Patcha

Daily Reflections

Daily Resolutions

The idea of "twenty-four-hour" living applies primarily to the
emotional life of the individual. Emotionally speaking, we must not
live in yesterday, nor in tomorrow.

As Bill Sees It, p. 284

A New year: 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600
minutes--a time to consider directions, goals, and actions. I must
make some plans to live a normal life, but also I must live emotionally
within a twenty-four hour frame, for if I do, I don't have to make
New Year's resolutions! I can make every day a New Year's day! I
can decide, "Today I will do this . . . Today I will do that." Each day
I can measure my life by trying to a little better, by deciding to follow
God's will and making an effort to put the principles of our A.A.
program into action.

************************************************** *********

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

I shall be loyal in my attendance, generous in my giving, kind in my criticism, creative
in my suggestions, loving in my attitudes. I shall give A.A. my interest, my
enthusiasm, my devotion, and most of all, myself. The Lord's Prayer has become part
of my A.A. thoughts for each day: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Have I given myself?

Meditation For The Day

As we look back over the year just gone, it has been a good year to the extent that
we have put good thoughts, good words, and good deeds into it. None of what we have
thought, said, or done need be wasted. Both the good and the bad experiences can be
profited by. In a sense, the past is not entirely gone. The result of it, for good or
evil, is with us at the present moment. We can only learn by experience and none of our
experience is completely wasted. We can humbly thank God for the good things of the
year that has gone.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may carry good things into the year ahead. I pray that I may carry on
with faith, with prayer, and with hope.

************************************************** *********

As Bill Sees It

Wider Understanding, p.255

To reach more alcoholics, understanding of A.A. and public good will
towards A.A. must go on growing everywhere. We need to be on
still better terms with medicine, courts, prisons, mental hospitals, and
all enterprises in the alcoholism field. We need the increasing
good will of editors, writers, television and radio channels. These
publicity outlets need to be opened ever wider.

********************************

Nothing matters more to A.A.'s future welfare than the manner in
which we use the colossus of modern communication. Used unselfishly
and well, it can produce results surpassing our present
imagination. Should we handle this great instrument badly, we
shall be shattered by the ego manifestations of our own people.
Against this peril, A.A. members' anonymity before the general
public is our shield and our buckler.

1. Twelve Concepts, p.51
2. Grapevine, November 1960

************************************************** *********

Walk In Dry Places

Has it been a Year of Growth?

Growth

As any year draws to a close, we should reflect on how we have grown in sobriety. We should also identify changes during the year that enabled us to overcome bad habits and to move closer to better patterns of living.
Though we never are guaranteed favorable outcomes, we should always remember that sobriety is its own reward. We want a full life of course, but it must begin with a decision to seek and to maintain sobriety at all costs.
We find that with sobriety, lots of other problems seem to solve themselves. Even if they don't we have the tools to move forward and to achieve goals that always eluded us while we were drinking. Every year in sobriety is a year of growth.
I'll be conscious today of recent improvements I've made in my life and all my affairs. With sobriety, these improvements will go on for a lifetime.

************************************************** *********

Keep It Simple

May you live all the days of your life'--Jonathan Swift.

Tonight, at midnight, a New Year will begin. None of us know what the New Year will hold. But we can trust ourselves to hold on to the spirit of recovery as we go through the year. As a New Year is about to begin, we can rejoice in our new way of life. We can give our will and our life to our HP. By doing these things, we'll be ready for the New Year.

PRAYER: Higher Power, I pray that I'll start the New Year safe in Your loving arms. I pray that I'll keep working my program.

ACTION: Tonight, at midnight, I'll say the Serenity Prayer. I will think of all the others who have read this meditation book and who will join me in this prayer. We are a recovering community.

************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

He is not so unbalanced as they might think. Many of us have experienced dad’s elation. We have indulged in spiritual intoxication. Like a gaunt prospector, belt drawn in over the ounce of food, our pick struck gold. Joy at our release from a lifetime frustration knew no bounds. Father feels he has struck something better than gold. For a time he may try to hug the new treasure to himself. He may not see at once that he has barely scratched a limitless lode which will pay dividends only if he mines it for the rest of his life and insists on giving away the entire product.

pp. 128-129

************************************************** *********

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

BUILDING A NEW LIFE - Hallucinating and restrained by sheriff's deputies and hospital staff, this once-happy family man received an unexpected gift from God--a firm foundation in sobriety that would hold up through good times and bad.

I started taking jobs out of town. One time I was a foreman for an aluminum siding company. I don't know how we got jobs finished. Every morning I was hung-over, sick. The workers would have to wait for me to start. At noon I would go to the bar to fix myself up, and then I would party at night.

p. 480

************************************************** *********

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Six - "Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."

Self-righteous anger also can be very enjoyable. In a perverse way we can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us, for it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority. Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination, has its satisfactions for us, too. Here we are not trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own righteousness.

p. 67

************************************************** *********
A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change; COURAGE to change the things I can; and WISDOM to know the difference — living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it: Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next. Amen.

Today I Pray

May I look back at this past year as a good one, in that nothing I did or said was wasted. No experience — however insignificant it may have seemed — was worthless. Hurt gave me the capacity to feel happiness; bad times made me appreciate the good ones; what I regarded was my weaknesses became my greatest strengths. I thank God for a year of growing.

Today I will Remember

Hope is my “balance brought forward” — into a new year’s ledger.

***************************************
AA 'Big Book' - Quote

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.

May God bless you and keep you - until then. - Pg. 164 - A Vision For You

************************************************** *********
Warriors Anonymous Practice of the day- BB pg 14-15-
Ch-1- Bills Story

“While I lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given me. Perhaps I could help some of them. They in turn might work with others.

My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs. Particularly was it imperative to work with others as he had worked with me. Faith without works was dead, he said. And how appallingly true for the alcoholic! For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then Faith would be dead indeed.
With us it is just like that.”

-Tom- The first 100 constantly bring up the truth that sobriety is not free. “Through work and self-sacrifice for others” that’s not just work, that is hard work, difficult and takes up my time. And that is the Deal, I can take it or leave it, but I cannot change it. I can ask myself “ am I working to enlarge my spiritual life in the way the Steps say to?” If the answer is yes, then I continue. If the answer is no, then I need to call my sponsor and get to work.

I pray that for today I am given the Desire to enlarge my spiritual life and sacrifice my time for others, to the best of my ability.