Friday, May 1, 2015
May 1, 2015 - Commentary: How the Supreme Court actually mirrors the American public on marriage equality
May 1, 2015 - Op-ed: Profitability of racism is the problem, not black culture
May 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Friday, May 1, 2015
Today's thought from Hazelden is:
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is true for women too. We sure learned that about our disease as well. It kept us thinking about alcohol or drugs all day every day until we could think of little else. Finally we became addicts, gobbled up by our all-consuming thoughts and cravings.
Now in recovery, we can be something else. We are becoming free of our addiction, and our minds can think about other things. What do we want to think about? What do we want to be?
It's easy to let the noise around us tell us what to think about. At the end of the day, we can end up feeling out of touch with who we are. We've been giving our minds to whatever is on the radio, television, or the gossip grapevine at work or school. That's why it's good to spend part of each day thinking about things we truly think are important and worthwhile.
Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me understand that what I do with my mind and my time is important. What I do with my mind is my inner life. What I do with my time is my outer life. Together they define who I am.
Today's Action
I will think about the way I use my mind and my time today. What feels good and fits for me? Is there anything I want to do differently tomorrow?
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is true for women too. We sure learned that about our disease as well. It kept us thinking about alcohol or drugs all day every day until we could think of little else. Finally we became addicts, gobbled up by our all-consuming thoughts and cravings.
Now in recovery, we can be something else. We are becoming free of our addiction, and our minds can think about other things. What do we want to think about? What do we want to be?
It's easy to let the noise around us tell us what to think about. At the end of the day, we can end up feeling out of touch with who we are. We've been giving our minds to whatever is on the radio, television, or the gossip grapevine at work or school. That's why it's good to spend part of each day thinking about things we truly think are important and worthwhile.
Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me understand that what I do with my mind and my time is important. What I do with my mind is my inner life. What I do with my time is my outer life. Together they define who I am.
Today's Action
I will think about the way I use my mind and my time today. What feels good and fits for me? Is there anything I want to do differently tomorrow?
You are reading from the book:
God Grant Me. . . © 2005 by Hazelden Foundation
May 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Friday, May 1, 2015
Today, not as an alcoholic working to avoid a fall but as a soberholic embracing the addictive habit of recovery, I will laugh. I can now find the tragic irony of all I have wasted and lost only to be led to this point when I no longer have to drink - because sobriety has replaced my addiction to alcohol. I can laugh for the relief that I now think in terms of wanting sobriety more than fighting an urge or temptation for a drink because, now, I don't need the drink or high. I can laugh at myself for realizing I have made my journey away from chronic intoxication so needlessly complicated because I overlooked a simple and basic truth: I want sobriety more than drinking. With that, I can work the Steps with less fear, less hesitation, a higher self-esteem - and the hope and faith that my sobriety has progressed to where I need to be: in recovery. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2015
May 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Friday, May 1, 2015
AA Thought for the Day
The AA program is one of charity because the real meaning of the word "charity" is to care enough about other people to really want to help them. To get the full benefit of the Program, we must try to help other alcoholics. We may try to help somebody and think we have failed, but the seed we have planted may bear fruit some time. We never know the results even a word of ours might have. But the main thing is to have charity for others, a real desire to help them, whether we succeed or not.
Do I have real charity?
Meditation for the Day
All material things, the universe, the world, even our bodies, may be Eternal Thought expressed in time and space. The more the physicists and astronomers reduce matter, the more it becomes a mathematical formula, which is thought. In the final analysis, matter is thought. When Eternal thought expresses itself within the framework of space and time, it becomes matter. Our thoughts, within the box of space and time, cannot know anything first hand except material things. But we can deduce that outside the box of space and time is Eternal Thought, which we can call God.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be a true expression of Eternal Thought. I pray that God's thoughts may work through my thoughts.
Hazelden Foundation
May 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Friday, May 1, 2015
Reflection for the Day
For those of us who have lost our faith, or who have always had to struggle along without it, it's often helpful just to accept - blindly and with no reservations. It's not necessary for us to believe at first; we need not be convinced. If we can only accept, we find ourselves becoming gradually aware of a force for good that's always there to help us.
Have I taken the way of faith?
Today I Pray
May I abandon my need to know the why's and wherefore's of my trust in a Higher Power. May I not intellectualize about faith, since by its nature it precludes analysis. May I know that "head-tripping" was a symptom of my disease, as I strung together - cleverly, I thought - alibi upon excuse upon rationale. May I learn acceptance - and faith will follow.
Today I Will Remember
Faith follows acceptance.
Hazelden Foundation
May 1, 2015 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Friday, May 1, 2015
The aim of AA is not Sobriety but Happy Sobriety. The most effective and, incidentally, the soberest group, is the happiest group. It is possible that you can't speak at meetings, maybe you are not in a position to "carry the message," but you can and should show your happy sobriety in the radiance of your smile. It is our only advertisement and it should outshine in brilliance the gaudiest of neon sign.
The poor guy still in the gutter isn't interested in your sobriety; he's interested in the price of another drink. He is, however, very much interested in happiness. It's what he has been looking for all his life and thought he could buy by the "fifth."
Hazelden Foundation
Thursday, April 30, 2015
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