Alcoholic Anonymous - Daily Ponderables - Together we trudge the
Road of Happy Destiny – Wednesday, 25 December 2013
Merry Christmas Everyone
Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men
The Problem -> Alcoholism
The Solution -> GOD
WE, OF Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and
women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To
show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of
this book. (Alcoholics Anonymous, Forward to First Edition page xiii)
Lack of power was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which
we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously! But
where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that's exactly what this book
is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than
yourself which will solve your problem. (Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter IV
"We Agnostics" pag.e 45)
A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in
their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to
drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.(Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions, Forward page 15)
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Daily Reflections
AT PEACE WITH LIFE
Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will
into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee--Thy will (not
mine) be done."(ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, page 85)
I read this passage each morning, to start off my day, because
it is a continual reminder to "practice these principles in all my
affairs." When I keep God's will at the forefront of my mind, I am able to
do what I should be doing, and that puts me at peace with life, with myself and
with God.(From the book Daily Reflections © Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc.)
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good
Christmas for me." They will be looking back over past Christmases which
were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their
new-found life. They will be thinking about how their lives were changed when
they came into A.A. They will be thinking that perhaps God let them live
through all the hazards of their drinking careers, when they were perhaps often
close to death, in order that they might be used by Him in the great work of
A.A. Is this a happy Christmas for me?
Meditation for the Day
The kingdom of heaven is also for the lowly, the sinners, the
repentant. "And they presented unto Him gifts-gold, frankincense, and
myrrh." Bring your gifts of gold-your money and material possessions.
Bring your frankincense-the consecration of your life to a worthy cause. Bring
your myrrh-your sympathy and understanding and help. Lay them all at the feet
of God and let Him have full use of them.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be truly thankful on this Christmas Day. I
pray that I may bring my gifts and lay them on the altar.(From the book
Twenty-Four Hours a Day © Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation)
NA - Just for Today
Anonymity and Self-Will
"The drive for personal gain... which brought so much pain
in the past falls by the wayside if we adhere to the principle of anonymity."(Basic
Text page 73)
The word anonymity itself means namelessness, but there's a
larger principle at work in the anonymity of the NA program: the principle of
selflessness. When we admit our powerlessness to manage our own lives, we take
our first step away from self-will and our first step toward selflessness. The
less we try to run our lives on self-will, the more we find the power and
direction once so sorely lacking in our lives.
But the principle of selflessness does a lot more than just make
us feel better-it helps us live better. Our ideas of how the world should be
run begin to lose their importance, and we stop trying to impose our will on
everyone and everything around us. And when we abandon our
"know-it-all" pretensions and start recognizing the value of other
peoples' experience, we start treating them with respect. The interests of
others become as important to us as our own; we start to think about what's
best for the group, rather than just what's best for us. We start living a life
that's bigger than we are, that's more than just us, our name, ourselves - we
start living the principle of anonymity.
Just for today: God, please free me from self-will. Help me
understand the principle of anonymity; help me to live selflessly.((page 375)From
the book Just for Today © Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World
Services, Inc.)
Thought for Today
"To celebrate the heart of Christmas is to forget ourselves
in the service of others."(Henry C. Link)
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
True knowledge consists of knowing what is shallow and what is
deep; of diving often to the very bottom.
Native American
"When you see a new trail, or a footprint that you do not
know, follow it to the point of knowing."(Grandmother of Charles Eastman,
SANTEE SIOUX)
We never gain new knowledge or new experience unless we are
willing to take risks. It's good to be curious. Also, it pays to be cautious.
Walk in balance. The path of the Warrior is filled with opportunities to seek
new knowledge. As we travel down the Red Road, we will run into trails of
opportunity. Down each of these trails are experiences from which we will
learn. Experience plus action is the beginning of knowledge."
Great Spirit, help me to make good choices in choosing only the
trails You would have me take.
Keep It Simple
To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.(Gottfried
Wilhelm von Leibnitz.)
Now that we're getting well. We feel the need for love more than
ever. We tried to avoid love by using chemicals to feel good. But it didn't
work. Addiction cut us off even more from people. How do we fill our needs for
love? We can think about this fact: People give us love all the time. Only we
just haven't seen it. Every time someone comes to a meeting to get well with
us, that is love. Love isn't all-or-nothing.
Little gems of love are all over. Watch them. Enjoy them. Give
them to others.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, love comes from You. Help me
see it, and give it.
Action for the Day: I'll look three persons in the eye today and
send them love in my smile.
Big Book
"Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the
face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition
of mind and body. If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may
already be asking What do I have to do?"
It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions
specifically.
We shall tell you what we have done.(Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
Edition, There Is A Solution, Page 20)
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"Every Day is Christmas" [Bill W. AA Grapevine,
December 1952, Vol. 9 No. 7 (thanks Cheryl T.)]
THE seventeenth Christmas for Alcoholics Anonymous is here.
Considering all that has happened since AA's first Christmas in 1935, no words
can portray the meaning of Christmas 1952. The only thing of which we're really
sure is that we have given of ourselves, and have received gifts that no
imagination can fully describe. Guided, we are sure, by an all-generous and
wise Providence, AA's message of hope has been carried into nearly every corner
of the earth. The Christmas drama of giving and receiving has been re-enacted
everywhere and still goes on.
Many of us in AA are of the Christian faith, though not all. We
have Jews who look to Jehovah; agnostics who hopefully look to the AA group as
their Higher Power; and there are Indians upon our Western plains who regard
the Great Spirit as their guide. Now that we have opened tiny beachheads on the
shores of Asia, we have no doubt that some of our brothers and sisters there
reverence Buddha and others Allah. It is a comforting fact of our life together
that none of these differences has ever disturbed us. Indeed, it can be said
that they have, in some subtle and mysterious way, bound us even more firmly
together. The insurance of that bond is our common kinship in suffering, and
our universal release from it by the kind of giving that demands no reward.
So, by whatever name we may call it, the spirit of Christmas is
in us all. How best to give and how to receive with ever more gratitude is our
common aim. We'd like to practice the spirit of Christmas the year around.
Therefore, we shall especially ask ourselves at this season: "What more
can we find in order that we shall have more to give?" Since personal
example is one of the great energies by which AA spreads, let's have a quick
look at the life of a man who became able to practice the spirit of Christmas
every day in the year.
He was born in Italy centuries ago. The age in which he lived
was almost as confused and baffling as our own. His first attempt at living was
just like ours. He ran away from life as fast as he could, and by nearly the
same means. Few, it was said, could romance more gaily than he, shake the dice
with Dame Fortune with more abandon, nor clatter his wine flagon on the table
more loudly. He probably had a pretty good time doing it, too, at least for a
while. Bit by bit, though, he got fed up. During a long siege of illness he hit
bottom, even as we alcoholics do.
One day he said to himself, "Suppose that in all things I
try henceforth to do exactly as my Master would have done." This was the
vision that gripped him, and he set foot on the new highroad. Some of his
friends were amused, and others were deeply concerned. Some said it wasn't
practical; others thought he had gone out of his mind. But by living one day at
a time, teaching and sharing as he went, with no thought of reward for himself,
he started a movement that deeply affected the whole world of his day; it
reached into every level of society. He gave all he had, and that inspired
others to do likewise. He brought true comfort where there had been none.
And how did he do this? The prayer he so often spoke tells us.
Here it is:
"Lord, make me a channel of Thy Peace That where there is
hatred. . . I may bring love that where there is wrong. . . I may bring the
spirit of forgiveness that where there is discord. . . I may bring harmony that
where there is error. . . I may bring truth that where there is doubt. . . I
may bring faith that where there is despair. . . I may bring hope that where
there are shadows. . . I may bring light that where there is sadness. . . I may
bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to Comfort. . .than to be
comforted , To understand. . .than to be understood , To love. . .than to be
loved .For. . .it is by self-forgetting. . .that one finds , It is by
forgiving. . .that one is forgiven It is by dying. . .that one awakens to
Eternal Life."
The lesson that Francis leaves us is clear and no example could
be brighter.
"Freely ye have received; Freely give" and. . .a Merry
Christmas!(Bill W.)
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If you're not enjoying your sobriety it's your own damn fault
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