Oct. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Guilt and Worry

With the Past, as past I have nothing to do; nor with the Future as future. I live now.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We discover a truth about the past and future in our recovery. They are areas over which we have no control, so it's useless to feel guilty about the past or worry over the future. Our Steps have allowed us to clean the slate and make amends for the mess of the past. We receive a generous and loving forgiveness from our Higher Power.

We ask our Higher Power to accept our past mistakes and to free us from the garbage those mistakes have produced. The future is in God's hands. There is nothing we can do about what might happen except to pray for acceptance of God's will. These prayers produce plenty of work for the present. When the future comes, we will be ready.

The amount of time I spend right now feeling guilty or being worried only uses time that I could spend thanking God for the moment I am living. Gratitude will always make mincemeat out of guilt and worry.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

” …’If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don’t really want it for them, and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate understanding and love.’” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 12 (“Freedom from Bondage”), p 552.

Today, if resentment is the deadliest poison to alcoholics alongside alcohol, I will make a sincere effort to free myself of it once and for all. If “Let Go and Let God” has failed because I have taken back my resentment, I’ll try what is suggested here — pray for the person or thing I resent to receive what I want for myself. Even if I can’t say I am sincere and honest in my hopes for whoever or whatever I resent, I will try for two weeks to pray for the best for them. God granting, after two weeks, the monkey on my back will be gone. Like alcohol and all the garbage that comes with it, as for resentment: enough is enough. Time to get rid of it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Oct. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

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

Oct. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

Reflection for the Day
I remember once hearing someone in The Program say, “Life is a series of agreeings or disagreeings with the universe.” There is much truth in that statement, for I’m only a small cog in the machinery of the universe. When I try to run things my way, I’ll experience only frustration and a sense of failure. If, instead, I learn to let go, I’ll have time to count my blessings, work on my shortcomings, and live fully and richly in The Now.

Do I believe that what I am meant to know will come to my knowledge if I practice the Eleventh Step — praying only for knowledge of God’s will for me and the power to carry that out?

Today I Pray
May I take my direction from the Eleventh Step — and not fall into my usual habit of making itemized lists for God of all my pleas and entreaties and complaints. May I no longer second-guess God with my specific solutions, but pray only that His will be done. May I count my blessings instead of my beseechings.

Today I Will Remember
Stop list-making for God.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 9, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

So you killed the goose that laid the Golden Egg? That’s too bad. You can’t bring it back to life, but you can do the next best thing – you can eat the goose. You can’t unscramble an egg, but you can bake a cake.

It is water going over the dam that drives the machinery. You are an alcoholic — you can’t help that fact, but you can use your alcoholism for the benefit of other alcoholics and society generally.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 9, 2024 - Good morning and let's do something productive and useful on this beautiful Wednesday

 

Good morning and let's get out there with confidence that we can make this fantastic 

Wednesday a productive and worthwhile day

Oct. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.

-- Mark Twain

It's not that we want God to change everything about us or remake us to perfection. (OK, maybe we do.) It's not that we wish we were other than who we are; some days we even like who we are. It's more that we want to have faith in ourselves, a deep-down, constant faith that steadies us. We want to have roots deep in the earth, not fragile roots of glass.

Strong and deep roots are made of self-esteem, hope, love, willingness, humility and faith. Our longing to be grounded in life may take the form of wishing we were not addicted, but that's a cover-up for the deeper things we truly want.

Recovery reorganizes our personalities, indeed our very souls, around new, spiritual principles. We remain addicts and always will be, yet that doesn't prevent us from possessing faith in ourselves and the courage to keep growing.

I am a vessel containing life. I am a vessel that has been shattered and mended. I will endure.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

“In AA, we can begin again no matter how late it may be. I have begun again. At 54, I have had come true for me the old wish, ‘If only I could live my life over, knowing what I know.’ That’s what I am doing, living again, knowing what I know. I hope I have been able to impart …at least a bit of what I know; the joy of living, the irresistible power of divine love and its healing strength, and the fact that we, as sentient beings, have the knowledge to choose between good and evil, and, choosing good, are made happy.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 11 (“He Who Loses His Life”), p 543.

Today, it’s not too late until it’s too late — and it’s too late only when I’ve died. Until then, I have the lifeline and the choice of sobriety, and all I need do is grab and hold onto the lifeline, the lifeline being recovery. Even if I cannot yet envision the Program’s promise of sobriety if I adhere to the Twelve Steps, I know already all too well the life I have if I don’t begin anew. In the end, the decision is a matter of choice — to continue in the life of active drinking that I already know with agonizing pain, or to choose something better. Today, I choose something better: it’s not too late because I’m here! And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Oct. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

There is such a thing as being too loyal to any one group. Do I feel put out when another group starts and some members of my group leave it and branch out into new territory? Or do I send them out with my blessing? Do I visit that new offshoot group and help it along? Or do I sulk in my own tent? AA grows by the starting of new groups all the time. I must realize that it’s a good thing for a large group to split up into smaller ones, even if it means that the large group — my own group — becomes smaller.

Am I always ready to help new groups?

Meditation for the Day

Pray — and keep praying until it brings peace and serenity and a feeling of communion with One who is near and ready to help. The thought of God is balm for our hates and fears. In praying to God, we find healing for hurt feelings and resentments. In thinking of God, doubts and fears leave us. Instead of those doubts and fears, there will flow into our hearts such faith and love as is beyond the power of material things to give, and such peace as the world can neither give nor take away. And with God, we can have the tolerance to live and let live.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have true tolerance and understanding. I pray that I may keep striving for these difficult things.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: A Day at a Time

 

A Day at a Time

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

Reflection for the Day
Determination — our clenched-jaw resolve that we can do something about everything — is perhaps the greatest hindrance to achieving serenity. Our old tapes tell us, “The difficult can be done immediately; the impossible will take a little longer.” So we tighten up and prepare ourselves for battle, even though we know from long experience that our own will dooms us in advance to failure. Over and over, we are told in The Program that we must “Let Go and Let God.” And we eventually do find serenity when we put aside our own will while accepting His will for us.

Am I learning to relax my stubborn grip? Do I allow the solutions to unfold by themselves?

Today I Pray
May I loosen my tight-jaw, my tight-fists, my general up-tightness — outward indications of the “do-it-myself” syndrome which has gotten me into trouble before. May I know from experience that this attitude — of “keep a grip on yourself” and on everybody else, too — is accompanied by impatience and followed by frustration. May I merge my own will with the greater will of God.

Today I Will Remember
Let up on the strangle-hold.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 8, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: The Eye Opener

 

The Eye Opener

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

A shipwrecked sailor on a desert island may eventually find another in a like predicament, but the poor alcoholic is all alone with himself, even in a world full of alcoholics.

That is one of the most brutal characteristics of the malady that separates us from the world about us and makes us men without a country, without a hope and without a friend.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 8, 2024 - Good morning and let's give this wonderful Tuesday our best efforts

 

Good morning to this magnificent 

Tuesday and let's not be discouraged by any roadblocks anything and anyone puts up

Oct. 7, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Monday, Oct. 7, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most complete prayer.

-- Gotthold Ephram Lessing

Thank you is one of the most important things we can say to anyone. Thank you packs a lot of meaning into two little words. Thank you says, "I see you. I see what you have done for me. You have been kind to me. I know it takes work to be kind. I feel special that you did the work of being kind to me. I am grateful."

Sometimes it is hard for us to say thank you because we are too busy feeling shame or sadness or anger. So what? No excuses. Those feelings are our own problems, and we know what to do about them now that we have a recovery program. No matter what is going on with us, we can always find help. And we can always be kind to others. Saying thank you is an easy way to start.

Prayer for the Day

Thank you, Higher Power. Thank you for the gift of life, for a world of natural beauty and power to live in and for the people around me who love me and accept my love. Thank you for caring about me and helping me every day in my recovery, and please help me ask for the gift of your help each day.

Today's Action

Today I will practice thinking "Thank you, Higher Power" every time I receive a little help or a lucky break.

Hazelden Foundation

Oct. 7, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Monday, Oct. 7, 2024

“The spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism …From this doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “Foreword to the Second Edition,” pp-xv, xvi.

Today, “moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.” With that simple objective, the Twelve Steps guide us to recovery, serenity, humility and service. We need not complicate or make a mystery of our reasons to seek recovery or how to earn it. With our admission that we are powerless over alcohol and whatever else we cannot control and a determination and commitment to go to any length to make our lives one without alcohol, and to make it work, nothing exists to complicate our recovery. Today, being drunk 24/7 has had its run. I want recovery. Today, I begin. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

Oct. 7, 2024 - Readings in Recovery: Twenty-Four Hours a Day

 

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Monday, Oct. 7, 2024

AA Thought for the Day
Do I put too much reliance on any one member of the group? That is, do I make a tin god out of some one person? Do I set that person on a pedestal? If I do, I am building my house on sand. All AA members have “clay feet.” They are all only one drink away from a drunk, no matter how long they have been in AA. This has been proved to be true more than once. It’s not fair to any member to be singled out as a leader in AA and to always quote that member on the AA program. If that person should fail, where would I be?

Can I afford to be tipped over by the failure of my ideal?

Meditation for the Day
You must always remember that you are weak but that God is strong. God knows all about your weakness. He hears every cry for mercy, every sign of weakness, every plea for help, every sorrow over failure, every weakness felt and expressed. We only fail when we trust too much to our own strength. Do not feel bad about your weakness. When you are weak, that is when God is strong to help you. Trust God enough, and your weakness will not matter. God is always strong to save.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may learn to lean on God’s strength. I pray that I may know that my weakness is God’s opportunity.

Hazelden Foundation