Wednesday 30 September 2015

Daily Reflections #essentialsofrec #Recovery #love

30
September


THE CIRCLE AND THE TRIANGLE


The circle stands for the whole world of A.A., and the triangle stands for A.A.’s Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity, and Service. Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession. 

A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 139

Early in my A.A. life, I became employed in its services and I found the explanation of our society’s logo to be very appropriate. First, a circle of love and service with a well-balanced triangle inside, the base of which represents our Recovery through the Twelve Steps. Then the other two sides, representing Unity and Service, respectively. The three sides of the triangle are equal. As I grew in A.A. I soon identified myself with this symbol. I am the circle, and the sides of the triangle represent three aspects of my personality: physical, emotional sanity, spirituality, the latter forming the symbol’s base. Taken together, all three aspects of my personality translate into a sober and happy life.
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Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery


Being Ourselves

“Our real value is in being ourselves.”

Basic Text, p.101

Over and over, we have tried to live up to the expectations of those around us. We may have been raised believing that we were okay if we earned good grades in school, cleaned our rooms, or dressed a certain way. Always wanting to belong and be loved, many of us spent a lot of time trying to fit in – yet we never quite seemed to measure up.

Now, in recovery, we are accepted as we are. Our real value to others is in being ourselves. As we work the steps, we learn to accept ourselves just as we are. Once this happens, we gain the freedom to become who we want to be.

We each have many good qualities we can share with others. Our experiences, honestly shared, help others find the level of identification they need to begin their recovery. We discover that we all have special gifts to offer those around us.

Just for today: My experience in recovery is the greatest gift I can give another addict. I will share myself honestly with others. 
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Just For Today #essentialsofrec #addiction #Expectations

 30
September

Being Ourselves


“Our real value is in being ourselves.” Basic Text, p.101

Over and over, we have tried to live up to the expectations of those around us. We may have been raised believing that we were okay if we earned good grades in school, cleaned our rooms, or dressed a certain way. Always wanting to belong and be loved, many of us spent a lot of time trying to fit in – yet we never quite seemed to measure up.

Now, in recovery, we are accepted as we are. Our real value to others is in being ourselves. As we work the steps, we learn to accept ourselves just as we are. Once this happens, we gain the freedom to become who we want to be.

We each have many good qualities we can share with others. Our experiences, honestly shared, help others find the level of identification they need to begin their recovery. We discover that we all have special gifts to offer those around us.

Just for today: My experience in recovery is the greatest gift I can give another addict. I will share myself honestly with others.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialosfrec #Recovery #leadership

 30
September
A.A. Thought For The Day


There are no leaders in A.A., except as they volunteer to accept responsibility. The work of carrying on A.A.–leading group meetings, serving on committees, speaking before other groups, doing twelfth-step work, spreading A.A. among the alcoholics of the community–all these things are done on a volunteer basis. If I don’t volunteer to do something concrete for A.A., the movement is that much less effective. I must do my fair share to carry the load. A.A. depends on all its members to keep it alive and to keep it growing. Am I doing my share for A.A.?

Meditation For The Day

When you look to God for strength to face responsibility and are quiet before Him, His healing touch causes the Divine Quiet to flow into your very being. When in weakness you cry to God, His touch brings healing, the renewal of your courage, and the power to meet every situation and be victorious. When you faint by the way or are distracted by feelings of inferiority, then rely on the touch of God’s spirit to support you on your way. Then arise and go forth with confidence.

Prayer For The Day


I pray that I may lay myself open today to the healing touch of God. I pray that I may not falter or faint by the wayside, but renew my courage through prayer.
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As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Humility

30
September
A.A. In Two Words, p.271


“All A.A. progress can be reckoned in terms of just two words: humility and responsibility. Our whole spiritual development can be accurately measured by our degree of adherence to these magnificent standards.

“Ever deepening humility, accompanied by an ever greater willingness to accept and to act upon clear-cut obligations–these are truly our touchstones for all growth in the life of the spirit. They hold up to us the very essence of right being and right doing. It is by them that we are enabled to find and to do God’s will.” Talk, 1965 (Printed In Grapevine, January 1966)
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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrec #Recovery #communication

30
September  

How do we communicate?
Carrying the message.


What we are always carries a stronger message than what we say. This is why we’re sometimes turned off by people who seek to overwhelm us with charm. It’s also why we can sometimes be drawn to people who are quiet and unassuming.

However it works, there is a powerful message in one’s unspoken thoughts and feelings. We can usually sense, for example, the mood of people in a room, even when little is being said. If we spend any time with others, they will soon know much about us even if we say little.

This silent communication may be the great secret of AA’s success in reaching those who still suffer. If we are living sober and want to help others, that’s he message we give out. That’s also a form of carrying the message.

I’ll communicate today by maintaining a warm and friendly attitude toward every person I meet, knowing that thoughts and feelings speak louder than words.

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Keep It Simple #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Failure

  30
September


If we follow the Twelve Steps, we’ll leave failure behind. We may have tried and tired to be sober, good people, but failed if we were doing it our way. Now is the time to stop listening to ourselves and start listening to pros, those who have gone before us.

When we follow their lead, exciting changes happen. First we stay sober. We regain self-respect. We meet people we respect and become friends. Our families start to trust us again. And why? Because we gave up doing it our way and listened. We listened to the experts.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, allow me to become an expert listener.

Action for the Day: Today, I’ll find someone I respect and ask how they work their program. I’ll ask them to share their wisdom.
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Patience



30
September
PATIENCE



“Prayer of the modern American: ‘Dear God, I pray for patience. And I want it right now!’”

– Oren Arnold

How I appreciate those times when I experience the gift of patience in my life, not as often as I would like. That is an interesting point: I am impatient about having patience!

Seriously, patience is when I recognize the need to “back off” — allow God into the driver’s seat, resting in the knowledge that things happen in God’s time. This does not mean that I am not involved, but it allows for God’s comprehensive plan for His world. I can experience patience usually when I get in touch with gratitude. Once I stop giving energy to the “I wants”, the joy of serenity breathes through my life and I can rest. Sometimes I need to “stop” and say a loud and resonant “thank you”.

Lord, let me breathe these words into my life: “Thy will be done.”

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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Recovery

30
September

Reflection For The Day


No matter what other people do or don’t do, we have to remain sober and free from other addictions for ourselves. When our program of recovery becomes contingent on the actions or inaction of another person — especially someone with whom we’re emotionally involved — the results are invariably disastrous. We need to also remember that intense dislike is as much an emotional involvement as new found romantic love. In short, we have to cool any risky emotional involvements in the first few months of our recovery, trying to accept the fact that our feelings could change quickly and dramatically. Our watch word must be “First Things First,” concentrating on our number one problem before anything else. Am I building a firm foundation while steering a firm foundation while steering clear of slippery emotional areas?

Today I Pray

May I always remember that healthy relationships with people are necessary for my recovery. But — that substituting an obsession with either a love or hate object is as dangerous to my well-being as any other addiction.

Today I Will Remember

A dependency is a dependency is a dependency.
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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #OA #Absintence

 30
September 

SERVICE



“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”

–St. Francis of Assisi

There are many tools I use to maintain my abstinence, but none of them is as important to me as service. I do a lot of service, but it’s not for fame or glory: I do service in order to keep my program strong. I came into program for the first time back in college, and got there only because someone offered to give me a ride.

When we first walk into these rooms, we often feel lost and alone in the dark world of addiction. But at that very first meeting we hear people talk about their experience and strength, and a small glow of light comes into our view. All it takes is that “single sunbeam” and we have hope again and our world seems brighter.

As we keep coming back and working the Steps, we encounter lots of different sunbeams, and slowly the shadows in our lives are cast away and the world becomes bright again. It is then our responsibility to let our own light shine. One of the beauties of this program is that everyone can find a way to give service. Whether it be on the group or Intergroup level, whether by sponsoring or just making a call, whether by serving as secretary, treasurer, or just by helping to put chairs away after a meeting, there is a job for everyone.
No one should feel “unimportant.” I’m sure that the lady who gave me a ride to my first few meetings didn’t feel like she was doing anything special, but she was the first sunbeam in my life. All these years later, her act of giving has ignited in me a burning desire to give back to others the miracle of this program.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will be unafraid to let my light shine. Any act of service that I can give will not only help another, but will ensure that my own light does not burn out.

~ Laurel
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrec #HOPI #NativeAmerican

 30
September



“Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.”

–Don Talayesva, HOPI

Human beings function from choice. We can choose to stuff things, or we can choose to let go of things. If we choose to stuff things, then we will feel a heaviness, or sorrow, self pity or fear. Sometimes we feel the need to cry. Sometimes we are taught it is not okay to cry. The creator designed the human being to cry. Crying is a release. This release allows us to let go of thoughts that are not helping us so we can open to new thoughts that will help. Crying is natural for women and men.

Grandfather, if I need to cry, let me realize it’s a natural process and help me to let go.
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Today’s Gift from Hazelden #essentialsofrec #Recovery

30

September 



The house, the stars, the desert–what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible.


— Antoine de Saint Exupery

What makes our home special? Is it the shape of it, or whether or not we have carpeting? Probably not.

More likely, what makes us love a place is how we feel when we are there. Home is the familiarity of pleasant smells, activities, and special people.

And when we are caught by the beauty of the stars, isn’t it something that happens inside us – the breathtaking feeling of joy that is so hard to describe? The beauty of a day or a special person in our lives cannot be captured, but it can fill and warm our hearts.

Can I measure beauty today by what I feel inside?



From Today’s Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©1985, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Tradition11

  30
September


“11. – Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think AA ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as AA members ought not be broadcast, filmed or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.” 

– Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Appendices, “The Twelve Traditions” (long form), p 567.

Today, the 11th Tradition reminds and compels me not to “praise” myself inasmuch as my drinking is concerned, be it years of sobriety or a decision to attend my first meeting tonight. While it is appropriate to give a quick pat on the back for working toward my recovery, the overwhelming “credit” belongs to the Program and its Steps without which I had no lifeline to grab and hold onto. If I should boast about my sobriety as my own achievement, if I become complacent in sobriety or if I neglect to do what the Program requires I do daily, I have probably neglected my responsibility to the Program to be one of its anonymous “success” stories. Today, I will be stingy in claiming my sobriety as my own accomplishment and instead remember that it’s largely the product of the AA Program. And our common journey continues.

Step by step. – Chris M.


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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #AA #philosophy

 30
September


Our AA philosophy is an idealistic philosophy. It has to be in order to be a happy philosophy. Some may declare that it is too much so, that we ignore more materialistic facts. Let us take from our philosophy all the good and the joy it promises. Let us give our gold no acid test.

If our philosophy is unreal and foolish in the eyes of the more materialistic world, then what of it? It enables us to be happier than those that have good sense.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation
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Daily Tao / 273 – Helixes #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Zen

30
September

Helixes

Three subtle energy currents:
Twin helixes around a jade pillar.
This glowing presence
Is the force of life itself.



Deep in meditation, it is possible to become aware of the life-force itself. You can see it if you learn how to look within. To describe it as electricity, or power, or light, or consciousness is all somewhat correct. But such descriptions are inadequate. You have to see it for yourself. You have to feel it for yourself. You have to know it for yourself.

To be in its presence is like being in front of something primeval, basic, mysterious, shamanistic, and profound. To be in its presence makes all references mute and all senses slack, leaving only deep awe. One is drawn to it in utter fascination. It is the mighty flame to our mothlike consciousness.

This column of energy that coils around itself holds all the stages of our growth. It is our soul; it is the force that animates us and gives us awareness. If you want to engage your life completely, it is essential for you to come to terms with this inner power. Once you harmonize with it you can blend with the dynamics of being human.
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Daily Zen #essentialsofrec #Zen #Buddhism

 30 
September 


If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!”

– Thich Nhat Hanh
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Tuesday 29 September 2015

There's always a reason.


EssentialsOfRecovery

God's Will BE Done


EssentialsOfRecovery

Chuck C. - AA Speaker - "The Prodical Son and the Twelve Steps of Recovery"

  29
September


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Twelve Warnings #essentialsofrec #Warnings #BigBook #Recovery

 29
September



The book Alcoholics Anonymous contains a series of propositions and proposals, the successful outcome of these depends upon the actions of the reader.
The book directs us as to what we must start doing, what we must stop doing, what happens when we fulfill the propositions and proposals and what will happen if we fail to fulfill them.
These are the Twelve Warnings as to what will happen if we fail to heed the directions .

1. For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. (p14)

2. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined. (p17)

3. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness, we must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. (p62)

4. Though our decision (Step 3) was a vital and crucial Step, it could have little permanent effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face and be rid of, the things in our lives which had been blocking us. (p64)

5. It is plain that a life, which includes deep resentment, leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and with us to drink is to die. (p66)

6. Concerning sex. Suppose we fall short of the chosen ideal and stumble? Does this mean we are going to get drunk? Some people tell us so. But this is only a half-truth. It depends on us and our motives. If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned a lesson. If we are not sorry, and our conduct continues to harm others, we are quite sure to drink. We are not theorizing. These are facts about our experience. (p70)

7. If we skip this vital Step (5), we may not overcome drinking. Time after time newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives. Trying to avoid this humbling experience, they have turned to easier methods. Almost invariably they got drunk. (p.72)

8. We must lose our fear of creditors no matter how far we have to go, for we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face them. (p78)

9. We feel that a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough. (p.82)

10. It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. (p.85)

11. Our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there. That includes bars, nightclubs, dances, receptions, weddings, even plain ordinary whoopee parties. To a person who has had experience with an alcoholic, this may seem like tempting Providence , but it isn't. You will note that we made an important qualification. Therefore, ask yourself on each occasion, "Have I a good social, business, or personal reason for going to this place? Or am I expecting to steal a little vicarious pleasure from the atmosphere of such places?" If you have answered these questions satisfactorily, you need have no apprehension. Go or stay away, whichever seems best. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good. Do not think of what you will get out of the occasion. Think of what you can bring to it. But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead! (p.101)



12. The head of the house ought to remember that he is mainly to blame for what befell his home. He can scarcely square the account in his lifetime. But he must see the danger of over-concentration on financial success. Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we found we could not place money first. For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress, it never preceded. (p127)
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Daily Reflections #essentialsofrec #Recovery #alike

 29
September
EXACTLY ALIKE

Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives. 

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 89

A man came to the meeting drunk, interrupted the speakers, stood up and took his shirt off, staggered loudly back and forth for coffee, demanded to talk, and eventually called the group’s secretary an unquotable name and walked out. I was glad he was there–once again I saw what I still could be. I don’t have to be drunk to want to be the exception and the center of attention. I have often felt abused and responded abusively when I was simply being treated as a garden variety human being. The more the man tried to insist he was different, the more I realized that he and I were exactly alike.
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Just For Today #essentialsofrec #Recovery #NA

 29
September

Just For Today


“When we stop living in the here and now, our problems become magnified unreasonably.” 

Basic Text, p.96

“Just for today” – it’s a comforting thought. If we try to live in the past, we may find ourselves torn by painful, disquieting memories. The lessons of our using are not the teachers we seek for recovery. Living in tomorrow means moving in with fear.

We cannot see the shape of the secret future, and uncertainty brings worry. Our lives look overwhelming when we lose the focus of today.

Living in the moment offers freedom. In this moment, we know that we are safe. We are not using, and we have everything we need. What’s more, life is happening in the here and now. The past is gone and the future has yet to arrive; our worrying won’t change any of it. Today, we can enjoy our recovery, this very minute.

Just for today: I will stay in the here and now. Today – this moment – I am free.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrec #Reccovery #Service

 29
September
A.A. Thought For The Day


Having got this far, shall we pause and ask ourselves some searching questions? We need to check up on ourselves periodically. Just how good an A.A. am I? Am I attending meetings regularly? Am I doing my share to carry the load? When there is something to be done, do I volunteer? Do I speak at meetings when asked, no matter how nervous I am? Do I accept each opportunity to do twelfth-step work as a challenge? Do I give freely of my time and money? Am I trying to spread A.A. wherever I go? Is my daily life a demonstration of A.A. principles? Am I a good A.A.?

Meditation For The Day


How do I get strength to be effective and to accept responsibility? By asking the Higher Power for the strength I need each day. It has been proved in countless lives that for every day I live the necessary power shall be given me. I must face each challenge that comes to me during the day, sure that God will give me the strength to face it. For every task that is given me, there is also given me all the power necessary for the performance of that task. I do not need to hold back.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may accept every task as a challenge. I know I cannot wholly fail if God is with me.
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As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Humility #Responsibility

  29
September 

A.A. In Two Words, p.271


“All A.A. progress can be reckoned in terms of just two words: humility and responsibility. Our whole spiritual development can be accurately measured by our degree of adherence to these magnificent standards.

“Ever deepening humility, accompanied by an ever greater willingness to accept and to act upon clear-cut obligations–these are truly our touchstones for all growth in the life of the spirit. They hold up to us the very essence of right being and right doing. It is by them that we are enabled to find and to do God’s will.” Talk, 1965 (Printed In Grapevine, January 1966)
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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Gratitude

 29
September 

When should I be Grateful?
Gratitude


One spiritual writer believed that our only reason for gratitude should be that we are part of God’s universe. Others point out that gratitude helps us, not God or the other people to whom we are grateful.

Their point is that it’s not very uplifting simply to tie our gratitude to certain gifts or benefits. Such gratitude is fairly shallow and is almost no more than good manners. As recovering alcoholics, we need more than that.

The best reason for gratitude is the outlook it creates as we cultivate it within ourselves. We will actually feel mentally and physically uplifted if we know true gratitude. This is the true spiritual outlook alcoholics seek in the bottle but can find only in the new way of life.

I’ll find ways to practice gratitude today without letting others know what I’m doing.
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Blackouts

  29
September 

BLACKOUTS



“It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.”

– Anatole France

I experienced blackouts in my drinking. Often I would wake up and not know where I had been, what I had said or what I had done. I would awake to peer through windows searching for my car. I would telephone to find out what time I had left the party and if anything had happened. Often as I bathed I would discover bruises or bleeding from an unremembered incident.

There were other times I knew what I had done, knew what I had said, remembered how I behaved — and yet still I went back for more. I drank alcoholically for years because my pride would not allow me to be alcoholic. I created the wisest excuses for staying sick!

Today my sobriety requires a wisdom that is based on reality.

Lord of action, teach me to place my feet alongside my best thinking.
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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Touchiness

 29
September

Reflection For The Day


In our first weeks or months in The Program, our shaky emotional condition sometimes affects our feelings toward old friends and family. For many of us, these relationships heal quickly in the initial stages of our recovery. For others, a time of “touchiness” seems to persist; now that we’re no longer drinking or using other chemicals, we have to sort out our feelings about spouse, children, relatives, employer, fellow workers, and even neighbors. Experience in The Program over the years has taught that we should avoid making important decisions early in our recovery — especially emotion-charged decisions about people. Am I becoming better equipped to relate maturely to other people?

Today I Pray

May God help me through the edginess, the confusion of re-feeling and re-thinking my relationships, the “getting-it-all-together” stages of my recovery. May I not rush into new relationships or new situations that demand and investment of my emotions — not yet.

Today I Will Remember


No entangling alliances too soon.
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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Recover y #Togetherness #Fellowship

  29
September

Togetherness



“Take my hand, and no matter how dark the night, the light of day will come, and we will share the tomorrow.”

–Ken Grant

When we first walk into our recovery rooms, we are all afraid: afraid of more rejection, afraid of more failure, and afraid of more loneliness. Once we sit and listen, we realize that we are not much different than the other people there. We ease up, start sharing, begin trusting our Higher Power and ourselves more.

Our darkness of the past is drawn out by our sharing with other addicts. We realize our deep, dark secrets are not as bad as we thought.

We are not alone! Then hand-in-hand, we begin climbing the ladder of recovery and the light of day begins to shine brighter and brighter.

One Day at a Time . . .

When we let our guard down and let Higher Power and other people in, we learn that at the end of a dark day is the light of our next today. We learn that together we can do what we can never do alone.

~ Jeanette
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrec #Lakota #NAtiveAmerican

  29
September 



So I prayed, but I had to pray from my heart. All of my concentration and thoughts went from my head to my heart. All of my senses – hearing, smell, taste, and feeling – were connected to my heart.”

–Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

The heart is the gateway to the Unseen World, to the Spirit World. It takes real concentration to do this. To connect to our own heart is also a mental state. It starts in the head and transitions to the heart. This mental state is our inner stillness. Be still and know. This place of the heart is very joyous and peaceful. It is this place that we become one with God, our Creator.

Great Spirit, teach me to be a heart warrior.
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Today’s Gift #essentialsofrec #Recovery #differences

  29
September



When people envy me I think, Oh God, don’t envy me, I have my own pains.

—Barbra Streisand


A forest is full of many different kinds of trees–they are all sizes and shapes and shades of color. It is hard to imagine a pine tree wishing it was an oak. Or a fir tree envying the birch its white bark. Instead, each tree catches raindrops and reflects the sunshine in its own way.
We often find ourselves envying someone else. We think they have more money or more friends. We see them as better looking or luckier in some way than we are.
It is so easy to overlook our own gifts when we do this. We get fooled by what looks good and forget that all human beings have some weaknesses and pain, just like we do. Like the trees in the forest, we each have our own unique beauty and talents to offer. If we believe in ourselves, rather than envy those around us, we will grow green and tall in our own way.
What qualities do I have that someone might envy?
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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Anonymity

 29
September


“12. – …(W)e of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Appendices, “The Twelve Traditions” (long form), pp 567-68.

Today, I must embrace the last of our Program’s 12 Traditions, that anonymity of all those in the Program is a principle rather than a courtesy. If we can understand that a principle is an ethic that governs our Program, any personal differences we might have may become insignificant and futile in the goal of our individual recoveries and the effectiveness of the Program as a whole. As the 12th Tradition also promises, anonymity has the spiritual power for us to be hungry for “genuine humility.” And what is humility? As defined earlier in the Book Book, humility is our desire to know and carry out the will of our Higher Power – as we understand Him – and not our own will. Today, I renew my commitment to respect the 12th Tradition, and all others, as an ethical code and not as a courtesy to other members. In the process, God granting, may I know the humility of the principle of anonymity and, maybe more, develop a higher sense of responsibility to the gift of sobriety with which the Program has entrusted me. And our common journey continues.




Step by step. – Chris M.
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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #Recovery #AA


  29
September



We members of AA have a tremendous responsibility. We must in our work discuss the most personal matters with the new guy or gal. This information is given us under desperate circumstances and should be treated as most confidential. Carelessness in this respect can and does do a lot of harm at times. Let us confine our conversations with each other to only that part of the new man’s problem that pertains to his actual drinking, because that is the only phase of the problem that we can efficiently advise him on, anyway. These personal matters are matters of trust, and they deserve the same confidential treatment as a church confessional.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation
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Daily Tao / 272 – Determination #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Zen #buddhism

 29
September

Determination
Lady butterfly,
I saw you a week ago.
Now you are back,
With your lover,
In tandem flights
And helical tangents:
How many times
You return gladly!



In the legends there is the story of the butterfly lovers. They loved each other so much that even in death, their hearts were fixed faithfully upon one another. In honor of their devotion to each other, the gods changed them into butterflies and let them come back together in reincarnation after reincarnation.

Would that all of us could manifest such determination and faith to what we loved!

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Zen #Buddhism

 29
September



The purpose of Zen is to enable people to immediately transcend the ordinary and the holy, just getting people to awaken on their own, forever cutting off the root of doubt. Many people in modern times disregard this. They may join Zen groups, but they are lazy about Zen study. Even if they achieve concentration, they do not choose real teachers. Through the error of false teachers, they likewise lose their way.

- Fayan


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Monday 28 September 2015

Daily Reflections #essentialsofrec #love #Recovery

 28
September

LOVE WITHOUT STRINGS


Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. 

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 89

Sponsorship held two surprises for me. First, that my sponsees cared about me. What I had thought was gratitude was more like love. They wanted me to be happy, to grow and remain sober. Knowing how they felt kept me from drinking more than once. Second, I discovered that I was able to love someone else responsibly, with respectful and genuine concern for that person’s growth. Before that time, I had thought that my ability to care sincerely about another’s well-being had atrophied from lack of use. To learn that I can love, without greed or anxiety, has been one of the deepest gifts the program has given. Gratitude for that gift has kept me sober many times.
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Just For Today #essentialsofrec #NA #Hope #Recovery

28
September

Hope


“Gradually as we become more God-centered than self centered, our despair turns to hope.”

 Basic Text, p.92

As using addicts, despair was our relentless companion. It colored our every waking moment. Despair was born of our experience in active addiction: No matter what measures we tried to make our lives better, we slid ever deeper into misery. Attempts we made to control our lives frequently met with failure. In a sense, our First Step admission of powerlessness was an acknowledgment of despair.

Steps Two and Three lead us gradually out of that despair and into new hope, the companion of the recovering addict. Having accepted that so many of our efforts to change have failed, we come to believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves. We believe this Power can – and will – help us. We practice the Second and Third Steps as an affirmation of our hope for a better life, turning to this Power for guidance. As we come to rely more and more on a Higher Power for the management of our day – to – day life, the despair arising from our long experiment with self-sufficiency disappears.

Just for today: I will reaffirm my Third Step decision. I know that, with a Higher Power in my life, there is hope.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrec #recovery #BigBook

28
September
A.A. Thought For The Day


For the past two months we have been studying passages and steps from the Big Book. Now why not read the book itself again? It is essential that the A.A. program become part of us. We must have its essentials at our finger tips. We cannot study the big book too much or too often. The more we read it and study it, the better equipped we are to think A.A., act A.A., and live A.A. We cannot know too much about the program. The chances are that we will never know enough. But we can make as much of it our own as possible. How much of the Big Book have I thoroughly mastered?

Meditation For The Day

We need to accept the difficulties and disciplines of life so as to fully share the common life of other people. Many things that we must accept in life are not to be taken so much as being necessary for us personally, as to be experienced in order that we may share in the sufferings and problems of humanity. We need sympathy and understanding. We must share many of the experiences of life, in order to understand and sympathize with others. Unless we have been through the same experiences, we cannot understand other people or their makeup well enough to be able to help them.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may accept everything that comes my way as part of life. I pray that I may make use of it in helping my fellow men.
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As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Recovery #BillW

28
September 

Honesty And Recovery, p.270


In taking an inventory, a member might consider questions such as these:

How did my selfish pursuit of the sex relation damage other people and me? What people were hurt, and how badly? Just how did I react at the time? Did I burn with guilt? Or did I insist that I was the pursued and not the pursuer, and thus absolve myself?

How have I reacted to frustration in sexual matters? When denied, did I become vengeful or depressed? Did I take it out on other people? If there was rejection, or coldness at home, did I use this as a reason for promiscuity?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Let no alcoholic say he cannot recover unless he has his family back. His recovery is not dependent upon people. It is dependent upon his relationship with God, however he may define Him.

1. 12 & 12 ,pp. 50-51
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 99-100
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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Success

28
September
The Role of self-sufficiency
Success

When AA was first launched, the ideal of the self made person was often exalted. Certain outstanding individuals seem to have achieved amazing success entirely by their own efforts. In the drive to be such a self made person, AA co-founder Bill W. was swept away in a torrent of alcoholic grandeur.

We know today that there’s no such thing as a self-made person. We all need each other, and at various times we would have been lost without assistance taht was generously and freely given. Everyone has had such assistance at one time or anotehr. WE are not entirely self-sufficient.

The true role of self-sufficiency is to use our talent and opportunities wisely and beneficially in cooperation with others. Our own success in whatever we do will be enhanced as we continue to acknowledge our need for others.

Throughout the day, there will be many times when I need the help of others, and many times when others will need my help. I will give and receive help gratefully.
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Keep It Simple #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Honesty

28
September


Honesty is the backbone of our recovery program. Honesty opens us up. It breaks down the walls we had built around our secret world. Those walls made a prison for us. But all of that is now changed. We are free.

Honesty has made us wise. We aren’t sneaking drinks anymore. We don’t have a stash to protect.

People who didn’t trust us now depend on our honesty. People who worked hard to avoid us, now seek us out. Self-honesty is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You are truth. I pray that I may not turn away from truth. I will not lie. My life depends on honesty.

Action For the Day: For twenty or thirty minutes, I will think about how learning to be honest has changed my life.
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Mistakes

 28
September 

MISTAKES


“Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure.”

– William Saroyan

Today I am able to learn from my mistakes because I can see that they really were mistakes! I was trying to play the game of life without a full deck. My big mistake in life was trying to drink alcohol like a non-alcoholic. I couldn’t do it.

Drugs do not think; they react. They always work, and for me they worked against me. Most of my failures in life stemmed from a fundamental misconception — alcoholics cannot drink like non-alcoholics! This I now accept. And in a strange way that is difficult to explain, I am a stronger person for having lived through my alcoholism. God has become more real, the world is more comprehensible, my life is more understandable because of the pain.

If a part of “goodness” is knowing that you are not perfect, then on a daily basis I am becoming a good person.

God, who has created a world in which there is pain and failure, help me to accept both as vehicles to wisdom.
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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Recovery #freedom



28
September

Reflection For The Day


Now that we’re free from our addictions, living life one day at a time, we can begin to stop making unreasonable demands upon those we love. We can show kindness where we had shown none; we can take the time and initiative to be thoughtful, considerate and compassionate. Even with the people we dislike, we can at least try to be courteous, at times literally going out of our way to understand and help them. Just For Today, will I try to understand rather than be understood, being courteous and respectful to all people with whom I’m in contact?

Today I Pray

May I never forget my old sponge-like self, who soaked up every drop of affection and attention my family or friends could give me, until they were sapped dry. May I learn to be a giver, rather than a constant taker. May I practice offering interest, kindness, consideration and compassion until sensitivity to others becomes second nature for me.

Today I Will Remember

Giving is part of being.
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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #recovery #OA

 28
September
Others



“Those who have learned by experience what physical and emotional pain and anguish mean are a community all over the world…One and all, they know the longing to be free from pain.”

–Albert Schweitzer

Whether we isolate or are on the go constantly, whether we’re in the disease or out of it, whether we’ve found all the Promises or we haven’t, we are bonded for a lifetime by the disease of our addiction.

I was alone until I found other compulsive eaters. Yes, I had a family and friends and relatives and doctors and church and careers, but I was emotionally alone with this intricate, enigmatic, hellhole of a disease. The moment I met and connected with other compulsive eaters, my “real” life began.

One Day at a Time . . .
I share what I have learned with those who haven’t. I give what I have to give, and I get so much more.

~ Mari
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrec #LAKOTA #NativeAmerican #Love

 28
September



Love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It’s that powerful.”

–John (Fire) Lame Deer, ROSEBUD LAKOTA

The Old Ones say, love is all anyone needs. Love doesn’t go away nor can love be divided. Once you commit an act of love, you’ll find it continues. Love is like setting up dominos one behind the other. Once you hit the first domino, it will touch the second one which will touch the third one and so on. Every love act or love thought has an affect on each person as well as touching the whole world. If you live a life filled with love, the results will affect your friends, relatives and other people, even after you go to the other side. So… Love.

My Creator, let me love. Let me put into action the love dominos.
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Today’s Gift from Hazelden #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Life

 28
September


All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.

— M. C. Richards

What you do for a living is not who you are. You are more, much more, than that.

It’s easy to get so caught up in what we do that we’re only identifying ourselves through our daily tasks. I am a mechanic. I am a parking lot attendant. I am a doctor. I am a dishwasher. When we link ourselves too closely to our jobs, we deny ourselves the chance to ever be anything else.

God gave us the power to change. You’re more than what you do. You’re a vital vibrant soul that came here to experience, grow, and change. Make a masterpiece out of your life.

God, help me realize the glory of my soul. Thank you for my mortality and for the ability to learn and grow.

From the book:



More Language of Letting Go © 2000 by Melody Beattie
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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Tradition1

  28
September  


“1. – Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. AA must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterwards.” – The First Tradition (long form), Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Appendices, “

The Twelve Traditions,” p 565.

Today, let me understand and respect the first Tradition of our Program, namely that I am not first and foremost and that my own sobriety and recovery contribute to the effectiveness of the Program as a whole, even if my own is but a small contribution. That said, the sobriety and recovery for which I have worked and am working are not solely mine but mirror our Fellowship’s credibility – be it in the eyes of a newcomer or the public and various professional organizations. Because of that responsibility, may I also understand that the sobriety I have gained carries a responsibility to it. My responsibility to my sobriety, then, boils down to being in service to the Program as the First Tradition dictates. If I can effectively serve, then I may be contributing to my own welfare which, as the First Tradition also states, comes a close second. Today, my sobriety is not my own and must be part of everyone else’s, and I am responsible to work for continued recovery. And our common journey continues.

 Step by step. – Chris M.
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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #Recovery

  28
September


We have all had the pleasure of knowing intimately several men who might be classed as “Gentlemen of Leisure” and what a squirrel cage they were usually in. They labored all night long to get in jams that required a staff of lawyers all the next day to extricate them.

It takes a big man to make effective use of leisure.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation
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Daily Tao / 271 – Commitment #essentialsofrec #Tao #Zen ~taosim #Commitment

 28
September


Maiden plucks folk tune on steel strings,
Crickets chant like monks.
I’ve walked into autumnal contentment,
Yet a young boy seeks guidance.



One my be quite far along on the path, but if one meets a beginner who sincerely seeks guidance, then one should help without reservation. If such a beginner were to come to you, what would you say? This is what I said to someone today :

“The time of beginning is one of the most precious times of all. It can be very exciting and full of wonderful growth. The first thing to do is to make up your mind that you are going to go the distance.

“When I first began, I made a lifelong commitment. I determined that I would learn from my teacher for at least seven years. Now, it has been much longer than that, but the essential element is still the same : commitment.

“But commitment needs something else in order to be perpetuated. It needs discipline. This is the perseverance to keep on when things are tough. Adversity is life’s way of testing and perfecting a person. Without that, we would never develop character.

“Rice suffers when it is milled. Jade must suffer when it is polished. But what emerges is something special. If you want to be special too, then you have to be able to stick to things even when they are difficult.”

Commitment and discipline — these are two of the most precious words for those who would seek Tao.

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Zen #Buddhism


 28
September

Do not cling to the letter, just comprehend the meaning, referring each point to your own self, so as to merge with the original source. Then the knowledge that has no teacher will spontaneously appear, the pattern of natural reality will be perfectly clear, and you will attain the body of wisdom, attaining enlightenment without depending on anyone else.

- Master Chinul (1158-1210)
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Sunday 27 September 2015

Ed. M. - AA Speakers - "Tears, Laughter and Love" #essentialsofrec #Reovery #AA #Speakers

  27
September


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Random Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous #essentialsofrec #Recovery #BigBook

27
September


FOREWORD TO FIRST EDITION

This is the Foreword as it appeared in the first printing of the first edition of the Big Book in 1939.
WE, OF Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person. And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.

It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few, at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication. Being mostly business or professional folk, we could not well carry on our occupations in such an event. We would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation.

When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each of our Fellowship to omit his personal name, designating himself instead as "a member of Alcoholics Anonymous."

Very earnestly we ask the press also, to observe this request, for otherwise we shall be greatly handicapped.

We are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word. There are no fees or dues whatsoever. The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. We are not allied with any particular faith, sect or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone. We simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted.

We shall be interested to hear from those who are getting results from this book, particularly form those who have commenced work with other alcoholics. We should like to be helpful to such cases.

Inquiry by scientific, medical, and religious societies will be welcomed.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS.
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Daily Reflections #essentialsofrec #love #gratitude

  27
September

WITHOUT RESERVATION


When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, . . . . AS BILL SEES IT, p.37

While practicing service to others, if my successes give rise to grandiosity, I must reflect on what brought me to this point. What has been given joyfully, with love, must be passed on without reservation and without expectation. For as I grow, I find that no matter how much I give with love, I receive much more in spirit.
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Just For Today #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Addiction #NA

27
September

Right Back Up


There is something in our self-destructive personalities that cries for failure.” 

Basic Text, p.77

“Poor me; woe is me; look at me, my life is such a mess! I’ve fallen, and no matter how hard I try, I continue to fail!” Many of us came to NA singing this sad refrain.

Life isn’t like that anymore. True, sometimes we still stumble; at times we even fall. Sometimes we feel like we can’t move forward in our lives, no matter how hard we try. But the truth of the matter is that, with the help of other recovering addicts in NA, we find a hand to pull us up, dust us off, and help us start all over again. That’s the new refrain in our lives today. No longer do we say, “I’m a failure and I’m going nowhere!” Usually, it’s more like, “Rats! I hit that same bump in the road of life again. Pretty soon I’ll learn to slow down or avoid it entirely!” Until then, we may continue to fall down occasionally, but we’ve learned that there’s always a helping hand to set us on our feet again.

Just for today: If I begin to cry failure, I’ll remember there is a way to move forward. I will accept the encouragement and support of NA.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Spiritual #Experience

  27
September
 
A.A. Thought For The Day


Continuing the consideration of the term “spiritual experience”: “What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self-discipline. With few exceptions, our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves. Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves the essence of spiritual experience. Some of us call it God-consciousness. In any case, willingness, honesty, and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery.” Have I tapped that inner resource which can change my life?

Meditation For The Day

God’s power in your life increases as your ability to understand His grace increases. The power of God’s grace is only limited by the understanding and will of each individual. God’s miracle-working power is only limited in each individual soul by the lack of spiritual vision of the soul. God respects free will, the right of each person to accept or reject His miracle-working power. Only the sincere desire of the soul gives Him the opportunity to bestow it.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may not limit God’s power by my lack of vision. I pray that I may keep my mind open today to His influence.
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Keep It Simple #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Honesty

 27
September


Honesty is the backbone of our recovery program. Honesty opens us up. It breaks down the walls we had built around our secret world. Those walls made a prison for us. But all of that is now changed. We are free.

Honesty has made us wise. We aren’t sneaking drinks anymore. We don’t have a stash to protect.

People who didn’t trust us now depend on our honesty. People who worked hard to avoid us, now seek us out. Self-honesty is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You are truth. I pray that I may not turn away from truth. I will not lie. My life depends on honesty.

Action For the Day: For twenty or thirty minutes, I will think about how learning to be honest has changed my life.
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As Bill Sees It #Essentialsofrec #BillW #Groups

 27
September 

When Infancy Is Over, p.269


“You must remember that every A.A. group starts, as it should, through the efforts of a single man and his friends–a founder and his hierarchy. There is no other way.

“But when infancy is over, the original leaders always have to make way for that democracy which springs up through the grass roots and will eventually sweep aside the self-chosen leadership of the past.”

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Letter to Dr. Bob:

“Everywhere the A.A. groups have taken their service affairs into their own hands. Local founders and their friends are now on the side lines. Why so many people forget that, when thinking of the future of our world services, I shall never understand.

“The groups will eventually take over, and maybe they will squander their inheritance when they get it. It is probable, however, that they won’t. Anyhow, they really have grown up; A.A. is theirs; let’s give it to them.

Letters
1. 1950
2. 1949
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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Change

 27
September 

The Test Of My Ideas
Change


Early in its existence, the AA fellowship tended to resist new ideas, yet did accept many good purpose, because it screened out practices that could have destroyed the fellowship.

But other, new ideas have been accepted and have benefited the fellowship. How can we test a new idea before we decide to accept it?

Whatever the idea, it should be beneficial in promoting personal recovery. If it is somehow harmful to those seeking recovery, it should not be accepted.

If this simple test is applied honestly and with fairness, new ideas can be considered on their own merits and can usually be discussed in an atmosphere of reason and understanding. The AA traditions will support most sound ideas.

Knowing that God is the source of new ideas, we can be open to additional guides that can help us along the way. I’ll be on the lookout today for any helpful ideas.
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Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrec #Achievement

 27
September 

ACHIEVEMENT



“Do not mistake activity for achievement.”

– Mabel Newcomber

Often I am running in circles and not getting anywhere. I spend forever “doing” things and yet I know I am not achieving anything. I am going nowhere in my life!

“Be still and know that I am God.” I need to stop. I need to listen to the pain that is within. I need to relax in my gratitude. I need to rest in myself. Tomorrow has not yet come — today I take time for me.

Lord, I hear Your still small voice. Today I rest in me and discover Thee.
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A Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Recovery

 27
September

Reflection For The Day


In times past, even as adults, many of us childishly insisted that people protect, defend and care for us. We acted as if the world owed us a living. And then, when the people we most loved became fed up, pushing us aside or perhaps abandoning us completely,m we were bewildered. We couldn’t see that our over-dependence on people was unsuccessful because all human beings are fallible; even the best of them will sometimes let us down, especially when our demands are unreasonable. Today, in contrast, we rely upon God, counting on Him rather than on ourselves or other people. Am I trying to do as I think God would have me do, trusting the outcome of His will for me?

Today I Pray


May I know, from the dependencies of my past, that I am a dependent person. I depended on alcohol, mood-altering chemicals, food or other addictive pursuits. I was inclined to “hang” on other people, depending on them for more than they could give. May I, at last, switch from these adolescent dependencies to a mature healthy dependency on my Higher Power.

Today I Pray

I have more than one dependency.
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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Patience #Recovery

  27
September
Patience



“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties and obstacles vanish.”

–John Quincy Adams

When I first walked through the meeting doors, I wanted recovery and I wanted it now! Give me the magic wand, I’ll waive it, then get on with my life. At least that’s what I thought.

One of the most difficult things I’ve had to learn is the art of patience and allowing God to work within his own time while I do the footwork to the best of my ability. It is my belief that the universe and my Higher Power will order the next level of my physical recovery. Physical recovery does not grow without spiritual progress. This Program is a journey, not a crash-course in fad dieting.

When I struggled with bouts of pride connected to my levels of patience and God’s timing, I knew I was uncovering yet another character flaw that could delay my spiritual recovery. Spiritual recovery, as “Old-timers” have told us again and again, is the actual foundation of the program. The inner-person will eventually make its way to the outer-person.

One day at a time…
Today I will slow down, take a deep breath, and just remind myself that my Higher Power is in control and that my natural pattern will develop under His nurture, care, and control.

~ January
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day #essentialsofrec #SARCEE #NativeAmerican

 27
September



“I got my education from my culture. My teachers were my grandmothers, and I am really thankful for that.”

–Mary One Spot, SARCEE

Our often unrecognized, but most powerful teachers are our women. In order for men to learn a balanced way, we need to learn from our men Elders and our women Elders. Learning from the women Elders will teach us a whole different set of values and insights to life. When we have life problems, we need to go to the grandmothers to get their advice.

Grandmothers, teach me the values of the Great Mystery.
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Today’s Gift from Hazelden #essentialsofrec #Negativity #Recovery

  27
September



It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

— Chinese Proverb

With all the negativity that surrounds us, it is easy to become overwhelmed. It is also tempting to fight against the negative or to declare war on it. Yet a master teacher offered a better way: “Resist not evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Imagine you are in a dark room. Wanting the darkness to leave, you curse and fight against it. But no matter how much effort you make, the darkness remains. Turn on the light switch, however, and the night vanishes in an instant.

In a similar manner, when the light of truth is shed on a situation, fear and disharmony dissolve. When you send out a positive thought to another person or take a constructive action, an enormous amount of good is accomplished. Each good act begets another until a network of love and light is created.

The purpose of life is to reflect this light into places that are dark. Let your light shine and stay focused on the power of love. When enough of us have turned on our spiritual light switches, the earth will become as bright as a shining star. Where, then, could darkness dwell?

From the book:



Listening to Your Inner Voice © 1991, by Douglas Bloch

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Step by Step #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Contempt

27
September


“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” 

– Herbert Spencer

” …(A)ny alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial.
“We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Appendices, “Spiritual Experience,” p 570.

Today, to close my mind to even a remote possibility of a Power greater than myself is equivalent to self-absorption and, as such, my recovery program predictably will serve no one but me. Not only does a program that focuses only on me trample the 12th Step, it is also guaranteed to fail; there is humility and gain in service to others, or 12th-Stepping. If for no other reason than the selfishness to absorb as much from the Program as I can, I must open myself to the possibility that a Higher Power – even God, should that be what I choose to call Him – can pull me from inside myself and maybe learn from the lessons of other alcoholics. In the process, I may be disciplined that what I think is the enormity of my problems is minuscule against the problems of others. And our common journey continues. 


Step by step. – Chris M.
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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #step2 #Recovery

  27
September


For us alcoholics, the First Step in life was the usual toddle of the infant. The Second Step, we learned to walk erect like a man; the Third Step, we started to run to keep up with the world; the Fourth Step, we were staggering; the Fifth Step was stumbling and falling; and the Twelfth Step found us erect again.

What happened between the Fifth Step when we fell and the Twelfth Step? Don’t ask me, I’m an alcoholic, too. I had probably just blacked out. Watch your steps – they take you places.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation
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Daily Tao / 270 – Sweeping #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Zen

 27
September



Gold dawn disk edges purple cliffs.
Old woman bends to sweep temple steps.
She bathes each stone with loving care.
How many worshippers think of her work?



I went at dawn to a magnificent temple. Its architecture was such a supreme expression of the human spirit that it was a treasure. Generations of worshipers had left offerings at the shrines, hundreds of monks had reached their enlightenment on the consecrated grounds, and thousands had been blessed in life and in death in the venerable halls.

Yet my most moving observation was an old woman silently sweeping the steps. Her concentration was perfect. Her devotion was palpable. Her thoroughness was complete. Her uncelebrated act showed a true holy spirit.

Later in the day, wealthy people came to worship. Children with brightly colored toys ran over the gray stones. The abbot walked to his ceremonies. Monks passed in silent prayer. Of all who passed, how many were aware of the saintly service that had made their own devotion possible?

When the way is all we have to walk, those who prepare the way should be truly honored.
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Daily Zen #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Zen #Buddhism

 27
September



I live far off in the wild
Where moss and woods are thick and plants perfumed.
I can see mountains rain or shine
And never hear market noise.
I light a few leaves in my stove to heat tea.
To patch my robe I cut off a cloud.
Lifetimes seldom fill a hundred years.
Why suffer for profit and fame?

- Shih-wu (1272–1352)
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Saturday 26 September 2015

As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec #Recovery #BillW

 26
September 


Those Other People, p.268


“Just like you, I have often thought myself the victim of what other people say and do. Yet every time I confessed the sins of such people, especially those whose sins did not correspond exactly with my own, I found that I only increased the total damage. My own resentment, my self-pity would often render me well-nigh useless to anybody.

“So, nowadays, if anyone talks of me so as to hurt, I first ask myself if there is any truth at all in what they say. If there is none, I try to remember that I too have had my periods of speaking bitterly of others; that hurtful gossip is but a symptom of our remaining emotional illness; and consequently that I must never be angry at the unreasonableness of sick people.

“Under very trying conditions I have had, again and again, to forgive others–also myself. Have you recently tried this?”

Letter, 1946

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