Alcoholic Anonymous - Daily Ponderables - Together we trudge the
Road of Happy Destiny – Tuesday, 4 February 2014 - Daily Reflections “WHEN
FAITH IS MISSING”
Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected
faith than those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have tried
faith and found it wanting. They have tried the way of faith and the way of no
faith.--TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, page 28
I was so sure God had failed me that I became ultimately
defiant, though I knew better, and plunged into a final drinking binge. My
faith turned bitter and that was no coincidence. Those who once had great faith
hit bottom harder. It took time to rekindle my faith, though I came to A.A. I
was grateful intellectually to have survived such a great fall, but my heartfelt
callous. Still, I stuck with the A.A. program; the alternatives were too bleak!
I kept coming back and gradually my faith was resurrected.--From the book Daily
Reflections © Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
Treating others to drinks gave us a kind of satisfaction. We
liked to say, "Have a drink on me." But we were not really doing the
other people a favor. We were only helping them to get drunk, especially if
they happened to be alcoholic. In A.A. we really try to help other alcoholics.
We build them up instead of tearing them down. Drinking created a sort of
fellowship. But it really was a false fellowship, because it was based on
selfishness. We used our drinking companions for our own pleasure. In A.A. we
have real fellowship, based on unselfishness and a desire to help each other.
And we make real friends, not fair-weather friends. With sobriety, have I got
everything that drinking's got, without the headaches?
Meditation for the Day
I know that God cannot teach anyone who is trusting in a crutch.
I will throw away the crutch of alcohol and walk in God's power and spirit.
God's power will so invigorate me that I shall indeed walk on to victory. There
is never any limit to God's power. I will go step by step, one day at a time.
God's will shall be revealed to me as I go forward.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may have more and more dependence on God. I pray
that I may throw away my alcoholic crutch and let God's power take its place.--From
the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day © Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
NA - Just for Today
Feeling good isn't the point--Page 36
"For us, recovery is more than just pleasure."--Basic
Text, page 43
In our active addiction, most of us knew exactly how we were
going to feel from one day to the next. All we had to do was read the label on
the bottle or know what was in the bag. We planned our feelings, and our goal
for each day was to feel good.
In recovery, we're liable to feel anything, from one day to the
next, even from one minute to the next. We may feel energetic and happy in the
morning, then strangely let down and sad in the afternoon. Because we no longer
plan our feelings for the day each morning, we could end up having feelings
that are somewhat inconvenient, like feeling tired in the morning and
wide-awake at bedtime.
Of course, there's always the possibility we could feel good,
but that isn't the point. Today, our main concern is not feeling good but
learning to understand and deal with our feelings, no matter what they are. We
do this by working the steps and sharing our feelings with others.
Just for Today: I will accept my feelings, whatever they may be,
just as they are. I will practice the program and learn to live with my feelings.--From
the book Just for Today © Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World
Services, Inc.
Thought for Today
"Really listening and suspending one's own judgment is
necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms... This is a
process that requires trust and builds trust."--Mary Field Belenky-Women's
Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind, page 187
“The way to love anything is to realize it might be lost.”--G.K.
Chesterton (thanks Layla W.)
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Actions motivated by attachment, aversion, or ignorance,
regardless of any external appearances, are simply not Buddhist practices.--Lorne
Ladner, "Wheel Of Great Compassion"
Native American
"We say there is a right time and place for everything.
It's easy to say, but hard to understand. You have to live it to understand
it."--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE
The Elders tell us there is a right time and a right place.
Don't plant seeds in the fall- wrong time. One way we find out about the right
time and right place is our experience. If we are lucky, we have a few friends
who will share their experience; this will help us too. The best way is to let
God guide us. Only He knows the right time and the right place. So we need to
pray and ask Him for guidance.
Great Spirit, show me patience so I can live in the right time
and right place.
Keep It Simple
We do not remember days, we remember moments.--Cesare Pavese
It's the moment that's important. Each moment holds choice. Our
spirits grow through working our program moment to moment. Moments lead to
days, days to years, and years to a life of honest recovery.
It will be the moments of choice that we remember. The moment we
call a friend instead of being alone!
The moment we decide to go for a walk instead of arguing with
our partner. The moment we decide to go to an extra meeting instead of drinking
or using other drugs. The moments lead us to our Higher Power.
These moments teach us that we're human, that we need others. At
these moments, we know others care about us--our joys, and our struggles.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me remember that my
recovery is made up of many moments of choice.
Action for the Day: I'll look back over the last twenty-four
hours. What moments come to mind? Why were they important to me?
Big Book
"First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't
work."--Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, page 62
-------------------------------------
What Do I Do Next to Stay Sober? - AA Grapevine September 1968
Stay cheerful; stick with the winners; get busy; take the Twelve
Steps
ALL RIGHT; tonight I'm (hopefully) assuming there's one person
in this room who for good reason has been exploring AA lately; someone who has
been having trouble with his drinking and to whom the AA message has been
carried; who is over the worst of the withdrawal whim-whams and has begun to
look around him and wonder what he's getting into. And who has begun to ask
questions, like "What is an alcoholic, anyway?" and "What is
this thing called AA?"
As he thinks about the answers he has received, with his mind
made up that there's a pretty good chance he belongs here, naturally at this
point he wants to know what he does next in order to put this thing to work for
him all the way.
The customary initial suggestions have been made to him, and
again I'm assuming that he is following them: meetings, meetings, and more
meetings; staying away from one drink one day at a time; using the AA
tools--the 24-hour plan, the Slogans, the telephone therapy, the Serenity
Prayer.
What our beginner does now is more of the same. These are the
things he has done and the tools he has used to keep him sober today, thus far,
and with us it's always today. I'd like to add one heartfelt recommendation of
my own, and that's to do a little realistic thinking along about now, and adopt
and latch on to a healthy set of attitudes in relation to the entire situation.
I often quote the politician who with equal facility could
either "anticipate with delight" or "view with alarm." Which
approach is the beginner bringing to his new life in AA? His choice will make
all the difference in how much or how little he gets out of AA above and beyond
physical sobriety. The positive attitude in any endeavor is the one that gets
results. The negative attitude never gets off the ground--nor, sometimes, does
the alcoholic who persists in "viewing with alarm."
The negative approach says, "Poor me. Why me? So I'm sober,
but I don't have to like it." The negative type, to be sure, does look
around him, but not at the living good examples in an AA meeting, He looks back
over his shoulder, out yonder, and thinks: "Joe Bloke can drink and I
can't. I'm as good a man as Joe Bloke ever was. It's a damned shame I can't
drink like Joe Bloke can. . . . Who says I can't? I'll show them!" And he
sure does.
The positive approach to AA might go something like this. . . .
Admitted: I have a problem with drinking.
There is a place where I can get help for my problem. That place
is AA. I'm a lucky guy (or gal) that there is an AA.
AA teaches me that I cannot safely drink, since I am an
alcoholic. There are lots of things worse than being an alcoholic. There are
many diseases I definitely would not exchange my alcoholism for. Not all of
them can be arrested; mine can. I'm lucky I'm only an alcoholic. For me there
is hope. I accept.
I realize I'm giving up nothing that's doing me any good; I'm
getting rid of something I can no longer live with, and these people tell me I
can very well live without. They will even tell me how to do it.
I have a lot to learn, so I'd better listen well.
I see around me in AA people who are apparently very well
adjusted to getting along without drinking. Most of them even seem to prefer it
this way. They look fine; they're cheerful, lively, busy, happy, I want some of
that, too, along with just merely keeping out of trouble.
I'll stand on my head at high noon every day, if they tell me
that's what they did to get this thing. . . .
What else can our beginner do now to help along the quality as
well as the quantity of his sobriety?
You can "stick with the winners," whose sobriety is
the kind you want. Stay away as much as possible--perhaps altogether, for a
while, until you're on more solid ground--from old drinking pals who can't be
expected to take your present effort as seriously as you do, and who’s drinking
can set up resentment in you against your "lot." Resentments can set
anyone off again. They're one luxury alcoholics absolutely cannot afford.
Don't push your luck. Meals can be found in coffee shops,
telephones in drugstores. There's no valid need to go on patronizing your
neighborhood bar for commodities such as these. And don't be afraid you'll miss
seeing the "kindred souls" in that bar. They may be our beginners of
tomorrow! We who are here tonight are the alumni of many bars; we're your
kindred spirits, too. You may even get to like us better this way than as the
kind of barroom companions we used to be.
Do you like to read? We have a magazine, the Grapevine, that's
delightful. We have books you'll get to love. There is also the "little
black book," 24 Hours a Day; spend five minutes with it every morning--it
will start your day out right.
Get busy around the group of your choice. First, of course, join
a group. Put down roots, so that you'll become known and will be around and
available where the activity is. It's true there are no formal
"musts" in AA, but you'll find there are any number of "You'll
be better off if you do's," and this is one of them.
Count your blessings often. There are more of them than you
perhaps realize, already, and they'll increase with every twenty-four hours of
sobriety. Count them especially if you should feel a little self-pity or
depression creeping in; force yourself to; see how long your self-pity lasts
under that treatment. Counting your blessings will help you stay grateful, and
gratitude will help you stay sober.
Never say "Never" to anything that comes along in AA.
Say "Not today," if you must, but don't set up blocks in your mind
that can later become roadblocks in the path to the kind of sobriety you want.
At the same time, keep your expectations simple, and watch your natural
impatience. Not all of your problems will clear up overnight; they didn't
accumulate overnight. Nor is AA going to solve all your problems. It can and
will take care of your Number One problem, drinking. And indirectly, through
your own sobriety, it will help you solve the others. But this will take a
little time; just remember that, in adding one day's sobriety to another,
you're gaining on your other objectives.
As for the horrible past and the remorse that sometimes
threatens to swamp you--don't be too hard on yourself. You have been a very sick
person; you're just beginning to recover. The Twelve Steps will enable you,
when you're ready to tackle them, to do all that needs to be done about that
past, so that "you can finally let it go; until you are strong enough and
ready to deal with it, it will keep. Meantime, this is today, and this is the
time in your life that counts--right now.
Bob N.
Scarsdale, New York
-------
If you're not enjoying your sobriety it's your own damn fault
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment