Daily Recovery Readings - September

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September 29

Daily Reflections

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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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

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

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

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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Keep It Simple

Al didn’t smile for forty years. You’ve got to admire a man like that.
>From the TV show, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”
Remember how we used to live? We were always trying to cover up some
lie or mistake.
We were all like Al. Our energy was going into our illness, not into living.
Gratitude is the key word in the program. Gratitude is being thankful for
the getting to know our Higher Power. Remember what it was like to not
smile for all those years?
Recovery has given us back our smiles. What a relief! We can relax and
enjoy our new life.
Prayer for the Day: I pray that I’ll always remember what is was like when
I was using. I pray that I’ll not take my recovery for granted. I prayer for gratitude.
Action For the Day: I will list all the things the program and recovery have
given me. I will smile about them today.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Female friendships that work are relationships in which women help each
other to belong to themselves. --Louise Bernikow
To have anything worth giving to a friend, we must belong to ourselves. Are
we someone we like? Does our behavior agree with our beliefs? Do our
friends share our values, and when we are together do we support one another?
If we don't like our own company, we will try to hide our real selves. The more
we hide, the further we are running from wholeness and health. We can assess
ourselves, calmly and lovingly, so that we can keep on becoming the women we
want to be. The more congruent are our behavior and our beliefs, the more we
belong to ourselves. The better we like ourselves, the better friends we can be.
The love and sympathy of my women friends can help me in my spiritual journey
toward serenity, and I can help theirs. Today, I will accompany others on their
journey, and thus find company for my own.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

In this book you will read the experience of a man who thought he was an atheist. His story is so interesting that some of it should be told now. His change of heart was dramatic, convincing, and moving.
Our friend was a minister’s son. He attended church school, where he became rebellious at what he thought an overdose of religious education. For years thereafter he was dogged by trouble and frustration. Business failure, insanity, fatal illness, suicide—these calamities in his immediate family embittered and depressed him. Post-war disillusionment, ever more serious alcoholism, impending mental and physical collapse, brought him to the point to self-destruction.

pp. 55-56

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."

All this should be very encouraging news for those who recoil from prayer because they don't believe in it, or because they feel themselves cut off from God's help and direction. All of us, without exception, pass through times when we can pray only with the greatest exertion of will. Occasionally we go even further than this. We are seized with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won't pray. When these things happen we should not think too ill of ourselves. We should simply resume prayer as soon as we can, doing what we know to be good for us.

p. 105

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Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
--Hyman Judah Schactel

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
--Mother Theresa

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in
your years."
--Abraham Lincoln

"Being rich isn't about money. Being rich is a state of mind. Some of
us, no matter how much money we have, will never be free enough to
take time to stop and eat the heart of the watermelon. And some of us
will be rich without ever being more than a paycheck ahead of the
game."
--Harvey B. Mackay

"If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset."
--Krishnamurti

"Sometimes you have to get to rock bottom in order to see the right way back up."
--Kate Bell

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

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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"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow me."
Luke 9:23

A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 16:1

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Daily Inspiration

Start something you've been putting off or finish something you've started
so that you can remove the frustration that comes with procrastination.
Lord, help me in my little way to do my little part to make this day a little better.

With our blessings come responsibilities. Much is required of those to whom much
has been given. Lord, may I use my blessings to be a blessing to others.