June 5, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, June 5, 2021

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Listening

Before engaging your mouth, put your mind in gear. — Anonymous

Our world is full of speechmakers who would serve better if they learned the importance of listening. The ability to hear is stressed within our group. It is true that we owe it to fellow members to tell the valuable lessons we learn while dealing with reality. But by listening, we can find truth from outside ourselves, too. Old-timers remind us to “take the cotton out of our ears and put it in our mouth.”

An old proverb says, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.” Another tells us, “Find a teacher and you find a friend.” When we learn to be attentive, we continue to be students long after our school years are over. Even when we read, we can listen well to truths.

One gift of being a good listener is to hear unexpectedly some truth I may have been told but was not ready to hear.

Hazelden Foundation

June 5, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Saturday, June 5, 2021

"A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling. We are convinced that a spiritual mode of living is a most powerful health restorative." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 9, p 133.

Today, patience to recover and overcome the years of physical, emotional and spiritual abuse to which I subjected my entire being with alcohol. The promise of a spiritual remedy we need - if we apply it honestly and diligently - will restore us to some level of physical, emotional and spiritual wellness and sanity. In my impatience that is exacerbated by my addiction, let me remember that I am, by nature, hungry for everything now but that not even my impatience can rush recovery. Today, I take it One Day at a Time. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2021

June 5, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, June 5, 2021

AA Thought for the Day

We alcoholics are fortunate to be living in a day and age when there is such a thing as Alcoholics Anonymous. Before AA came into being, there was very little hope for the alcoholic. AA is a great rebuilder of human wreckage. It takes men and women whose personality problem expresses itself in alcoholism and offers them a program which, if they are willing to accept it, allows them not only to get sober but also find a much better way of living.

Have I found a better way of living?

Meditation for the Day

Very quietly God speaks through your thoughts and feelings. Heed the Divine voice of your conscience. Listen for this and you will never be disappointed in the results in your life. Listen for this small, still voice and your tired nerves will become rested. The Divine voice comes to you as strength as well as tenderness, as power as well as restfulness. Your moral strength derives its effectiveness from the power that comes when you listen patiently for the still, small voice.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may listen for the still, small voice of God. I pray that I may obey the leading of my conscience.

Hazelden Foundation

June 5, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Saturday, June 5, 2021

Reflection for the Day
The Program teaches me that not too many people can truthfully assert that they love everybody. Most of us have to admit that we've loved but a few and that we've been quite indifferent to the many. As for the rest, well, we've really disliked or hated them. We in The Program find we need something much better than this in order to keep our balance. The idea that we can be possessively loving of a few, can ignore the many and can continue to fear or hate anyone at all, has to be abandoned - if only a little at a time.

At meetings, do I concentrate on the message rather than the messenger?

Today I Pray
May I understand that there is no place in my recovery - or in my entire life as a chemically dependent person - for toxic hatred or lackadaisical indifference. One of the most important positive ideas that I must carry with me is that all humans, as the children of God, make up a loving brother-and-sisterhood. May I find it hard to hate a brother.

Today I Will Remember
Hear the message. Don't judge the messenger.

Hazelden Foundation

June 5, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Saturday, June 5, 2021

Alcoholics are by nature the great "I AM." We work ourselves into a lather in doing AA work, and sometimes we are rewarded with a degree of success and we begin to puff up like a pouter pigeon, forgetting we are of ourselves able to do nothing. We are still but a drink away from a stumble-bum.

We are what we are by the Grace of God only. We accomplish what little we do by a Power greater than ourselves. How can you help anybody? You were never even able to help yourself.

Hazelden Foundation

June 5, 2021 - Good morning with a sigh of relief that it's Saturday and the weekend

 

Good morning and here's hoping this beautiful Saturday will give everyone a breather from a long week ...have a terrific and productive but paced and safe day, and don't bother with anything and anyone thinking they can mess it up

June 4, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, June 4, 2021

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

If they try to rush me, I always say, “I’ve only got one other speed — and it’s slower.” — Glenn Ford

We tend to feel ourselves under pressure to perform, to produce, to excel. But pressure makes us feel rushed, and we become careless with ourselves and with others. We miss seeing and enjoying the small, simple things in life. We get things and people out of focus.

Pressure can come from inside, too—from our shame and sense of unworthiness. Then we find it difficult to look the world in the eye because of our secretive lives. We may feel we have to keep moving in order to prevent ourselves from assessing the true nature of our addiction and the harm it did to ourselves and others.

But now we know we can slow down and take each day, each hour, and minute as it comes. By slowing down, we learn to see the world more clearly and enjoy the company of others. We do have time to get to know ourselves and reach out to others. The reward is a deeper, quieter, lovelier life.

Time is not an enemy to be conquered, but part of the rhythm of life. Each day I try to slow down and live.

Hazelden Foundation

June 4, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Friday, June 4, 2021

"We have been dealing with alcohol in its worst aspect. But we aren't a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn't want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life. We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders ...(T)hose of us who have tried to shoulder the entire burden and trouble of others find we are soon overcome by them." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 9, p 132.

Today, if in service work I take on others' addictions and recovery, let me remember that the lifeline of recovery is tossed to us by another person - but it is we as individuals who grab it. And if I should be the 12th-Stepper who throws out the lifeline, let me accept that it is not within my control to make the other person grab it. Likewise, let me not be tinged with cynicism or hopelessness of the state of the world because it, like the power of alcohol, is something I cannot control. Today, if the message I carry falls on deaf ears, I will not feel like a failure and, likewise, I will not bolster my ego by claiming "success" if the message is heard. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2021

June 4, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, June 4, 2021

AA Thought for the Day
Some things I like since becoming dry: feeling good in the morning; full use of my intelligence; joy in my work; the love and trust of my children; lack of remorse; the confidence of my friends; the prospect of a happy future; the appreciation of the beauties of nature; knowing what it is all about.

I'm sure that I like these things, am I not?

Meditation for the Day
Molding your life means cutting and shaping your material into something good, something which can express the spiritual. All material things are the clay out of which we mold something spiritual. You must first recognize the selfishness in your desires and motives, actions and words, and then mold that selfishness until it is sublimated into a spiritual weapon for good. As the work of molding proceeds, you see more and more clearly what must be done to mold your life into something better.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may mold my life into something useful and good. I pray that I may not be discouraged by the slow progress that I make.

Hazelden Foundation

June 4, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time
Friday, June 4, 2021

Reflection for the Day
"It seems to me," wrote AA co-founder Bill W., "that the primary object of any human being is to grow, as God intended, that being the nature of all growing things. Our search must be for what reality we can find, which includes the best definition and feeling of love that we can acquire. If the capability of loving is in the human being, then it must surely be in his Creator."

Will I pray today not so much to be loved, as to love?

Today I Pray
God grant me the patience of a lifetime in my search for the best answer to the question, "What is love?"  May I know that the definition will come to me in snatches as I live life's several roles - as child, lover, parent, teacher, friend, spiritual being. May I be grateful for my experience as a chemically dependent person, which adds a special dimension to the meaning of love.

Today I Will Remember
All love reflects God's love.

Hazelden Foundation

June 4, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener
Friday, June 4, 2021

A split second separates the past, the present and the future. The course of history has been altered in a moment of decision on the part of one man. Inventions that have revolutionized our mode of living may have taken years to perfect, but the idea behind them was born in a flash of thought between the ticks of a clock.

In that great day when you determined that you had had enough, that you were whipped, the resolve took but a fraction of a second. But in that instant, you closed your past and opened your future.

A moment of thoughtlessness can put you back in the past again.

Hazelden Foundation

June 4, 2021 - Good morning and let's make it a rip-roarin', toe-trippin' Happy Dance Friday

 

Good morning to a fabulous Happy Dance Friday and the potential to do something good ...have a sincerely terrific day, folks, and don't allow anything and anyone the control to make it otherwise

June 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Conceit spoils the greatest genius…and the great charm of power is modesty. — Louisa May Alcott

Addiction does bad things to our egos. We see ourselves as very different from others. Either we think we are better, with puffed-up egos, or we think we are worse than others, feeling sorry for ourselves. Either way, the rules don’t apply to us, of course, because we are special. The Big Book says that the early members of AA realized that they were pretty self‑centered, and that was a big part of the problem for them. It’s a big part of the problem for most of us in recovery today, too. It seems to go with addiction.

We must get real about who we are and what we have to offer others. We need to accept that life doesn’t revolve around us. Rather we are here to work with others, with our talents, and with love to make life better and more meaningful for all of us. That is how we make a real difference in this world.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, please help me learn more about my talents, my strengths, and my purpose for being here. What part of your work would you like me to do today?

Today’s Action

Today I will learn about my gifts. I will ask four people who know me in different parts of my life this question: “What positive thing do I bring when I join a group of people?”

Hazelden Foundation

June 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step
Thursday, June 3, 2021

Today, gratitude and humility if my sobriety totals days, weeks, 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 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., 2021

June 3, 2021 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Thursday, June 3, 2021

AA Thought for the Day
Some more things I do not miss since becoming dry: running all over town to find a bar open to get that "pick-me-up;" meeting my friends and trying to cover up that I feel awful; looking at myself in a mirror and calling myself a damn fool; struggling with myself to snap out of it for two or three days; wondering what it is all about.

I'm positive I don't miss these things, am I not?

Meditation for the Day
Love is the power that transforms your life. Try to love your family and your friends and then try to love everybody that you possibly can, even the "sinners and publicans" - everybody. Love for God is an even greater thing. It is the result of gratitude to God, and it is the acknowledgement of the blessing that God has sent you. Love for God acknowledges His gifts and leaves the way open for God to shower yet more blessings on your thankful heart. Say, "Thank you, God," until it becomes a habit.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may try to love God and all people. I pray that I may continually thank God for all His blessings.

Hazelden Foundation