Today’s Gift

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

—Helen Keller

In the game of musical chairs, everyone walks around a circle of chairs. When the music stops, they scramble for the nearest open chair. If we were playing this game and found the nearest chairs taken, wouldn’t we quickly look around for the next open one? To remain immobilized, angry that the chair we wanted was taken, would undoubtedly lose our place in the game.

Sometimes in life, we set our sights on a particular chair. Perhaps there is an award we want to win, or we want to be the high scorer on our team. Perhaps there is a promotion or a job we would like to get. When we do not get what we want, it is easy to keep looking at what we didn’t get instead of seeing all we have.

It is important to be grateful for what we have – for the open doors and empty chairs waiting and inviting our attention. Loss and disappointment are a part of life – but the music will play again and our lives can move on.

What is available to me today? 

One Day At A Time May 23 2026

OPPORTUNITY

“In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.”

–Albert Einstein

Pain, struggle, and difficulty can be catalysts for changes in me. If I am having so much difficulty living the way I do, then surely my current means of coping and survival are not working. The insanity of it all was that in spite of all the proof I saw that those methods did not work, I continued to live the same way — and suffer the same difficulties and struggles — for many years. Then opportunity for change knocked on my door. I found TRG online.

The Recovery Group program has shown me that there are much better ways to deal with life than to stuff myself with food, fear, resentments, and anger. The methods and tools I have been given here work. My defects still rear their ugly heads, but I no longer live focused on — or living in — those defects. Now I direct my thinking to program material, prayer and program works. What a gift that has been! Joy is mine for today ~ for the taking!

When I find that what I am doing today is not working, what do I need to do? As a COE with no recovery I would have kept doing what wasn’t working. That made no sense, but that’s what I did. Now when I struggle with the food, I look at my thinking, ’cause thinking affects how I feel and feelings impact my compulsions. When the thinking starts to spiral downward I know I need to act. I need to read program material, contact a program person, pray and meditate, and/or do program service. I need to use the tools to get me focused back on recovery.

One day at a time…
I will be mindful of my thinking, and when negative or self-pitying thoughts arise, I will remember that I have the opportunity now to redirect and refocus anew on recovery.

~ Karen A.

Emmet Fox - May 19 2026

YOUR GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Your present problem is your great opportunity. Your own mind - the Secret Place, as Jesus called it - is the council chamber where the arrangements and decisions for your whole life are made; it is also the drafting room where the plans for your destiny are formed. Your life is your laboratory. The world is your workshop.

The reason that you are here is that you may develop spiritually; and the way to do that is to meet the challenge of practical life. You do not develop spiritually by running away from life into some sheltered retreat. Nor do you grow in spiritual stature by gaining your point through will power.

It is the law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, must be exactly what you need most at the moment to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson.



I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil (John 17:15).

DAILY TAO / 58 – Opportunity #essentialsofrecovery

A green bird darting in the night.

Will you be able to see it?

Will you be able to catch it?

Cling to Tao like a shadow.

Move without a shadow.

Times of oppression and adversity cannot last forever. How is the transition made to new and better situations? In the midst of great difficulty, a tiny opportunity will open, if only by chance. You must be sharp enough to discern it, quick enough to catch it, and determined enough to do something with it. If you let it pass, you will be filled with regrets.

Stick to Tao like a shadow. Wherever it goes, you go. As soon as it throws something your way, catch it by sheer reflex. It is like the bird : If you try to catch it, you will miss. If you are always with it, moving at its speed, as much a part of it as its own shadow, then it is easy to seize it.

When you act, however, you in turn must have no shadow. In other words, what you do must leave no messiness, no leftover consequences, nothing that will haunt you later. That is one of the ways in which you avoid creating more bad situations for yourself : Your every movement is trace-less.

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A WOMAN’S SPIRIT #essentialsofrecovery

Each day is a “workshop.” Let’s remember to keep our minds and hearts open so we won’t miss our opportunities.

~ Dudley Martineau 

Looking at every day as a workshop for more productive or rewarding living eases the dread of new or unfamiliar circumstances. Developing the belief that we will be given exactly what we need to learn will change how we meet every twenty-four hours.

Before recovery we expected life to be hard. Our jobs often felt like drudgery. Our families seldom gave us the affirmation we longed for. Friends were unavailable. What we felt we deserved and sought, we often didn’t find. That was then. This is now.

It’s a simple change in perspective to come to believe that we are given what we need from our jobs, our families, our friends, every day. Accepting this belief will influence the outcome of every experience. Our lives will never seem the same.

I paid my dues for today’s workshop by becoming abstinent. What I will learn is up to me.

© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation 

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec

~ OPPORTUNITIES ~

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
–Francis Bacon

There is a promise that more will be revealed as we trudge the road of happy destiny. We all start by building on the basics, the foundation that must be in place. In grade school I learned to read and write; in high school, how to research and train myself to acquire information. In college, I gained specific advanced information that allowed me to build upon, and advance my interests. When I applied the same principles to the program, I got similar results, but even more so. When my mind was opened to spiritual principles, I received much more than that I was seeking. My thoughts were lifted to a much higher plane of ethics.

In searching for an answer to compulsive overeating, I was exposed to additional opportunities to grow by doing. Often I tried them. These exercises sent my thoughts to other areas, which I again explored. I am amazed at what I have learned while looking for something else.

We can all learn truth if we will open our hearts and minds. We will then be without excuse not to exercise every opportunity to practice it.

One Day at a Time . . .
Am I taking advantage of every opportunity to grow?  Some opportunities?  Any opportunities?

~ Jeremiah ~ 

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A WOMAN’S SPIRIT #essentialsofrec #Growth #Experience

We grow in darkness and in light.

~ Marilyn Mason ~
Every experience is a learning opportunity. The abuse we suffered, whether physical or emotional, taught us survival and resilience. Even though we felt defeated, we are here now, and we’ve learned to recognize relationships that aren’t good for us. That’s evidence of growth.

Sponsors tell us we are always growing. Even when it feels like we are going backward, we are growing. Recognizing our slower pace signals our awareness, and that is growth too.

Gone are the days when we doubted our ability to grow, to change. One of the first lessons we learn In recovery is that change is possible. Every meeting surrounds us with examples. And much of the growth has come through the dark periods of our lives. The darkness and the light have much to teach us. Every moment is to be revered for its message.

I am ready to grow today. Regardless of the kind of experience I’m having, I’ll realize its worth to me.

© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation

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AROUND THE YEAR WITH EMMET FOX #essentialsofrec #Emmet #Fox

YOU SET THE CLOCK

There is nothing in the universe that you cannot do or be if you are mentally ready. People speak of golden opportunities but what we call opportunity is really our own mental readiness. Napoleon said, “Opportunities? I make opportunities”; and while this would be merely a vainglorious boast for one who is not on the spiritual basis, yet when you do understand the Truth of Being, it is simply a statement of fact. The Romans could have had the telephone; the Greeks could have had the cinemas; the Babylonians could have had the automobile—had they been mentally ready. The laws of nature were the same in those ages as in ours, the same materials were in the ground—so they had to go without them.

Supply the necessary mental condition, and the demand, the opportunity, or the occasion, will present itself automatically.

Whenever you are ready you will find that everything else is ready too.

Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is (Mark 13:33).

© 1931 by Emmet Fox

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Daily Tao / 58 – Opportunity #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Zen #

A green bird darting in the night.
Will you be able to see it?
Will you be able to catch it?
Cling to Tao like a shadow.
Move without a shadow.


Times of oppression and adversity cannot last forever. How is the transition made to new and better situations? In the midst of great difficulty, a tiny opportunity will open, if only by chance. You must be sharp enough to discern it, quick enough to catch it, and determined enough to do something with it. If you let it pass, you will be filled with regrets.

Stick to Tao like a shadow. Wherever it goes, you go. As soon as it throws something your way, catch it by sheer reflex. It is like the bird : If you try to catch it, you will miss. If you are always with it, moving at its speed, as much a part of it as its own shadow, then it is easy to seize it.

When you act, however, you in turn must have no shadow. In other words, what you do must leave no messiness, no leftover consequences, nothing that will haunt you later. That is one of the ways in which you avoid creating more bad situations for yourself : Your every movement is traceless.

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

A WOMAN’S SPIRIT #essentialsofrec #Opportunities #Women #Recovery

Each day is a “workshop.” Let’s remember to keep our minds and hearts open so we won’t miss our opportunities.

~ Dudley Martineau 

Looking at every day as a workshop for more productive or rewarding living eases the dread of new or unfamiliar circumstances. Developing the belief that we will be given exactly what we need to learn will change how we meet every twenty-four hours.

Before recovery we expected life to be hard. Our jobs often felt like drudgery. Our families seldom gave us the affirmation we longed for. Friends were unavailable. What we felt we deserved and sought, we often didn’t find. That was then. This is now.

It’s a simple change in perspective to come to believe that we are given what we need from our jobs, our families, our friends, every day. Accepting this belief will influence the outcome of every experience. Our lives will never seem the same.

I paid my dues for today’s workshop by becoming abstinent. What I will learn is up to me.

© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation

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Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

One Day At A Time

~ OPPORTUNITIES ~

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

–Francis Bacon

There is a promise that more will be revealed as we trudge the road of happy destiny. We all start by building on the basics, the foundation that must be in place. In grade school I learned to read and write; in high school, how to research and train myself to acquire information. In college, I gained specific advanced information that allowed me to build upon, and advance my interests. When I applied the same principles to the program, I got similar results, but even more so. When my mind was opened to spiritual principles, I received much more than that I was seeking. My thoughts were lifted to a much higher plane of ethics.

In searching for an answer to compulsive overeating, I was exposed to additional opportunities to grow by doing. Often I tried them. These exercises sent my thoughts to other areas, which I again explored. I am amazed at what I have learned while looking for something else.

We can all learn truth if we will open our hearts and minds. We will then be without excuse not to exercise every opportunity to practice it.

One Day at a Time …
Am I taking advantage of every opportunity to grow? Some opportunities? Any opportunities?

~ Jeremiah

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Walk In Dry Places #essentialsofrecovery

Making all things new
Releasing the Past

A 12 Step program should give us a new way of life, our friends often say. We should have new attitudes, new experiences, new opportunities.

If we’re to grasp this new way of life, we must let go of the old habits of the past. No alcoholic can recover, for example, by choosing to remain in the old drinking environment. We must also “recover” from other relationships and patterns that were destructive or kept us from our highest good.

“Behold, I make all things new,” is the ancient promise. As our thoughts and beliefs change, the old patterns drop away and the new life reveals itself to us.

Today I’ll drop the negative or outworn relics from the past and press on to find the things that are for my greatest good.

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

OPPORTUNITY

“In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.”

–Albert Einstein

Pain, struggle, and difficulty can be catalysts for changes in me. If I am having so much difficulty living the way I do, then surely my current means of coping and survival are not working. The insanity of it all was that in spite of all the proof I saw that those methods did not work, I continued to live the same way — and suffer the same difficulties and struggles — for many years. Then opportunity for change knocked on my door. I found TRG online.

The Recovery Group program has shown me that there are much better ways to deal with life than to stuff myself with food, fear, resentments, and anger. The methods and tools I have been given here work. My defects still rear their ugly heads, but I no longer live focused on — or living in — those defects. Now I direct my thinking to program material, prayer and program works. What a gift that has been! Joy is mine for today ~ for the taking!

When I find that what I am doing today is not working, what do I need to do? As a COE with no recovery I would have kept doing what wasn’t working. That made no sense, but that’s what I did. Now when I struggle with the food, I look at my thinking, ’cause thinking affects how I feel and feelings impact my compulsions. When the thinking starts to spiral downward I know I need to act. I need to read program material, contact a program person, pray and meditate, and/or do program service. I need to use the tools to get me focused back on recovery.

One day at a time…
I will be mindful of my thinking, and when negative or self-pitying thoughts arise, I will remember that I have the opportunity now to redirect and refocus anew on recovery.

~ Karen A. 

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Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

One Day At A Time

OPPORTUNITY

“In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.”

–Albert Einstein


Pain, struggle, and difficulty can be catalysts for changes in me. If I am having so much difficulty living the way I do, then surely my current means of coping and survival are not working. The insanity of it all was that in spite of all the proof I saw that those methods did not work, I continued to live the same way — and suffer the same difficulties and struggles — for many years. Then opportunity for change knocked on my door. I found TRG online.


The Recovery Group program has shown me that there are much better ways to deal with life than to stuff myself with food, fear, resentments, and anger. The methods and tools I have been given here work. My defects still rear their ugly heads, but I no longer live focused on — or living in — those defects. Now I direct my thinking to program material, prayer and program works. What a gift that has been! Joy is mine for today ~ for the taking!

When I find that what I am doing today is not working, what do I need to do? As a COE with no recovery I would have kept doing what wasn’t working. That made no sense, but that’s what I did. Now when I struggle with the food, I look at my thinking, ’cause thinking affects how I feel and feelings impact my compulsions. When the thinking starts to spiral downward I know I need to act. I need to read program material, contact a program person, pray and meditate, and/or do program service. I need to use the tools to get me focused back on recovery.


One day at a time …

I will be mindful of my thinking, and when negative or self-pitying thoughts arise, I will remember that I have the opportunity now to redirect and refocus anew on recovery.

~ Karen A. 

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Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

Daily Tao / 058 - OPPORTUNITY

A green bird darting in the night.
Will you be able to see it?
Will you be able to catch it?
Cling to Tao like a shadow.
Move without a shadow.

Times of oppression and adversity cannot last forever. How is the transition made to new and better situations? In the midst of great difficulty, a tiny opportunity will open, if only by chance. You must be sharp enough to discern it, quick enough to catch it, and determined enough to do something with it. If you let it pass, you will be filled with regrets.

Stick to Tao like a shadow. Wherever it goes, you go. As soon as it throws something your way, catch it by sheer reflex. It is like the bird : If you try to catch it, you will miss. If you are always with it, moving at its speed, as much a part of it as its own shadow, then it is easy to seize it.

When you act, however, you in turn must have no shadow. In other words, what you do must leave no messiness, no leftover consequences, nothing that will haunt you later. That is one of the ways in which you avoid creating more bad situations for yourself : Your every movement is traceless.

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Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

Father Leo’s Daily Meditation #essentialsofrecovery

OPPORTUNITY

“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity; they seem more afraid of life than death.”— James Byrnes

Today I am aware of the opportunities that I did not recognize when I was drinking. Drinking stopped me from seeing the life that was before me. I drank myself away from the daily miracle. I missed the sunsets, the fun of relationships, the joy of the theater and the satisfaction of being “aware”.

In the business world I did not see the opportunity for profit and expansion; I did not create or have faith in my ideas, and I was not able to understand or absorb the new information to be successful in my life. Alcoholism kept me on the outside of my life.

Today I am alive in my life, creating, expanding and enjoying my leisure. With sobriety I have the opportunity to experience God in the many aspects of life.

Teach me to find You in the risks of life.

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrecovery

~ OPPORTUNITIES ~

Tiger, tiger, burning bright, In the forest of the night, What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy dreadful symmetry?
–William Blake

This quote from mystic and poet William Blake expresses the sense of wonder and awe I have about God, who can make a being like a tiger, an aggressive carnivore. God, who I suppose to be kind and loving, makes beings that are potentially dangerous to me. The question “Why?” stirs in my mind, alongside fears about what God may have in store for me.

“Fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom,” says one religious text. I can feel grateful for the stirring fear, and question, as the seeds of new wisdom.

A quick thought enters, “I can also feel grateful for the chance to flex my faith muscles and to increase their strength. Maybe that’s why God makes tigers and their ilk.”

A habit of staying detached from the emotions life arouses in me heightens my perceptions of what life has to offer, highlights what God has to offer in each situation and the reasons I have for being grateful. This is essential to my recovery. It’s the spine of an attitude of gratitude that also nurtures remembrance of God, and conscious contact with Him.

One Day at a Time …
I thank God for what I have already learned, for all opportunities to learn more, and for the chance to perfect “skill in action” in my recovery way of life.

~ James ~ 

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FR.LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrecovery

OPPORTUNITY

“Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.”

~ Alan Valentine 

Sometimes I spend so long deciding what to do that I miss the opportunity. I can fabricate outcomes to the point of impotence. Nowhere is this truer than in relationships. I see someone I like and go home thinking about what I could have said or done. I create happenings in my mind that never happened in fact. I miss the spiritual opportunity of risk.

For years I behaved this way. I always thought I was not good enough, not important enough. The syndrome of low self-esteem convinced me I was less than other people. Today it is better. My growth includes reaching out to others. I make a point of saying hello. I have the courage to risk a friendship or relationship.

Let me not debate myself into sickness and isolation. 

© 2008 Leo Booth

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec

~ OPPORTUNITIES ~


A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

–Francis Bacon

There is a promise that more will be revealed as we trudge the road of happy destiny. We all start by building on the basics, the foundation that must be in place. In grade school I learned to read and write; in high school, how to research and train myself to acquire information. In college, I gained specific advanced information that allowed me to build upon, and advance my interests. When I applied the same principles to the program, I got similar results, but even more so. When my mind was opened to spiritual principles, I received much more than that I was seeking. My thoughts were lifted to a much higher plane of ethics.

In searching for an answer to compulsive overeating, I was exposed to additional opportunities to grow by doing. Often I tried them. These exercises sent my thoughts to other areas, which I again explored. I am amazed at what I have learned while looking for something else.

We can all learn truth if we will open our hearts and minds. We will then be without excuse not to exercise every opportunity to practice it.

One Day at a Time . . .
Am I taking advantage of every opportunity to grow? Some opportunities? Any opportunities?

~ Jeremiah ~ 

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The Eye Opener

Opportunity is found within ourselves and nowhere else; the place that provides the greatest opportunity for our mental, moral and physical welfare. Only when we are mentally and physically fit are we able to recognize and grasp material opportunities when they present themselves. Billion dollar deals have been cooked up in practically every bar in the country, but they have all vanished into thin air during the following morning hangover.

Hazelden Foundation 

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