March 25, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, March 25, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We are taught that earth is here and heaven is “up there,” and so we divide our world. There’s a time and a place for everything — each in its own compartment. God’s in His Heaven and all’s right with the world!

But experience contradicts this simple view. As we grow and explore the world we can’t make such clear distinctions anymore. We come to see that the world is a place where the divine may be present or absent, depending on our perception and even our mood. In the depths of our addiction we may find an emptiness and a darkness that deny the presence of any meaning at all.

In recovery, as we reach out, the world takes on a different color and feeling. As we gain confidence and dare to be happy, we find a new sense of power and love. And when joy comes to us, we share the poet’s vision of a world in which many simple things are, indeed, “afire with God.”

As I gain hope and faith, the world turns into a place of splendor and praise.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Friday, March 25, 2022

Today, focus on compulsiveness so as not to react to anyone or anything with the heightened emotions that nurtured the defects of my character. From a behavioral standpoint, we alcoholics drank with compulsion. As such, my alcoholism is both physical and behavioral in nature. To get the discipline to prevent compulsion from gaining an upper hand in all my affairs, I can work Step Three as I begin this day by handing over to my Higher Power my will and ask instead for His will. Today, as I set out, I surrender my will - or self-will run riot - to my Higher Power with faith that He will strengthen me to act accordingly and responsibly instead out of the compulsiveness that contributed to my spiritual and mental defects. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

March 25, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, March 25, 2022

AA Thought for the Day

Strength comes from coming to believe in a Higher Power that can help you. You can't define this Higher Power, but you can see how it helps other alcoholics. You hear them talk about it and you begin to get the idea yourself. You try praying in a quiet time each morning and you begin to feel stronger, as though your prayers were heard. So you gradually come to believe there must be a Power in the world outside yourself, which is stronger than you and to which you can turn for help.

Am I receiving strength from my faith in a Higher Power?

Meditation for the Day

Spiritual development is achieved by daily persistence in living the way you believe God wants you to live. Like the wearing away of a stone by steady drops of water, so will your daily persistence wear away all the difficulties and gain spiritual success for you. Never falter in this daily, steady persistence. Go forward boldly and unafraid. God will help and strengthen you, as long as you are trying to do His will.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may persist day by day in gaining spiritual experience. I pray that I may make this a lifetime work.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Friday, March 25, 2022

Reflection for the Day

If a chemically-dependent person wants to live successfully in society, he or she must replace the power of chemicals over his/her life with the power of something else - preferably positive, at least neutral, but not negative. That is why we say to the agnostic newcomer: If you can't believe in God, find a positive power that is as great as the power of your addiction, and give it the power and dependence you gave to your addiction. In The Program, the agnostic is left free to find his or her Higher Power, and can use the principles of The Program and the therapy of the meetings to aid in rebuilding his/her life.

Do I go out of my way to work with newcomers?

Today I Pray

May the Power of The Program work its miracles equally for those who believe in a personal God or in a Universal Spirit or in the strength of the group itself, or for those who define their Higher Power in their own terms, religious or not. If newcomers are disturbed by the religiosity of The Program, may I welcome them on their own spiritual terms. May I recognize that we are all spiritual beings.

Today I Will Remember

To each his own spirituality.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Friday, March 25, 2022

No man with certainty can see beyond this instant. Yesterday we had a friend, hale, hearty and bubbling over with energy and ambition. Today we write a letter of condolence to his widow. No one knows the day or the hour, but this we do know - we are alive right now, people are suffering right now, we can help them right now.

Hazelden Foundation

March 25, 2022 - Good morning and do what it takes to make it a fantastic Friday

 

Good morning and here's a cute puppy dog with a rose to help get this beautiful Friday off to a great start ...have faith that it's going to be a terrific day, and that means we don't waste time on people and things out to screw it up

March 24, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The purpose of life is life. — Karl Lagerfeld

Our active addiction took us away from a life connected to our Higher Power, family, friends, community, and spiritual principles. During our active addiction, our primary relationship was with alcohol or drugs. Addiction is an illness of mistaken relationship. We believed we could get emotional needs meet through a relationship with chemicals. We can’t.

Now, in recovery, we get back to living instead of dying. We work to heal the wounds our illness created within our families. We see trust being created. We no longer avoid police officers, for we are respectable citizens again. We regularly pray and meditate. We feel the presence of our Higher Power again in our life.

Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, you gave me life for a purpose. Help me live that purpose to its fullest. When I want to avoid life, place me back in the middle of it. When I feel like I can’t go on, give me strength.

Today’s Action

Today I will do at least one task that I have been avoiding. I will remind myself that avoiding tasks takes more energy than doing them.

Hazelden Foundation

March 24, 2022 - Good morning and let's aim for a grand Thursday

 

Good morning to this beautiful Thursday and let's do the day to the hilt and get rid of the things and people who aren't worth our time

March 24, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Today, no looking beyond the current 24 Hours about the length of my sobriety, be it one day, one week, one month, one year, one decade or longer. Alcoholism is chronic and incurable but can be in arrested by abstinence, and all the 24 Hours of clean time we accrue are gone if we buy into the myth that we can get away with "just one." And "just one" sets in motion total relapse. Even if we have racked up a significant number of 24 Hours, we are no more sober than the alcoholic who woke up this morning with a hangover. Remember the yesterdays when we awoke to the harsh reality that the 24 Hours we had before are gone, and know that our yesterdays are the best predictor of our behavior today and tomorrow - and learn from yesterday to avoid repeating its mistakes. Keep the ego in check - the other alcoholic who woke up hung over yesterday but is sober this morning is no less clean than we. Today, when it comes to being and staying sober, take it literally just for today. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

March 24, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thursday, March 24, 2022

AA Thought for the Day

Strength comes from honestly telling your own experiences with drinking. In religion, they call it confession. We call it witnessing or sharing. You give a personal witness, you share your past experiences, the troubles you got into, the hospitals, the jails, the break-up of your home, the money wasted, the debts and all the foolish things you did when you were drinking. This personal witness lets out the things you had kept hidden, brings them out into the open, and you find release and strength.

Am I receiving strength from my personal witnessing?

Meditation for the Day

We cannot fully understand the universe. The simple fact is that we cannot even define space or time. They are both boundless, in spite of all we can do to limit them. We live in a box of space and time which we have manufactured by our own minds and on that depends all our so-called knowledge of the universe. The simple fact is that we can never know all things, nor are we made to know them. Much of our lives must be taken on faith.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that my faith may be based on my own experience of the power of God in my life. I pray that I may know this one thing above all else in the universe.

Hazelden Foundation

March 24, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Reflection for the Day

All of us are faced with the troubles and problems of daily living, whether we've been in The Program two days or 20 years. We'd sometimes like to believe we could take care of all our problems right now, but it rarely works that way. If we remember the slogan "Easy Does It" when we are ready to panic, we may come to know that the very best way to handle all things is "Easy." We put one foot in front of the other, doing the best we are capable of doing. We say, "Easy Does It," and we do it.

Are The Program's slogans growing with me as I grow with The Program?

Today I Pray

May even the words "Easy Does It" serve to slow me down in my headlong rush to accomplish too much too fast. May just the word "Easy" be enough to make me ease up on the whips that drive my ambitions, ease up on the accelerator which plunges me into new situations without enough forethought, ease off the number of hours spent in material pursuits. May I hark to the adage that Rome wasn't built in a single day. Neither can I build solutions to my problems all at once.

Today I Will Remember

Easy Does It.

Hazelden Foundation

March 24, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Life is not a succession of days on earth, but rather it is an accumulation of experiences. Days are simply time locations where experiences transpired. The day on which no event occurred is a day lost out of life, for it had nothing in it to justify its memory.

Hazelden Foundation

March 23, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

In thy face I see the map of honor, truth, and loyalty. — William Shakespeare

People choose their mates for many reasons—the irresistible twinkle in a young man’s eye, the graceful curve of a woman’s ankle, to escape from home, to have a home, financial support, convenience — you name it. But to stay alive, a relationship has to have something else, something more basic going for it. It has to have trust.

Bedrock trust means that we know the other person is in our corner, reliably there for us no matter what. It means that in significant ways, they are “present” to us. If they are not, no matter how much we think we need them or how desperately we want the relationship to work, no trust equals no satisfaction.

Until the other proves trustworthy (beyond promises and good intentions), something in us holds back. Some aspects of the relationship may well be terrific, but the lasting test is always, “Can I trust them?”

Today, I am proud of the ways in which others trust me.

Hazelden Foundation

March 23, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Today, nothing negative to poison my words, thoughts and behavior. Instead, I set out today grateful that I am sober and able to do what I have to do, even if it's something I don't want to do. I will be grateful that I am now able to function, unlike all those days that started with a hangover, shakes and the physical and cognitive inability to do even the basics. I will not complain if I have too much to do and too little time to do it, but instead will approach each task, each person, each amend, each moral checkup with a positive attitude - because today I am sober. With that, I have no reason to be negative. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2022

March 23, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

AA Thought for the Day

Strength comes from the fellowship you find when you come into AA. Just being with men and women who have found the way out gives you a feeling of security. You listen to the speakers, you talk with other members, and you absorb the atmosphere of confidence and hope that you find in the place.

Am I receiving strength from the fellowship with other AA members?

Meditation for the Day

God is with you, to bless and help you. His spirit is all around you. Waver not in your faith or in your prayers. All power is the Lord's. Say that to yourself often and steadily. Say it until your heart sings with joy for the safety and personal power that it means to you. Say it until the very force of the utterance drives back and puts to naught all the evils against you. Use it as a battle cry. All power is the Lord's. Then you will pass on to victory over all your sins and temptations, and you will begin to live a victorious life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that with strength from God I may lead an abundant life. I pray that I may lead a life of victory.

Hazelden Foundation