Patcha

Daily Reflections

THINKING OF OTHERS

Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 20

Thinking of others has never come easily to me. Even when I try to work the A.A. program, I'm prone to thinking, "How do I feel today. Am I happy, joyous and free?" The program tells me that my thoughts must reach out to those around me: "Would that newcomer welcome someone to talk to?" "That person looks a little unhappy today, maybe I could cheer him up." It is only when I forget my problems, and reach out to contribute something to others that I can begin to attain the serenity and God-consciousness I seek.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

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 inner most 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 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.

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As Bill Sees It

Compelling Love, p.273

The life of each A.A. and of each group is built around our Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. We know that the penalty for extensive disobedience to these principles is death for the individual and dissolution for the group. But an even greater force for A.A.'s unity is our compelling love for our fellow members and for our principles.

<<<<>>>>

You might think the people at A.A.'s headquarters in New York would surely have to have some personal authority. But, long ago, trustees and secretaries alike found they could do no more than make very mild suggestions to the A.A. groups. They even had to coin a couple of sentences which still go into half the letters they write: "Of course you are at perfect liberty to handle this matter any way you please. But the majority experience in A.A. does seem to suggest . . ."

A.A. world headquarters is not a giver of orders. It is, instead, our largest transmitter of the lessons of experience.

1. Twelve Concepts, p.8
2. 12 & 12, pp. 173-174

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Walk In Dry Places

Visualizing Success

Optimistic Thinking

Some people insist that we must visualize ourselves enjoying success if we ever hope to achieve it. AA says virtually the same about sobriety; in fact, "A Vision for You" is the name of a chapter in Alcoholics Anonymous. There is a lot of talk in AA about projecting into the future and "seeing the worst." It takes far less energy.... and it's far more constructive..... to see ourselves doing our best, in sobriety and in all things. We have rich imaginative powers. Quite often, we used gifts wrongly when we were drinking... we would create dark pictures of our future troubles, particularly in the depressed periods between drinking bouts. In AA., we learn to use those same powers to see ourselves enjoying happy sobriety as well as a secure place in the world.

I'm confident that I'm growing in sobriety and building healthy relationships in all of my activities.

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Keep It Simple

Live and Let Live--AA slogan

In our addiction, we didn't care. We didn't care about other people, even though we wanted to. We just didn't come through for them in ways that mattered. We didn't care for ourselves. We let bad things happen to us. We didn't care about living. We set no goals, had no fun, smelled no flowers.

In our recovery, we do care. We care about others, ourselves, and life. Our spirits are on the move again. There's life in our hearts. Our bodies are getting well. And we're daring to dream. We're living!

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, put some life and energy into me today. Help me love my new life.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll focus on being alive. As I breathe in, I'll gather more and more life energy from nature.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

Cessation of drinking is but the first step away from a highly strained, abnormal condition. A doctor said to us, “Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic. The entire family is, to some extent, ill.” Let families realize, as they start their journey, that all will not be fair weather. Each in his turn may be footsore and may straggle. There will be alluring shortcuts and by-paths down which they may wander and lose their way. - pp. 122-123

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

TWICE GIFTED - Diagnosed with cirrhosis, this sick alcoholic got sobriety--plus a lifesaving liver transplant.

By the time my name was placed on the transplant waiting list, I had become very sick. My liver had progressively continued to shut down, and the official wait had really just begun. I had no way of knowing how long it would be before a suitable organ would become available or how long it would be before I rose to the top of the list. At times I felt resentful of the selection process, the tests, the close supervision of my A.A. program, and the seemingly endless wait. Unquestionably it was only because of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous that I was able to let go of that resentment. I actually found an abundance of peace and serenity during those months preceding the surgery. After another six months I was given a second chance and a second gift of life. The surgery itself was a wonderful success, and my recuperation was unmarked by setbacks.

pp. 474-475

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Five - "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

Our next problem will be to discover the person in whom we are to confide. Here we ought to take much care, remembering that prudence is a virtue which carries a high rating. Perhaps we shall need to share with this person facts about ourselves which no others ought to know. We shall want to speak with someone who is experienced, who not only has stayed dry but has been able to surmount other serious difficulties. Difficulties, perhaps, like our own. This person may turn out to be one's sponsor, but not necessarily so. If you have developed a high confidence in him, and his temperament and problems are close to your own, then such a choice will be good. Besides, your sponsor already has the advantage of knowing something about your case. - pp. 60-61

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

A friend in The Program told me of a favorite hymn from her childhood: “Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth Thou hast for me.” In actuality, that is what the Program has done for me — it has opened my eyes so that I have come to see the true nature of my addiction, as well as the true nature of the joyous life that can be mine if I practice the principles embodied in The Program’s Twelve Steps to recovery. Through prayer and meditation, am I also improving my inner vision, so that I can better see God’s love and power working in me and through me?

Today I Pray

May each glint of truth that I catch sight of as I work the Steps begin to take on the steadier shine of a fixed star. May I know that these stars are all that I need to chart my course and navigate safely. May I no longer feel the frantic need to put into every unknown port along the way in search of direction. These stars are always there to steer by.

Today I Will Remember

Find the fixed stars and fix on them.

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One Day At A Time

THE PAST

"Even God cannot change the past."
Agathon (ca. 448–400 BC)
(Athenian tragic poet and friend of Euripides and Plato, ancient Greek poet)

Each day of recovery, I ask my Higher Power to help me stay focused on today. Although there are things I would like to change about the past, I know that it is not possible. I’ve let myself fall into traps, thinking "If only I had done..." or "If only I’d said..." When I think this way, I find myself wasting a lot of time and feeling bad. This doesn’t seem like healthy recovery thinking. If amends need to be made, then I make them. If not, then I let go of the past.

Worrying about the past is not productive. Regret will not fix anything. It will merely keep me from concentrating my efforts on where they belong ... on the present moment.

One Day at a Time . . .

I will stay focused on what is going on around me and leave the past in the past.

Teresa S.

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AA 'Big Book' – Quote

On the other hand - and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand - once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that he required to follow a few simple rules. - Pg. xxix - 4th. Edition - The Doctor's Opinion

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Warriors Anonymous Practice of the Day-
BB pg 16-
Ch 1, Bills Story:

An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature. Our struggles with them are variously strenuous, comic, and tragic. One poor chap committed suicide in my home. He could not or would not see our way of life. There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish.

Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend’s simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.

-Tom- “an alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature”. For me, that is really churching it up. I was an absolute monster. I brought to AA nothing but hate, anger, violence, aggressive attitude, rebellion and a bunch more not good stuff. Y’all took me in and showed me the only thing could penetrate all those walls; human kindness and genuine unconditional love. Also, y’all did not accept unacceptable behavior. You didn’t kick me out or abandon me. You said, ”keep coming back” it was constant and baffling to me, and the only thing I did not have a defense against. It broke me.

You see all the acts we do in AA; sweeping floors, making coffee, giving people rides, listening to someone share, greeting people at the door, cleaning the bathroom at the meeting hall, sponsorship, helping people move, cutting people’s grass, late night talks, etc all of these and much more, are, acts of love. In AA, we do love. We don’t talk about it, think about it or preach about it, we do it.

I can ask myself “am I doing acts of love with those who’s space I occupy?” If your answer is yes, then continue to do your acts of love and enjoy the happiness and contentment those acts bring. If your answer is no, then write a gratitude list and do something for someone without them knowing who did it, and see what that experience feels like.

Today I pray that I remember how hard it was for me to get sober, and give others the same compassion and kindness.