Emmet Fox - 1st April 2026

WHO SHALL SEE GOD

...for they shall see God. In this wonderful Beatitude we are told exactly
how this supreme task is to be accomplished and who they are who shall do it.
They are the pure in heart. Purity, in its full and complete sense, is
recognizing God alone as the only real Cause, and the only real Power in
existence. It is what is called elsewhere in the Sermon the single eye.

Note that Jesus speaks of the pure in heart. The word heart in the Bible
usually means that part of man’s mentality that modern psychology knows under
the name of the subconscious mind.This is exceedingly important because it
is not sufficient for us to accept the Truth with the conscious mind only. At
that stage it is still a mere opinion. It is not until it is accepted by the
subconscious mind, and thus assimilated into the whole mentality, that it can
make any difference in one’s character or life.

as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

© 1931 by Emmet Fox

Daily Reflections - 1st April 2026

LOOKING WITHIN

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 42

Step Four is the vigorous and painstaking effort to discover what the liabilities in each of us have been, and are. I want to find exactly how, when, and where my natural desires have warped me. I wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and myself. By discovering what my emotional deformities are, I can move toward their correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or contentment for me.

To resolve ambivalent feelings, I need to feel a strong and helpful sense of myself. Such an awareness doesn’t happen overnight, and no one’s self-awareness is permanent. Everyone has the capacity for growth, and for self-awareness, through an honest encounter with reality.

When I don’t avoid issues but meet them directly, always trying to resolve them, they become fewer and fewer.

Just For Today - 1st April 2026

Love And Addiction

“Some of us first saw the effects of addiction on the people closest to us. We were very dependent on them to carry us through life. We felt angry, disappointed, and hurt when they found other interests, friends, and loved ones.” 

Basic Text p. 7

Addiction affected every area of our lives. Just as we sought the drug that would make everything alright, so we sought people to fix us. We made impossible demands, driving away those who had anything of worth to offer us. Often, the only people left were those who were themselves too needy to be capable of denying our unrealistic expectations. It’s no wonder that we were unable to establish and maintain healthy intimate relationships in our addiction.

Today, in recovery, we’ve stopped expecting drugs to fix us. If we still expect people to fix us, perhaps it’s time to extend our recovery program to our relationships. We begin by admitting we have a problem—that we don’t know the first thing about how to have healthy intimate relationships. We seek out members who’ve had similar problems and have found relief. We talk with them and listen to what they share about this aspect of their recovery. We apply the program to all our affairs, seeking the same kind of freedom in our relationships that we find throughout our recovery.

Just for today: Loving relationships are within my reach. Today, I will examine the effects of addiction on my relationships so that I can begin seeking recovery.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day - 1st April 2026

A.A. Thought For The Day

Since I’ve been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more honest? Do I no longer have to lie to my loved ones? Do I try to have meals on time, and do I try to earn what I make at work? Am I trying to be honest? Have I faced myself as I really am and have I admitted to myself that I’m no good by myself, but have to rely on God to help me do the right thing? Am I beginning to find out what it means to be alive and to face the world honestly and without fear?

Meditation For The Day

God is all around us. His spirit pervades the universe. And yet we often do not let His spirit in. We try to get along without His help and we make a mess of our lives. We can do nothing of any value without God’s help. All our human relationships depend on this. When we let God’s spirit rule our lives, we learn how to get along with others and how to help them.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may let God run my life. I pray that I will never again make a mess of my life through trying to run it myself.

As Bill Sees It - 1st April 2026

Courage and Prudence, p. 91

When fear persisted, we knew it for what it was, and we became able to handle it. We began to see each adversity as a God-given opportunity to develop the kind of courage which is born of humility, rather than of bravado.


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

Prudence is a workable middle ground, a channel of clear sailing between the obstacles of fear on the one side and of recklessness on the other. Prudence in practice creates a definite climate, the only climate in which harmony, effectiveness, and consistent spiritual progress can be achieved.

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

“Prudence is rational concern without worry.”

1. Grapevine, January 1962
2. Twelve Concepts, p. 62
3. Talk, 1966 

Walk in Dry Places - 1st April 2026

There are no coincidences
Guidance

Here’s an exercise that can strengthen your belief in a Higher Power: Review your life for seemingly insignificant things that were actually major turning points. A chance meeting, for example, may have resulted in an astonishing career opportunity for lifelong romance. Such surprises come to everybody, and people often wonder what their lives would have been like without these “coincidences.”

The founding of AA also seemed to be a series of coincidences and chance happenings. The message reached Bill W. by a circular route, and then an unexpected business opportunity took him to Akron, Ohio, where he finally met Dr. Bob. The unusual aspect was that Akron just “Happened” to have stalwart members of the Oxford Group, the same fellowship that had helped Bill W.

People with strong spiritual foundations in AA have come to see these happenings not as coincidences but as the guidance of a Higher power. This Higher Power was…and is… continuously working through inspired people.

We’ll find similar chance happenings for good in our own lives. We don’t control them except by keeping our own house in order. This assures us that the outcome of any ” coincidence” will be favorable.

I’ll carry on my activities today without trying to second-guess what my Higher Power has in mind for me. At the same time, I’ll know that a superior intelligence is directing my affairs in wonderful ways.

Keep It Simple - 1st April 2026

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

— Step Four of Alcoholics Anonymous.

We avoid the Fourth Step. We put it off. We’re scared of what we will find inside of us. We may find out we’re mean, angry, selfish, afraid. We might see how badly we’ve acted to others, to ourselves. We have all these things inside us. We also have love, trust, faith, and hope. We love art, music, nature, or sports. We have power to heal, and we have used it too. The Fourth Step helps us to know our inner power. As we learn about our own power, we can use it carefully, on purpose, to do good.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me use my power to do Your will. Let your power work through me too.

Action for the Day: Today Ill watch my own actions and words. I’ll see how my power affects others. I’ll talk about this with my sponsor.

Father Leo’s - 1st April 2026

TIME

“I would I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people throw me their wasted hours.”

–Bernard Berenson

I enjoy my sobriety so much that I hate to waste my time. Part of my spiritual program involves a correct use of time. I will not spend time with negative or destructive people. I will not spend time in useless gossip or doing things I do not enjoy to please other people.

I am enjoying life so much I do not wish to waste any of it. Spirituality involves a creative stewardship of time.

As an alcoholic I wasted so much time. For most of my life I was “out to lunch”! Today I spend time enjoying my life – and I spend quality time alone with “self”. I enjoy my little conversations with self – the thoughts I have and need to ponder upon. I need time to rest in the peace of my life. Time is a precious gift from God that should not be wasted.

Lord, let me live each day as if it were my last.

A Day At A Time - 1st April 2026

Reflection For The Day

If we don’t want to slip, we’ll avoid slippery places. For the alcoholic, that means avoiding old drinking haunts; for the overeater, that means by-passing a once-favorite pastry shop; for the gambler, that means shunning poker parties and race tracks. For me, certain emotional situations can also be slippery places; so can indulgence of old ideas such as a well pronourished resentment that is allowed to build to explosive proportions. Do I carry the principles of The Program with me wherever I go?

Today I Pray

May I learn not to test myself too harshly by “asking for it,” by stopping in at the bar or the bakery or the track. Such “testing” can be dangerous, especially if I am egged on, not only by a thirst or an appetite or a craving for the old addiction, but by others still caught in it whose moral responsibility has been reduced to zero.

Today I Will Remember

Avoid slippery places.

One Day At A Time - 1st April 2026

HAPPINESS

Happiness is an achievement brought about by inner productiveness. People succeed at being happy by building a liking for themselves.

–Erich Fromm

It has been said that if one of us ever treated another human being the way we treated ourselves, we would be liable for criminal charges. I did not treat myself as a friend, someone I loved; I constantly fed into my unhappiness.

Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. was asked, shortly before he died, to sum up the program in the lowest common denominator. He replied, “Get right with yourself, with God, then with your neighbor.” Therefore, it stands to reason that I must start making friends with myself. I must treat myself with love and dignity, and the result will be happiness. To be happy, joyous, and free is the by-product of obedience to the program.

One Day at a Time . . .
Am I going to try being happy? Am I going to make friends with myself? If not today, when?

~ Jeremiah ~

Elder’s Meditation - 1st April 2026

“People think other things are more important than prayer, but they are mistaken.”

–Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

An Elder once said the most important thing you can do in the course of a day is to pray.

If we get up late or oversleep, which is more important? Rush to work without praying or pray first and then go to work?

The Elders say it’s more important to pray. If we get angry, should we act on our anger or should we pray first?

The Elders say it’s more important to pray first. If, during the day, we face indecision, what should we do? PRAY.

If, during the day, we become irritated or we experience fear, what should we do first? PRAY.

The Warrior who prays first will lead a different life from those who pray last.

Great Spirit, teach me to pray first!

Today's Gift - 1st April 2026

When people don’t forgive, they probably shorten their lives.

— Doris Donnelly

Sometimes forgiveness seems impossible and we feel stuck in the quicksand of our own resentment. When everything else fails, we can try the “First Five People Forgiveness Plan.” Each morning we make a decision to forgive the first five people we come in contact with who make us mad. We forgive all five people without analyzing or deciding if they deserve to be forgiven. We promptly forgive each one of them without exception.

This simple plan can work wonders for those of us who usually hold on to resentments and anger. Letting go of anger and resentment lets us feel our loving side. In learning to forgive others we can begin learning about how to forgive ourselves, too.

Today let me also remember that I, too, deserve forgiveness.

From the book:

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast

The Eye Opener - 1st April 2026

What exists in the life to come, we can leave to the theologians. But the actual existence of Heaven and Hell here on earth is indisputable to us who have lived in both.

If most of the Bible thumpers that continually rave about the threats of Hell could know the Hell the poor practicing alcoholic is going through, it would scare them to death.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation 

Daily Tao / 091 - FUNERAL - 1st April 2026

Hearse of weathered black enamel,

Undertakers fingering cigarettes.

Family, some crying, some bored,

Some only thinking of themselves.

Hired marching band out of tune.

Even in death we find no accord.

If you look closely at a dead person, can you truly see a soul? Is there anything left of the person that you knew? No. There is only a corpse, one that doesn't even look familiar; whatever animates people is gone. Have they flown to heaven? Have they gone into some cycle of transmigration? I don't know. Theories about what happens after death can only be conjecture.

A funeral is for those left behind. It is a ritual for us to come to grips with what has happened. Sometimes, one wonders if the weeping is more out of fear for ourselves than it is sympathy for the deceased.

All our lives, we seek union. We try to please our parents, we try to do well for our teachers and society, we try to make love and get married, we try to touch the universal through art, music, and meditation. Yet all our lives, our every attempt is flawed. Accord and harmony are transitory states. Their duration and quality come only from our determination. Once our mind gives way, we can no longer hold the connections that we want.
Don't wait for death to solve your difficulties. Do what you must while you are alive.

Daily Zen - 1st April 2026

Anger or hatred is like a fisherman's hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama