Patcha

Daily Reflections

FIRST, THE FOUNDATION

Is sobriety all that we can expect of a spiritual awakening? No,
sobriety is only a bare beginning.
As Bill Sees It, p. 8

Practicing the A.A. program is like building a house. First I had to
pour a big, thick concrete slab on which to erect the house; that, to
me, was the equivalent of stopping drinking. But it's pretty
uncomfortable living on a concrete slab, unprotected and exposed to
the heat, cold, wind and rain. So I built a room on the slab by starting
to practice the program. The first room was rickety because I wasn't
used to the work. But as time passed, as I practiced the program, I
learned to build better rooms. The more I practiced, and the more I
built, the more comfortable, and happy, was the home I now have to
live in.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

What makes A.A. work? The first thing is to have a revulsion against
myself and my way of living. Then I must admit I was helpless, that
alcohol had me licked and I couldn't do anything about it. The next
thing is to honestly want to quit the old life. Then I must surrender
my life to a Higher Power, put my drinking problem in His hands and
leave it there. After these things are done, I should attend meetings
regularly for fellowship and sharing. I should also try to help other
alcoholics. Am I doing these things?

Meditation For The Day

You are so made that you can only carry the weight of twenty-four
hours, no more. If you weigh yourself down with the years behind and
the days ahead, your back breaks. God has promised to help with the
burdens of the day only. If you are foolish enough to gather again
that burden of the past and carry it, then indeed you cannot expect
God to help you bear it. So forget that which lies behind you and
breathe in the blessing of each new day.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may realize that, for good or bad, past days have ended.
I pray that I may face each new day, the coming twenty-four hours,
with hope and courage.

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As Bill Sees It

In God's Hands, p. 2

When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when
we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could
have planned.

<< << << >> >> >>

My depression deepened unbearably, and finally it seemed to me as
though I were at the very bottom of the pit. For the moment, the last
vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself
crying out, "If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do
anything, anything!"

Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. It seemed to me, in the
mind's eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of
spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a free man.
Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on the bed, but now for a time I was in
another world, a new world of consciousness. All about me and through
me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself,
"So this is the God of the preachers!"

1. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 100
2. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 63

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Walk In Dry Places

The Delusion of "Just one more"
Other Excesses

A binge is a chain reaction that starts with one drink. After a grim period of enforced abstinence, that first drink may have brought us intense emotional release and a peak feeling of euphoria. For the rest of the binge, there was a continuing delusion that the next drink would help us recapture that peak experience. Delusion leads us to other excesses. Some alcoholics also binge on smoking, food, sex, and power and recognition. In this frantic seeking, our basic delusion is that substances and things can satisfy what is really a spiritual need. Instead of realizing that there is a law of diminishing returns in the enjoyment of such things, we cling to the delusion that "just one more" will bring the relief and satisfaction we want.

Delusions brought disillusionment, and only the truth set us free from alcohol. Other excesses might not hurt us to the extent alcohol did, but the excesses of our drinking years carry lessons that are equally applicable to other human problems.
I will carry out the day's activities knowing that I already have enough of everything I need for this day alone.

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Keep It Simple

..our lives had become unmanageable. Second half of Step One.

The First Step tells us a lot about our addiction. We were out of control. Our addiction was in control. Addiction managed everything. It managed our relationships. It managed how we behaved with our families. As Step One says, "...our lives had become unmanageable." But we pretended we managed our lives. What a lie! Addiction ran our lives--not us. We weren't honest with ourselves. Our program heals us through self-honesty. We feel better just speaking the truth. We are becoming good people with spiritual values. Our spiritual journey has begun.

Prayer: Higher Power, I give YOU my life to manage. When I'm faced with a choice, I'll ask myself, "What would my Higher Power choose for me?"

Action: Today, I'll be honest with a friend about how unmanageable my life had become.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

The opposite may happen should the family condemn and criticize. Dad may feel that for years his drinking has placed him on the wrong side of every argument, but that now he has become a superior person with God on his side. If the family persists in criticism, this fallacy may take a still greater hold on father. Instead of treating the family as he should, he may retreat further into himself and feel he has spiritual justification for so doing.

p. 129

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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.

A few years later I was arrested driving while intoxicated, but it was reduced to reckless driving, with the help of a state police buddy of mine. I was told, however, that if I had one more offense, they would take my license away. That was at the same time as my first try at A.A. I couldn't get sober, and I couldn't get drunk. I was feeling scared, remorseful, guilty. I ran to a hamburger stand near my apartment, looked in the phone book for the number of a clubhouse for A.A.'s and gave them a call. Two men came to my apartment and stayed with me, drinking coffee until after the bars closed. They kept coming, taking me to meetings for a month. I thought I was doing okay, so I didn't need it anymore. It felt like those two guys were after me, bothering me too much. So I got drunk to get back at them.

p. 480-481

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

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

Some people, of course, may conclude that they are indeed ready to have all such defects taken from them. But even these people, if they construct a list of still milder defects, will be obliged to admit that they prefer to hang on to some of them. Therefore, it seems plain that few of us can quickly or easily become ready to aim at spiritual and moral perfection; we want to settle for only as much perfection as will get us by in life, according, of course, to our various and sundry ideas of what will get us by. So the difference between "the boys and the men" is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective and for the perfect objective which is of God.

pp. 67-68

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

Before I came to The Program, I hadn’t the faintest idea of what it was to “Live In The Now.” I often became obsessed
with the things that happened yesterday, last week, or even five years ago. Worse yet, many of my waking hours were
spent cleaning away the “wreckage of the future.” “To me,” Walt Whitman once wrote, “every hour of the day and night
is an unspeakably perfect miracle.” Can I truly believe that in my heart?

Today I Pray

Let me carry only the weight of 24 hours at one time, without the extra bulk of yesterday’s regrets or tomorrow’s
anxieties. Let me breathe the blessings of each new day for itself, by itself, and keep my human burdens contained in
daily perspective. May I learn the balance of soul that comes through keeping close to God.

Today I Will Remember

Don’t borrow from tomorrow.

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

In addition to these casual get-togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be
attended by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life. Aside from fellowship and sociability, the prime
object was to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems. - Pg. 160 - A Vision For You

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Warriors Anonymous Practice of the Day-
BB pg 58-
Ch 5- How It Works:

RARELY HAVE we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

-Tom- “Rarely Have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.”

As my sponsor and I read that sentence, he stopped me and said, what do you think of that statement? I said, that was one of the boldest statements I had ever heard and it was was probably
bull ****. He said “well how about we do it and see what happens?” I said, “sure, whatever”.

The requirement in that sentence, if I do not want to fail in this business of sobriety is to “thoroughly followed Our Path” . That means I have to do what they did if I want what they have. Not my ideas and actions, but theirs.
The good thing for me was, I had nothing worthwhile to lose. If this didn’t work, I could always go get drunk.

I hear many alcoholics and addicts say, “I tried AA and it didn’t work” then I ask, “so you got a sponsor, went through the Steps out of the BB with your sponsor, 1 through 12?” Then they say “no, I just went to some meetings” then I say “oh, so you haven’t tried AA.”

I can ask myself, am I doing what AA is asking me to do or what I want to do?

If your answer is you are doing what AA is asking you to do, then continue enjoying the results of those actions and your hard earned sobriety.

If you are continuing to do what you want to do, then you will continue to get what you already had.

I pray that today I have the courage to choose to thoroughly follow the path AA has put in front of me.