Sept. 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, Sept. 25, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Reflection for the Day

or a considerable period of time after I reached the program, I let things I couldn’t do keep me from doing the things I could. If I was bothered by what a speaker or other people said, I retreated, sulking, into my shell. Now, instead of being annoyed or defensive when someone strikes a raw nerve, I try to welcome it — because it allows me to work on my attitudes and perceptions of my Higher Power, self, other people, and my life situation. We may no longer have active addictions, but we all certainly have an active thinking problem.

Am I willing to grow — and grow up?

Today I Pray

May my Higher Power give me courage to test my new wings — even a feather at a time. May I not wait to be entirely whole before I re-enter the world of everyday opportunity, for recovery is ongoing, and growth comes through challenges. May I no longer make desperate stabs at perfection, but keep my aims in sight and develop as I live — a day at a time.

Today I Will Remember

Things I can’t do should not get in the way of things I can.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, Sept. 25, 2023

Today, accept myself first in starting to change the things I can — and must. And to change myself, I need the courage and brute honesty to see myself as I really am and not as I want myself and others to see. If I can be strong and honest enough to see in myself what must go and what can be kept, I have to accept the good and bad before I know how to begin the work of moving forward. But if the bad out-weighs the good, I can keep the good as a building block to tear away the bad. If, on the other hand, I accept myself with no improvements needed, I’ve lied to myself. Today, I pray for the courage to change the things I can — me. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2023

Sept. 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Sept. 25, 2023

AA Thought for the Day
Let us consider the term “spiritual experience” as given in Appendix II of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous: “A spiritual experience is something that brings about a personality change. By surrendering our lives to God as we understand Him, we are changed. The nature of this change is evident in recovered alcoholics. This personality change is not necessarily in the nature of a sudden and spectacular upheaval. We do not need to acquire an immediate and overwhelming God-consciousness, followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook. In most cases, the change is gradual.”

Do I see a gradual and continuing change in myself?

Meditation for the Day
“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” For rest from the care of life, you can turn to God each day in prayer and communion. Real relaxation and serenity come from a deep sense of the fundamental goodness of the universe. God’s everlasting arms are underneath all and will support you. Commune with God, not so much for petitions to be granted as for the rest that comes from relying on His will and His purposes for your life. Be sure of God’s strength available to you, be conscious of His support, and wait quietly until that true rest from God fills your being.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be conscious of God’s support today. I pray that I may rest safe and sure therein.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Monday, Sept. 25, 2023

Reflection for the Day
At the suggestion of a long-timer in The Program, I began taking “recovery inventories” periodically. The results showed me — clearly and unmistakably — that the promises of The Program have been true for me. I am not the sick person I was in years past; I am no longer bankrupt in all areas; I have a new life and a path to follow, and I’m at peace with myself most of the time. And that’s a far way from the time in my life when I dreaded facing each new day. Perhaps we should all write recovery inventories from time to time, showing how The Program is working for each of us.

Just for today, will I try to sow faith where there is fear?

Today I Pray
God, let me compare my new life with the old one – just to see how things have changed for me. May I make progress reports for myself now and then – and for those who are newer to The Program. May these reports be — hearteningly — about “what I am doing” rather than – smugly – about “what I have done.”

Today I Will Remember
Has The Program kept its promise? Have I kept mine?

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Monday, Sept. 25, 2023

Everyone is potentially as good as God made him, and the reason that he does not show it is because he has buried the fact beneath a mountain of selfishness.

It has ever been man’s misdirected efforts to benefit himself and himself alone that have resulted in his greatest disservice to himself.

The closer man gets to himself, the further away he is from God and the world. The further he is away from God and the world, the further away he is from God’s blessings and the world’s happiness.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 25, 2023 – Rise ‘n shine for another great Monday and new week

 

Good morning and don’t worry that it’s Monday again with another whole week ahead …we can handle whatever they’ve got in store, and we don’t have to empower people and things that aren’t worth our effort

Sept. 24, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Tag Team

Some people get ten feet tall when they drink. When I got drunk, I grew five inches taller. I was gorgeous. I was beautiful. I had a personality that wouldn’t stop. I was all that and then some.

When I wasn’t drinking, I was five foot three, quiet and hurt. I had that sore heart. It’s because of the sore that I drank – to stop the pain. All I wanted was for it to stop, so I got help and started attending AA.

Now my twin sister and I have the same amount of time in recovery. She said if I could do it, she could do it. We kind of tag-teamed each other. But she still had to do her recovery work, and I did mine.

Today I remove the heart sore with healing and love rather than a drink or a drug.

— Stephanie C., U.S. Navy, 1978–1983

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 24, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023

” …I was convinced that I was having a serious mental breakdown. I wanted help, and I tried to cooperate. As the treatment progressed, I began to get a picture of myself, of the temperament that had caused me so much trouble. I had been hypersensitive, shy, idealistic. My inability to accept the harsh realities of life had resulted in a disillusioned cynic, clothed in a protective armor against the world’s misunderstanding. That armor had turned into prison walls, locking me in loneliness — and fear. All I had left was an iron determination to live my own life in spite of the alien world — and here I was an inwardly frightened, outwardly defiant woman, who desperately needed a prop to keep going.
‘Alcohol was that prop …’” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three, Ch 4 (“Women Suffer Too”), p 226.

Today, with absolute honesty — maybe for the first time in my life — the temperament of my character misguided me to make the choice of alcohol as the prop to shield myself from “the world’s misunderstanding” and all else I wanted to shut out. In blocking out everything, I went to the only place left — within myself. And there lurked the isolation from anything good, and the loss of good leaves only the bad. My choice was to develop and nurture the bad — and it took me to the darkest places of my poisoned emotional and spiritual soul. Today, the temperament of my character can be tempered by the Twelve Steps. Grant me courage and strength to emerge from the bad and work for the good. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2023

Sept. 24, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023

AA Thought for the Day

Let us continue with Step Twelve. We must practice these principles in all our affairs. This part of the twelfth step must not be overlooked. It is the carrying on of the whole program. We do not just practice these principles in regard to our drinking problem. We practice them in all our affairs. We do not give one compartment of our lives to God and keep the other compartments to ourselves. We give our whole lives to God and we try to do His will in every respect. “Herein lies our growth, herein lies all the promise of the future, an ever-widening horizon.”

Do I carry the AA principles with me wherever I go?

Meditation for the Day

“Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” The words of eternal life are the words from God controlling your true being, controlling the real spiritual you. They are the words from God which are heard by you in your heart and mind when these are wide open to His spirit. These are the words of eternal life which express the true way you are to live. They say to you in the stillness of your heart and mind and soul: “Do this and live.”

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may follow the dictates of my conscience. I pray that I may follow the inner urging of my soul.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 24, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023

Reflection for the Day
“Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.” – Goethe

I ask myself sometimes, as we all do: “Who am I?” “Where am I?” “Where am I going?” “What’s it all about?” The learning and growing process is usually slow. But eventually our seeking always brings a finding. What seem like great mysteries often turn out to be enshrined in complete simplicity.

Have I accepted the fact that my willingness to grow is the essence of my spiritual development?

Today I Pray
God give me patience and the perseverance to keep on hoeing the long row, even when the end of it is out of sight. The principles of The Program are my almanac for growing, even more than for harvesting. The harvest will come, abundant enough to share, if I can stick to my garden-tending.

Today I Will Remember
Getting there, not being there.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 24, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023

We are all serving a term here on earth, and it is a tough rap for we are not only serving a life term but we are condemned to death in the end. We can get some special privileges for good behavior, however, but even with this it would be a hopeless situation except for the hope held forth in the inspired Book of God.

Through this Book, we can look forward beyond this prison of Life and visualize the freedom that is beyond.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 24, 2023 – Good morning to a beautiful and serene Sunday

 

Good morning and here’s a precious little pussy kitty to help set the tone for this magnificent Sunday …have a truly great and productive day, and don’t allow anything and anyone the control to make it less

Sept. 23, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Stars have always helped me to get things into perspective …I tried to let the starlight heal something deep in me that hurt.

— Madeleine L’Engle

For a long time, people have used stars to find their way in the dark. Many a lost soul has been guided by the North Star or the Big Dipper.

If we watch the sky at night, we can see thousands of twinkling stars. They are our friends. They remind us how small we are. They remind us of the vastness of the universe, of the power and beauty that surround us.

Starlight in the sky, or reflected on a lake, can comfort us when we hurt. With safe and open arms, nature accepts our sorrow, no matter how we express it. Starlight, like all of nature, reflects a light that comes from way beyond us. It is that light that heals us in a deep and quiet way.

How has nature comforted me when I am troubled?

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 23, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023

“For 18 years, from the age of 21 to 39, fear governed my life. By the time I was 30, I had found that alcohol dissolved fear. For a little while. In the end, I had two problems instead of one: fear and alcohol.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Personal Stories,” Ch 9 (“The Man Who Mastered Fear”), p 275.

Today, neither fear nor alcohol will be master because I understand now that both are choices — and I choose not to devote any part of today to either. Whether fear came first and triggered my drinking or if my drinking plunged me into fear of virtually everything is of no consequence anymore. Both feed each other, and my permission is required for the exchange to occur. Just as a toddler grows bored with crawling and pushes the challenge to stand on his own, so it is with me: I am tired and bored with my drinking, with fear and it pushing me to the bottle. The time has come to push the challenge to walk again on my own — in sobriety. My recovery program is here to hold my hand. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2023

Sept. 23, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023

AA Thought for the Day
Step Twelve is, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” Note that the basis of our effectiveness in carrying the message to others is the reality of our own spiritual awakening. If we have not changed, we cannot be used to change others. To keep this program, we must pass it on to others. We cannot hoard it for ourselves. We may lose it unless we give it away. It cannot flow into us and stop; it must continue to flow into us as it flows out to others.

Am I always ready to give away what I have learned in AA?

Meditation for the Day
“Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you.” When you are faced with a problem beyond your strength, you must turn to God by an act of faith. It is that turning to God in each trying situation that you must cultivate. The turning may be one of glad thankfulness for God’s grace in your life. Or your appeal to God may be a prayerful claiming of His strength to face a situation and finding that you have it when the time comes. Not only the power to face trials, but also the comfort and joy of God’s nearness and companionship are yours for the asking.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may try to draw near to God each day in prayer. I pray that I may feel His nearness and His strength in my life.

Hazelden Foundation