Daily Recovery Readings - August

[bluidkiti]

August 20

Daily Reflections

TOWARD EMOTIONAL FREEDOM

Since defective relations with other human beings have nearly always
been the immediate cause of our woes, including our alcoholism, no
field of investigation could yield more satisfying and valuable
rewards than this one.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS , p. 80

Willingness is a peculiar thing for me in that, over a period of
time, it seems to come, first with awareness, but then with a
feeling of discomfort, making me want to take some action. As I
reflected on taking the Eighth Step, my willingness to make amends
to others came as a desire for forgiveness, of others and myself.
I felt forgiveness toward others after I became aware of my part
in the difficulties of relationships. I wanted to feel the peace
and serenity described in the Promises. From working the first
seven Steps, I became aware of whom I had harmed and that I had
been my own worst enemy. In order to restore my relationships
with my fellow human beings, I knew I would have to change. I
wanted to learn to live in harmony with myself and others so that
I could also live in emotional freedom. The beginning of the end
to my isolation - from my fellows and from God - came when I
wrote my Eighth Step list.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"When many hundreds of people are able to say that the
consciousness of the presence of God is today the most important fact of
their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.
When we see others solve their problems by simple reliance upon
some Spirit of the universe, we have to stop doubting the power of
God. Our ideas did not work, but the God-idea does. Deep down in
every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God. Faith
in a Power greater than ourselves and miraculous demonstrations of
that power in our lives are facts as old as the human race." Am I
willing to rely on the Spirit of the universe?

Meditation For The Day

You should not dwell too much on the mistakes, faults, and failures
of the past. Be done with shame and remorse and contempt for
yourself. With God's help, develop a new self-respect. Unless you
respect yourself, others will not respect you. You ran a race, you
stumbled and fell, you have risen again, and now you press on
toward the goal of a better life. Do not stay to examine the spot
where you fell, only feel sorry for the delay, the shortsightedness
that prevented you from seeing the real goal sooner.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may not look back. I pray that I may keep picking
myself up and making a fresh start each day.

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As Bill Sees It

The Value of Human Will, p. 232

Many newcomers, having experienced little but constant deflation,
feel a growing conviction that human will is of no value whatever.
They have become persuaded, sometimes rightly so, that many
problems besides alcohol will not yield to a headlong assault
powered only by the individual's will.

However, there are certain things which the individual alone can do.
All by himself, and in the light of his own circumstances, he needs
to develop the quality of willingness. When he acquires
willingness, he is the only one who can then make the decision to
exert himself along spiritual lines. Trying to do this is actually an
act of his own will. It is the right use of this faculty.

Indeed, all of A.A.'s Twelve Steps require our sustained and
personal exertion to conform to their principles and so, we trust, to
God's will.

12 & 12, p. 40

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Walk In Dry Places

All that Glitters
Tempting Moments
Though real sobriety means all lose of desire to drink, it's not uncommon to have moments when the
old life takes on a sudden appeal. This appeal is never based on a realistic look at things as they
were. It is more a rush of feeling connected with some alluring aspect of the drinking life.
Such a false feeling will always pass if we let ourselves remember what happened to us and why we needed to seek recovery. We cannot have this rush of feeling when we remember the misery, despair, and other pain from that part of our lives.
All that glitters is not gold, goes an old saying. All the glittering scenes connected with drinking are not really golden moments, either. They are, for us, always preludes to disaster.
I'll remember today to let realistic thinking rule my life even if there are moments when my feelings run temporarily awry.

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Keep It Simple

Heaven and hell is right now. . .You make it heaven or you make it hell by your actions.----George Harrison
We used chemicals to feel better, but we started feeling worse. We were out of control. Life seemed like hell.
Now we have a program that tells us how to make life better. Some days, it even feels like heaven! But we have to work our program to make our own heaven.
Working the program isn’t too hard. And it makes us feel so good. So, why don’t we do it all the time? Maybe we’re a little afraid of heaven. It’s time to learn to love having a better life!
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me work my program each day, so each day has a little bit of heaven in it. Help me get used to having a better life.
Action for the Day: Tonight, I’ll think about the moments of kindness, joy, hope and faith that put a little bit of heaven into my life today.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change. So suffering must become love. That is the mystery.
--Katherine Mansfield
Acceptance of those conditions that at times plague us changes not only the conditions but, in the process, ourselves. Perhaps this latter change is the more crucial. As each changes, as we all change into more accepting women, life's struggles ease. When we accept all the circumstances that we can't control, we are more peaceful. Smiles more easily fill us up.
It's almost as though life's eternal lesson is acceptance, and with it comes life's eternal blessings.
Every day offers me many opportunities to grow in acceptance and thus blessings. I can accept any condition today and understand it as an opportunity to take another step toward serenity, eternal and whole.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM

“As soon as I regained my ability to think, I went carefully over that evening in Washington. Not only had I been off guard, I had made no fight whatever against the first drink. This time I had not thought of the consequences at all. I had commenced to drink as carelessly as thought the cocktails were ginger ale. I now remembered what my alcoholic friends had told me, how they prophesied that if I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come—I would drink again. They had said that though I did raise a defense, it would one day give way before some trivial reason for having a drink. Well, just that did happen and more, for what I had learned of alcoholism did not occur to me at all. I knew from that moment that I had an alcoholic mind. I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots. I had never been able to understand people who said that a problem had them hopelessly defeated. I knew then. It was the crushing blow.

pp. 41-42

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Nine - "Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."

Many a razor-edged question can arise in other departments of life where this same principle is involved. Suppose, for instance, that we have drunk up a good chunk of our firm's money, whether by "borrowing" or on a heavily padded expense account. Suppose that this may continue to go undetected, if we say nothing. Do we instantly confess our irregularities to the firm, in the practical certainty that we will be fired and become unemployable? Are we going to be so rigidly righteous about making amends that we don't care what happens to the family and home? Or do we first consult those who are to be gravely affected? Do we lay the matter before our sponsor or spiritual adviser, earnestly asking God's help and guidance--meanwhile resolving to do the right thing when it becomes clear, cost what it may? Of course, there is no pat answer which can fit all such dilemmas. But all of them do require a complete willingness to make amends as fast and as far as may be possible in a given set of conditions.

pp. 86-87

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Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value
your time, you will not do anything with it.
--M. Scott Peck

Let me tell thee, time is a very precious gift of God; so precious that
it's only given to us moment by moment.
--Amelia Barr

"You cannot give to people what they are incapable of receiving."
--Agatha Christie

"I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of
my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most
precious gift I have - life itself."
--Walter Anderson

If I love with my Spirit, I don't have to think so hard with my head.
--unknown

"For many people, change is more threatening than challenging. They
see it as the destroyer of what is familiar and comfortable rather than
the creator of what is new and exciting."
--Nido Qubein

Often when we're being tough and strong, we're scared. It takes a lot
of courage to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to be soft.
--Dudley Martineau

Heaven and hell is right now. . .You make it heaven or you make it hell
by your actions.
--George Harrison

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

TOGETHERNESS

"A man who thinks of himself as
belonging to a particular national
group in Americas has not yet
become an American."
-- Woodrow Wilson

Today I know that I belong. I am not alone. I do not exist outside of
the human race. I am an important part of this world.

Addiction makes us feel different, separated and isolated. It keeps us
divided within ourselves, our family and relationships. So long as it can
do this, it wins.

Now I know that I belong. I make up a part of the whole. Something of
this universe is mine.

I am not an island unto myself. I am an essential part of the human
race. I am at home in my world.

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My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:2

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do
what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but
you must master it."
Genesis 4:7

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But
one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what
is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:13-14

"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are
still angry."
Ephesians 4:26

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Daily Inspiration

Make peace with your imperfections and concentrate on your strengths. Lord, teach me to become more aware of my goodness so that little by little I will become even better.

We can be serious about our work without being serious about ourselves. Lord, help me to enjoy the person that I am.