DAILY REFLECTIONS - 1st November 2025

I CANNOT CHANGE THE WIND

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.

~ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85 ~

My first sponsor told me there were two things to say about prayer and meditation: first, I had to start and second, I had to continue. When I came to A.A. my spiritual life was bankrupt; if I considered God at all, He was to be called upon only when my self-will was incapable of a task or when overwhelming fears had eroded my ego.

Today I am grateful for a new life, one in which my prayers are those of thanksgiving. My prayer time is more for listening than for talking. I know today that if I cannot change the wind, I can adjust my sail. I know the difference between superstition and spirituality. I know there is a graceful way of being right, and many ways to be wrong.

Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc       

JUST FOR TODAY - 1st November 2025

Awakening

“God helps us as we help each other.”

~ Basic Text p.51 ~

Our addiction caused us to think almost exclusively of ourselves. Even our prayers – if we prayed at all – were self-centered. We asked God to fix things for us or get us out of trouble. Why? Because we didn’t want to live with the problems we’d created for ourselves. We were insecure. We thought life was about getting, and we always wanted more.

And in recovery we get more – more than just not using. The spiritual awakening we experience in working the Twelve Steps reveals to us a life we never dreamed possible. We no longer need to worry about whether there will be “enough,” for we come to rely on a loving Higher Power who meets all our daily needs. Relieved of our incessant insecurity, we no longer see the world as a place in which to compete with others for the fulfillment of our desires. Instead, we see the world as a place in which to live out the love our Higher Power has shown us. Our prayers are not for instant gratification; they are for help in helping each other.

Recovery awakens us from the nightmare of self-centeredness, strife, and insecurity that lies at the core of our disease. We wake up to a new reality. All that is worth having can be kept only by giving it away.

Just for today: My God helps me as I help others. Today, I will seek help in giving away the love my Higher Power has given me, knowing that is the way to keep it.

© 1991 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc   

Twenty-Four Hours A Day - 1st November 2025

A.A. Thought For The Day


I have hope. That magic thing that I had lost or misplaced. The future looks dark no more. I do not even look at it, except when necessary to make plans. I try to let the future take care of itself. The future will be made up of todays and todays, stretching out as short as now and as long as eternity. Hope is justified by many right nows, by the rightness of the present. Nothing can happen to me that God does not will for me. I can hope for the best, as long as I have what I have and it is good. Have I hope?


Meditation For The Day


Faith is the messenger that bears your prayers to God. Prayer can be like incense, rising ever higher and higher. The prayer of faith is the prayer of trust that feels the presence of God which it rises to meet. It can be sure of some response from God. We can say a prayer of thanks to God every day for His grace, which has kept us on the right way and allowed us to start living the good life. So we should pray to God with faith and trust and gratitude.


Prayer For The Day


I pray that I may feel sure of some response to my prayers. I pray that I may be content with whatever form that response takes.     

AS BILL SEES IT - 1st November 2025

From the Taproot

The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society has sprung and flowered.

**************************************************

Every newcomer is told, and soon realizes for himself, that his humble admission of powerlessness over alcohol is his first step toward liberation from its paralyzing grip.

So it is that we first see humility as a necessity. But this is the barest beginning. To get completely away from our aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for itself, takes most of us a long, long time. A whole lifetime geared to self-centeredness cannot be set in reverse all at once.

~ TWELVE AND TWELVE ~
1. PP. 21-22
2. PP. 72-73
© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc 

WALK IN DRY PLACES - 1st November 2025

GOD’S WILL AND MY WILL

False Gods?

It is always risky to announce with certainty what we believe God’s will to be, even for ourselves. It is rarely helpful to use one’s material success as an example of God’s grace. “Isn’t God a millionaire?” a spiritual leader was quoted as saying in defense of his luxurious lifestyle.

It is reasonable to believe that God will guide us to the right career and business opportunities that fit our needs. We can even believe that universal prosperity is part of God’s plan, though we’re far short of it now. We need not envy wealthy people, nor should we want to take what they have.

The read danger of equating prosperity with God’s will is that the material quickly becomes dominant. We might also fall into the trap of gauging spiritual progress by our bank balance. This can lead to selfishness and arrogance, which immediately drive out spiritual power. We already had the bitter experience of making a false god out of alcohol. We must not make new false gods out of material success.

I’ll accept any material success with gratitude, knowing that my real trust must be in God.


© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation 

KEEP IT SIMPLE - 1st November 2025

Sought through pray and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him . . .

~ First half of Step Eleven ~

Through Step Eleven, we develop a lasting, loving relationship with our Higher Power. Conscious contact means knowing and sensing God in our lives throughout the day.

God is not just an idea. We talk with our Higher Power through prayer. As we meditate, we sense God’s love for us, and we get answers to our questions. When we pray and meditate, we become aware that God is always with us. Our Higher Power becomes our best friend. Our Higher Power is there for advice, support, celebration, comfort.

Prayer for the Day:

Dear Higher Power, I pray that our relationship grows stronger every day. I accept the friendship You offer me.

Action for the Day:

Today, I’ll seek out God through prayer and meditation.

Copyright © 1988 by Hazelden Foundation     

Father Leo’s - 1st November 2025

RISKS


“Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to tigers, the tiger will become a vegetarian.”

-Heywood Broun

Spirituality involves taking risks. But the risk has to be sensible, having the possibility of success. The risks I take today have a chance, usually a good chance, of succeeding and I always discuss “the risk” with a sponsor or recovering friend with some years of sobriety.

Today I take risks on things and situations that have the possibility of working for me, rather than against me. God has given me freedom and He has taken a risk on how I exercise that freedom. God’s love is revealed in the risk. But risk should have the possibility of success!

I pray that I will continue to take sensible risks.     

A DAY AT A TIME - 1st November 2025

Reflection for the Day

The more self-searching we do, the more we realize how often we react negatively because our “pride has been hurt.” Pride is at the root of most of my personal problems. When my pride is “hurt,” for example, I almost invariably experience resentment and anger—sometimes to the point where I’m unable to talk or think rationally. When I’m in that sort of emotional swamp, I must remind myself that my pride—and nothing but my pride—has been injured. I have to pause and try to cool off until such time as I can evaluate the problem realistically. When my pride is injured or threatened, will I pray for humility so that I can rise above myself?

Today I Pray

May I know that if my pride is hurt, the rest of me may not be injured at all. May I know that my pride can take a battering and still come back stronger than ever for more. May I know that every time my pride takes a blow, it is liable to get more defensive, nastier, more unreasonable, more feisty. May I learn to keep my upstart pride in another place, where it will not be so easily hurt—or so willing to take credit.

Today I Will Remember

Humility is the only authority over pride.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation       

ONE DAY AT A TIME - 1st November 2025

ACCEPTANCE

“Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of the situation. Then deciding what to do with it.”

~ Kathleen Casey Theisen ~

Before program I kept wishing that I had a perfect body, spouse, mother, child, or whatever. My dissatisfaction with the things in my life kept me from really accepting that things were exactly the way they were meant to be for that time. I always used the excuse, “If you had a spouse, ex-husband, mother, or whatever like I did, you’d also have to eat.” I never took responsibility for my compulsive eating and I lived in blame and guilt.

When I came into program and heard the Serenity Prayer at my first meeting, I didn’t fully understand its meaning. What I have finally come to understand is that I cannot begin to change the things within my control until I accept my powerlessness over food and over the people and circumstances in my life. I have now come to accept the fact that there are some things I cannot change, but I can change my attitude towards others. As I do so, I am learning to take responsibility for my part in the things that happen to me. What a difference that is from the past.

One day at a time …

Only when I acknowledge and accept the reality of what is in my life, can I begin to change the things that are within my control.

~ Sharon S ~   

ELDER MEDITATION - 1st November 2025

“Times change but principles don’t. Times change but lands do not. Times change but our culture and our language remain the same. And that’s what you have to keep intact. It’s not what you wear – it’s what’s in your heart.”

~ Oren Lyons, ONONDAGA ~

Going back to the old ways doesn’t mean giving up electricity, homes and cars. It means living by the same principles, laws and values that our ancestors lived by. This will allow us to live successfully in today’s world. The spirituality our ancestors lived is the same spirituality we need in these modern times. There are too many influences from TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and negative role models that are guiding our lives in a bad way. Our stability is in the laws, principles and values that our ancestors were given and that our Elders teach us.

Great Spirit, let me live my life in a spiritual way.     

Today’s Gift - 1st November 2025

Listening and Sharing

“I’ve found that many of my painful experiences with others are the result of past memories,” stated a friend.

“Often I’m not reacting so much to what is going on between me and another person right at the time; I’m responding to some previous wound or hurt from my past that hasn’t quite healed. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

“Just the other day, a friend of mine said she needed some time to herself and didn’t want to see me for a week. Well, rather than accept her statement, I was hurt. I immediately thought of a past friendship I had helped destroy by being too possessive and demanding. I thought I was making the same mistake again and that my present girl friend was trying to get rid of me, too. I felt so defeated I couldn’t respond. I just sat there stunned and tried not to cry.

“My friend was uncomfortable with my change in attitude, but since I wasn’t able to communicate what I was feeling, she left feeling at loose ends, too.”

“Thank goodness I had enough sense to call her and share my unsettling feelings a day or two after that experience. I found my friend wasn’t rejecting me at all. She really did need some time to herself.”

Today I will not allow past, painful memories to cripple my current relationships. When I am hurt or confused, I will talk out my feelings and reactions before I make harsh criticisms or assume another’s motives.

From the book:

                                              The Reflecting Pond by Liane Cordes     Today’s Gift                                                                                     #essentialsofrecovery

The Eye Opener - 1st November 2025

If life is only a preparation for something yet to come, as many believe, then the manner of our living will determine the success or failure in this preparation. It would naturally follow, therefore, that a man could not live a devil and die a saint.

We do not feel that we are qualified to evaluate the worth of deathbed repentance, but this we do feel – if you live right, deathbed repentance would hardly seem necessary.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation     

Daily Tao / 306 – Triumph - 1st November 2025

Crawl to begin.
Triumph to complete.
Renounce to leave.

What is the anatomy of any phase of life? First comes a learning stage full of awkward struggle for mastery. Then comes a phase of testing yourself in competition. Finally, there is gracious retirement from the field, for constant competition is not a lasting way of life.

Competition is always a thorny problem. True, it challenges you to be your very best. Cultivating skill without using it is like learning a foreign language and never leaving your house. If we think of winning in the narrow sense of vanquishing others, we fall into a dangerous egotism. Winning can be thought of as attainment. For example, if you learn to swim, that is winning over your own ignorance and sloth. If you enter into a meet and win, then that is winning not over others, but achieving your personal best. The other competitors are secondary; it is more important that you know where you stand, that you consolidate your position, and that you look for further achievement. That is true triumph.
Triumph in the right amounts is the greatest tonic to the soul. Triumph carried to extremes corrodes the soul. Once you have had your share of triumphs, know when to get out. Once you have gained the top, renounce competition. Then start over. That is the secret of moving from phase to phase in life.   

Emmet Fox - 1st November 2025

Riches do not become wealth until they are realized. A talent is dead until it is exploited. Cash your bill at the Bank of Heaven and make it productive in your life. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

~ Fox, Emmet    

Daily Zen - 1st November 2025

As a tree with strong uninjured roots, though cut down, grows up again; so, when deep craving is not rooted out, suffering arises again and again.

-Dhammapada      

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