Patcha

Daily Reflections

RIGOROUS HONESTY

Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant?
Who wants to confess his faults to another and make
restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about
a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer?
Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to
carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the
average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme,
doesn't care for this prospect - unless he has to
do these things in order to stay alive himself.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24

I am an alcoholic. If I drink I will die. My, what
power, energy, and emotion this simple statement
generates in me! But it's really all I need to know
for today. Am I willing to stay alive today? Am I
willing to stay sober today? Am I willing to ask for
help and am I willing to be a help to another suffering
alcoholic today? Have I discovered the fatal nature of
my situation? What must I do, today, to stay sober?

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

As we became alcoholics, the bad effects of drinking
came more and more to outweigh the good effects. But
the strange part of it is that, no matter what drinking
did to us, loss of our health, our jobs, our money and
our homes, we still stuck to it and depended on it. Our
dependence on drinking became an obsession. In A.A., we
find a new outlook on life. We learn how to change from
alcoholic thinking to sober thinking. And we find out
that we can no longer depend on drinking for anything.
We depend on a Higher Power instead. Have I entirely
given up that dependence on drinking?

Meditation For The Day

I will try to keep my life calm and unruffled. This is
my great task, to find peace and acquire serenity. I must
not harbor disturbing thoughts. No matter what fears,
worries and resentments I may have, I must try to think
of constructive things, until calmness comes. Only when
I am calm can I act as a channel for God's spirit.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may build up instead of tearing down.
I pray that I may be constructive and not destructive.

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As Bill Sees It

True Independence of the Spirit, p. 26

The more we become willing to depend upon a Higher Power, the
more independent we actually are. Therefore, dependence as A.A.
practices it is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit.

At the level of everyday living, it is startling to discover how
dependent we really are, and how unconscious of that dependence.
Every modern house has electric wiring carrying power and light to its
interior. By accepting with delight our dependence upon this marvel of
science, we find ourselves personally more independent, more
comfortable and secure. Power flows just where it is needed. Silently
and surely, electricity, that strange energy so few people understand,
meets our simplest daily needs.

Though we readily accept this principle of healthy dependence in many
of our temporal affairs, we often fiercely resist the identical principle
when asked to apply it as a means of growth in the life of the spirit.
Clearly, we shall never know freedom under God until we try to seek
His will for us. The choice is ours.

12 & 12, p. 36

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Walk In Dry Places

Pray For Potatoes___Faith and Works

One of the sayings heard at AA meetings is "Pray for potatoes but grab a hoe." This says that both prayer and action are needed to get favorable results in our lives.
But recovering alcoholics do not really need to be told to "grab a hoe." One of our problems is that we often worked too hard for certain ends, only to lose out in the long run. What we really need to know is that our prayers work with our actions to bring about good results. The saying should be "Pray for potatoes and grab a hoe." Faith and actions are both needed.

In the strong belief that God is working through us, we can do our own work with confidence and gratitude. Our own efforts are strengthened when we know that we are not alone. We may even receive inspiration and new understanding as we continue on this path. Changes in our lives will turn out to be positive and beneficial if we remind ourselves that God is in charge of the process.

Under the right conditions, potatoes grow in a miraculous way. Other projects will also come to maturity in our lives under God's direction.

I will be grateful for the opportunity to work today. Moreover, I will know that a Higher Power is living and working in my life.

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Keep It Simple

The best way to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm.----Swedish proverb

During our illness, we hurt others. We hurt ourselves. We messed up a lot.

So, a lot of us come to recovery not trusting ourselves very much. The truth is, as addicts, we couldn't be trusted. But in recovery, we can be trusted again. We can again live and love ourselves. We do this by finding our spiritual center. This is the place inside of us where our Higher Power lives. We turn our will and our lives over to this spiritual center. We do as our spiritual center tells us. And from our spiritual center, we'll find our values. We'll live better lives. We'll come to trust ourselves again.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for helping me believe in myself again. I'll treat myself with love and kindness. I know You want me to.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll list four ways I couldn't be trusted during my addiction. I'll also list four ways I can now be trusted.

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Each Day a New Beginning

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face,
And show the world all the love in your heart,
Then people gonna treat you better.
You're gonna find, yes, you will,
That you're beautiful as you feel.
--Carole King

"Act as if." There's magic in behaving the way we want to be, even though we don't yet feel it. The behavior seems to lead the way. The attitude, the mental state, follows.

Many days we may not get up with love in our hearts for our family, our friends, our co-workers. We may, in fact, want them to show their love for us first. But if we reach out, give love unconditionally; focus on another's needs, love will return tenfold. And the act of loving them will lift our own spirits. We will know love; we will feel love for ourselves and the many other persons close to us.
The attitude we cultivate, whether one of love or selfishness, inferiority or superiority, will determine how the events of our lives affect us. The principle is so simple. If we meet life with love, with a smile, we'll find love and something to smile about.

My attitude will make this day what it becomes. Meeting it head-on, with love, will assure me of a lovely day.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 10 - To Employers

Nearly every modern employer feels a moral responsibility for the well-being of his help, and he tries to meet these responsibilities. That he has not always done so for the alcoholic is easily understood. To him the alcoholic has often seemed a fool of the first magnitude. Because of the employee’s special ability, or of his own strong personal attachment to him, the employer has sometimes kept such a man at work long beyond a reasonable period. Some employers have tried every known remedy. In only a few instances has there been a lack of patience and tolerance. And we, who have imposed on the best of employers, can scarcely blame them if they have been short with us.

pp. 137-138

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

ON THE MOVE - Working the A.A. program showed this alcoholic how to get from geographics to gratitude.

The specifics are pretty much the same as for most alcoholics. I went places I used to swear I would never go. I did things I could not imagine myself doing. I hung out with people that at one time I would cross the street to avoid. There came a time when, looking into the mirror, I honestly did not know just who was looking back at me. To say that I had arrived at a "jumping-off point" is an understatement. Life just could not go on like this much longer.

pp. 487-488

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Seven - "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. "

The chief activator of our defects has been self-centered fear--primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustration. Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means of reducing these demands. The difference between a demand and a simple request is plain to anyone.

p. 76

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Warriors Anonymous Practice of the Day-
BB pg 89-
Ch 7- Working With Others:

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are very ill.

Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends-this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.

-Tom- “PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE “, those are words that really got my attention. Not theories, lectures or something that “might work” told to me by someone who I didn’t know and wasn’t like me.

This practical experience was given to me by folks just like me, except they were staying sober, living and relatively happy along the way. Why would I not at least attempt this way of Life and see if it would work for me?

Notice it does say “insure immunity from drinking”. Would that be something I would like to have? You bet, absolutely.

My sponsor said I could have it if I did “intensive work with other alcoholics.

That means time with other alcoholics outside of my normal “list of what I have to do to stay sober”. I have to put in the extra work and help another man to achieve sobriety.

I pray that today I have the Willingness to work intensely with other alcoholics.