Dec. 1, 2015 - Photo gallery: On World AIDS Day, a history of a pandemic
Dec. 1, 2015 - Revisiting the life and legend of Janis Joplin
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| Janis Joplin |
Dec. 1, 2015 - Broadway, TV actress Holland Taylor publicly comes out
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| Actress Holland Taylor publicly comes out |
Dec. 1, 2015- Commentary: I'm neither masculine nor feminine - I'm me
Dec. 1, 2015 - Could porn performer James Deen be his industry's Bill Cosby?
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| Porn actor James Deen |
Dec. 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Carrying the message
What we are always carries a stronger message than what we say. This is why we're sometimes turned off by people who seek to overwhelm us with charm. It's also why we can sometimes be drawn to people who are quiet and unassuming.
However it works, there is a powerful message in one's unspoken thoughts and feelings. We can usually sense, for example, the mood of people in a room, even when little is being said. If we spend any time with others, they will soon know much about us even if we say little.
This silent communication may be the great secret of AA's success in reaching those who still suffer. If we are living sober and want to help others, that's the message we give out. That's also a form of carrying the message.
I'll communicate today by maintaining a warm and friendly attitude toward every person I meet, knowing that thoughts and feelings speak louder than words.
Carrying the message
What we are always carries a stronger message than what we say. This is why we're sometimes turned off by people who seek to overwhelm us with charm. It's also why we can sometimes be drawn to people who are quiet and unassuming.
However it works, there is a powerful message in one's unspoken thoughts and feelings. We can usually sense, for example, the mood of people in a room, even when little is being said. If we spend any time with others, they will soon know much about us even if we say little.
This silent communication may be the great secret of AA's success in reaching those who still suffer. If we are living sober and want to help others, that's the message we give out. That's also a form of carrying the message.
I'll communicate today by maintaining a warm and friendly attitude toward every person I meet, knowing that thoughts and feelings speak louder than words.
You are reading from the book:
Walk in Dry Places by Mel B. © 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
Dec. 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015
"Pity me the heart that is slow to learn
What the quick mind sees at every turn." - Edna St. Vincent Millay
"For a while ...we can endure the intellect's being ahead of the emotions, which is the import of Millay's couplet. But as the years go by, the stretch becomes unbearable; and the man with the grown-up brain and the childish emotions - vanity, self-interest, false pride, jealousy, longing for social approval - becomes a prime candidate for alcohol. ...(T)hat is a definition of alcoholism: a state of being in which the emotions have failed to grow to the stature of the intellect." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 11 ("He Who Loses His Life"), pp 534-35.
Today, alcoholism cannot be arrested by intellectual strategies and I must measure - honestly - my emotional state. Without healthy emotions, the quality of my sobriety will likely be little more than my being a dry drunk. Accepting that alcohol is "but a symptom" of our underlying condition, we are compelled to seek sobriety by doing more than abstaining. If today the number of 24 Hours since my last drink is days, months or years, a measure of the quality of my sobriety may be in asking if I still harbor the emotions that I felt when I was drinking. If so, I probably need to review and refine my program. Sobriety is more than not drinking and comes with physical, spiritual and emotional renewal. The 12 steps give us a road map to recovery. Today, I need to look honestly at my emotional affairs. I've already tried the intellectual route. It got me nowhere. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2015
Dec. 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015
AA Thought for the Day
The thoughts that come before having a slip are often largely subconscious. It is a question whether or not our subconscious minds ever become entirely free from alcoholic thoughts as long as we live. For instance, some of us dream about being drunk when we are asleep, even after several years of sobriety in AA. During the period of our drinking days, our subconscious minds have been thoroughly conditioned by our alcoholic way of thinking and it is doubtful if they ever become entirely free of such thoughts during our lifetime. But when our conscious minds are fully conditioned against drinking, we can stay sober and our subconscious minds do not often bother us.
Am I still conditioning my conscious mind?
Meditation for the Day
Having sympathy and compassion for all who are in temptation, a condition which we are sometimes in, we have a responsibility towards them. Sympathy always includes responsibility. Pity is useless because it does not have a remedy for the need. But wherever our sympathy goes, our responsibility goes, too. When we are moved with compassion, we should go to the one in need and bind up his wounds as best we can.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have sympathy for those in temptation. I pray that I may have compassion for others' trials.
Hazelden Foundation
Dec. 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015
Reflection for the Day
It has truly been said that, "We become what we do." It's emphasized to us over and over in The Program that our thoughts and actions toward others color and shape our spiritual lives. Words and acts of kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness and forgiveness serve to strengthen those qualities within us that heighten our consciousness of God's love.
In asking God to direct and guide my life, am I also asking love to take over and lead me where it will?
Today I Pray
May I make a resolute attempt at acting out the way I want to be - loving, forgiving, kind, thoughtful. May I be aware that each small, attentive act carries with it an echo of God's all-caring. For God so loved the world; may we make His love our example.
Today I Will Remember
We become what we do.
Hazelden Foundation
Dec. 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015
There will always be a difference of opinion as long as people have different interests, different prejudices and different mental capacities.
To expect people to disagree with you is only sensible and reasonable. If everybody agreed with you, everybody would be as smart as you and you wouldn't like that for a minute. The chances are you are both wrong anyhow, or you would not be required to defend your opinions. The right can defend itself without your help.
Hazelden Foundation
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