The road to recovery and clearing the path

Dec. 27, 2012 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012

Reflection for the Day
"The central characteristic of the spiritual experience," wrote AA co-founder Bill W., "is that it gives the recipient a new and better motivation out of all proportion to any process or discipline, belief or faith. These experiences cannot make us whole at once; they are a rebirth to a fresh and certain opportunity."

Do I see my assets as God's gifts, which have been in part matched by an increasing willingness on my part to find and do His will for me?

Today I Pray
I pray for the wholeness of purpose that can only come through spiritual experience. No amount of intellectual theory, pep-talking to myself, disciplined deprivation, "doing it for" somebody else can accomplish the same results. May I pray for spiritual enlightenment, not only in order to recover, but for itself.

Today I Will Remember
Total motivation through spiritual wholeness.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2012 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012

The average person has so much trouble in finding a satisfactory faith simply because the mind has difficulty visualizing a force so powerful as anything but a very complex thing. He thinks he must understand it in order to acquire it and use it.

When we eat a meal, we believe that we shall digest it and that we will be strengthened and sustained by it. Yet few of us know the mysteries of the digestive functions, but we get just as much sustenance from our meals as those who do.

We, therefore, eat our meals on faith, and we would probably ruin our digestion if we tried to figure it out.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 27, 2012 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

You saved me once, and what is given is always returned. We are in this life to help one another. -- Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio

As the end of this year approaches, we think about endings and beginnings. This past year brought us both difficulties and happiness, both pain and healing. It has been a year of growth because we are sober.

Let's think about the year that is ending and be thankful for its gifts. We need to take time to rest before the next year begins. We shouldn't worry about what the next year will bring. We can simply know that next year will bring us the chance to help other addicts who still suffer. We have been saved. We are living a new life. Let's be grateful, and let's plan to reach out next year to share the wealth of sobriety. After all, we are in this world to help one another.

Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, remind me each day that I am needed. By living well, staying sober, and helping others through the program of recovery, I am fulfilling an important purpose in life.

Today's Action
When did I last reach out to a newcomer in recovery? Today I will make a plan for how I will share my experience, strength, and hope through the next year to help save someone else's life.

From the book:

God Grant Me... by Anonymous

Dec. 26, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012

"When I try to reconstruct what my life was life 'before,' I see a coin with two faces.
"One, the side I turned to myself and the world, was respectable ...
"The other side ...was sinister, baffling. I was inwardly unhappy most of the time. There would be times when the life of respectability and achievement seemed insufferably dull - I had to break out. This I would do by going completely 'bohemian' for a night, getting drunk and rolling home with the dawn. Next day remorse would be on me like a tiger. I'd claw my way back to 'respectability' and stay there - until the inevitable next time." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 16 ("Me an Alcoholic?"), p 432.

Just for today, give me faith and security in my recovery to know that there does not have to be "the inevitable next time." The AA Program encourages us to live in the solution of sobriety and not in the problem of alcoholism, and I am in the latter if my focus is on fighting off "the inevitable next time." The threat of a "next time" is disempowered if I practice with diligence and integrity the Program's Steps and Principles and accept intuitively that drinking now, for me, is a choice and that I will be held responsible to the consequences of that choice. Today, "the inevitable next time" may be less inevitable if I stick to the Program's principles and ethics and the understanding that I now have a choice and the choice I make will have consequences. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012

Dec. 26, 2012 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012

AA Thought for the Day
I am glad to be a part of AA, of that great fellowship that is spreading over the United States and all over the world. I am only one of the many AAs, but I am one. I am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help AA to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and so find it again.

Am I grateful to be an AA?

Meditation for the Day
These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of service to other people in a small way, at least. And we can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power. We can go along through life doing the best we can, but without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same time depend deeply on God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may give my life to the worthwhile cause. I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from good work well done.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2012 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012

Reflection for the Day
None of us can claim to know God in all His fullness. None of us can really claim to understand our Higher Power to any extent. But this I do know: there is a Power beyond my human will which can do wonderful, loving things for me that I can't do for myself. I see this glorious power at work in my own being, and I see the miraculous results of this same power in the lives of thousands upon thousands of other recovering people who are my friends in The Program.

Do I need the grace of God and the loving understanding of my friends in The Program any less now than when I began my recovery?

Today I Pray
May I never forget that my spiritual needs are as great today as they were when I came into The Program. It is so easy to look at others, newer to the recovery process, and regard them as the needy ones. As I think of myself as increasingly independent, may I never overlook my dependence on my Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember
I will never outgrow my need for God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2012 - The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012

As we alcoholics are selfish by nature, it is but right and proper that we should be more severe in our judgments of ourselves than of others. As we are our own best friend or our worst enemy, depending upon our treatment of ourselves, and as we are the one person in the world from whom we cannot escape, it is therefore essential that we do not allow ourselves to get away with anything in our treatment of ourselves. When we forgive ourselves, we are rationalizing. But to forgive others is divine.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 26, 2012 - Today's Gift from Hazelden

Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Working today

As we approach a new year, many of us feel fear. We look back on the past and worry about the future. But if we remember we only have today, we can work to make that future better. We have found true friends in our fellowship, and this is a time to be with them.

Am I ensuring a fruitful future by working with all I've got today?

Higher Power, I pray for guidance for today and for freedom from worry about tomorrow.

From the book:

Day by Day - Second Edition by Anonymous

Dec. 25, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012

"If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn't there. Our human resources, as marshaled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly.
"Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 4 ("We Agnostics"), pp 44-5.

Just for today, let me not link my alcoholism to some moral failure on my part or a philosophy that did not apply to me and, instead, take it for what it is: a physical, emotional, and spiritual disease of my character. While I should not and cannot be "blamed" for becoming alcoholic, I can and should be responsible for arresting its progression. To this end, I must completely accept the First Step of absolute powerlessness over alcohol and, then, at least coming to believe in something - a Power - greater and stronger than myself. If I still grapple with this concept, however, perhaps my power can be my own experience of predictable behavior and outcomes, most of which carried increasingly heavier consequences. Today, I am an alcoholic not because of a moral or philosophical failure on my part, but because of a disease. It cannot be cured, but it can be arrested. The Program's first two Steps are my beginning. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012

Dec. 25, 2012 - Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012

AA Thought for the Day
Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good Christmas for me." They will be looking back over past Christmases which were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their new found life. They will be thinking about how their lives were changed when they came into AA. They will be thinking that perhaps God let them live through all the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were perhaps often close to death, in order that they might be used by Him in the great work of AA.

Is this a happy Christmas for me?

Meditation for the Day
The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the sinners, the repentant. "And they presented unto him gifts - gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Bring your gifts of gold - your money and material possessions. Bring your frankincense - the consecration of your life to a worthy cause. Bring your myrrh - your empathy and understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet of God and let Him have full use of them.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas Day. I pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 25, 2012 - A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012

Reflection for the Day
Today is a special day in more ways than one. It's a day that God has made, and I'm alive in God's world. I know that all things in my life this day are an expression of God's love - the fact that I'm alive, that I'm recovering and that I'm able to feel the way I feel at this very instant. For me, this will be a day of gratitude.

Am I deeply thankful for being a part of this special day, and for all my blessings?

Today I Pray
On this day of remembering God's gift, may I understand that giving and receiving are the same. Each is part of each. If I give, I receive the happiness of giving. If I receive, I give someone else that same happiness of giving. I pray that I may give my self - my love and my strengths - generously. May I also receive graciously the love and strengths of others' selves. May God be our example.

Today I Will Remember
The magnitude of God's giving.

Hazelden Foundation