 

people, because we have introduced into our lives a reliance in a Power greater than ourselves, that we did not have before. That Power has opened up a new way of life, free of worry, fear and frustration.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 1, 2019 - Good morning to 2019 with resolve to carry any resolutions for betterment from day to day

Dec. 31, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Monday, Dec. 31, 2018

Today’s thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Slow down and let go

On a road trip up the California coast a while back, I tried to call home only to find that the battery in my cell phone had died. I worried. What if someone needed to get in touch with me? What if there was a problem with the house? What if my family couldn’t find me and got worried?

I passed the exit to the beach that I had always wanted to see.

I obsessed some more.

I stopped for breakfast at a restaurant overlooking the Pacific ocean. I asked if they had a pay phone. They didn’t. I barely noticed the stunning view, the smell or the sound of the surf, and I can’t remember eating my eggs and toast.

I put off seeing things until another trip; I took the freeway and got home early.

When I got home, there were no messages. No one had needed me; no one had even been aware that I was gone. But I had missed out on the treasures of the trip. I had spent so much time obsessing; I could barely remember where I’d been.

God, help me enjoy where I am right now.

You are reading from the book:

More Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

More Language of Letting Go © 2000 by Melody Beattie

Dec. 31, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step

Monday, Dec. 31, 2018

Today, I need not fear anything for I have endured and survived the horror of active alcoholism and, by the grace of AA and a Higher Power to which it led me, I have emerged not only intact but a better person. I have kept the faith in the Program, in its steps and principles, in the Power stronger than me, and I found faith in myself that I never had before. My gift has been sobriety the last 24 Hours. Having vested not only my heart and soul but my very life in this Program, I faced few terrors other than those within myself but met them with the guidance of the Steps. Now, nothing can compare and any fear from any source is something I know I can face responsibly, with faith and sobriety. Today, I have nothing to fear except the ghosts of my drinking past, and my Program has strengthened me to move beyond them, to leave the fear behind. Yet I do not take for granted the gift of sobriety as something I am owed or even deserve. I have an obligation to it, and that obligation begins with carrying the message. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2018

Dec. 31, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Dec. 31, 2018

AA Thought for the Day

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 AA my interest, my enthusiasm, my devotion and, most of all, myself. The Lord’s Prayer has become part of my AA thoughts for each day: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Have I given myself?

Meditation for the Day

As we look back over the year just gone, it has been a good year to the extent that we have put good thoughts, good words and good deeds into it. None of what we have thought, said or done need be wasted. Both the good and the bad experiences can be profited by. In a sense, the past is not entirely gone. The result of it, for good or evil, is with us at the present moment. We can only learn by experience and none of our experience is completely wasted. We can humbly thank God for the good things of the year that has gone.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may carry good things into the year ahead. I pray that I may carry on with faith, with prayer and with hope.

Hazelden Foundation