Nov. 24, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012

Just for today, or any other day, I cannot place too much significance on how many 24 Hours of sobriety I have, whether it be a single 24 Hours or five years' worth. All of us who follow or practice an AA program have only a day-to-day reprieve from where we once were, and those with years of sobriety are no less protected from a slip or relapse than those whose last drink was yesterday. This is not to say there is no benefit to being sober in terms of months or years; the major benefit is that we may need that long simply to emerge from the alcoholic fog, from the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual damage that we self-inflicted. And this is no overnight journey. But once we emerge from the fog, we may be better equipped to grasp the vision of the Program and start to put it to work. Yet even when we move from being dry to sober and embark on the journey to recovery, we are not insulated from surrendering in one foolish and potentially deadly second to the temptation or craving, or to some emotion we don't want to feel. Today, I need to feel sincere gratitude for how many 24 Hours since my last drink. But I cannot risk the folly that it is promised tomorrow. That is why, today, we take everything one thing at a time, one day at a time. And our common journey continues. - Chris M., 2012

Nov. 24, 2012 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012

AA Thought for the Day
Instead of pretending to be perfectionists, in AA we are content if we are making progress. The main thing is to be growing. We realize that perfectionism is only a result of false pride and an excuse to save our faces. In AA, we are willing to make mistakes and to stumble, provided we are always stumbling forward. We are not so interested in what we are as in what we are becoming. We are on the way, not at the goal. And we will be on the way as long as we live. No AA has ever "arrived." But we are getting better.

Am I making progress?

Meditation for the Day
Each new day brings an opportunity to do some little thing that will help to make a better world, that will bring God's kingdom a little nearer to being realized on earth. Take each day's happenings as opportunities for something you can do for God. In that spirit, a blessing will attend all that you do. Offering this day's service to God, you are sharing in His work. You do not have to do great things.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that today I may do the next thing, the unselfish thing, the loving thing. I pray that I may be content with doing small things as long as they are right.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 24, 2012 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012

Reflection for the Day
Although we came into The Program to deal with a specific problem, we soon became aware that we would find not only freedom from addiction, but freedom to live in the real world without fear and frustration. We learned that the solutions are within ourselves. With the help of my Higher Power, I can enrich my life with comfort, enjoyment and deep-down serenity.

Am I changing from my own worst enemy to my own best friend?

Today I Pray
May I praise my Higher Power for my freedoms - from addiction, from spiritual bankruptcy, from loneliness, from fear, from the seesaw of pride, from despair, from delusions, from shallowness, from doom. I give thanks for the way of life that has given me these freedoms and replaced the empty spaces with extra goodness and peace of mind.

Today I Will Remember
To give thanks for all my freedoms.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 24, 2012 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012

Every practicing alcoholic is firmly convinced that the Devil has all the good tunes. It was the music we had wanted and the tunes to which we had attuned our ears. His music was louder, more catchy and, to our thinking, was prettier. We suspected, however, that it did not have the soul-satisfying qualities that make good music.

We must learn all over again to train our senses to appreciate those things which are really good and not cheap imitations.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 24, 2012 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012

Today's thought from Hazelden is:
Praise God!

We did not create this program on our own, and we did not achieve abstinence by ourselves. Our recovery is a gift, just as life is a gift. Light, the natural world, our nourishment, talents, love, and fellowship - all come from our Higher Power. Our role is to receive, use wisely, share, and enjoy the blessings God has showered upon us.

When we get over the idea that we can do everything by ourselves, we become receptive to the moving force that creates and sustains us. As we stop looking at life from our own egotistical point of view, we begin to see God's glory. No longer a slave to our desires for material things, we are able to rejoice in our Higher Power and to share our joy with those around us.

Our recovery makes us examples of God's power to heal and renew.

In You, there is great joy.

From the book:

Food for Thought by Elisabeth L.

Food for Thought by Elisabeth L. © 1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

Nov. 23, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

Just for today, may I embrace and respect the virtue of patience and loosen my grip on a character defect that can be as crippling as any other - impatience. Whether I am new to the Program or have worked it for countless 24 Hours, may I understand in expecting too much too soon that recovery requires growth - and growth is not a one-time "event" but an ever-changing dynamic. If today I am tempted or have an impulse to drink or shoot up, grant me the wisdom of patience. I have the 12 Steps at my disposal to overcome a potential relapse and my own history to know where impatience has taken me before. And let me know that the temptation to slip will pass, as all things do. But the temptation will not pass if I feed it. If people in my life do not live up to what I expect of them or in the time I think they should, let me use patience to ask myself if I am unfairly asking anything of someone else and, if not, grant me patience to "allow" others to do what needs to be done in their own time. If something looms for me three weeks in the future, let me not fret over it today or every other today for the next three weeks for I risk igniting other potentially crippling emotions, including anger, resentment and a possible blow-up like a pressure cooker left unattended. Today, let me recognize that impatience can be as deadly a character defect as any other that is "popular" in AA discussion and that I need to respect life evolving on its time schedule, not mine. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012

Nov. 23, 2012 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

AA Thought for the Day
I no longer refuse to do anything because I cannot do it to perfection. Many of us alcoholics use the excuse of not being able to do something perfectly to enable us to do nothing at all. We pretend to be perfectionists. We are good at telling people how a thing should be done, but when we come to the effort of doing it ourselves, we balk. We say to ourselves: "I might make a mistake, so I'd better let the whole thing slide." In AA, we set our goals high, but that does not prevent us from trying. The mere fact that we will never fully reach these goals does not prevent us from doing the best we can.

Have I stopped hiding behind the smoke-screen of perfectionism?

Meditation for the Day
"In the world ye shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." Keep an undaunted spirit. Keep your spirit free and unconquered. You can be undefeated and untouched by failure and all its power, by letting your spirit overcome the world; rise above earth's turmoil into the secret chamber of perfect peace and confidence. When a challenge comes to you, remember you have God's help and nothing can wholly defeat you.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have confidence and be of good cheer. I pray that I may not fear the power of failure.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 23, 2012 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

Reflection for the Day
Before I came to The Program, I was like an actor who insisted on writing the script, producing, directing and, in short, running the whole show. I had to do it my way, forever trying to arrange and re-arrange the lights, lines, sets and, most of all, the other players' performances. If only my arrangements would stay put, and people would behave as I wished, the show would be fantastic. My self-delusion led me to believe that if they all would just shape up, everything would be fine. Of course, it never worked out that way.

Isn't it amazing how others seem to be "shaping up" now that I've stopped trying to manage everything and everybody?

Today I Pray
May I talk myself out of that old urge to control everything and everybody. Time was, if I couldn't manage directly, I would do it indirectly, through manipulation, secret conferences and asides. May I know that if I am the one who is always pulling the strings on the marionettes, then I am also the one who feels the frustration when they collapse or slip off the stage.

Today I Will Remember
I can only "shape up" myself.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 23, 2012 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

Isn't it strange to note the absence of a lot of our old pre-AA friends over the weekend? We have not offended them, surely, and we are just as good friends as we used to be but, somehow, they don't call on us with the same regularity. The answer is simple - the bar is closed.

Now home is what it should be, and the people who do call do so because they like us and not just to get a drink.

Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 23, 2012 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

Today's thought from Hazelden is:
Ordinary moments
Saving a time for quiet appreciation...

An aesthetic life, in the broad sense, is a spiritual life. Couples can strengthen their partnership and enrich their lives by making aesthetic experiences daily events. Saving time for quiet appreciation of the good things in our lives - communicating with each other and with friends, playing and relaxing, reading to children, cooking and eating tasty, nourishing food - these are some ways to bring beauty into each day. We can also put attractive pictures and interesting things in our home to make it a place that comforts and pleases us; we can read interesting books, notice a striped caterpillar on a milkweed or the splash of stars in the night sky, relish the sensuous pleasure of a warm soapy bath, see a good movie, listen to music, grow plants.

We live spiritually when we make a place for beauty and when we slow down to enjoy the beauty that already surrounds us. We may wonder what good that may do us. The answer is that these spiritual gestures add meaning to all the other parts of our lives.

Take a few minutes now to appreciate something beautiful. Make a plan to bring some beauty into this day.

From the book:

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

The More We Find in Each Other by Merle Fossum and Mavis Fossum. © 1992 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

Nov. 22, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012

Just for today: choices. The ones I am making now can partly measure my progress in the Program and the quality of my sobriety. As a drinking alcoholic, many of my choices were dictated by lying, by fear, by anger, by loneliness, by resentment and by selfishness. As a recovering alcoholic, the choices I make hopefully are based in truth, logic, without emotion and with a sense of the greater good instead of just my good. My choices then and now, while hopefully made from different perspectives, retain one constant: in the end, there are consequences of my choices and I alone am held responsible to those consequences. Unlike then, however, now I pray for the foresight to see the consequences and, if I see those consequences coming with a responsibility I do not want to be held to, sobriety gives me the freedom to choose wisely. Drinking denied me that freedom; choices then almost always produced consequences that are even now too costly. Today, being sober, I have the freedom of choice, and I pray for the Higher Power's knowledge to make the right choices. And our common journey continues. Just for today. -Chris M., 2012