April 22, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Monday, April 22, 2024

When we take the first drink, we invite the dead certainty of physical illness, untold sorrows, shame and degradation. That first drink has built more hospitals, jails, poorhouses and insane asylums than any other cause. All the drinks that follow are simply compounding the felony.

There are some people that can drink intelligently, but these people avoid difficulties. We are not in that class, and experience has proven it. Years of sobriety will not enable us to join that class and, again, experience has proven it. Why do you persist in trying, what are you trying to prove? That you are the exception to the rule? If you are the exception, you automatically become a freak.

Hazelden Foundation

Dec. 17, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023

The world is a looking glass; it returns to you what you give to it. All the world and everything in it are but reflections of yourself, and if the world doesn’t look good to you, rest assured, you don’t look good to the world.

The words of every person you meet are but an echo of your own, and wherever you go the world will be the same unless you, yourself, change.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 13, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018

"A 'spiritual experience' to me meant attending meetings, seeing a group of people, all there for the purpose of helping each other; hearing the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions read at a meeting, and hearing the Lord's Prayer, which in an AA meeting has such great meaning - 'Thy will be done, not mine.' A spiritual awakening soon came to mean trying each day to be a little more thoughtful, more considerate, a little more courteous to those with whom I came in contact." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 10 ("It Might Have Been Worse"), p 381.

Today, if somewhere in AA I have become even "a little more courteous to those with whom I came in contact," I may not yet realize I have experienced a spiritual awakening. And to experience such an awakening, maybe I can understand the spiritual component of the program even if I still think I have no faith. To have a spiritual experience even if it is something as seemingly minor as being a little more courteous to other people, logically requires a spiritual belief - even if I cannot or will not acknowledge it. Today, if I can honestly see even a small change in myself for the better, I may be starting to see the possibility of a power greater than myself. If so, I'm on the right track toward recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2018

July 15, 2018 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener

Sunday, July 15, 2018

We alcoholics devoted a whole lifetime to the pursuit of happiness, but it was not until we found our fellowship that we had any success of a permanent nature.

This is a happy Program, made so by our happy release from the Hell of drinking excessively. Our happiness distinguishes us from the dried-up drunk.

The work we are about is dead serious, but we can go about it with a smile in our hearts and a laugh on our lips. Of all God's creatures, we really have something to be happy about.

Hazelden Foundation

Jan. 7, 2017 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017

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

Don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens.

 -- Anonymous

When we came into the Program, most of us had very little to show for our lives. We believed in nothing. We had experienced great disappointments. The greedy creditor that was our addiction had stripped away everything of meaning to us. We were left with nothing but pain and misery.

Now we hear incredible stories of recovery. People tell how, by following certain simple instructions and honestly working a Program, they were freed from the grasp of their addiction.

Every once in awhile we hear a story that sounds remarkably like our own. We are told that through work and the help of a Higher Power, we too can receive a miracle.

The most important miracle I can expect and count on each day is the freedom from my addiction. I can trust that if I stay close to the Program, the miracle will be repeated, one day at a time.

You are reading from the book:

Easy Does It by Anonymous

Easy Does It © 1999 by Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 21, 2016 - Addiction and Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Friday, Oct. 21, 2016

Today, extend gratitude but withhold pride on a day that greeted me sober and saw me through doing what is expected of me - expected of the program, expected of the responsibilities to sobriety, and expected of myself. I need not be bogged down with anything from my drinking past - shame, remorse, regret, grandiosity, egoism, anger, depression, or anything else that I could find to keep myself in the gutter. Today, if I awakened sober and proceed through the day doing what is expected of me and do it with integrity and ethics and then go to sleep remembering all that I said and did, then today will be good. I can be grateful for that seemingly simple achievement and, today, it is enough. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

Oct. 9, 2016 - Addiction and Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

The Serenity Prayer

Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016

AA Thought for the Day
Am I willing to be bored sometimes at meetings? Am I willing to listen to much repetition of AA principles? Am I willing to hear the same thing over and over again? Am I willing to listen to a long blow-by-blow personal story, because it might help some new member? Am I willing to sit quietly and listen to long-winded members go into every detail of their past? Am I willing to take it, because it is doing them good to get it off their chest? My feelings are not too important. The good of AA comes first, even if it is not always comfortable for me.

Have I learned to take it?

Meditation for the Day
God would draw us all closer to Him in the bonds of the spirit. He would have all people drawn closer to each other in the bonds of the spirit. God, the great Spirit of the universe, of which each of our own spirits is a small part, must want unity between Himself and all His children. "Unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace." Each experience of our life, of joy, of sorrow, of danger, of safety, of difficulty, of success, of hardship, of ease, each should be accepted as part of our common lot, in the bonds of the spirit.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may welcome the bonds of true fellowship. I pray that I may be brought closer to unity with God and other people.

Hazelden Foundation

Sept. 19, 2016 - Addiction and Recovery: Step by Step

Step by Step
Monday, Sept. 19, 2016

"The mental twists that led up to my drinking began many years before I ever took a drink for I am one of those whose history proves conclusively that my drinking was 'a symptom of a deeper trouble.'
'Through my efforts to get down to 'causes and conditions,' I stand convinced that my  emotional illness has been present from my earliest recollection. I never did react normally to any emotional situation." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 12 ("Freedom From Bondage"), p 544.

Today, knowing that my emotional and spiritual sickness preceded my alcoholism, I also know that abstaining from drinking is not enough in my recovery. Drinking was, for me, but a symptom of a "deeper trouble," and AA has to be worked and climbed step by step to cure that symptom. Without tending to the "deeper trouble," my recovery will be less sober and more like a dry drunk. Whatever my pre-drinking "deeper trouble" was - fear, anger, shame, loneliness, low or inflated self-esteem, resentment, depression or a diagnosed psychiatric condition - I need to confront and either come to terms with it or let it go. Then, and only then, can I move on with the business of sobriety and serenity. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016

Aug. 1, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Monday, Aug. 1, 2016
 
It has been observed by many in AA that the surest bet to get our Program is the man who needs it most desperately. His very desperation lends strength to his efforts. He has been backed up to a wall and he must fight his way out of his dilemma or else he must die. There is no alternative.

Only the coward quits in despair, and the alcoholic can't be a coward for, if he was, he would have quit the unequal game long before his alcoholism was fully developed.

Yes, it takes a brave man to fight his way to the gutter, and it takes a brave and desperate man to fight his way out.

Hazelden Foundation

July 30, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Saturday, July 30, 2016

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

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.
 -- Martha Washington

We all have friends who seem happy even though they run into lots of bad luck. And we all know other people who seem grumpy all the time. Nothing makes them very happy. It's puzzling, but some people have decided, maybe without even knowing it, that life is fun and should be enjoyed. No bit of bad luck has to make us miserable unless we let it.

A broken bike, a lost math assignment, a rained-out picnic are things that might make us miserable. But, we can decide they won't. Feeling happy can be a habit - just like brushing teeth before bedtime.

Will I stop and think today before I let things make me unhappy?

You are reading from the book:

Today's Gift by Anonymous

Today's Gift © 1985, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

July 13, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Reflection for the Day
These days, I go to meetings to listen for the similarities between myself and others in The Program - not the differences. And when I look for the similarities, it's amazing how many I find, particularly in the area of feelings. Today I go to meetings thinking that I'm here not because of anyone else's addictions, but because of mine and, most importantly, what my addiction did to my spirit and body. I'm here because there's no way I can stay free of my addiction by myself. I need The Program and my Higher Power.

Am I becoming less harsh in my judgment of others?

Today I Pray
May I stay alert as I listen, just one more time, to Jack or Jill or Fred or Sam or Martha go through his or her tale of woe and weal. May I find, when I listen with the wholehearted attention I want to be able to give, that each has something to offer me to add to my own life-tale. May I be struck once again by our samenesses. May each sameness draw us nearer to each other's needs.

Today I Will Remember
In sameness, there is strength.

Hazelden Foundation

July 13, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

The Eye Opener
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
 
It is most fortunate for us arrested alcoholics that we can never know the price we paid for our former dissipations (sic).

One man received a splendid promotion about a month ago, and was told that his name had been considered for the job for 14 years but that it had been held up because of his drinking.

There is no use in crying over spilt (sic) milk - those days are gone forever and carried their opportunities with them - but today is here now.

Hazelden Foundation