Dave42001

I went into my first and only detox spin dry on 3-16.. finally surrendered on April 20th 2015.. special day, I never want to forget!!

March 16

Daily Reflections

AS WE UNDERSTAND HIM

My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea . . . "Why don't
you choose your own conception of God?" That statement hit me
hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had
lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last. It was
only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself.
Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 12

I remember the times I looked up into the sky and reflected on who
started it all, and how. When I came to A.A., an understanding of some
description of the spiritual dimension became a necessary adjunct to a
stable sobriety. After reading a variety of versions, including the
scientific, of a great explosion, I went for simplicity and made the God
of my understanding the Great Power that made the explosion
possible. With the vastness of the universe under His command, He
would, no doubt, be able to guide my thinking and actions if I was
prepared to accept His guidance. But I could not expect help if I turned
my back on that help and went my own way. I became willing to believe
and I have had 26 years of stable and satisfying sobriety.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Before we decide to quit drinking, most of us have come up against a
blank wall. We see that we're licked, that we have to quit. But we
don't know which way to turn for help. There seems to be no door in
that blank wall. A.A. opens the door that leads to sobriety. By
encouraging us to honestly admit that we're alcoholics and to realize
that we can't take even one drink, and by showing us which way to
turn for help, A.A. opens the door in that blank wall. Have I gone
through that door to sobriety?

Meditation For The Day

I must have a singleness of purpose to do my part in God's work. I
must not let material distractions interfere with my job of improving
personal relationships. It is easy to become distracted by material
affairs, so that I lose my singleness of purpose. I do not have time to
be concerned about the multifarious concerns of the world. I must
concentrate and specialize on what I can do best.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may not become distracted by material affairs. I pray that
I may concentrate on doing what I can do best.

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As Bill Sees It

Losing Financial Fears, p. 75

When a job still looked like a mere means of getting money rather
than an opportunity for service, when the acquisition of money for
financial independence looked more important than a right
independence upon God, we were the victims of unreasonable fears.
And these were fears which would make a serene and useful
existence, at any financial level, quite impossible.

But as time passed we found that with the help of A.A.'s Twelve
Steps we could lose those fears, no matter what our material
prospects were. We could cheerfully perform humble labor without
worrying about tomorrow. If our circumstances happened to be good,
we no longer dreaded a change for the worse, for we had learned that
these troubles could be turned into great values, for ourselves and for
others.

12 & 12, pp. 121-122

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Walk in Dry Places

Anger…. A dangerous weapon
Self-control
One reason some of us have trouble overcoming anger is that we've used it too often as an offensive weapon. It can be employed as an excuse to leave the house, it can bring an argument to an explosive end, and it can make others fearful and defensive. In the past this brought results of a sort, and helped reinforce the idea that anger works.
The trouble with anger, though, is that it's destructive. Once angry, we hurt ourselves and we hurt others. Terrible things said in anger leave wounds that never heal, creating problems that lead to more anger.
The AA program can show us that there is virtually no justification for anger, under any and all circumstances. If we sense it coming on, we have the choice of taking charge of our feelings. If we're angry over another's behavior, we can remember that anger might be a way of reacting, but it's not necessary in our lives.
I'll make it through this day without a trace of anger. I'll frequently remind myself that anger is destructive and that my real purpose is to build a better life.

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Keep It Simple

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.---Oscar Wilde
We all change. We learn, and change, and grow. We once made alcohol or other drugs our Higher Power. Perhaps we had other higher powers too---like money, gambling, food, or sex. But, it's never too late to be in touch with a true Higher Power. Each day we follow a false higher power, we aren't.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me put my life and will in Your hands today. Help me be a saint, just for today.
Action for the Day: How have my ideas about saints and sinners changed since I got into a Twelve Step program?
I'll talk with my sponsor about it today.

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Each Day a New Beginning

True intimacy with another human being can only be experienced when you have found true peace within yourself.
--Angela L. Wozniak
Intimacy means disclosure--full expression of ourselves to another person. Nothing held back. All bared. There are risks, of course: rejection, criticism, perhaps ridicule. But the comfort we feel within is directly proportional to the peace we've come to know.
Each day we commit ourselves to recovery, we find a little more peace. Each conversation we have with our higher power brings us a little more security. Each time we turn our full attention to another person's needs, we feel our own burdens lightened.
Peace comes in stages. As we continue to accept our powerlessness, the depth of our peace increases. Turning more often to a power greater than ourselves eases our resistance to whatever condition prevails. Forgiving ourselves and others, daily, heightens our appreciation of all life and enhances our humility. Therein lies peace.
We each are a necessary part of the creative spirit prevailing in this world. The details of our lives are well in hand. We can be at peace. Who we are is who we need to be.
Intimacy lets me help someone else also live a full and peace-filled life. I will reach out to someone today.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS

We went back through our lives. Nothing counted but thoroughness and honesty. When we were finished we considered it carefully. The first thing apparent was that this world and its people were often quite wrong. To conclude that others were wrong was as far as most of us ever got. The usual outcome was that people continued to wrong us and we stayed sore. Sometimes it was remorse and then we were sore at ourselves. But the more we fought and tried to have our own way, the worse matters got. As in war, the victor only Seemed to win. Our moments of triumph were short-lived.

pp. 65-66

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

The Man Who Mastered Fear

He spent eighteen years in running away, and then found he didn't have to run. So he started A.A. in Detroit.

It would be wonderful were I able to tell you that my confidence in God and my application of the Twelve Steps to my daily living have utterly banished fear. But this would not be the truth. The most accurate answer I can give you is this: Fear has never again ruled my life since that day In September 1938, when I found that a Power greater than myself could not only restore me to sanity but could keep me both sober and sane. Never in sixteen years have I dodged anything because I was afraid of it. I have faced life instead of running away from it.

pp. 255-256

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Four - "Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole."

When A.A. was still young, lots of eager groups were forming. In a town we'll call Middleton, a real crackerjack had started up. The townspeople were as hot as firecrackers about it. Stargazing, the elders dreamed of innovations. They figured the town needed a great big alcoholic center, a kind of pilot plant A.A. groups could duplicate everywhere. Beginning on the ground floor there would be a club; in the second story they would sober up drunks and hand them currency for the back debts; the third deck would house an educational project - quite noncontroversial, of course. In imagination the gleaming center was to go up several stories more, but three would do for a start. This would all take a lot of money - other people's money. Believe it or not, wealthy townsfolk bought the idea.

p. 147

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Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart...
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."
--Carl Jung

No matter how long a room is dark, turn on a light and the room
brightens. Today marks a new beginning. You can claim a clean slate
with God.
--Mary Manin Morrissey

The principle we are working with today is STILLNESS. It is
accomplished through the act of meditation, which is stilling of the
physical/conscious mind to all external stimuli.
Continuous, contemplative thought given to truth. A steady effort of
the mind to know and hear the voice of God from within the being.
The act of not doing in an attempt to expand the awareness of being.
When we quiet the conscious mind to hear the Divine presence.
--Iyalna Vanzant

Is my way of handling anger pleasing to God?
--Marilyn Watson

I Am Responsible . . .
When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there.
And for that: I am responsible.
--Declaration of 30th Anniversary
International Convention, 1965
As Bill Sees It, p. 332

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

RISK

"A free society is one where it is
safe to be unpopular."
-- Adlai Stevenson

Tough love requires that at times I must say or do things that make me
"unpopular". That is part of the spiritual risk of loving: to be popular
is not always to be right!

As an alcoholic I was a people-pleaser; concerned with saying what
people wanted to hear, do what people expected, remain silent rather
than cause upsets. I was afraid that if I said what I really thought, I
might be rejected. My self-esteem was secondary to what other
people thought of me.

Today in my sobriety I love myself enough to say what I believe and do
what I consider right. I refuse to remain silent when confronted with
injustice or the addictions of others. My spiritual program risks the
possibility of being unpopular.

Teach me to always say and do what I believe to be true.

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"For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he
does."
Psalm 33:4

Thine, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the victory and the majesty.
1 Chronicles 29:11

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Ephesians 4:26

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Daily Inspiration

Prayer turns the attention from ourselves to God and helps us see His hand working in our lives. Lord, You give me reasons for a daily commitment to achieving a full and energetic life.

Allow the power of God to work within you because He is able to accomplish far more than we can dream. Lord, Your spirit empowers me. May I do Your Will and always give glory to You.

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NA Just For Today

Inventory

"The purpose of a searching and fearless moral inventory is to sort through the confusion and the contradiction of our lives so that we can find out who we really are."
Basic Text p. 27

Using addicts are a confused and confusing bunch of people. It's hard to tell from one minute to the next what they're going to do or who they're going to be. Usually, the addict is just as surprised as anyone else.

When we used, our behavior was dictated by the needs of our addiction. Many of us still identify our personalities closely with the behavior we practiced while using, leading us to feel shame and despair. Today, we don't have to be the people we once were, shaped by our addiction; recovery has allowed us to change.

We can use the Fourth Step inventory to see past the needs of the old using life and find out who we want to be today. Writing about our behavior and noticing how we feel about that behavior helps us understand who we want to be. Our inventory helps us see beyond the demands of active addiction, beyond our desire to be loved and accepted—we find out who we are at the root. We begin to understand what's appropriate for us, and what we want our lives to be like. This is the beginning of becoming who we really are.

Just for today: If I want to find out who I am, I'll look at who I've been and who I want to be.

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
'Tis God gives skill, but not without men's hands. He could not make Antonio Stradivarius violins without Antonio. --George Eliot
When she was four years old, she climbed onto the piano stool. To her parents' astonishment, a simple prelude she'd heard on the radio flew across the keys from her fingers. That very week they found her a teacher, and the house was filled with the music of her developing talent.
While other girls played, made the honor roll, starred on the basketball team, and dated boyfriends, she sat inside at her beloved piano and practiced. At seventeen, when she made her debut, the critics said, "She's a natural. A genius!"
We know she was no natural, but through hard work, she made her piano playing part of her nature. When we put love into our labor, our own dreams grow into being.
Am I willing to make some sacrifices today to do the things I really want to do?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
When a man's self is hidden from everybody else ... it seems also to become hidden even from himself, and it permits disease and death to gnaw into his substance without his clear knowledge. --Sidney Jourard
A man's recovery is in knowing himself honestly and learning to have loving relationships with others. Many of us have had close calls with death as the consequence of our addictions or codependency. We ignored the dangers in our lives and many of us neglected our health. We wore ourselves out and wasted our energies.
Spiritual recovery and physical health go hand in hand. In recovery, moving toward fullness in life, our selves are returned to us. We leave behind our old learning and habits because they were lethal. We are becoming men who tune in to ourselves and to others around us. We are looking at ourselves and saying, "I'll work with it!"
I will not hide myself; I will continue to be open with myself and others.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
True intimacy with another human being can only be experienced when you have found true peace within yourself.
--Angela L. Wozniak
Intimacy means disclosure--full expression of ourselves to another person. Nothing held back. All bared. There are risks, of course: rejection, criticism, perhaps ridicule. But the comfort we feel within is directly proportional to the peace we've come to know.
Each day we commit ourselves to recovery, we find a little more peace. Each conversation we have with our higher power brings us a little more security. Each time we turn our full attention to another person's needs, we feel our own burdens lightened.
Peace comes in stages. As we continue to accept our powerlessness, the depth of our peace increases. Turning more often to a power greater than ourselves eases our resistance to whatever condition prevails. Forgiving ourselves and others, daily, heightens our appreciation of all life and enhances our humility. Therein lies peace.
We each are a necessary part of the creative spirit prevailing in this world. The details of our lives are well in hand. We can be at peace. Who we are is who we need to be.
Intimacy lets me help someone else also live a full and peace-filled life. I will reach out to someone today.


You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Positive Energy
Its so easy to look around and notice what's wrong.
It takes practice to see what's right.
Many of us have lived around negativity for years. We've become skilled at labeling what's wrong with other people, our life, our work, our day, our relationships, our conduct, our recovery, and ourselves.
We want to be realistic, and our goal is to identify and accept reality. However, this is often not our intent when we practice negativity. The purpose of negativity is usually annihilation.
Negative thinking empowers the problem. It takes us out of harmony. Negative energy sabotages and destroys. It has a powerful life of its own.
So does positive energy. Each day, we can ask what's right, what's good - about other people, our life, our work, our day, our relationships, ourselves, our conduct, our recovery.
Positive energy heals, conducts love, and transforms. Choose positive energy.
Today, God help me let go of negativity. Transform my beliefs and thinking, at the core, from negative to positive. Put me in harmony with the good.


Choosing positive thoughts and making positive choices fill me with new strength, confidence and excitement. I can feel positive energy flow through me with every positive thought I choose. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey to the Heart

Become Willing to Heal Your Heart

We don’t open our hearts by being a tower of strength. We don’t open our hearts by glossing over things in our head. We open our hearts by feeling what we feel. We open our hearts by being vulnerable, honest, and gentle.

We’ve become so strong, so self-sufficient. I can deal with that we say. No big deal. I’ll keep moving on.

Yet many circumstances we’ve been through, and some we’re going through now, cause break lines in our heart. Some of the fractures are small. Some are big. They really hurt. Maybe certain people in our lives weren’t there for us, aren’t there for us now in a way we’d like them to be. Maybe some deceived us unconsciously or betrayed us deliberately. I can deal with that we say. I understand. They have their own issues. I forgive.

Yes, people do have their own issues. And we do forgive. But now it may be time to learn gentleness, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness for ourselves as well.

We don’t open our hearts by ignoring the break lines. We take our hand, knowing it’s held by God, and gently run our fingers across each crack. Yes, it’s there. Yes, I feel it.

Yes, I’m ready to heal my heart.

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More Language Of Letting Go

Don’t be a back seat driver

I was walking through a toy store one day when I saw a little toy steering wheel attached to the tray of a stroller. The child could play with the wheel and pretend that he or she was controlling the direction of the cart. The steering wheel wasn’t attached to anything; someone else was behind the stroller, pushing it here or there. The child could steer all he or she wanted to, but if Mom was going to the hardware department, then the child was going there,too.

What a good lesson to teach children at such an early age: no matter where you steer, something bigger than you is going to push you wherever it wants.

We soon outgrow the stroller and then burst into adulthood. First we learn to drive– finally a wheel that does something! Now we’ve got real freedom! But the car needs gas, we have a curfew, and there are speed limits and driving laws. Or we graduate from school and move into the real world. Finally no more parents controlling our every move. But then there is rent, and the boss, and the roommates, or a spouse and children to consider.

No matter how much we grow, where we go, or how old we get, there is someone else above, someone bigger, pushing us in this direction or that. Sorry, no new car this year, you’ve got a different lesson to learn.

We can want things, pray for things, and hope that things will come to pass. But ultimately, we’re not in control. Instead of spending our time and energy trying to get someplace else, we can learn the lesson and enjoy the beauty of the life we’ve been given.

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In God’s Care

As the ripples caused by a flung stone stir the surface of a whole pond, so your joy-making shall spread in ever-widening circles.
~~God Calling, March 10th

We might all have friends who stir up bubbles of joy within us. We love being in their presence. A gloomy day doesn’t darken their mood, as it might ours, and we wonder where their joy comes from. The answer is simple. Somehow, they have discovered that they have some choice as to their mood, and in most situations they decide to experience joy. We can choose the same for ourselves.

Our feelings, actions, and attitudes are within our personal realm of control. To pretend that only people and circumstances are what make us happy or angry is denying what God has given each of us: the power to make choices about who we are every moment.

To feel joy is often a decision no more difficult than to feel sorrow. Choosing to see our blessings, even in the wake of turmoil, will bring us joy. And then we, too, can encourage joy in others.

My joy can be my decision. I’ll make joy my mood of choice whenever possible today.

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Answering the Call
Taking Responsibility for Your Destiny

by Madisyn Taylor

Each and every day you have the opportunity to answer your own call and take action toward creating the life you want.


There are those of us who believe that our lives are predestined and that we should resign ourselves to our lots in life. Yet the truth is that it is up to each one of us to decide what that destiny will be. While each of us is born with a life purpose, it is up to us whether or not we will say yes to fulfilling it. And just like when we choose what to eat, who to keep company with, and whether to turn right or left when we leave our home everyday, choosing to say yes to your destiny is a decision that can only be realized when you take action to make that choice a reality.

Whether you believe it is your destiny to be a parent, an adventurer, an artist, a pioneer, or a spiritual guru, saying yes to your destiny is only the first step. While manifesting your destiny starts with knowing what you want and believing you can attain your goals, there are then the actions that must be taken and the decisions to be made before your destiny can truly happen. When you take responsibility for fulfilling your destiny and begin acting with the intention of doing so, you not only take fate into your own hands, but also you become the hands of your own fate. Doorways inevitably open for you to step through, and every choice you make can be a creative act toward realizing your goals and dreams. You begin to follow your instincts and intuition, recognize opportunities when they are presented to you, and seize those golden moments. You also begin to recognize the decisions that may not serve this greater picture and can more easily push them aside.

Remembering that the decision to fulfill your destiny is always a choice can be empowering. Knowing you are fulfilling your destiny because you want to, rather than because you have to, can make a huge difference. When you are freed from obligation, obstacles in your way become challenges to be overcome, and the journey becomes an adventure rather than the obligatory steps you are being forced to take. Your destiny may be waiting for you, but whether or not you meet your destiny is up to you. Your fate is in your hands. Published with permission from Daily OM

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

The Program teaches us that we are bodily and mentally different than our fellows. We are reminded that the great obsession of every abnormal drinker — and every one of us who is otherwise addictive — is to prove that somehow, some day, we will be able to control our drinking,, eating or gambling. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing, we are told, and many pursue it to the gates of insanity or death. Have I conceded to my innermost self that, for me, “One is too many and a thousand not enough..”?

Today I Pray

May I have no illusions about someday becoming a moderate drinker or drug-user after being an obsessive one. May I muffle any small voice of destructive pride which lies to me, telling me that I can now go back to my former addiction and control it. This is a Program of no-return, and I thank God for it.

Today I Will Remember

My goal must be lifelong abstinence — a day at a time.

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One More Day

Time ripens all things. No man’s born wise.
– Cervantes

One moment in time, a phrase from an old song that still rings true. In a single moment we could decide the balance of how we will live our lives. Split-second decisions, not all good ones, permeate the fabric of our lives, of everyone’s lives — regardless of medical problems.

Sometimes we are very sorry about a decision we made too quickly, a decision which may alter the course of our lives for a short while or even permanently. Perhaps the car we insisted on having is a lemon, or we may not like the new community into which we impulsively moved. We have to learn to live with our decisions, at least until we make a decision to change. Ponder a decision just a moment longer. Each experience can deepen our wisdom.

I will attempt to take my time when making decisions.

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One Day At A Time

Serenity

"Serenity is not freedom from the storm,
but peace amid the storm."
Anonymous Quote

Why is serenity so important to our recovery? Because darkness cannot exist where there is light! If we can maintain a serene state of mind as established through our faith in HP and the BB Promises, negative emotions and behavior will have no power over us. Stress, fear, compulsiveness, obsessiveness, resentment, guilt, shame, willfulness, doubt, distrust, greed and envy, have no power over a mind that is kept in serene repose. Serenity allows us to see situations clearly and make wise decisions. Most importantly, by maintaining a serene mind, we keep the door to our High Power open.


One Day at a Time . . .
I will face each challenge with grace and serenity.
~ Rob R.

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. - Pg. 62 - How It Works

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

We always wanted our image to be so good, yet we always seemed to come off bad. No amount of mind-affecting chemicals ever made us come off good, either. They just made us think we were OK. But there is nothing so bad right now, that a fix, pill, drink, smoke, or snort won't make it worse.

May I clearly see that drugs only provided an illusion of good time, not the real thing.

Each Day is a Day of Birth

I am being continually reborn. Each day life renews itself transforming from one state to another. Flowers bloom and then their petals drop to the ground and become fertilizer for new growth. Seasons change. The sun comes up and at the end of each day it disappears for the night only to reappear bright, strong and warm the next morning. I am part of this natural and daily renewal of life. Everything I experience becomes part of my process of personal growth. I refine my learning each day, I drop what I don't need to the ground where it becomes fertilizer for tomorrow's renewal, tomorrow's rebirth, into my ever expanding sense of life. Each day gifts come and go, each day they are renewed.

I am born each day into more of myself.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

There are two times when you need to go to a meeting, when you think you need one and when you know you don't.

Rather than thinking about going to a meeting, I go to the meeting, and then think about it.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

You can't change reality, but you can change your attitude towards it.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Choosing positive thoughts and making positive choices fille me with new strength, confidence and excitement. I can feel positive energy flow through me with every positive thought I choose.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Fear is a darkroom where negatives are developed. - Anon.
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