Sept. 5, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024

“Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.” — The Fifth Tradition

Today, as a humble member of one of thousands of recovery groups, I look to this tradition to determine if my contribution to my home group is sufficient or if I can find more that I can and should do. And what I do must be within the command of the Fifth Tradition — to reach out to the alcoholic who still suffers. This tradition does not limit itself to the drinking alcoholic, however, and includes those who still struggle in recovery. As part of my group, let me remember that not only is my group there for me, but I am there for the group, and my example to those who continue to suffer must be a reflection of the Program itself. Today, I try to understand that my sobriety comes with the responsibility to represent the Program that led me to sobriety and recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Nov. 10, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018

AA Thought for the Day
I am less self-centered. The world used to revolve around me at the center. I cared more about myself, my own needs and desires, my own pleasure, my own way, than I did about the whole rest of the world. What happened to me was more important than anything else I could think of. I was selfishly trying to be happy and therefore I was unhappy most of the time. I have found that selfishly seeking pleasure does not bring true happiness. Thinking of myself all the time cut me off from the best in life. AA taught me to care less about myself and more about the other person.

Am I less self-centered?

Meditation for the Day
When something happens to upset you and you are discouraged, try to feel that life's difficulties and troubles are not intended to arrest your progress in the spiritual life, but to test your strength and to increase your determination to keep going. Whatever it is that must be met, you are to either overcome it or use it. Nothing should daunt you for long, nor should any difficulty entirely overcome or conquer you. God's strength will always be there, waiting for you to use it. Nothing can be too great to be overcome, or if not overcome, then used.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may know that there can be no failure with God. I pray that with His help I may live a more victorious life.

Hazelden Foundation

April 19, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Reflection for the Day

As we continue to make these vital choices and so move toward these high aspirations, our sanity returns and the compulsion of our former addictions vanishes. We learn, in the words of Plutarch, that, "A pleasant and happy life does not come from external things. Man draws from within himself, as from a spring, pleasure and joy."

Am I learning to "travel first class" inside?

Today I Pray

The grace of God has showed me how to be happy again. May the wisdom of God teach me that the source of that happiness is within me, in my new values, my new sense of self-worth, my new and open communication with my Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember

Happiness comes from within.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 2, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018

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

The new is but the old come true; each sunrise sees a new year born.
--Helen Hunt Jackson

We know that a totally new life can begin on any day of a year, at any hour of the day, or at any moment of an hour. That new life began the moment we decided to surrender and admit to powerlessness over a substance or an impulse. It began when we accepted the fact that we needed help and could receive it simply by asking.

Many of us used to choose New Year's Day as a time for making good resolutions and swearing off bad habits. When we failed, we simply shrugged and said, "Maybe I can start tomorrow, next week - or next New Year's Day." We were always going to "turn over a new leaf."

Now, in recovery, we no longer depend on doing it all alone. We know we can stay abstinent only by sharing with fellow members.

Let me remember, each day in recovery is another milestone. I no longer have to use a calendar.

You are reading from the book:

Easy Does It by Anonymous

Easy Does It © 1999 by Hazelden Foundation

Nov. 29, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017

Reflection for the Day
Contrary to what some people think, our slogan "Let Go and Let God" isn't an expression of apathy, an attitude of defeatism or an unwillingness to accept responsibility. Those who turn their backs on their problems are not "letting go and letting God" but, instead, are abandoning their commitment to act on God's inspiration and guidance. They neither ask for nor expect help; they want God to do it all.

In seeking God's guidance, do I realize that the ultimate responsibility is mine?

Today I Pray
May I not allow myself to be lazy just because I think God is going to do everything anyway. (Such apathy reminds me of my old powerless self, the one that moaned that the world was going up in smoke, civilization was going down the drain and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.) Neither may I use "letting God" do it as an excuse for shrugging off my problems without even trying. May God be my inspiration; may I be an instrument of God.

Today I Will Remember
God guides those who help themselves.

Hazelden Foundation

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

Friday, June 3, 2016

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

Looking in the Mirror

When we look in the mirror, who is looking back? Is it someone we like or someone we have grown to dislike? Is it someone weak and defective because of illness? Or is it someone good and decent in spite of it?

Ideally we see ourselves for who we are – with strengths and shortcomings, with abilities and limitations. Ideally, we see someone who has grown to accept and love him- or herself [illness and all].

When I look in the mirror today, who do I see looking back?

Thought for the Day
Accepting my limitations is a sign of health.

You are reading from the book:

A Restful Mind by Mark Allen Zabawa

A Restful Mind © 2010 by Hazelden Foundation

May 24, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

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

I walked out the bakery door holding my crescent and coffee. I looked down. On the sidewalk lay a large dog. He was on his back, motionless. A crowd of people was gathering around and staring.

"Oh my God," I said. A man walked up to me. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Haven't you ever seen a dead dog before?"

I was horrified. Then I saw the glimmer of a smile on the man's face. I looked more closely. This is Los Angeles. Even dogs want to be actors. He had told the dog to play dead instead of sit while he was in the bakery. I chuckled and then walked to my car.

I first learned about the value of laughter the year after I got out of treatment. I began working for a law firm in a small town. I was so frightened - of life, of myself, of whether I could stay sober. I was all bound up inside of myself. I worked alongside a woman in her later twenties, a paralegal in the firm. Often our tasks consisted of rather repetitive, unexciting chores. This was in the old days, before computers. Wills had to be typed perfectly; we couldn't use correction fluid or erasers. It wasn't uncommon to get to the last line of the page and make a mistake.

What I remember most about working with this woman was her ability to laugh at herself, at her tasks, at the sometimes gruesome and boring nature of life. To this day, I don't think she knows how much she affected me and how much she taught me. She taught me to laugh.

Laughter takes the pressure off and lightens the load. We can actually feel our body and our chemistry change when the corners of the mouth turn upward toward the heavens in a smile.

You are reading from the book:

52 Weeks of Conscious Contact by Melody Beattie

52 Weeks of Conscious Contact © 2003 by Melody Beattie

April 27, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

The Serenity Prayer

Step by Step
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
 
Today, character defects of frustration and impatience as they relate to relationships and communications. As a drinking alcoholic, frustration and impatience walked hand-in-hand when it came to dealing with others: frustration with impatience of people who did not react how and when I expected. As a recovering alcoholic, frustration and impatience still walk hand-in-hand in dealing with others. Clearly, little change. Also clearly, abstaining from the bottle isn't all that recovery requires. A fundamental change in character and emotions is needed. If I overreact when people do not respond when and how I think they should, maybe I am the problem. Today, I work consciously and conscientiously on my defects of frustration and impatience by considering the possibility that someone other than myself might have a better idea. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

Feb. 18, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

The Serenity Prayer

Step by Step

Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016

Today, LOYALTY as a responsibility to sobriety, the program and everyone who follows it. From them - sobriety, the program and the people who comprise its fellowship - I have been given a gift. But no gift is completely free. To keep it while passing it on requires maintenance - and with maintenance comes loyalty, and respect of that gift. Today, I will be loyal to my sobriety and the steps and principles needed to develop my sobriety by not drinking or using, by answering the call if someone needing help reaches out. Today, I will not engage in the conduct of the character defects I seek to release to my Higher Power. I will act with loyalty and respect to everyone who, like me, has come to the program to work for a rebirth. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

Feb. 7, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016

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

In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
 -- Pablo Casals

The Third Step refers to "God as we understood Him." The pathways to meeting our Higher Power and to our spiritual awakening are all around. Every tree and every leaf on every tree, as it rustles in the wind, expresses God in our lives. When the little bird flies overhead or when it comes to visit the feeder, we are being visited by a spirit. When the sky boils with a storm, when lightning and thunder crash, we are witness to power greater than ourselves with a history beyond the centuries. The beautiful works of art created by our fellow human travelers on this journey through life are expressions of their courage to reach out and create something. A line of music moves us and we feel the spirit.

A child makes a drawing and gives it away. A neighbor helps you start your car. You treat the clerk at the checkout counter like a real person. Whatever word we use for God, if we decide to be open and receptive, we find God in the little details of our lives. Spiritual awakening is a wonderful daily occurrence.

God, open my senses to take in your presence more fully.

You are reading from the book:

Touchstones by Anonymous

Touchstones ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 15, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Serenity Prayer

The Eye Opener
Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015

Faith is a fundamental requisite of success in retaining our sobriety - faith in God, faith in the Program, and faith in ourselves.

It can be likened to swimming: every normal person can swim, if he has faith in the laws of buoyancy and allows himself to be submerged enough. Those people who cannot swim are those who are afraid of the water and try to raise themselves above it.

Faith in the laws of Nature and in yourself enables you to swim, and a like faith in God, the Program and yourself will enable you to achieve our way of living.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 7, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, Dec. 7, 2015

When membership in a fledgling movement hit 2,000 members in March 1941, "(AA) then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. The test that it faced was this: Could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic alcoholics successfully meet and work together? Would there be quarrels over membership, leadership and money? Would there be strivings for power and prestige? Would there be schisms which would split AA apart? Soon AA was beset by these very problems on every side and in every group. But out of this frightening and at first disrupting experiences the conviction grew that AA's had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our Fellowship or pass off the scene." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Foreward, pp xviii-xix.

Today, my sobriety and recovery are not entirely my own and reflect the effectiveness and success of all AA, to some extent. This is my obligation to AA - to represent it to the best of my ability, and the best is measured to some degree by my role in my home group. From this passage in the Big Book when AA's membership hit 2,000 people, that number since has multiplied by literally more than a thousand times. But there are still arguments in groups about who is to be allowed to attend meetings, who is in charge, if the group's treasurer can be trusted with members' money, if members are out for power. We as individuals and collectively need only look to the 12 steps and principles that require only the desire to quit drinking for membership, that we have no leaders and instead only trusted servants" And our group politics are dictated only by a group conscience. I ask today if I am a contributor to any friction in my home group or if I am a mediator in divisive issues. Either way, I am representing not only myself but the effectiveness of AA. Today, if my choice is to die separately or hang together, I could have had the former by continuing to drink. Today, I choose the latter. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2015

Dec. 7, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty Four Hours a Day
Monday, Dec. 7, 2015

AA Thought for the Day
When people come back to AA after having a slip, the temptation is strong to say nothing about it. No other AA member should force them to declare themselves. It is entirely up to them. If they are well-grounded in AA, they will realize that it's up to them to speak up at the next meeting and tell about their slip. There is no possible evasion of this duty, if they are thoroughly honest and really desirous of living the AA way again. When they have done it, their old confidence returns. They are home again. Their slip should not be mentioned again by others. They are again a good member of AA.

Am I tolerant of other peoples' mistakes?

Meditation for the Day
It is in the union of a soul with God that strength, new life and spiritual power come. Bread sustains the body, but we cannot live by bread alone. To try to do the will of God is the meat and support of true living. We feed on that spiritual food. Soul starvation comes from failing to do so. The world talks about bodies that are undernourished. What of the souls that are undernourished? Strength and peace come from partaking of spiritual food.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not try to live by bread alone. I pray that my spirit may live by trying to do the will of God as I understand it.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 7, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Monday, Dec. 7, 2015

Reflection for the Day
As long as I stubbornly hang on to the conviction that I can live solely by my individual strength and intelligence, for just that long, a working faith in my Higher Power is impossible. This is true no matter how strongly I believe that God exists. My religious beliefs - no matter how sincere - will remain forever lifeless if I continue trying to play God myself. What it comes down to, we find, is that as long as we place self-reliance first, true reliance upon a Higher Power is out of the question.

How strong is my desire to seek and do God's will?

Today I Pray
I pray that I may not place my self-reliance above reliance on God. May I know that there is no conflict between taking responsibility for my own actions, which I have been taught is the essence of maturity, and looking to God for guidance. May I remember that if I stick to the "do-it-myself" rule, it is like refusing to ask for a road map from a tourist information bureau - and wandering around forever lost.

Today I Will Remember
Maturity is knowing where to go for help.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 7, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Monday, Dec. 7, 2015

Every person at some time in life has a spiritual experience of some kind. It may have been no more than a soul-stimulating experience after hearing a beautiful hymn, beautifully sung. Perhaps it is only an undefined hunger within when viewing alone a star-studded sky, or an awe-inspiring view. Maybe it was experienced when looking upon the miracle of a baby.

The soul of even the most callous will light up when it glimpses the beauty and power of God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 6, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015

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

Sometimes two minuses make a plus.
 -- Edith Shannon

What appears to be a problem sometimes turns out to be a most beneficial circumstance. We live only in the present, and it generally takes the perspective of hindsight to get the full meaning of an event. Over the years, we have learned that some of our best lessons actually caused us pain while we were in their clutches. What a relief to be able to see, now, that they had their silver lining. This principle still holds true.

We have had a lot of years to learn to take our experiences in stride, giving them no more weight than they deserve. But it's easy to forget that it's the accumulation of them all that defines who we are. The lost jobs, the friends who left, the hurdles in a marriage all played their part in the people we've become today. We are who we need to be right now.

I can't let a setback set me back today. I am evolving right on schedule.

You are reading from the book:

Keepers of the Wisdom by Karen Casey

Keepers of the Wisdom © 1996 by Karen Casey

Dec. 6, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015

"Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage, all the men and women merely players.' He forgot to mention that I was the chief critic. I was always able to see the flaw in every person, every situation. And I was always glad to point it out, because I knew you wanted perfection, just as I did. AA and acceptance have taught me that there is a bit of good in the worst of us and a bit of bad in the best of us; that we are all children of God and we each have a right to be here. When I complain about me or about you, I am complaining about God's handiwork. I am saying that I know better than God." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 17 ("Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict"), p 449.

Today, no complaining if for no other reason than to experience not complaining. So much of my emotional energy was spent complaining in my drinking days and maybe even in sobriety. The end result is always the feeling of not getting my way with everything and everyone, and that kind of feeling opens the door to futile emotions like anger, resentment and smugness. Today, let me go without complaining about any situation and anyone, and let me remember that those against whom I complain probably have an arsenal of complaints they can unleash on me. And I can't expect anyone to tolerate my complaints against them anymore than I want to hear theirs against me. Today, in not complaining, let me see that I might become a more serene person and working my program may be a little less difficult. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2015

Dec. 6, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015

AA Thought for the Day
People who have had a slip are ashamed of themselves - sometimes so ashamed that they fear to go back to AA. They develop the old inferiority complex and tell themselves that they are no good, that they have let down their friends in AA, that they are hopeless, and that they can never make it. This state of mind is perhaps worse than it was originally. They have probably been somewhat weakened by their slip. But their AA training cannot ever be entirely lost. They always know they can go back if they want to. They know there is still God's help for them if they will again ask for it.

Do I believe that I can never entirely lose what I have learned in AA?

Meditation for the Day
Nobody entirely escapes temptation. You must expect it and be ready for it when it comes. None of us is entirely safe. You must try to keep your defenses up by daily thought and prayer. That is why we have these daily meditations. You must be able to recognize temptation when it comes. The first step toward conquering temptation always is to see it clearly as temptation and not to harbor it in your mind. Dissociate yourself from it, put it out of your mind as soon as it appears. Do not think of excuses for yielding to it. Turn at once to the Higher Power for help.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be prepared for whatever temptation may come to me. I pray that I may see it clearly and avoid it with the help of God.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 6, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time
Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015

Reflection for the Day
When I finally convince myself to let go of a problem that's been tearing me apart - when I take the action to set aside my will and let God handle the problem - my torment subsides immediately. If I continue to stay out of my own way, then solutions begin to unfold and reveal themselves. More and more, I'm coming to accept the limitations of my human understanding and power. More and more, I'm learning to let go and trust my Higher Power for the answers and the help.

Do I keep in the forefront of my mind the fact that only God is all-wise and all-powerful?

Today I Pray
If I come across a stumbling block, may I learn to step out of the way and let God remove it. May I realize my human limitations at problem-solving, since I can never begin to predict God's solutions until I see them happening. May I know that whatever answer I come to, God may have a better one.

Today I Will Remember
God has a better answer.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 6, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015

If you are satisfied with your progress in AA, you are not only an exception but you may be headed for trouble. Remember One Day at a Time, and Easy Does It. Before you measure your advancement, be sure you have an accurate yardstick. Nature is always slow in its development of good things.

Some weeds mature and bloom in a few days, but it takes Nature many centuries to perfect a diamond. Don't worry about your rate of progress - you have a lifetime ahead of you - but just be sure that you progress.

Hazelden Foundation