Jan. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery; Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Seeking growth

We are where we are for a reason. As long as that reason remains, we remain where we are. If we aren’t where we think we should be, working the program will help us get to where our deepest self longs to be. This is growth.

And growth is work. We must be willing to do the simple things that our new understanding asks of us. We are never given more than we can handle, and the loving help we need along the way is always available. But we never get this help in advance, only as we need it.

Am I seeking growth?

Higher Power, help me want to grow and be willing to do the simple things, day by day, that add up to big changes.

I will seek growth today by…

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023

” …(O)ur problems were of our own making. Bottles were only a symbol. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We have to!” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 7 (“Working With Others”), p 103.

Today, the fights have been many, the injuries deep and some scars permanent. Lies have been bountiful, hurt to myself and others indelible, and the fun ceased long ago if it ever was fun at all. Enough is enough. To continue as is, is a spiral downward into a pit from which there may be no escape; to change course now, hope prevails. Today is the day I begin to answer what exists in my emotional and spiritual psyche that is fueled by alcoholic drinking and thinking, and I have grown tired of “fighting anybody or anything.” My hope cannot be in my own will power; it is as mythical as the magical unicorn. Hope now falls on AA and my commitment to honestly and diligently working its Steps and Principles. There, I have no reason to fight anyone and anything – other than my own resistance to surrender completely. Today, enough is enough; I surrender. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2023

Jan. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023

AA Thought for the Day
Have I admitted I am an alcoholic? Have I swallowed my pride and admitted I was different from ordinary drinkers? Have I accepted the fact that I must spend the rest of my life without liquor? Have I any more reservations, any idea in the back of my mind that some day I’ll be able to drink safely? Am I absolutely honest with myself and with other people? Have I taken an inventory of myself and admitted the wrong I have done? Have I come clean with my friends?

Have I tried to make it up to them for the way I have treated them?

Meditation for the Day
I will believe that fundamentally all is well. Good things will happen to me. I believe that God cares for me and will provide for me. I will not try to plan ahead. I know that the way will unfold, step by step. I will leave tomorrow’s burden to God, because He is the great burden-bearer. He only expects me to carry my one-day’s share.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not try to carry the burden of the universe on my shoulders. I pray that I may be satisfied to do my share each day.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023

Reflection for the Day

For a good part of my life, I saw things mostly in negative terms. Everything was serious, heavy or just plain awful. Perhaps now I can truly change my attitude, searching out the winners in The Program who have learned how to live comfortably in the real world – without numbing their brains with mood-altering chemicals.

If things get rough today, can I take a quiet moment and say to myself, as the philosopher Homer once said, “Bear patiently, my heart – for you have suffered heavier things …?”

Today I Pray

May the peace of God that passes all human understanding fill the place within me that once harbored my despair. May an appreciation for living – even for life’s trials – cancel out my old negative attitudes. During heart-heavy moments, help to remind me that my heart was once much heavier still.

Today I Will Remember

I, too, am a winner.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 4, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023

Pride in ancestry has kept many alcoholics from the humbleness that is a prime requisite of success in our program. The deeper one is in his cups, the greater in his remorse for his condition – not because of his descent to the level of the animal, but because of his betrayal of his noble family traditions.

Ancestry is good only when it inspires living up to its traditions. When it becomes a throne built on other men’s accomplishments, it is nothing. We alcoholics should be reminded of Voltaire’s words when he said: “He who serves well has no need of ancestors.”

Let us think less of our ancestors and more about what kind of ancestors we will make.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 4, 2023 – Good morning and let’s get out there and make it a super Wednesday

 

Good morning and let’s strive to do this beautiful Wednesday well and not take to heart people and things who don’t offer anything worth having

Jan. 3, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

To be alive is power,
Existing in itself,
Without a further function,
Omnipotence enough.

— Emily Dickinson

Being a person in this world is an amazing gift. A spiritual awakening promised by this program is open to us. But today, not all of us feel powerful and alive. We may feel weak, inadequate to our task, perplexed, or stymied. Is this a day in which we are filled with exuberance for the gift of life? Or is this a day when we’re feeling subdued by life’s burdens?

Perhaps we need to evaluate our perspective. Are we trying to control something or someone? Are we acting as if the world should be as we want rather than as it is? Have our individual wills exceeded their natural bounds and spoiled the simple joy of being “without a further function”?

May I find the pleasure and exuberance today that come with being alive. The simple power to be a person is “omnipotence enough.”

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 3, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

“We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals – usually brief – were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period, we get worse, never better.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 3 (“More About Alcoholism”), p 30.

Today, conceding to “our innermost selves” that we are alcoholic is the first step in recovery. Without that admission, every attempt to stop drinking is doomed to failure: our drinking histories are mute testimony to that. But if we can admit to ourselves that we are alcoholic, the answer to the next logical question – Why do I have to quit altogether instead of cutting back? – is obvious: alcoholism is a progressive condition that is never cured and, when fed, gets worse. But alcoholism can be arrested, and the only guaranteed method is total abstinence. Today, if I still struggle that my drinking has progressed into alcoholism, I have to retreat within my innermost self in absolute honesty and, if I acknowledge the obvious answer, recovery awaits me, just for the asking. And our common journey continues. Step by step. – Chris M., 2023

Jan. 3, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

AA Thought for the Day

When I came into AA, I learned what an alcoholic was and then I applied this knowledge to myself to see if I was an alcoholic. When I was convinced that I was an alcoholic, I admitted it openly. Since then, have I been learning to live accordingly? Have I read the book “Alcoholics Anonymous?” Have I applied the knowledge gained to myself? Have I admitted openly that I am an alcoholic?

Am I ready to admit it at any time when I can be of help?

Meditation for the Day

I will be renewed. I will be remade. In this, I need God’s help. His spirit shall flow through me and, in flowing through me, it shall sweep away all the bitter past. I will take heart. The way will open for me. Each day will unfold something good, as long as I am trying to live the way I believe God wants me to live.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be taught, just as a child would be taught. I pray that I may never question God’s plans, but accept them gladly.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 3, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

Reflection for the Day

My addiction is three-fold in that it affects me physically, mentally and spiritually. As a chemically-dependent person, I was totally out of touch not only with myself, but with reality. Day after miserable day, like a caged animal on a treadmill, I repeated my self-destructive pattern of living.

Have I begun to break away from my old ideas? Just for today, can I adjust myself to what is, rather than try to adjust everything to my own desires?

Today I Pray

I pray that I may not be caught up again in the downward, destructive spiral which removed me from myself and from the realities of the world around me. I pray that I may adjust to people and situations as they are instead of always trying, unsuccessfully and with endless frustration, to bend them to my own desires.

Today I Will Remember

I can only change myself.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 3, 2023 - Rezadings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

You can’t tell a drunk anything, but you can show him. All too frequently, we dry out on Monday, attend our first meeting on Tuesday and try our hand at Twelve Stepping on Wednesday

With a sketchy conception of what it is all about, with little or no knowledge of the Program, sometimes with the smell of paraldehyde still on our breath, we venture forth to dry up the world and, when we fail, we wonder why.

Remember the 12th Step says, “Having had a Spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics.” You can’t carry the message before you receive it nor can you give it if you don’t possess it.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 3, 2023 – Good morning and let’s make this gorgeous Tuesday a little better than yesterday

 

Good morning and make this wonderful Tuesday better for yourself by showing a kindness to someone who’s worthy of it …it’ll make you feel good!

Jan. 2, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford FoundatIon

 

Monday, Jan. 2, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

We … — First word of the Twelve Steps

We. This little word says a lot about the Twelve Steps. Our addiction made us lonely. The we of the program makes us whole again. It makes us a member of a loving, growing group of people.

Our addiction isolated us from others. We couldn’t be honest. We felt a lot of shame. But all this is in the past. The “we” of the program helps us live outside ourselves. Now we tell each other about our pasts. We comfort each other. We try to help each other.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me to join the “we” of the program. Help me to admit and accept my illness, so the healing can begin.

Action for the Day

Today I’ll work to make the “we” of the program even stronger. I’ll find someone to help.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 2, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, Jan. 2, 2023

“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 long in 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., 2023

Jan. 2, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Jan. 2, 2023

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