12 Step food for the spirit

[Time2Surrender]

Walk the Walk


PLEASE SHARE with us....
The weekly meeting topic is:
I'm new "What plans do I make for the holidays?"
I have NO experience at staying clean for the holidays,
I feel like using now because my life is a wreck
How do I stay clean?
PLEASE reach back and help me.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Please Be There For The Newcomers*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
December 13
Today I am willing to share all of me with another human being.
I am willing to trust that this process
will free me from the burdens of my past.

I am ready to let go.
written by ~ Ruth Fishel
"Time for Joy"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Just for Today*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
An Addicts Child's Legacy


Please son don't be like me, don't fulfill my legacy.
I pray God, give my boy his own destiny, don't end up like me.
Looking for addicts on street corners, drugs for sale,
Just to be another dealer in jail.
Addictions the next step, no pride left, a body's' up for grabs,
So skinny, so sad, but true-,
Doesn't matter, she's a part of me too.
Please son don't be like me, God, I pray you let him be...
A happy guy, a "regular joe",
Not out trying to fill a space, so dark and unknown.
A man with faith in his heart and love in his eyes,
Never having to ask the regretful "whys".
And give him your grace as he makes lifes mistakes.
Please son, don't be like me,
I'm asking this in my new sobriety.
Please God, send this message for me,
Cause I'm writing this from a cell in jail and my boy's only three...
And by the way, God, thanks for setting me free!


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Don't Use*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
If anyone has any original recovery poetry that they
would like to share with us please copy and paste it into the body
of an email and send it to me, Thanks for your support and contributions.
What I can't do alone, We do together.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*No Matter What*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Make A Meeting*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Just For Today
December 13 Membership

"There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to

stop using." Basic Text p. 9

We all know people who could benefit from Narcotics Anonymous.
Many people we encounter from all walks of life-our family members,
old friends, and co-workers-could really use a program of recovery
in their lives. Sadly, those who need us don't always find their way
to our rooms.

NA is a program of attraction, not promotion. We are only members
when we say we are. We can bring our friends and loved ones to a meeting
if they are willing, but we cannot force them to embrace the way of life
that has given us freedom from active addiction.

Membership in Narcotics Anonymous is a highly personal decision. The
choice to become a member is made in the heart of each individual addict.
In the long run, coerced meeting attendance doesn't keep too many
addicts in our rooms. Only addicts who are still suffering, if given the
opportunity, can decide if they are powerless over their addiction. We
can carry the message, but we can't carry the addict.


Just for today: I am grateful for my decision to become a member of
Narcotics Anonymous.


Just For Today Daily Meditation is the property of Narcotics Anonymous ©
1991 by World Service Office Inc.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Get Involved In Service*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Get A Sponsor*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Use Your Sponsor*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Be A Sponsor*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A SAFETY NET

Occasionally. . . 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.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105

Sometimes I scream, stomp my feet, and turn my back on my
Higher Power. Then my disease tells me that I am a failure, and that if I
stay angry I'll surely get drunk. In those moments of self-will it's as if
I've slipped over a cliff and am hanging by one hand. The above passage is
my safety net, in that it urges me to try some new behavior, such as being
kind and patient with myself. It assures me that my Higher Power will wait
until I am willing once again to risk letting go, to land in the net, and
to pray.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Work The Steps*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Twenty-Four Hours A Day by Hazelden / December 13

A.A. Thought for the Day

We come now to A.A. fellowship. It is partly group
therapy. It is partly spiritual fellowship. But it is
even more. It is based on a common illness, a common
failure, a common problem. It goes deep down into our
personal lives and our personal needs. It requires a
full opening up to each other of our inmost thoughts
and most secret problems. All barriers between us
are swept aside. They have to be. Then we try to help
each other get well. The A.A. fellowship is based on a
sincere desire to help each other get well. The A.A.
fellowship is based on a sincere desire to help the
other person. In A.A. we can be sure of sympathy,
understanding, and real help. These things make the
A.A. fellowship the best that we know.
Do I fully appreciate the depth of the A.A. fellowship?

Meditation for the Day

The Higher Power can guide us to the right decisions if
we pray about them. We can believe that many details
of our lives are planned by God and planned with a wealth
of forgiving love for the mistakes we have made. We can
pray today to be shown the right way. We can choose the
good, and when we choose it, we can feel that the whole
power of the universe is behind us. We can achieve a real
harmony with God's purpose for our lives.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may choose aright today. I pray that I may
be shown the right way to live today.

"Twenty-Four Hours A Day" is a © Copyrighted book of
Hazelden Foundation. No portion of this publication may
be reproduced in any manner without the written
permission of Hazelden.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*You Are A Miracle*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Let Enlightenment Come

Sometimes, the harder we try to see a lesson,
the more lost and confused we become.
"What does it mean?" we ask, squinting at the problem.

Relax. Let go of your expectations and your interpretations.
Quit trying so hard to see.

Sometimes the lesson may be a simple reminder to see the sacred in your
ordinary life or to practice compassion for yourself as well as for others.
Sometimes what we're going through is part of a larger lesson,
one that may take us years to complete and comprehend.
It's easy to fall into a false belief that there's some lesson
that we have to push and struggle to learn.
There isn't.

We only have to see what we see and know what we know right now.

Experience your life.
More shall be revealed when it's time.
Practice seeing without squinting.


God, help me be present to the situations in my life
without trying to read too deeply into them.
Help me trust that my lessons will become clear when it's time.


Melody Beattie ©
from - "More Language of Letting Go"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Keep It Simple*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*One Day At A Time*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Discover Silence
From Precious Solitude by Ruth Fishel

"Silence is a tool, a context for direct personal, intuitive understanding
Of how things are...Its great overriding value is the support it provides
for insight; its immediate evidence is, it's a relief!"
Sylvia Boorstein

From the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we fall
asleep at night, our lives are almost always filled with noise. Our sleep
is even filled with noise, although we aren't aware of it. There's a good
chance that most of the sounds we hear around us come from many of the
following: refrigerator motors, telephones, airplanes, radios, TVs, cars,
trucks, doors slamming, door bells, water running, computers, printers,
faxes, photocopy machines, dogs barking, children playing, answering
machines, alarms, microwave buzzers, air conditioners, videos and so much
more! Depending on where you live there might be babies crying, trains
whistling, backhoes roaring, or even saws whining. We become so
conditioned to a great deal of this noise that we are barely aware of it.
When is the last time that you were aware of your refrigerator's motor,
for example? It's always on but we usually become aware only when it stops.
Only in the silence can we hear something missing.

Some of us are more sensitive to noise than others. I have a hard time
when a clock is ticking, no matter how lightly. When I am away from home
and hear a clock at night, I have to hide it under a cushion in order to fall
asleep. But whether we consciously hear noise or not, it is there and we
are far less serene when it is within our hearing range.

Take a machine noise break! Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. write, "Silence
comes to heal the blows of sound." It is wonderful just to be quiet and
hear the birds or the waves, the barely audible sound of a grasshopper, or
the rustle of leaves being lifted by the breeze. Silence heals us from the
wounds of which we are barely aware. Take a walk into the woods and listen
to the sounds of nature. Walk in a field of wild flowers or along the shore.
Climb up a mountain or into a valley. Listen to the corn or palm leaves swaying.

If you can't leave the house, turn off the telephone and put your answering
machine all the way down. Turn off the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Don't
turn on the TV, radio or computer. Remove yourself from the sound of a ticking
clock or any other repetitive noise. It can't do any harm and the silence will
be amazingly peaceful.

Author Sylvia Boorstein calls silence the fence for wisdom. I love that image!
I can see myself climbing over a fence from a place full of noise to a deliciously
silent space where I effortlessly tune in to creativity and wisdom.

Mahatma Gandhi said that in the attitude of silence the soul finds the path
in a clearer light. What is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal
clearness. He believed that our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

If it is not possible to find time for silence during the day, wait for everyone
to go to sleep, or wake up a few minutes before everyone else. Be with yourself
in silence. A few moments of silence can start your day off with inner peace or
end a hectic day with serenity.

Today I will nurture my soul by taking at least ten minutes to connect with
the peace and tranquility of silence.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*First Things First*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Who packs your parachute?

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is
really important. We may fail to say hello, please, thank you, congratulate
someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a
compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.
Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam.
After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air
missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was
captured and spent 6 years in a communist prison. He survived the ordeal
and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at
another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in
Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachute," the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man grabbed his hand and
said, "I guess it worked!"

Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I
wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb kept
wondering what the man might have looked like in a Navy uniform. He
wondered how many times he might have seen him and not even said good
morning, how are you or anything, because you see, he was a fighter pilot
and the man was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours that sailor
had spent in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and
folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of
someone he did not know.

Now Plumb asks his audience, "Who is packing your parachute?" Everyone
has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day.

Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his
plane was shot down. As you go through your week, month, and even New
Year..... recognize the people who have packed your parachute and enabled
you to get where you are today!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Easy Does It*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Uptight Before Christmas

Uptight before Christmas, all through these rooms
alcoholics were stricken with holiday gloom.
They prayed, "Santa, please make us happy, joyous & free,
bring us candy and presents and serenity."
Greed filled their minds and envy their hearts
and someone said, "It's time for the meeting to start!"
"Does anyone have a topic for discussion tonight?"
Every face in the place turned wintery white!
They lost all self-seeking, self-pity and self-will
when down through the chimney came the ghost of St. Bill!
He chuckled and said as he sat himself down
"Call the White House and tell 'em there's a new Dubya in town."
Then he looked through a Big Book and said with a tear,
"Wow! No one rewrote this after all these years!
"Clean house, help your neighbor, be loving and kind,
"and don't take the first drink one day at a time.
""How could a message as simple as this
"be realized, analyzed and intellectually dismissed?
"There lies the reason this ghost has arrived:
to re-give a gift that has saved all your lives!"
Then he set up a big screen and a DVD
so every lost soul in the meeting could see.
He played a movie of drunks at their best and their worst,
what is and what was when blessed and cursed.

There were scenes of a housewife passed out at a bar,
a respectable businessman wrecking his car,
a fight in a kitchen, a fight in bed,
a fight at a reception between newlyweds.
An empty bottle, a desperate man
alone in a motel with a gun in his hands.
He puts down the gun and picks up the phone
and whimpers and blubbers, "Honey, let me come home."
She hangs up as she tells him, "Don't call here anymore."
He reaches for the phone book and falls to the floor.
Somehow that phone book seems to capture his gaze:
it's open to a number under the "A"'s.
Then all of the people in the movie converged
on the poor side of town in the basement of a church.
Driven together in a willing herd
to hear of hope and deliver the word.

The ghost of Bill W. turned off the TV
and said, "The first word of the first step is 'we'.
"I suggest you start there and see where you go.
"Be thorough and fearless, and please-take it slow!
"Let faith set the tone, let love make the mood
"and as for a topic...how about 'gratitude?
"Just don't drink, go to meetings and pray
"and be glad you're alive and sober today.
"Be a good woman, be a good man
"and be of service whenever you can.
"Be a good mother, be a good dad
"and try to be good to your kids when they're bad.
"Be a good husband, be a good wife...
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good life!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Live And Let Live*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Peace is possible.

Each moment that one individual chooses peace inside,
the whole of humanity moves forward.
We each have the ability and responsibility
to become peacemakers in our daily lives.

John Morton
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Keep The Focus On You*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Courage isn't the absence of fear;

it's the dealing with it.
Randall
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Let God and Let Go*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


However far the stream flows, it never forgets its source.

Nigerian Proverb
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Come*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Your miracles are an inside job.

Go there to create the magic that you seek in your life.
Wayne Dyer
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Come To*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
No matter what is happening in your life,
know that God is Waiting for you with open Arms.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Come To Believe*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
We can never really go where God is not,
and where He is, all is well.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Look For The Beauty*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I am God's Melody of life and
He Sings His Song through me.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Today Is A Gift*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
God Promises a safe landing,
not a calm passage.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Keep Stepping*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"We come equipped with everything we need to experience
a powerful life full of joy, incredible passion, and profound peace.
The difficult part is giving ourselves permission to live it."
Deborah Rosado Shaw
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Stay In The Light*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now it is time for us to focus on what happens next.
The more we delve into how we got where we are,
the more we stay where we were.
The more we analyze what is not working, the more things do not work.
And the more we consider how we would like it to be,
the more things become as we would have them.
The choice is ours.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*@¿@*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

By the grace of God

(\o/\o/) we are each of us angels with only one wing (\o/\o/)
/_\/_\ and can only fly by embracing each other