April 30, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
 
Today, I'll use a novel tactic: instead of an alcoholic, I'll be a soberholic. If "alcoholic" calls attention to the fact that I am addicted to alcohol, can't "soberholic" state my addiction to sobriety? Arguably, despite the progress of AA in striking down the image of the alcoholic as the down-and-out'er sleeping in alleys or drying out in a flophouse, a jail's drunk tank or mental hospital, a stigma remains. Might I be able to erode that stigma by labeling my addiction sobriety instead of alcohol? If so, maybe the implication that my addiction is sobriety can renew my self-confidence and weaken any temptation or lingering doubt about drinking again. As someone addicted to sobriety, why do I need alcohol? Today, at the risk of angering those who warn against trading one addiction for another, I'll substitute dependence on alcohol to dependence on sobriety. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 30, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 
 
AA Thought for the Day 
The AA program is one of faith because we find that we must have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe which we call God is the essential part of the AA program. 
 
Is faith still strong in me? 
 
Meditation for the Day
Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet, but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God's spirit which can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys, such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God's love.
  
Prayer for the Day 
I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant life.
  
Hazelden Foundation

April 30, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
 
Reflection for the Day
We're taught in The Program that "faith without works is dead." How true this is for the addicted person. For if an addicted person fails to perfect or enlarge his or her spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, s/he can't survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If s/he doesn't work, s/he'll surely return to his or her addiction; and if s/he returns to addiction, s/he'll likely die. Then faith will be dead indeed.

Do I believe, through my faith, that I can be uniquely useful to those who still suffer?

Today I Pray
May my faith in my Higher Power and in the influence of The Program be multiplied within me as I pass it along to others who are overcoming similar addictions. May I be certain that my helping others is not simply repaying my debts, but it is the only way I know to continue my spiritual growth and maintain my own sobriety.

Today I Will Remember
The more faith I can give, the more I will have.

Hazelden Foundation

April 30, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
 
It is most discouraging to many of us to find, after many weary months of trying to work on our moral inventory and studied efforts to eliminate some of our worst character defects, that the more we do the more we find to do. It is not that we are not making progress, but as we steady ourselves from a coldly analytical viewpoint, we find more defects than we ever realized we possessed.

Do not become discouraged when this situation exists. It is very evident proof of progress that you have come to a conscious realization that these new defects exist and you are at least bringing them out in the open where you can get a crack at them.

Hazelden Foundation

April 30, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
 -- Winston Churchill
We are used to learning the hard way. Many of us think we're different and can do things our own way. But then we get in too much trouble or pain. The first A.A. members were just like us. They knew how it was to hate being told what to do. So they suggested we follow the Twelve Steps. They didn't say we have to do anything. They didn't say working the Steps is the only way to live sober. They just said the Steps worked for them.

We're finding out that the Steps work for us too. We don't have to work them. We don't have to stay sober. We just like our new sober life better than our old drinking or drugging life. And we're learning how to live this new life by working the Steps.
Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me be open to your lessons. Teach me gently and help me listen.
Action for the DayI will list five ways that I get in the way of my own learning.

From the book:

Keep It Simple by Anonymous

Keep It Simple © 1989 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

April 29, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, April 29, 2013
 
Today, let me accept that service to other people or causes is the essential element in my program of recovery in AA, that expending some of my attention to anything other than myself may put my problems in a more accurate perspective. Service can range from giving a lead talk, talking to a sponsor or sponsee, volunteering to make the coffee for a meeting or to simply listening to someone else's problems or experiences. And possibly, the problems I have, or think I have and maybe exaggerate, may seem somewhat less burdensome. Adversely, I must respect prudence in not expending myself to the extreme that my own needs and working on problems are sacrificed and neglected. In the end, my Program requires that I not focus all that I have completely on myself and that, sharing or volunteering for some degree of service work may make my own problems less heavy. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 29, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, April 29, 2013
 
AA Thought for the Day
The AA program is one of faith, hope and charity. It's a program of hope because when new members come into AA, the first thing they get is hope. They hear older members tell how they had been through the same kind of hell that they have and how they found the way out through AA. And this gives them hope that if others can do it, they can do it.

Is hope still strong in me?

Meditation for the Day
The rule of God's kingdom is perfect order, perfect harmony, perfect supply, perfect love, perfect honesty, perfect obedience. There is no discord in God's kingdom, only some things still unconquered in God's children. The difficulties of life are caused by disharmony in the individual man or woman. People lack power because they lack harmony with God and with each other. They think that God fails because power is not manifested in their lives. God does not fail. People fail because they are out of harmony with Him.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be in harmony with God and with other people. I pray that this harmony will result in strength and success.

Hazelden Foundation

April 29, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Monday, April 29, 2013 
 
Reflection for the Day 
As I grow in The Program - sharing, caring and becoming more and more active - I find that it's becoming easier to live in the Now. Even my vocabulary is changing. No longer is every other sentence salted with such well-used phrases as "could've," "should've," "would've," "might've." What's done is done and what will be will be. The only time that really matters is Now. 
 
Am I gaining real pleasure and serenity and peace in The Program? 
 
Today I Pray 
That I may collect all my scattered memories from the past and high-flown schemes and overblown fears for the future and compact them into the neater confines of Today. Only by living in the Now may I keep my balance, without bending backwards to the past or tipping forward into the future. May I stop trying to get my arms around my whole unwieldy lifetime and carry it around in a gunny sack with me wherever I go.

Today I Will Remember 
Make room for today. 
 
Hazelden Foundation

April 29, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Monday, April 29, 2013
 
Effort has been made to carry AA into schools and young people's organizations, but the effective response has been so negligible that it has usually been abandoned after a short trial.

AA is a program for ALCOHOLICS - persons suffering from alcoholism. It was designed to appeal to them and them only. It is probably true that we can tell the kids a lot about drinking, but it will fall on deaf ears. Unfortunately, we must be pricked by the sharp thorn of experience in order to learn.

Hazelden Foundation

April 29, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Monday, April 29, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:
Learn to say 'I am'

We hear a lot about becoming whole. "Become a complete human being." "Start on the pathway to becoming whole." "You won't find romantic love until you know you're complete." Frankly, these kinds of comments often confused me. But then I decided that wholeness relates directly to the process of detaching - letting go.

It's admirable to go after our dreams and know what we want to accomplish. But after we identify what it is we're after, we need to let it go. We need to know in our hearts and souls that we're okay whether we ever get what we're after or not.

Another friend described it this way, "It's the old Zen Buddhist thing," he said. "When you're one with yourself, life becomes magical. You can get whatever you want."

The most powerful and magical words we can say in the language of letting go are these: I am.

Then we step it up one notch by learning to say, I am complete just as I am.

God, help me know the power of the words I am.

From the book:

More Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

More Language of Letting Go © 2000 by Melody Beattie. All rights reserved.

April 28, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, April 28, 2013
 
Today, I will not turn away from a mistake with a sense of failure or "blame" someone else for a mistake I make. No Program of recovery reaches for perfection because no person will or can ever achieve it; likewise, I cannot and must not impose that unreachable goal on myself- and others. AA's 10th Step says, in part, that we "promptly admitted" when we are wrong - not if. Thus, let me not be so vain as to place responsibility for my mistakes, big and small, on someone or something else; adversely, let me not be discouraged by a sense of failure when I err in word, thought and deed. Instead, let me be open to owning my mistakes, identifying the reason for them - and correcting the reason so that I do not repeat them again. Today, I am not mistake-proof and I cannot expect myself to be - nor can I expect anyone and anything else to be likewise. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 28, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Sunday, April 28, 2013 
 
AA Thought for the Day 
We're so glad to be free from liquor that we do something about it. We get into action. We come to meetings regularly. We go out and try to help other alcoholics. We pass on the good news whenever we get a chance. In a spirit of thankfulness to God, we get into action. The AA program is simple. Submit yourself to God, find release from liquor and get into action. Do these things and keep doing them and you're all set for the rest of your life. 
 
Have I got into action?

Meditation for the Day 
God's eternal quest must be the tracking down of souls. You should join Him in His quest. Through briars, through waste places, through glades, up mountain heights, down into valleys. God leads you. But ever with His leadership goes your helping hand. Glorious to follow where the Leader goes. You are seeking lost sheep. You are bringing the good news into places where it has not been known before. You may not know which soul you will help, but you can leave all results to God. Just go with Him in His eternal quest for souls.

Prayer for the Day 
I pray that I may follow God in His eternal quest for souls. I pray that I may offer God my helping hand.

Hazelden Foundation

April 28, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Sunday, April 28, 2013
 
Reflection for the Day
I will resolve to observe with new interest even the commonplace things that happen today. If I learn to see everything with a fresh eye, perhaps I'll find I have countless reasons for contentment and gratitude. When I find myself trapped in the quicksand of my negative thoughts, I'll turn away from them - and grab for the life-saving strength of sharing with others in The Program.

Do I carry my weight as an all-important link in the worldwide chain of The Program?

Today I Pray
I pray that God will open my eyes to the smallest everyday wonders, that I may notice and list among my blessings things like just feeling good, being able to think clearly. Even when I make a simple, unimportant choice like whether to order coffee or tea or a soft drink, may I be reminded that the power of choice is a gift from God.

Today I Will Remember
I am blessed with the freedom of choice.

Hazelden Foundation

April 28, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Sunday, April 28, 2013
 
The span of human life is such a small part of eternity that the length of your life, whether it be 20 years or 100, is of no moment. Yet the lifespan of some men has, and will continue to have, great influence upon many succeeding generations.

If you can by one single act do something that will benefit just one person 50 years from now, you will have done more than millions who have before you. Few leave anything to posterity when they die that will outlive their tombstone.

Hazelden Foundation

April 28, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

One cannot have wisdom without living life.
 -- Dorothy McCall
Living life means responding, wholly, to our joys and our pitfalls. It means not avoiding the experiences or activities that we fear we can't handle. Only through our survival of them do we come to know who we really are; we come to understand the strength available to us at every moment. And that is wisdom.

When we approach life tentatively, we reap only a portion of its gifts. It's like watching a movie in black and white that's supposed to be in Technicolor. Our lives are in color, but we must have courage to let the colors emerge, to feel them, absorb them, be changed by them. Within our depths, we find our true selves. The complexities of life teach us wisdom. And becoming wise eases the many pitfalls in our path.

Living life is much more than just being alive. I can choose to jump in with both feet. Wisdom awaits me in the depths.

From the book:

Each Day a New Beginning by Karen Casey

Each Day a New Beginning by Karen Casey. © 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

April 27, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, April 27, 2013
 
Today, I will work on my character defects of frustration and impatience as they relate to my interpersonal relationships and communications. As a drinking alcoholic, frustration and impatience walked hand-in-hand when it came to dealing with others: frustration with impatience of people who did not react how and when I expected. As a recovering alcoholic, frustration and impatience still walk hand-in-hand in dealing with others. Clearly, little change; also clearly, abstaining from the bottle isn't all that recovery requires. A fundamental change in character and emotional development is needed. If I overreact when people do not respond when and how I believe they should, maybe I am the problem by not opening myself to the possibility that I might learn or understand something that someone could offer when their thought processes don't match up with mine. Today, I will work consciously and conscientiously on my defects of frustration and impatience by considering the possibility that someone other than myself might have a better idea. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 27, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, April 27, 2013
 
AA Thought for the Day
By submitting to God, we're released from the power of liquor. It has no more hold on us. We're also released from the things that were holding us down: pride, selfishness, and fear. And we're free to grow into a new life, which is so much better than the old life that there's no comparison. This release gives us serenity and peace with the world.

Have I been released from the power of alcohol?

Meditation for the Day
We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us. We feel His presence. Contact with God is not made by the senses. Spirit-consciousness replaces sight. Since we cannot see God, we have to perceive Him by spiritual perception. God has to span the physical and the spiritual with the gift to us of spiritual vision. Many persons, though they cannot see God, have had a clear spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside a box of space and time, but we know there must be something outside of that box - limitless space, eternity of time, and God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I pray that God will give me spiritual vision.

Hazelden Foundation

April 27, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Saturday, April 27, 2013 

Reflection for the Day 
Am I so sure I'm doing everything possible to make my new life a success? Am I using my capabilities well? Do I recognize and appreciate all I have to be grateful for? The Program and its Twelve Steps teach me that I am the possessor of unlimited resources. The more I do with them, the more they will grow - to overshadow and cancel out the difficult and painful feelings that now get so much of my attention. 
 
Am I less sensitive today than when I first came to The Program? 
 
Today I Pray 
May I make the most of myself in all ways. May I begin to look outward to people and opportunities and wonderful resources around me. As I become less ingrown and understand myself better in relation to others, may I be less touchy and thin-skinned. May I shrug off my old "the world-is-out-to-get-me" feeling and see that same world as my treasure-house, God-given and boundless. 
 
Today I Will Remember 
My resources are unlimited. 
 
Hazelden Foundation

April 27, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, April 27, 2013
 
Real reforms are in people, not in movements. All the laws and demands of church, state and family could not make us change our drinking habits. But the day eventually came when we wanted to change and then, and then only, was the change possible. Prohibition legislation was only a challenge to us and we drank the more because they said we could not. We were determined to show those So-and-So's they couldn't stop us.

Only when we, ourselves, wanted to do something about it was any real reformation possible.

Hazelden Foundation

April 27, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.
 -- Katherine Mansfield
Newcomer
Someone I hoped would be an important part of my life for years to come has left. I'm devastated. I don't know how much of what happened is my fault; I keep thinking, "If only I hadn't said what I said . . . "
Sponsor
Human lives are filled with all kinds of separation. Friends, mates, and family members - the people in our lives are only lent to us. If they accompany us for some part of our journey, we're blessed. We don't get to control or keep them.

Sentences beginning "if only" can go nowhere but straight to regret. They support our false belief that we can control what happens in other people's lives. "I should have," "I could have," and "I would have" are all variations on the same theme. They postpone acceptance and necessary grieving.

At times it's we, ourselves, who do the leaving. We can count it a success, not a failure, when we've had the courage to acknowledge the truth of an ending.

Today, though I may go through some pain as I learn acceptance, I rejoice in the strength and clarity it gives me.

From the book:

If You Want What We Have by Joan Larkin

If You Want What We Have © 1998 by Joan Larkin. All rights reserved.

April 26, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Friday, April 26, 2013
 
Today, grant me the wisdom and prudence to appreciate the power of the spoken word, the one spewed in anger, fear, frustration or sarcasm and which can inflict more damage than any destructive action of my drinking days. Let me understand that a single wrong word can do hurt and injury that might not be healed by any amend I might make. And even if my amend or apology is accepted, the injury and hurt may cut so deeply in the person against whom the wrong word is spoken, something can still be lost permanently. I pray for guidance in the 12th Step that I practice all the Program's principles in all my affairs, including not caving into the impulsiveness of unleashing a word that is intended to impose hurt. Today, I must think before I speak, especially if I am angry, frustrated or afraid, because I cannot unspeak it - and atonement may not be enough to repair the damage. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 26, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, April 26, 2013 
 
AA Thought for the Day 
The AA program is one of submission, release and action. When we're drinking, we're submitting to a power greater than ourselves - liquor. Our own wills are no use against the power of liquor. One drink and we're sunk. In AA, we stop submitting to the power of liquor. Instead, we submit to a Power, also greater than ourselves, which we call God.

Have I submitted myself to that Higher Power?

Meditation for the Day 
Ceaseless activity is not God's plan for your life. Times of withdrawal for renewed strength are always necessary. Wait for the faintest tremor of fear and stop all work, everything, and rest before God until you are strong again. Deal in the same way with all tired feelings. Then you need rest of body and renewal of spirit-force. St. Paul said: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." This does not mean that you are to do all things and then rely on God to find strength. It means that you are to do the things you believe God wants you to do and only then can you rely on His supply of power.


Prayer for the Day 
I pray that God's spirit may be my master always. I pray that I may learn how to rest and listen, as well as how to work. 
 
Hazelden Foundation

April 26, 2013 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Friday, April 26, 2013
 
Reflection for the Day
When I first came to The Program, I was stunned by the constant sound of laughter. I realized today that cheerfulness and merriment make for usefulness. Outsiders are sometimes shocked when we burst into laughter over a seemingly tragic experience out of the past. But why shouldn't we laugh? We have recovered, and have helped others to recover. What greater cause could there be for rejoicing than this?

Have I begun to regain my sense of humor?

Today I Pray
May God restore my sense of humor. May I appreciate the honest laughter that is the background music of our mutual rejoicing in our sobriety. May I laugh a lot, not the defensive ego-laugh which mocks another's weakness, not the wry laugh of the self-putdown, but the healthy laugh that keeps situations in perspective. May I never regard this kind of laughter as irreverent. I have learned, instead, that it is irreverent to take myself too seriously.

Today I Will Remember
A sense of humor is a sign of health.

Hazelden Foundation

April 26, 2013 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Friday, April 26, 2013
 
Many of us came into AA either in middle life or beyond and feel that with our reasonable life expectancy, it is practically impossible to atone for our previous wrong actions. The thief at the Crucifixion probably thought the same thing but, by one single act, he brought the promise that "this day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

Hazelden Foundation

April 26, 2013 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Friday, April 26, 2013

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Reflection for the Day
Why do I do what I do? Why did I say what I said? Why on earth did I put off an important responsibility? Questions like these, best asked of myself in a quiet time of meditation, demand honest answers. I may have to think deeply for those answers, going beyond the tempting rationalizations that lack the luster of truth. Have I accepted the fact that self-deception can only damage me, providing a clouded and unrealistic picture of the person I really am?
Today I Pray
May God allow me to push aside my curtain of fibs, alibis, rationalizations, justification, distortions and downright lies and let in the light on the real truths about myself. May I meet the person I really am and take comfort in the person I can become.
Today I Will Remember
Hello, Me. Meet the Real Me.

From the book:

A Day at a Time (Softcover) by Anonymous

A Day at a Time © 1989 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

April 25, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Thursday, April 25, 2013
 
Today, let me begin to understand that I cannot claim credit if someone I sponsor or to whom I have carried the message has found sobriety. By the same token, let me not feel that I have failed a sponsee or co-member who continues in the throes of active alcoholism. To claim credit for anyone else's sobriety or blame for their active addiction fires my ego beyond the Program's boundaries and, because of it, I have broken the commandment to be only a carrier of the Message. Just as I cannot credit anyone for my sobriety other than the Program or blame my drinking on someone or something else, I cannot claim credit for another person's recovery any more than I can be responsible for his disease. Today, let me remember that I am a humble messenger, not the Message. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

April 25, 2013 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thursday, April 25, 2013 

AA Thought for the Day

I don't believe that AA works because I read it in a book or because I hear people say so. I believe it because I see people getting sober and staying sober. An actual demonstration is what convinces me. When I see the change in people, I can't help believing that AA works. We could listen to talk about AA all day and still not believe it, but when we see it work, we have to believe it. Seeing is believing. 

Do I see AA work every day? 

Meditation for the Day

Try saying: "God bless her (or him)" of anyone who is in disharmony with you. Also say it of those who are in trouble through their own fault. Say it, willing that showers of blessings may fall upon them. Let God do the blessing. Leave to God the necessary correcting or disciplining. You should only desire blessing for them. Leave God's work to God. Occupy yourself with the task that He gives you to do. God's blessing will also break down all your own difficulties and build up all your successes. 

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may use God's goodness so that it will be a blessing to others. I pray that I may accept God's blessing so that I will have harmony, beauty, joy and happiness. 

Hazelden Foundation