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Have a great day! :-) Love, Tammy Daily Recovery ReadingsBluidkiti's Recovery ForumsDaily Recovery Readings and MeditationsRecovery LinksMore Recovery ReadingsNA Just For TodayDaily Spiritual MeditationsDaily PrayersDisclaimerClick here to make a Donation God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; and Wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.August 6 Daily Reflections DRIVEN Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. ALCOHOLIC ANONYMOUS , p. 62 My selfishness was the driving force behind my drinking. I drank to celebrate success and I drank to drown my sorrows. Humility is the answer. I learn to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. My sponsor tells me that service keeps me sober. Today I ask myself: Have I sought knowledge of God's will for me? Have I done service for my A. A. group?************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ** Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Psychologists are turning to religion because just knowing about ourselves is not enough. We need the added dynamic of faith in a power outside of ourselves on which we can rely. Books on psychology and psychiatric treatments are not enough without the strength that comes from faith in God. And clergy and rabbis are turning to psychology because faith is an act of the mind and will. Religion must be presented in psychological terms to some extent in order to satisfy the modern person. Faith must be built largely on our own psychological experience. Have I taken what I need from both psychology and religion when I live the A.A. way? Meditation For The Day Refilling with the spirit is something you need every day. For this refilling with the spirit, you need these times of quiet communion, away, alone, without noise, without activity. You need this dwelling apart, this shutting yourself away in the very secret place of your being, away alone with your Maker. >From these times of communion you come forth with new power. This refilling is the best preparation for effective work. When you are spiritually filled, there is no work too hard for you. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be daily refilled with the right spirit. I pray that I may be full of the joy of true living. ************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ** As Bill Sees ItHappy--When We're Free, p. 218 For most normal folks, drinking means release from care, boredom, and worry. It means joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking delusion that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt--and one more failure. ************ ********* ********* ** We are sure God would like to see us happy, joyous, and free. Hence, we cannot subscribe to the belief that this life necessarily has to be a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us. But it became clear that most of the time we had made our own misery. Alcoholics Anonymous 1. p. 151 2. p. 133************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **Walk In Dry Places Am I Special? Self-understanding An early professional believed that alcoholics get into trouble because they thought they were SPECIAL. Thinking we're special certainly creates all sorts of problems. It's true that every person is special in that no two people are exactly alike. But we're also part of the human race, and we are bound by the general limitations that apply to everyone. We got into trouble partly because we thought we were special and could break universal commonsense rules. When we stop thinking of ourselves as special, we also become more teachable. We learn more frm the experiences of others. Then we realize that we're both special and generic, and we use his knowledge for self-improvement rather than self-destruction. I'll remember today that I'm special in certain ways, but that I'm also part of the human race and subject to things that apply to everyone. ************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **Keep It Simple Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave you. . . Alcoholics Anonymous We don't have to fear people. They can't wreck our spirit. We don't have to fear money problems. We won't have to starve to death. Our Higher Power will lead us on a safe path through life. Our Higher power wants us to be safe, happy, and wise. Our Higher power wants us to feel loved. We'll learn to trust our Higher Power. And we'll learn to trust the happiness we find in our new way of life. People may still hurt us, but there will be much more love to carry us through. Prayer For the Day: Higher Power, I know You protect me and care for me. Help me stop worrying. Action for the Day: Today, I'll list four fears I have. I will talk with my sponsor about how to turn these over to my Higher Power.************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **Each Day a New Beginning They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm. --Dorothy Parker Variety in experiences is necessary for our continued growth. We mistakenly think that the "untroubled" life would be forever welcome. It's the deep waves of life that teach us to be better swimmers. We don't know how to appreciate the calm without the occasional storm that pushes us to new limits of ourselves. The calm following the storm offers us the time we need to become comfortable with our new growth. We are ever changing, refining our values, stepping gingerly into uncharted territories. We are forever in partnership in these new territories, let us not forget. We long for challenge even in the midst of the calm that blesses us. Our inner selves understand the journey; a journey destined to carry us to new horizons; a journey that promises many stormy seasons. For to reach our destination, we must be willing to weather the storms. They are challenges, handpicked for us, designed to help us become all that we need to be in this earthly life. The mixture of the calm with the storm is not haphazard. Quite the contrary. My growth is at the center of each. I will trust its message.************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth EditionMORE 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************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition StoriesMY BOTTLE, MY RESENTMENTS, AND ME - From childhood trauma to skid row drunk, this hobo finally found a Higher Power, bringing sobriety and a long-lost family. Because my father was unable to care for all nine of us, the family had to be split up. About a year later he remarried, and my oldest brother offered to take me in. He and his new wife tried to help me, but I was just so defensive there was little they or anyone else could do. Finally, I took a job after school sorting soda bottles in a grocery store, where I found I could forget if I worked hard enough. In addition, it was a good place to steal beer and be a big guy with the other kids in school. That's the way my drinking began, as a way to make the pain go away. p. 438 ************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **Twelve Steps and Twelve TraditionsStep Five - "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." What are we likely to receive from Step Five? For one thing, we shall get rid of that terrible sense of isolation we've always had. Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness. Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn't quite belong. Either we were shy, and dared not draw near others, or we were apt to be noisy good fellows craving attention and companionship, but never getting it--at least to our way of thinking. There was always that mysterious barrier we could neither surmount nor understand. It was as if we were actors on a stage, suddenly realizing that we did not know a single line of our parts. That's one reason we loved alcohol too well. It did let us act extemporaneously. But even Bacchus boomeranged on us; we were finally struck down and left in terrified loneliness. p. 57************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* **When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty. --Woodrow Wilson Time is like a river - it flows by and doesn't return. --Chinese Proverb We will be known forever by the tracks we leave. --Native American Proverb "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges." --Joseph F. Newton "Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower." -****Shigenori Kameoka "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned." --Buddha************ ********* ********* ********* ********Father Leo's Daily MeditationLEARNING "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." -- Jesus (Matthew 15:14) I need to understand before I can teach; I need to listen before I give advice; I need to associate myself with the "winners" to become a winner. For years I sought advice and direction from those who did not understand. They tried to help but they did not understand. Today I understand that part of my denial and manipulation was choosing those who did not understand to help me. This way I could stay sick! My spiritual journey involves seeking out those who have that "something" that I want
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