June 3, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, June 3, 2019

Today, gratitude and humility if my sobriety totals week, months and even years and understanding that I am no more sober than the alcoholic whose last drink was yesterday. Grant me the wisdom to be open to the lessons that I still have to learn in my own recovery and that some of those lessons can come from the alcoholic whose sobriety does not match mine in length of time. I must learn from the experience of the past that I am no more "cured" and just as much at risk of relapse as the newcomer or slipper who continues to struggle. I must also acknowledge the responsibility that the length of my sobriety exacts, namely to share with someone else what has or has not worked for me in hope that my own experience, strength and hope might speak to someone else. Today, I am sober only in the current 24 Hours, and I accept the responsibility that I have to my recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2019

June 3, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Monday, June 3, 2019

Reflection for the Day
"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise," wrote Thomas Merton, "we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."  As I replace my self-destructive addictions with a healthy dependence on The Program and its Twelve Steps, I'm finding that the barriers of silence and hatred are melting away. By accepting each other as we are, we have learned again to love.

Do I care enough about others in The Program to continue working with them as long as necessary?

Today I Pray
May I be selfless enough to love people as they are, not as I want them to be, as they mirror my image or feed my ego. May I slow down in my eagerness to love - now that I am capable of feeling love again - and ask myself if I really love someone or only that someone's idea of me. May I remove the "self" from my loving.

Today I Will Remember
Love is unconditional.

Hazelden Foundation

June 3, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Monday, June 3, 2019

The harvest is great and the laborers are too few. Too often we get a new man, we work diligently on him, get him to a meeting or two and then another new man appears and we drop the first one and frequently never see him again.

This is not to imply that we are to carry him on our backs indefinitely, but we can utilize an occasional spare 10 minutes to call him on the phone. We can keep our eyes open for him at the meetings and, if he misses several in succession, we can look him up.

Remember you were the midwife at his rebirth in this new life, and you should not neglect him in his AA infancy.

Hazelden Foundation

June 3, 2019 - Let's make it a magnificent Monday and new week

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

Sunday,  June 2, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Some people greet the morning with a smile, but it’s more natural to protest its presence with sleepy sulkiness. — Brendan Francis

We begin with the truth and build on the firm foundation it provides. We often hear we should have a positive attitude, we should be grateful for the new day. Perhaps some days we feel enthusiasm, and it’s wonderful when we do. But we don’t need to turn it into a requirement because shoulds tend to keep us out of touch with our honest feelings.

All feelings are acceptable. Whatever they are, the entire range of color and intensity of feelings comes from our Creator. Our task is dealing with them and responding to them. We begin by acknowledging them as they are. We do not have license to do whatever we feel like doing, only to feel what we feel. This point of honesty is a solid stepping-stone to grow from. We often find we feel different as soon as we admit our feelings.

Today, I will admit my true feelings and accept them as stepping‑stones.

Hazelden Foundation

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

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, June 2, 2019

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

A Day at a Time
Sunday, June 2, 2019

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, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Sunday, June 2, 2019

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

June 2, 2019 - Good morning to a relaxing and serene Sunday

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

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

AA Thought for the Day

Alcohol is our weakness. We suffer from mental conflicts from which we look for escape by drowning our problems in drink. We try through drink to push away from the realities of life. But alcohol does not feed, alcohol does not build, it only borrows from the future and it ultimately destroys. We try to drown our feelings in order to escape life’s realities, little realizing or caring that in continued drinking we are only multiplying our problems.

Have I got control over my unstable emotions?

Meditation for the Day

When I let personal piques and resentments interfere with what I know to be my proper conduct, I am on the wrong track and I am undoing all I have built up by doing the right thing. I must never let personal piques interfere with living the way I know God wants me to live. When I have no clear guidance from God, I must go forward quietly along the path of duty. The attitude of quiet faith will receive its reward as surely as acting upon God’s direct guidance. I must not weaken my spiritual power by letting personal piques upset me.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not let myself become too upset. I pray that I may go quietly along the path I have chosen.

Hazelden Foundation

June 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, June 1, 2019

"The spiritual life is not theory. We have to live it. Unless one's family expresses a desire to live upon spiritual principles, we think we ought not to urge them. We should not talk incessantly to them about spiritual matters. They will change in time. Our behavior will convince them more than our words." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6, p 83.

Today, if called on to 12th-Step a prospect, I will not hammer the spiritual aspect of recovery if the topic seems to push away rather than draw in the prospect. Should the prospect who is weary of spirituality subsequently embrace the Program and find sobriety, the words "(Spiritual awareness) will change in time"  will ring true. Paraphrasing the saying that I was born of the Spirit but was taught religion, let me understand that others, like me, also may tie the two together - religion and spirituality - but that the Program will lead them to their own understanding of a Higher Power. Today, if spirituality cannot be discussed with a potential member, let my actions speak louder than my words. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2019

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

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, June 1, 2019

AA Thought for the Day
Some things I do not miss since becoming dry: that overall awful feeling physically, including the shakes, a splitting headache, pains in my arms and legs, bleary eyes, fluttering stomach, droopy shoulders, weak knees, a three-day beard, and a flushed complexion. Also, facing my wife or my husband at breakfast. Also, comprising the alibi and sticking to it. Also, trying to shave or put on makeup with a shaky hand. Also, opening up my wallet to find it empty.

I don't miss these things, do I?

Meditation for the Day
You were born with a spark of the Divine within you. It had been all but smothered by the life you were living. That celestial fire has to be tended and fed so that it will grow eventually into a real desire to live the right way. By trying to do the will of God, you grow more and more in the new way of life. By thinking of God, praying to Him and having communion with Him, you gradually grow more like Him. The way of your transformation from the material to the spiritual is the way of Divine Companionship.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may tend the spark of the Divine within me so that it will grow. I pray that I may be gradually transformed from the old life to the new life.

Hazelden Foundation

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

A Day at a Time
Saturday, June 1, 2019

Reflection for the Day
Slowly but surely, I'm becoming able to accept other people's faults as well as their virtues. The Program is teaching me to "always love the best in others - and never fear their worst." This is hardly an easy transition from my old way of thinking, but I'm beginning to see that all people - including myself - are to some extent emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong.

Am I approaching true tolerance? Am I beginning to see what real love for my fellows actually means?

Today I Pray
May God give me tolerance for any shortcomings or sick symptoms or insensitivities of others, so that I can love the qualities that are good in them. May God instruct me in the truest meaning of love - which must also include patience and forgiveness. May I not overlook the faults of those I love, but may I try to understand them.

Today I Will Remember
Love is understanding.

Hazelden Foundation

June 1, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, June 1, 2019

Each of us has only so many hours to live, and we alcoholics have wasted far too many of them in the past.

New men, by the thousands, are crowding our doors, searching for our Message of Hope. Those who are endeavoring to carry the Message are frequently pushed to the limit of their available time for this purpose.

Have you the right to monopolize the time of the Twelve Steppers by indulging yourself in so-called slips?

Hazelden Foundation

June 1, 2019 - Happiness is the Snoopy Happy Dance Saturday