The road to recovery and clearing the path

Oct. 3, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017

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

It is impossible that anything should be produced if there were nothing existing before.
-- Aristotle

Everything comes from something. All the organic compounds in our world come from four elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. From these simple ingredients have developed the marvelous chains of self-replicating proteins that fill the planet with jungles, gardens, farms, the swarming life of the sea, and four billion people.

Each of us contains all human possibilities within ourselves. Nothing that we do comes from nowhere; we all have the capacity for great goodness as well as great selfishness and blindness. The choice, at every moment, is ours. What will we use out of our formidable repertoire of responses?

Most of us have a pattern of response that we are comfortable with. Our habitual behavior saves us from the discomfort of always having to make a choice. But in exchange for comfort, we give up a little bit of our spontaneity. Every once in a while, it's good for us to become aware of what our habits are, and what determines our usual behavior.

Today I'll take myself off automatic pilot and navigate the whole course in person.

You are reading from the book:

The Promise of a New Day by Karen Casey and Martha Vanceburg

Oct. 3, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017

" ...I went to my first meeting. I was a very fortunate drunk. God has been good to me both in my drinking and in my sobriety. Because, thank God, since I came into this program, I haven't had any trouble. Oh yes, I get the dry jitters once in a while, but that isn't anything to worry about. It passes away. But I've never come close to that first drink. I took the advice of people I had heard at meetings, the people in the group. And I jumped in with both feet. Someone told me, 'When you drank, you didn't get half-drunk. You went all the way. In this program, there aren't any halfway measures. In here, you must go all the way, too.' So I attended as many meetings as possible." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 8 ("Desperation Drinking"), p 516.

Today, "half measures availed us nothing." Today, I will apply the full measures I exerted on drinking to get sober, and I will listen to the voices of experience and set aside the egoism that I think I know better than anyone else. And if a shot of the "dry jitters" creeps in, I have the Twelve Steps to fall back on and the promise that, "This, too, shall pass." But I must first get to the point that enough is enough and, today, I give it up, facing that enough is enough. With that desire for something better, I have taken my first baby step. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

Oct. 3, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017

AA Thought for the Day
How do I talk with new prospects? Am I always trying to dominate the conversation? Do I lay down the law and tell prospects what they will have to do? Do I judge them privately and feel that they have small chance of making the program? Do I belittle them to myself? Or am I willing to bare my soul so as to get them talking about themselves? And, then, am I willing to be a good listener, not interrupting, but feel deeply that they are my brothers or my sisters?

Will I do all I can to help them along the path to sobriety?

Meditation for the Day
"The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance forever." Only when the soul attains this calm, can there be true spiritual work done, and mind and soul and body be strong to conquer and bear all things. Peace is the result of righteousness. There is no peace in wrong doing, but if we live the way God wants us to live, quietness and assurance follow. Assurance is that calmness born of a deep certainty of God's strength available to us and in His power to love and guard us from all harm and wrong doing.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may attain a state of true calmness. I pray that I may live in quietness and peace.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 3, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017

Reflection for the Day
I've learned in The Program that I'm wholly powerless over my addiction. At long last, I've conceded my powerlessness; as a result, my life has taken a 180-degree turn for the better. However, I do have a power, derived from God, to change my own life. I've learned that acceptance does not mean submission to an unpleasant or degrading situation. It means accepting the reality of the situation and then deciding what, if anything, I can and will do about it.

Have I stopped trying to control the uncontrollable? Am I gaining the courage to change the things I can?

Today I Pray
I ask my Higher Power for direction as I learn to sort out the things I can change from the things I can't, for that sorting process does, indeed, require God-given wisdom. May "the things I cannot change" not give me an excuse for inaction. May "the things I can" not include managing other people's lives. May I start to understand my own reality.

Today I Will Remember
Acceptance is not inaction. Change is not domination.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 3, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017

Promises, vows, pledges, resolutions, doctors, preachers, priests, psychologists, psychiatrists, hospitals, judges, jails, jitter-joints, in fact everything, but nothing worked.

One day, by the Grace of God, we found ourselves sober, and there can be no denying that it was the Grace of God alone that caused it. That same Grace will remain with you as long as you honestly seek it, and you will find that it will prove more than sufficient.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 3, 2017 - Good morning to Tuesday and reinvigorated faith, hope, strength and courage

Oct. 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Monday, Oct. 2, 2017

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

THE EVOLVING RELATIONSHIP

.... open up to hope and new possibilities...

Some mornings we may awaken filled with thoughts of what is wrong in our lives. Perhaps we obsess about our failures or the limits of our relationships. If we let ourselves sink into self-loathing, we build a wall that separates us from those things that nurture us and give us joy.

When we awaken to the living and growing world, our spirits lift and open up to hope and new possibilities. Walking along an old sidewalk or across an abandoned parking lot, we see cracks in the concrete or asphalt and new green growth pushing through. Where there is enough soil to hold a seed, there is the possibility of a tree someday. The universe seizes opportunities for renewal that slip through the slightest opening. There is always hope for renewal in our relationships when we are willing to plant the seeds and feed them so they can grow.

Name an experience that has shown you the seeds for new growth.

You are reading from the book:

The More We Find In Each Other by Merle Fossum and Mavis Fossum

Oct. 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, Oct. 2, 2017

"It would be wonderful were I able to tell you that my confidence in God and my application of the Twelve Steps to my daily living have utterly banished fear. This would not be the truth. The most accurate answer I can give you is this: Fear has never again ruled my life since that day ...when I found that a Power greater than myself could not only restore me to sanity but could keep me both sober and sane. Never in 16 years have I dodged anything because I was afraid of it. I have faced life instead of running away from it." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three, Ch 9 ("The Man Who Mastered Fear"), pp 284-85.

Today: fear of what? Of the uncertain but predictable consequences of drinking? Of the untested and unfamiliar path of sobriety? Of taking responsibility for the consequences of my actions when drunk, when sober? Of telling someone I'm sorry? Of admitting that I can't do it alone anymore, that I need something better and stronger than myself? Of the risk of opening myself knowing that once the heart is open nothing will ever be the same? Of facing fear? Of what more fear will do to me? Today, if on nothing more than blind faith in something stronger and greater than myself, I confront my fears because I've empowered them far too long. In facing them, God granting, may I have control of my fears - not the other way around. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2017

Oct. 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Monday, Oct. 2, 2017

AA Thought for the Day
What makes an effective talk at an AA meeting? It is not a fine speech with fine choice of words and an impressive delivery. Often a few simple words direct from the heart are more effective than the most polished speech. There is always a temptation to speak beyond your own experience, in order to make a good impression. This is never effective. What does not come from the heart does not reach the heart. What comes from personal experience and a sincere desire to help the other person reaches the heart.

Do I speak for effect or with a deep desire to help?

Meditation for the Day
"Thy will be done" must be your oft-repeated prayer. And in the willing of God's will there should be gladness. You should delight to do that will because when you do, all your life goes right and everything tends to work well for you in the long run. When you are honestly trying to do God's will and humbly accepting the results, nothing can seriously hurt you. Those who accept the will of God in their life may not inherit the earth, but they will inherit real peace of mind.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have a yielded will. I pray that my will may be attuned to the will of God.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Monday, Oct. 2, 2017

Reflection for the Day
An entire philosophy of life is condensed in the slogan "Live and Let Live." First we're urged to live fully, richly and happily - to fulfill our destiny with the joy that comes from doing well whatever we do. Then comes a more difficult challenge: "Let live." This means accepting the right of every other person to live as he or she wishes, without criticism or judgment from us. The slogan rules out contempt for those who don't think as we do. It also warns against resentments, reminding us not to interpret other people's actions as intentional injuries to us.

Am I becoming less tempted to involve my mind with thoughts of how others act or live?

Today I Pray
May I live my life to the fullest, understanding that pure pleasure-seeking is not pleasure-finding, but that God's goodness is here to be shared. May I partake of it. May I learn not to take over the responsibility for another's adult decisions; that is my old controlling self trying, just one more time, to be the executive director of other people's lives.

Today I Will Remember
Live and let live.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 2, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Monday, Oct. 2, 2017

Most of us have met persons whom we thought extremely homely until we knew them better. Then we ceased observing their lack of facial beauty and began to appreciate those persons for what they really were.

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were what might be called extremely homely men, yet the beauty and strength of their characters was such that practically all present-day pictures show little of their ugliness.

You can't do a whole lot to improve an ugly face, but you can hide it behind a lovely character.

Hazelden Foundation