Alcoholic Anonymous - Daily Ponderables - Together we trudge the Road of Happy Destiny – Friday, 10 January 2014 - Daily Reflections “UNITED WE STAND”

Alcoholic Anonymous - Daily Ponderables - Together we trudge the Road of Happy Destiny – Friday, 10 January 2014 - Daily Reflections “UNITED WE STAND”

We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. (ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, page 30)

I came to Alcoholics Anonymous because I was no longer able to control my drinking. It was either my wife's complaining about my drinking, or maybe the sheriff forced me to go to A. A. meetings, or perhaps I knew, deep down inside, that I couldn't drink like others, but I was unwilling to admit it because the alternative terrified me. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women united against a common, fatal disease. Each one of our lives is linked to every other, much like the survivors on a life raft at sea. If we all work together, we can get safely to shore. (From the book Daily Reflections © Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.)

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

When we were drinking, most of us were full of pride and selfishness. We believed we could handle our own affairs, even though we were making a mess of our lives. We were very stubborn and didn't like to take advice. We resented being told what to do. To us, humility looked like weakness. But when we came into A.A., we began to be humble. And we found out that humility gave us the power we needed to overcome drinking. Have I learned that there is power in humility?

Meditation for the Day

I will come to God in faith and He will give me a new way of life. This new way of life will alter my whole existence, the words I speak, the influence I have. They will spring from the life within me. I see how important is the work of a person who has this new way of life. The words and the example of such a person can have a wide influence for good in the world.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may learn the principles of the good life. I pray that I may meditate upon them and work at them, because they are eternal. (From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day © Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation)

NA - Just for Today

Gratitude

“I’m very grateful to have come to believe.” (IP No. 21, The Loner)

Belief in a Higher Power can make all the difference when the going gets tough! When things don’t go our way in recovery, our sponsor may direct us to make a “gratitude list.” When we do, we should include our faith in a Power greater than ourselves on the list. One of the greatest gifts we receive from the Twelve Steps is our belief in a God of our own understanding.

The Twelve Steps gently lead us toward a spiritual awakening. Just as our addiction progressed, so does our spiritual life develop in the course of working the program of Narcotics Anonymous. The steps are our path to a relationship with a God of our understanding. This Higher Power gives us strength when our road gets rough.

Are we grateful for our deepening relationship with a Higher Power? Do we remember to thank God for each day clean, no matter what has happened that day? Do we remember that, no matter how deep our despair or how great our joy, the God of our understanding is with us?

Our recovery is a gift, a gift that we sometimes take for granted. Each day we stay clean, we can rejoice in our Higher Power’s care.

Just for today: I am grateful for my relationship with a Higher Power that cares for me. (From the book Just for Today © Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.)

Thought for Today

"Fearlessness is not the absence of fear.  It's the mastery of fear.  It's about getting up one more time than we fall down." (Arianna Huffington)

Every day, there are two things I should know:

1) WHO I AM

2) WHERE I AM (thanks Gene H)

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Sitting peacefully on a cushion day and night seeking to attain Buddhahood, rejecting life and death in hopes of realizing enlightenment, is all like a monkey grasping at the moon reflected in the water. (Shoitsu)

Native American

"We cannot escape remembering the important things that have happened, and we cannot escape the awareness of the important things that have not happened." (Ralph Salisbury, CHEROKEE)

There is a Master Plan. There are Natural Laws that run the universe. Everything on the earth has a purpose. Change is constant. That which is built is constantly being destroyed. That which is loose is being used to build new things. Nothing can be destroyed, only rearranged. Change will happen and every setback is only temporary. In other words, the Creator is in charge. We are not in charge. He designed the universe. He runs the universe and He will change what needs to be changed. As humans, it is easier for us to participate in all of this if we are spiritual. We need to be tuned in. Therefore, God gave us the spiritual concept of acceptance. When things change, we can change ourselves through the principle of acceptance.

Great Spirit, let me live today in acceptance of YOUR will. Today let us do it YOUR way.

Keep It Simple

I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. (Winston Churchill)

We addicts are used to learning the hard way. Many of us think we're different and can do things our own way. But then we get in too much trouble or pain. The first AA members were just like us. They knew how it is to hate being told what to do. So they suggested we follow the Twelve Steps. They didn't say we have to do anything. They didn't say working the Steps is the only way to live sober. They just said the Steps worked for them. We're finding out that the Steps work for us too. We don't have to work them.

We don't have to stay sober. We just like our new sober life better than our old drinking or drugging life.

And we learned how to live this new life by working the Steps

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be open to your lessons. Teach me gently and help me listen.

Action for the Day: I will list five ways that I get in the way of my own learning.

Big Book

"We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all people." (~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, Page 46)

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If you're not enjoying your sobriety it's your own damn fault

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