Dec. 3, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Serenity = Reality = Inner peace and strength.
 -- Anonymous

Most of us chased an elusive thing called serenity for years. We thought our journeys outside reality brought us peace and serenity. When we returned to reality we found harshness and pain that caused us to run back to using. So it went, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Run, escape, pain; run, escape, pain.

Then something happened. Our addiction wouldn't let us escape anymore. We no longer found what we were seeking. We tried using more heavily. Finally, all that was left of our lives was the pain.

The Fellowship shows us that reality is not a problem. Trying to escape reality is a problem. When we continue to turn our wills and lives over to a Higher Power, the serenity that results creates a reality of inner peace and strength.

I trust and believe that the changes I am going through in my recovery are necessary and good for me.

You are reading from the book:

Easy Does It by Anonymous

Easy Does It © 1999 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 3, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

"The explanation that alcoholism was a disease of a two-fold nature, an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind, cleared up a number of puzzling questions for me. ...
"The obsession of the mind was a little harder to understand, and yet everyone has obsessions of various kinds. The alcoholic has them to an exaggerated degree. Over a period of time, he has built up self-pity, resentments toward anyone and everyone who dares to cross him, vanity and a critical attitude are character defects that gradually creep in and become a part of his life. Living with fear and tension inevitably results in wanting to ease that tension, which alcohol seems to do temporarily."- Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 10 ("It Might Have Been Worse"), p 380.

Today: "The alcoholic has (obsessions) to an exaggerated degree." If today I am critical or resentful of something or someone, let me remember that I might be feeling an exaggerated emotion that is one of my spiritual defects that began long before my drinking. If resentment comes easily to me even in sobriety or if my expectations of myself are unrealistic, let me see that I may also expect too much of others and that I may resent them if they do not meet my standards. Today, grant me honesty and knowledge to determine if the disproportionate feelings I harbored in my drinking days have carried into my sobriety and, if so, to find my answers in my moral inventory. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

Dec. 3, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

AA Thought for the Day
There is some alcoholic thought, conscious or unconscious, that comes before every slip. As long as we live, we must be on the lookout for such thoughts and guard against them. In fact, our AA training is mostly to prepare us, to make us ready to recognize such thoughts at once and to reject them at once. The slip comes when we allow such thoughts to remain in our minds, even before we actually go through the motions of lifting the glass to our lips. The AA program is largely one of mental training.

How well is my mind prepared?

Meditation for the Day
Fret not your mind with puzzles that you cannot solve. The solutions may never be shown to you until you have left this life. The loss of dear ones, the inequality of life, the deformed and the maimed, and many other puzzling things may not be known to you until you reach the life beyond. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Only step by step, stage by stage, can you proceed in your journey into greater knowledge and understanding.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be content that things which I now see darkly will some day be made clear. I pray that I may have faith that someday I will see face to face.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 3, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

Reflection for the Day
Our ancient enemy, self-will, wears a mask, confronting me with this sort of rationalization: "Why do I have to lean on God? Hasn't He already given me the intelligence to think for myself?" I have to pause when such thoughts creep into my mind, remembering that I've never really been able to bring about the results I wanted simply by relying on my own devices. I'm not self-sufficient, nor do I know all the answers; bitter experience alone teaches me that.

Do I know that I need God's guidance? Am I willing to accept it?

Today I Pray
I pray that, as I become stronger in my conviction and in my sobriety, I will not begin to shrug off my dependence on a Higher Power. May I continue to pray for guidance, even when things seem to be going along smoothly. May I know that I need my Higher Power as much in times of triumph as in times of trauma.

Today I Will Remember
Self-sufficiency is a godless myth.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 3, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

I feel good today and I ought to. I slept like a baby last night, had a fine breakfast that I relished, the wife and kids kissed me as I left the house, I arrived at the office whistling and didn't give a damn whether the boss was in a good humor or not. The work, too, seemed so much easier to do and the gang in the office seemed so much friendlier. It's payday, too, and I drew a whole week's pay and I haven't borrowed a cent from a soul in the office. The whole envelope can go home unopened.

AA gave me all this. To me, an alcoholic, this is heaven.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 3, 2016 - Time to get a beautiful Saturday and weekend under way

Dec. 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Friday, Dec. 2, 2016

Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Letting go to save our lives

I crouched in the doorway of the airplane next to my skydiving coach. I held on to the doorway with my right hand for balance. With my left hand, I firmly grasped my coach's gripper, a padded piece of cloth on his jumpsuit.

It was up to me to give the count. "Ready, set. . ." I heard a snicker. "Get out of the plane," someone hollered. "Go!" I released my grip on the door, closed my eyes, and dived headfirst into the air with my left hand firmly attached to my jump master's gripper. I was falling stable and holding on with both hands. He nodded, giving me my cue to let go.

I shook my head no. He looked confused, then nodded again. I shook my head again, clinging more tightly.

It was almost time to pull. I released my grips. I just let go. It was time to save my own life. My coach backed away.

I signaled and then pulled my ripcord. My parachute made that sweet whooshing sound, the one I had come to identify as the sound it makes when it opens correctly and fills with air, slowing my fall into a float.

Wow! I thought. This is really fun!

Sometimes we're so scared, all we can think to do is hang on. Hanging on in this case was a silly illusion. We were both falling through the air. Holding on to a relationship that's not working, a negative self-image, a job that isn't working, moments and times that have passed, or emotions such as fear and hurt can be silly illusion, too.

To save our own lives, sometimes we have to let go first.

God, show me what I need to let go of, and when it's time to do that.

You are reading from the book:

More Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

More Language of Letting Go © 2000 by Melody Beattie

Dec. 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Friday, Dec. 2, 2016

" ...Step Ten ...suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear ...We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 6 ("Into Action"), p 84.

Today, if a slip or relapse are preceded by thoughts that are mostly subconscious, a more diligent practice of Step 10 might be a refuge from a return to drinking. The 10th Step, the maintenance of the Fourth, could alert us to problems in our physical, emotional and spiritual conditions, and those conditions may well have led us to drinking in the first place. The importance of the 10th cannot be underestimated. It compels us to continue the Fourth Step on a daily basis, and do it honestly and diligently. With that honesty and diligence, we may find in the 10th some of the defects we acknowledged in our Fourth Step. By recognizing them before they reach the surface, we might be able to fight off the potential slip or relapse. At the same time, if we make conscious those thoughts that are otherwise subconscious and cave in to temptation or craving anyway, we most likely have not fully embraced the First Step - "Admitted we were powerless ..." Today, I choose not to neglect my 10th Step. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

Dec. 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, Dec. 2, 2016

AA Thought for the Day
The thoughts that come before having a slip seem to be partly subconscious. And yet it is likely that at least part of these thoughts get into our consciousness. An idle thought connected with drinking casually pops into our mind. That is the crucial moment. Will I harbor that thought even for one minute or will I banish it from my mind at once? If I let it stay, it may develop into a daydream. I may begin to see a cool glass of beer or a Manhattan cocktail in my mind's eye. If I allow the daydream to stay in my mind, it may lead to a decision, however unconscious, to take a drink. Then I am headed for a slip.

Do I let myself daydream?

Meditation for the Day
Many of us have a sort of vision of the kind of person God wants us to be. We must be true to that vision, whatever it is, and we must try to live up to it, by living the way we believe we should live. We can all believe that God has a vision of what he wants us to be like. In all people there is the good person which God sees in us, the person we could be and that God would like us to be. But many a person fails to fulfill that promise and God's disappointments must be many.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may strive to be the kind of a person that God would have me be. I pray that I may try to fulfill God's vision of what I could be.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Friday, Dec. 2, 2016

Reflection for the Day
Once at a meeting held in a church, I saw a stained glass window on which was written, "God Is Love." For some reason, my mind transposed the words into, "Love Is God." Either way is correct and true, I realized, looking about me and becoming even more conscious of the spirit of love and Power in the small meeting room. I'll continue to seek out that love and Power, following The Program as if my life depended upon it - as indeed it does.

Does life to me today mean living - in the active sense - joyously and comfortably?

Today I Pray
May I feel the spirit of love that gives our prayers their energy. May I feel the oneness in this room, the concentration of love that gives the group its power. May I feel the exemplary love of a Higher Power, which our love echoes.

Today I Will Remember
Love is God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 2, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Friday, Dec. 2, 2016

Fires, floods and epidemics are nobody's business - they are everybody's business. Alcoholism is equally devastating and just as much a community catastrophe.

We in AA are unique in that we are trained veterans in the art of combating this disease. Its prevalence demands the complete cooperation of every qualified man or woman, and we are guilty of dereliction of duty and lacking in gratitude to the Grace of God that saved us, if we do anything less than our utmost.

Hazelden Foundation