Oct. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024

” …(T)he best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations. The higher my expectations …the lower is my serenity. I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But then my ‘rights’ try to move in, and they, too, can force my serenity level down. I have to discard my ‘rights,’ as well as my expectations, by asking myself, ‘How important is it, really? How important is it compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety?’ And when I place more value on my serenity and sobriety than on anything else, I can maintain them at a higher level — at least for the time being.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch 17 (“Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict”), p 452.

Today, sobriety as a gift instead of a “right” that is no more a right than the ability to drink responsibly, a privilege I have lost. By thinking of sobriety as a gift, may other of my expectations of recovery be realistically framed: that I not be spared the daily challenges or problems that non-alcoholics have, that I not feel entitled to a “free ride” without bumps, turmoil, even tragedies. Sobriety must be respected as a gift and not a right, a gift that requires development, nurturing and the constant reminder that it can be taken away — if I neglect it. Today, sobriety is a gift, sometimes fragile. Handle it with care and respect. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Oct. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
Am I still on a “free ride” in AA? Am I all get and no give? Do I go to meetings and always sit in the back row and let the others do all the work? Do I think it’s enough just because I’m sober and can rest on my laurels? If so, I haven’t gone very far in the program, nor am I getting nearly enough of what it has to offer. I will be a weak member until I get in there and help carry the load. I must eventually get off the bench and get into the game. I’m not just a spectator; I’m supposed to be one of the team.

Do I go in there and carry the ball?

Meditation for the Day
Try to be thankful for whatever vision you have. Try to perform, in the little things, faithful service to God and others. Do your small part every day in a spirit of service to God. Be a doer of God’s word, not a hearer only. In your daily life, try to keep faith with God. Every day brings a new opportunity to be of some use. Even when you are tempted to rest or let things go or to evade the issue, make it a habit to meet the issue squarely as a challenge and not to hold back.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may perform each task faithfully. I pray that I may meet each issue of life squarely and not hold back.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024

Reflection for the Day

Many people we meet in The Program radiate a kind of special glow — a joy for living that shows in their faces and very bearing. They’ve put aside alcohol and other mood-altering chemicals where they’re “high” on life itself. Their confidence and enthusiasm are contagious — especially to those who are new in The Program. The astonishing thing to newcomers is that those same joyous people also were once heavily burdened. The miracle of their before-and-after stories and new outlook is living proof that The Program works.

Does my progress in The Program serve to carry the message to others?

Today I Pray

I pray that my own transformation through The Program — from burdened to unburdened, beaten down to upbeat, careless to caring, tyrannized by chemicals to chemically free — will be as much inspiration for newcomers as the dramatic changes in others’ lives have been for me. May I — like those other joyous ones in the fellowship — learn how to be “high on life.”

Today I Will Remember

Life is the greatest “high” of them all.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 12, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024

There can be no liberty for any man unless he is free, and he can never be free as long as he is a slave to anything, save God himself.

If a person subjects himself, body and soul, to the Will of God, then he is indeed free, for then God resides in him and he in God. They become to a more or less degree one and the same. Blended into a perfect oneness above all earthly domination and as free as God himself is free.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 12, 2024 - Good morning with hopes of a restful but productive Saturday and weekend for everyone

 

Good morning and let's make it a drama- and trauma-free and worthwhile 

Saturday and let nothing and no one make it less

Oct. 11, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.

-- Henry David Thoreau

To have a dream takes courage and a bit of hope. A dream guides us, even if we haven't let ourselves bring it to consciousness. How often do we stop to ask what our dreams are? Do we even know what we want? This path is about becoming the best men we can be. It's more about who we become than what we achieve. So it inspires us to create dreams for our development as men.

When we take a few moments to reflect on the kind of men we want to be, we create reference points, or beacons, to move toward. This gives us a way to measure our actions and our choices. Do our actions take us in the direction we want to go, or do they take us off course? Are we growing into the men we want to be, or have we forgotten to follow our beacons?

In my actions today, I will keep my dreams in mind and choose my course with confidence.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 11, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

” …A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling. We are convinced that a spiritual mode of living is a most powerful health restorative. We, who have recovered from serious drinking, are miracles of mental health. …
“But this does not mean that we disregard human health measures. God has abundantly supplied this world with fine doctors, psychologists and practitioners of various kinds. Do not hesitate to take your health problems to such persons.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 9 (“The Family Afterward”), p 133.

Today, recovery from extended daily drinking will come in time and only if I allow it by total abstinence. It took a long time for my body, mind and spirit to become part of the alcoholic culture; it may take as long or longer to recover. In my zeal to recover, let me understand that my physical recovery may take weeks or months but that my spiritual and emotional recovery will take longer — perhaps a lifetime longer. And until my spiritual and emotional health is back on an even playing field although my body has recovered, I need to realize that the Twelve Steps are the way for me to recover. But should I suspect a need for medical or psychological treatment, let me not be reluctant to seek it out. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Oct. 11, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
How good a sponsor am I? When I bring new members to a meeting, do I feel that my responsibility has ended? Or do I make it my job to stay with them until they have either become good members of AA or have found another sponsor? If they don’t show up for a meeting, do I say to myself: “Well, they’ve had it put up to them, so if they don’t want it, there’s nothing more I can do?” Or do I look them up and find out whether there is a reason for their absence or that they don’t want AA? Do I go out of my way to find out if there is anything more I can do to help?

Am I a good sponsor?

Meditation for the Day
“First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift to God.” First I must get right with other people and then I can get right with God. If I hold a resentment against someone, which I find it very difficult to overcome, I should try to put something else constructive into my mind. I should pray for the one against whom I hold the resentment. I should put that person in God’s hands and let God show him or her the way to live. “If a man say: ‘I love God’ and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may see something good in every person, even one I dislike, and that I may let God develop the good in that person.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 11, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

Reflection for the Day
When I say the Serenity Prayer, sometimes over and over, I occasionally lose sight of the prayer’s meaning even as I repeat its words. So I try to think of the meaning of each phrase as I say it, whether aloud or silently. As I concentrate on the meaning, my understanding grows, along with my capability to realize the difference between what I can change, and what I cannot.

Do I see that most improvements in my life will come from changing my own attitudes and actions?

Today I Pray
May my Higher Power show me new and deeper meanings in the Serenity Prayer each time I say it. As I apply it to my life’s situations and relationships, may its truth be underlined for me again and again. May I realize that serenity, courage and wisdom are all that I need to cope with living, but that none of these three have value unless they grow out of my trust in a Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember
God’s formula for living: Serenity, courage and wisdom.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 11, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

We are not in a position to give an opinion on leprosy, jungle fever, hoof-and-mouth disease or other minor ailments like that but, when it comes to the really “big sickness” — hangovers — we can speak with some authority.

How any piece of mechanism could take the rough treatment we gave our human bodies would make it appear, on the surface, that Nature intended to make us live to punish ourselves in a manner that Nature itself could not duplicate. Outraged Nature could only confine its retribution to the body. The mental and spiritual beating we took was administered by ourselves. That was the most cruel of all.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 11, 2024 - Rise 'n shine for a fantabulous and here-at-last Friday

 

Good morning and let's get going and make this gorgeous Friday as productive and worthwhile as we can

Oct. 10, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.

-- Isak Dinesen

Sharing our experience, strength  and hope with others in this program helps to clarify for all of us the miracle of recovery. Telling another woman how we survived the most awful of experiences lets her know that her life is survivable too. It's not by accident that the founders of AA stressed the value of telling our stories.

Each time we share an aspect of our own traumatic past, its sting is diminished. The more we repeat these awful truths, the less their hold on us. Our storytelling lets our listeners know that their own experiences are not so different after all.

What lucky women we are. No longer do we hide ourselves from others. Each conversation with a sponsor, sponsee or friend is an opportunity to lighten our load.

I will tell a part of my story to someone today. She may be helped by it, and I will be freed from it!

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 10, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

” …I think there are some of us who, at times, try to read extra messages and complexities into the Steps. …AA is within the reach of every alcoholic, because it can be achieved in any walk of life and because the achievement is not ours but God’s. …there is no situation too difficult, none too desperate, no unhappiness too great to be overcome in this great fellowship — Alcoholics Anonymous.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch 11 (“A Flower of the South”), p 395.

Today, no searching for words of eloquence to convince anyone of the redemption, reconciliation and power of AA and, instead, letting my example serve as its most powerful testament. ” …No situation too difficult, none too desperate, no unhappiness too great to be overcome.” If today I think or feel that I have fallen too deeply too fast, am beyond saving or that the damage I have inflicted is so beyond repair that a new beginning is impossible, let me have if nothing else blind faith to make the call that could be my new beginning. Today, I do not and cannot accept that I am beyond the reach of recovery, and I set out to start anew — and sober. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Oct. 10, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
When new members come into my AA group, do I make a special effort to make them feel at home? Do I put myself out to listen to them, even if their ideas of AA are vague? Do I make it a habit to talk to all new members myself, or do I often leave that to someone else? I may not be able to help them but, then again, it may be something that I might say that would put them on the right track. When I see any members sitting alone, do I put myself out to be nice to them, or do I stay among my own special group of friends and leave them out in the cold?

Are all new AA’s my responsibility?

Meditation for the Day
You are God’s servant. Serve Him cheerfully and readily. Nobody likes a servant who avoids extra work, who complains about being called from one task to do one less enjoyable. A master would feel that he was being ill-served by such a servant. But is that not how you so often serve God? View your day’s work in this light. Try to do your day’s work the way you believe God wants you to do it, never shirking any responsibility and often going out of your way to be of service.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be a good servant. I pray that I may be willing to go out of my way to be of service.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 10, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

Reflection for the Day

When we allow our Higher Power to take charge, without reservations on our part, we stop being “anxious.” When we’re not anxious about some person or situation, that doesn’t mean we’re disinterested or have stopped caring. Just the opposite is true. We can be interested and caring without being anxious or fearful. The poised calm and faith-filled person brings something positive to every situation. He or she is able to do the things that are necessary and helpful.

Do I realize how much better prepared I am to do wise and loving things if I banish anxious thoughts and know that God is in charge?

Today I Pray

I pray that I may be rid of the anxiety which I have equated in my mind with really caring about people. May I know that anxiety is not an item of outerwear that can be doffed like a cap. May I know that I must have serenity within myself and confidence that God can do a better job than I can — and then my anxiety will lessen.

Today I Will Remember

Anxiety never solved anything.

Hazelden Foundation