Dec. 31, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Finish each day and be done with it.

Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Two of the most useless phrases in the English language are “what if” and “if only.” We waste so much time and energy thinking about what we might have done and wishing we had acted or reacted differently. We imagine how things might have turned out “if only…”

All of us make mistakes. To go back and wonder and wish about our yesterdays prevents us from living fully today. Each day is a fresh chance; a new beginning. We can only squeeze what we can out of the moment and let the drops fall where they may. Some will evaporate and some will form rainbows.

Can I forget about yesterday and start a fresh new day?

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 31, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2019

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., 2019

Dec. 31, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2019

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

Dec. 31, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2019

Reflection for the Day
God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change; COURAGE to change the things I can; and WISDOM to know the difference – living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it: Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.

Today I Pray
May I look back at this past year as a good one, in that nothing I did or said was wasted. No experience – however insignificant it may have seemed – was worthless. Hurt gave me the capacity to feel happiness; bad times made me appreciate the good ones; what I regarded as my weaknesses became my greatest strengths. I thank God for a year of growing.

Today I Will Remember
Hope is my “balance brought forward” – into a new year’s ledger.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 31, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2019

Every man at some time arrives at a place where the course of his entire future rests upon a decision. Judas was one day a saint and the next the betrayer of the Lord.

We members of AA also had our moment of great decision. Many more days of decision will probably be our lot, but by the Grace of God and our new-found sobriety, we can meet any situation by reliance on God’s Will rather than our own.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 31, 2019 - Good morning to a magnificent Tuesday and last day of 2019

Dec. 31, 2019 - Good morning to New Year's Eve with dedication to a happier 2020

Dec. 30, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Monday, Dec. 30, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

You were there when I needed you. You stood above all of the others with your strength and you guided me. To each of you I offer my being, my love and all that I am. — Deidra Sarault

Each of us is guided while we act as guides to one another, throughout the day, throughout our lives. We are interdependent. Everywhere we look, someone is learning from us and we from her. We often know not what we give, when we give it. And we seldom realize the value of what we’re receiving at the time we accept it.

Resistance to what another person is offering us may be our natural response. But the passage of time highlights the value of the experience. We can look for the comforters in our lives. They are there offering us strength and hope enough to see us through any difficulty.

We need both the rough times and the soft shoulders of a friend. They contribute equally to the designs our lives are weaving. The rough times press us to pray, to reach out to others for solace. And our pain gives others the chance to heal our wounds. We are all healers offering strength. And we all need healing.

One of the greatest gifts of my recovery is giving and receiving strength.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, Dec. 30, 2019

Today, I awaken without a hangover and with full memory of last night but, if not, this new day offers a chance for another beginning. Grant me the wisdom and courage to seize the opportunity to continue or begin the work toward something better, something I thirst and hunger for – sobriety, serenity, peace, calm, a worthy self-image, and a sense of gratitude that I am here even to be given yet another second chance. My best hope for what I seek is AA and its Steps and Principles and, today, may I finally decide that enough is enough of the alcoholic hangover and all the garbage that comes with it. But let me be disciplined enough, too, to understand that what sobriety and recovery offer comes with a price – to be of service to anyone who needs and wants the message. Today, I have a chance for another new beginning. Don’t let the lifeboat go without me on board. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2019

Dec. 30, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, Dec. 30, 2019

AA Thought for the Day
To the extent that I fail in my responsibilities, AA fails. To the extent that I succeed, AA succeeds. Every failure of mine will set back AA work to that extent. Every success of mine will put AA ahead to that extent. I shall not wait to be drafted for service to others, but I shall volunteer. I shall accept every opportunity to work for AA as a challenge, and I shall do my best to accept every challenge and perform my task as best I can.

Will I accept every challenge gladly?

Meditation for the Day
People are failures in the deepest sense when they seek to live without God’s sustaining power. Many people try to be self-sufficient and seek selfish pleasure and find that it does not work too well. No matter how much material wealth they acquire, no matter how much fame and material power, the time of disillusionment and futility usually comes. Death is ahead, and they cannot take any material thing with them when they go. What matters is if I have gained the whole world, but lost my own soul.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I will not come empty to the end of the my life. I pray that I may so live that I will not be afraid to die.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Monday, Dec. 30, 2019

Reflection for the Day
My life before coming to The Program was not unlike the lives of so many of us who were cruelly buffeted and tormented by the power of our addictions. For years, I had been sick and tired. When I became sick and tired of being sick and tired, I finally surrendered and came to The Program. Now I realize that I had been helped all along by a Higher Power; it was He, indeed, who allowed me to live so that I could eventually find a new way of life.

Since my awakening, have I found a measure of serenity previously unknown in my life?

Today I Pray
May I realize that my Higher Power has not suddenly come into my life like a stranger opening a door when I knocked. The Power has been there all along, if I will just remember how many brushes with disaster I have survived by a fraction of time or distance. Now that I have come to know my Higher Power better, I realize that I must have been saved for something – for helping others like me.

Today I Will Remember
I am grateful to be alive and recovering.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Monday, Dec. 30, 2019

If man was created by God in the image of God and did not possess human frailties, he would be God. All men would then be perfect and Heaven would exist here on earth. There would be no logical reason for it to operate simply as a branch of Heaven.

With our limited understanding of God’s purpose, we must suppose that man was intended from the very first to work out his own evolution. The reason this process has required so many centuries has been man’s persistence in the exercise of his puny little will as opposed to the Will of God. That we are less than God is due to our freedom of choice between being one with God and our attempt to play God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 30, 2019 - Rise 'n shine for another magnificent Monday and holiday week

Dec. 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Step Two

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. — Step Two of AA and Al-Anon

We come to believe in a better life through the powerful gift of other people—hearing them, seeing them, and watching the gift of recovery at work in their lives.

There is a Power greater than us. There is real hope now that things can and will be different and better for our life and us.

We are not in a “do it ourselves” program. We do not have to exert willpower to change. We do not have to force our recovery to happen. We do not have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps just so we believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves—one who will get the job done in our life. This Power will do for us what your greatest and most diligent efforts could not accomplish.

Our Higher Power will restore us to a sane and beneficial life. All we do is believe.

Look. Watch. See the people around you. See the healing they have found. Then discover your own faith, your own belief, your own healing.

Today, regardless of my circumstances, I will believe to the best of my ability that a Power greater than myself can and will restore me to a peaceful, sane way of living. Then I will relax and let Him do that.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 29, 2019 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019

Today, when resolutions for the coming new year are in vogue, I will make none because to do so skirts the Program’s suggestion to take life one day at a time. Further, I have no guarantee that an entire year is promised me, and I cannot live for a day in the future because, in doing that, I am neglecting today. Recovery discourages us from looking too far ahead if today is sacrificed and encourages us to make our resolutions daily. Today, awakening to a new day, my resolution is to adhere to the Steps and Principles of the Program and not drink and, further, to grow in sobriety. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2019