Patcha

Daily Reflections

A GREAT PARADOX

These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed
among alcoholics, one to the other. This is our gift from God,
and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today
animates A.A.'s all around the globe.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151

The great paradox of A.A. is that I know I cannot keep the
precious gift of sobriety unless I give it away.
My primary purpose is to stay sober. In A.A. I have no other
goal, and the importance of this is a matter of life or death
for me. If I veer from this purpose I lose. But A.A. is not
only for me; it is for the alcoholic who still suffers. The
legions of recovering alcoholics stay sober by sharing with
fellow alcoholics. The way to my recovery is to show others
in A.A. that when I share with them, we both grow in the
grace of the Higher Power, and both of us are on the road
to a happy destiny.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The A.A. program is one of faith because we find that we must
have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going
to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn
our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give
us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem
licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe which
we call God is the essential part of the A.A. program. Is faith
still strong in me?

Meditation For The Day

Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of
the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the
springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet,
but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the
Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God's spirit that
can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is
full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys,
such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God's
love.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray
that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant
life.

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As Bill Sees It

Word Of Mouth, p. 120

"In my view, there isn't the slightest objection to groups who wish to
remain strictly anonymous, or to people who think they would not like
their membership in A.A. known at all. That is their business, and this
is a very natural reaction.

"However, most people find that anonymity to this degree is not
necessary, or even desirable. Once one is fairly sober, and sure of this,
there seems no reason for failing to talk about A.A. membership in the right
places. This has a tendency to bring in other people. Word of mouth is
one of our most important communications.

"So we should criticize neither the people who wish to remain silent,
nor even the people who wish to talk too much about belonging to A.A.,
provided they do not do so at the public level and thus compromise our
whole Society."

Letter, 1962

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Walk in Dry Places

Addicted to Crisis___Personal Relations

It's sometimes a surprise to learn that we mismanage our affairs even in sobriety. We may even find that we seem to be addicted to problem situations. It takes a crisis, it seems, to give us the energy and purpose we need to get things done.
One common form of this strange addiction is procrastination. Some of us have a tendency to put off important tasks until the very last moment, and then work overtime to get the job done.
Is this laziness? Maybe it is, to some extent. Maybe, however, we need an impending emergency to get motivated and energized to do what needs to be done. Maybe we're addicted to crisis.
If so, this may be another disease that can be arrested but not cured. We arrest it by slowly adopting better work habits and paying closer attention to schedules and deadlines. Working with greater efficiency, we'll have more time and energy for the things that really matter.
Today I don't need a crisis to take charge of my life and do what needs to be done. I'll tackle at least one thing I've been putting off, and either complete the task or get a good start on it.

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Keep It Simple

When you want to be something, it means you really love it.---Andy Warhol

At times, we turned to chemicals because we couldn't love ourselves. Our addiction gave a promise of relief, but it gave us self-hate. We wanted to love, but couldn't. What is it we really love? Where should we put out energy? In raising children? In creating art? In helping addicts who still suffer? There's much in this world that needs our love. We can be many things in our lives. Let's
be people we believe in. Let's be people we can love.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know myself through my inventories. My skills, talents, values, and my loves must be clear to me so I can use them to do Your will.
Action for the Day: Today I'll think about what I'd really love to do through my work.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Accustomed as we are to change, or unaccustomed, we think of a change of heart, of clothes, of life, with some uncertainty. --Josephine Miles
Being used to a situation, even a painful one, carries with it a level of comfort. Moving away from the pain, changing the situation, be it job, home, or marriage, takes courage and support from other persons. But even more it takes faith that the change will benefit us. For most of us, the pain will need to worsen.
In retrospect, we wonder why it took us so long. We forget, from one instance to the next, that a new door cannot open until we've closed one behind us. The more important fact is that a new one will always open without fail. The pain of the old experience is trying to push us to new challenges, new opportunities, new growth. We can handle the change; we can handle the growth. We are never given more than we can handle, and we are always given just what we need.
Experience can't prepare us for the ramifications of a new change. But our trust in friends, and our faith in the spiritual process of life, can and will see us through whatever comes.
If a change of any kind is facing me today, I will know that I am not alone. Whatever I am facing is right for me and necessary to my well-being. Life is growth. The next stage of my life awaits me.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Foreword To Second Edition

Figures given in this foreword describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955.

The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by A.A. members, and whose story of the early days of our Society appears in the next pages. >From this doctor, the Broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.

pp. xv-xvi

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

GROUNDED - Alcohol clipped this pilot's wings until sobriety and hard work brought him back to the sky.

One year into my training, I reported for the final phase and met a young beauty. I was drunk the night I met her, and she would have nothing to do with me, but I could never have approached her without the false courage the alcohol gave me. The next day I saw her again, this time sober, and we began to date. I graduated from flight training on her twentieth birthday, and she pinned my gold wings and my second lieutenant bars on me. We were married two weeks later. We have just celebrated our thirty-fifth anniversary, and she is the most wonderful person I could have ever found.

p. 523

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

A.A. has many single alcoholics who wish to marry and are in a position to do so. Some marry fellow A.A.'s. How do they come out? On the whole these marriages are very good ones. Their common suffering as drinkers, their common interest in A.A. and spiritual things, often enhance such unions. It is only where "boy meets girl on A.A. campus," and love follows at first sight, that difficulties may develop. The prospective partners need to be solid A.A.'s and long enough acquainted to know that their compatibility at spiritual, mental, and emotional levels is a fact and not wishful thinking. They need to be as sure as possible that no deep-lying emotional handicap in either will be likely to rise up under later pressures to cripple them. The considerations are equally true and important for the A.A.'s who marry "outside" A.A. With clear understanding and right, grown-up attitudes, very happy results do follow.

pp. 119-120

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NA Just For Today

God Does For Us

"Ongoing recovery is dependent on our relationship with a loving God who cares for us and will do for us what we find impossible to do for ourselves."
Basic Text, p. 96

How often have we heard it said in meetings that "God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves?" At times we may get stuck in our recovery, unable, afraid, or unwilling to make the decisions we know we must make to move forward. Perhaps we are unable to end a relationship that just isn't working. Maybe our job has become a source of too much conflict. Or perhaps we feel we need to find a new sponsor but are afraid to begin the search. Through the grace of our Higher Power, unexpected change may occur in precisely the area we felt unable to alter.

We sometimes allow ourselves to become stuck in the problem instead of moving forward toward the solution. At these times, we often find that our Higher Power does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Perhaps our partner decides to end our relationship. We may get fired or laid off. Or our sponsor tells us that he or she can no longer work with us, forcing us to look for a new one.

Sometimes what occurs in our lives can be frightening, as change often seems. But we also hear that "God never closes a door without opening another one." As we move forward with faith, the strength of our Higher Power is never far from us. Our recovery is strengthened by these changes.

Just for today: I trust that the God of my understanding will do for me what I cannot do for myself.

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

We’re taught in The Program that “faith without works is dead.” How true this is for the addicted person. For if an addicted person fails to perfect or enlarge his or her spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, s/he can’t survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If s/he doesn’t work, s/he’ll surely return to his or her addiction; and if s/he returns to addiction, s/he’ll likely die. Then faith will be dead indeed. Do I believe, through my faith, that I can be uniquely useful to those who still suffer?

Today I Pray

May my faith in my Higher Power and in the influence of The Program be multiplied within me as I pass it along to others who are overcoming similar addictions. May I be certain that my helping others is not simply repaying my debts, but it is the only way I know to continue my spiritual growth and maintain my own sobriety.

Today I Will Remember

The more faith I can give, the more I will have.

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One More Day

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
–Helen Keller

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with day-to-day pain and annoyance of a chronic medical condition. We try hard, but every now and again our perspective gets knocked off center. We may begin to think only in terms of sickness and pain.

Sometimes it’s difficult to find a kind thought or a warm spot for ourselves. If we shadow our lives with pain, frustration, and scorn we will not be able to relax within the quiet confines of our days. Eachh day is new and fresh, and it’s up to us to welcome it with joy and gratitude. It’s up to us to overcome the obstacles to our happiness.

Today, I take the responsibility for my own happiness.

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Food For Thought

Waiting and Acting

Do you seem to have spent much of your life waiting for something? Waiting for Santa Claus, waiting to grow up, waiting to get married, waiting for children, a better job, etc., etc. When we join OA, we wait for the time when we will be thin, thinking that surely then everything will be as we want it to be.

It is important that we begin to live more fully now, rather than projecting our satisfaction into an indefinite future. Rather than waiting for tomorrow, let's obey our inner voice today. Rather than reaching for another bite that we do not need, let's enjoy the measured meal that we have in front of us. Instead of waiting to be thin, let's become more active now, even if all we do is go for a walk around the block.

There are some things that require patient waiting. But there are other things which we need to make happen now by taking action.

Lord, grant me the wisdom to know when to wait and when to act.

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One Day At A Time

~ SPIRITUAL RECOVERY ~
There is a time to let things happen
and a time to make things happen.
Hugh Prather

One of the many facets of the disease of compulsive overeating, in my experience, has been the inability to make a positive change in my choice of foods without using the spiritual steps of recovery. Prior to coming into program, I would plan, pray, and write down what I wanted to do, but change never happened permanently. Looking back, it seems that I was really trying to make things happen, but I was trying to do it without the spiritual guidance and strength of this program through my Higher Power. I didn't have all the spiritual pieces needed to make the almost impossible changes inside myself before the physical changes could happen.

There are many tools of the program, such as sponsorship, a food plan, food abstinence, and practicing the spiritual program through actively working the Twelve Steps. I have learned through failure that I must actively work the steps of the program. I can't just let things happen in my recovery in regard to step work, because then the disease will win. When I daily commit to working the steps to the best of my ability, this brings me the spiritual recovery that allows physical and emotional recovery as well. I cannot make the spiritual recovery happen, since that action belongs only to my Higher Power. What I can do is to take the action by doing the step work, and from there leave the outcome in my Higher Power's hands.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will strive to work the Twelve Steps to the best of my ability, and let things happen in my Higher Power's time.
~ Ohitika ~

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. - Pg. 67 - How It Works

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Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

When you look ahead, you may get discouraged. What will you do without your drug of choice and all the rituals that accompany its use? Yet, living in tomorrow is not only non-productive, you can't do it except in your head. Live in your body; live in today. What must you do in this 24 hours to handle matters and take care of your fragile emotions?

Creator of all that is, reveal to me what is necessary for this 24 hours. Help me focus on now, what is real, and not a future that only exists in my head.

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Sincerity

I will be sincere. I will pray with a true heart. I will greet life and the gifts it gives me with an appreciative heart. Today I will not ask life to be something I am not willing to be. I won't ask the world to shower blessings onto me that I am not willing to deserve by my own right action.

I will be the goodness I wish to have

- Tian Dayton PhD

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Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

If you don't stand for something, they say you will fall for anything. Do you stand up for recovery? Do you stand up for principle? Do you stand up for the Traditions, Steps, and Fellowship?

United we stand; divided we stagger.

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"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Trying is what got you drunk; doing is what keeps you sober.

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Time for Joy - Book - Quote

As I start this day with quiet meditation, I feel myself becoming still and at peace. At any time during the day I can bring my mind back to this moment. I will bring my attention and awareness back to the peace that I have when I am with my breath and I know that my breath is with me at all times, whether I remember it or not.

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Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder. - Phil E

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Warriors Anonymous Practice of the Day (IG warriorsanonymous - a 12 step fellowship for veterans, active military and first responders)
BB pg -63-
Ch 5-How It Works:
(3rd Step Promises)

When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn.

-Tom- When my sponsor and I got to this point in the BB he said “you are are Real alcoholic and new to this way of life so your mindset is, what’s in it for me, what am I going to get from doing this 3rd Step?”
I said yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. He said “well AA says if you do these things, to the best of your ability, you are guaranteed to get the results that this paragraph is saying.
Do you want any of these results in your Life?”
I said yeah, wasn’t so sure of the foo foo stuff but I was down for some peace of mind, getting what I needed, facing life successfully and losing some of my fears.

He said, “ok then, that means yes, so we will Continue and then you can experience if it’s true or not.”

I told him that “reborn” crap I had already heard about in church and it never happened for me. He said well what does the word mean?

-reborn- Brought back to life or activity.

That definition, I wanted and could wrap my head around.

Today I pray that I stay close to Him and perform His Work well