Daily Recovery Readings - November

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November 10

Daily Reflections

A SENSE OF BELONGING

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging
that comes to us.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105

That's what it is -- belonging! After a session of meditation I knew that the feeling I was
experiencing was a sense of belonging because I was so relaxed. I felt quieter inside,
more willing to discard little irritations. I appreciated my sense of humor. What I also
experience in my daily practice is the sheer pleasure of belonging to the creative flow of
God's world. How propitious for us that prayer and meditation are written right into our
A.A. way of life.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

I am less self centered. The world used to revolve around me at the center. I cared more
about myself, my own needs and desires, my own pleasure, my own way, than I did about
the whole rest of the world. What happened to me was more important than anything else
I could think of. I was selfishly trying to be happy and therefore I was unhappy most of
the time. I have found that selfishly seeking pleasure does not bring true happiness.
Thinking of myself all the time cut me off from the best in life. A.A. taught me to care less
about myself and more about the other fellow. Am I less self-centered?

Meditation For The Day

When something happens to upset you and you are discouraged, try to feel that life's
difficulties and troubles are not intended to arrest your progress in the spiritual life, but to
test your strength and increase your determination to keep going. Whatever it is that must
be met, you are to either overcome it or use it. Nothing should daunt you for long, nor
should any difficulty overcome or conquer you. God's strength will always be there,
waiting for you to use it. Nothing can be too great to be overcome, or if not overcome,
then used.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may know that there can be no failure with God.
I pray that with His help I may live a more victorious life.

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As Bill Sees It

Tolerance Keeps Us Sober, p. 312

"Honesty with ourselves and others gets us sober, but it is tolerance
that keeps us that way.

"Experience shows that few alcoholics will long stay away from a
group just because they don't like the way it is run. Most return and
adjust themselves to whatever conditions they must. Some go to a
different group, or form a new one.

"In other words, once an alcoholic fully realizes that he cannot get
well alone, he will somehow find a way to get well and stay well in the
company of others. It has been that way from the beginning of A.A.
and probably always will be so."

Letter, 1943

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Walk In Dry Places

Honesty with another person
Admitting wrongs.
A good fifth Step in the program means being entirely hones with at least one person about the nature of our shortcomings. "A burden shared is a burden cut in half" is the principle behind this action.
We can feel relieved that the 12 Step program specifically limits this sharing to "another person"___ though we can obviously add to that if we choose. However, we must be sure to share honestly with that one person, being careful not to gloss over this important Step.
What is the result of this honest sharing? At the very least, it helps us lose the fear that people might know us as we really are. It helps us face the world with confidence and perhaps new humility. Morever, it can strengthen our ability to stay sober. All these gains are certainly reward enough.
If I haven't been honest with at least one other person, I'll reread the Fifth Step today. This is something that should be done for my own future safety and well-being.

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Keep It Simple

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.---Will Rogers
The greatest adventure ever is recovery, and action is what’s important in recovery. That’s because the Twelve Steps are full of action. The whole world has now opened up to us. At times, this will scare us. But we aren’t alone. Our Higher Power is there to help us. All we have to ask ourselves is, “Would this action keep me in touch with my Higher Power?” If the answer is yes, then we take action. If the answer is no, then we don’t.
In recovery, we’ll be busy. We admit our wrongs. We take inventories. We seek answers. We ask for help. We are to get as much as we can out of life. We can’t sit and watch; we have to get out and live life.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You gave me a second chance at life. Help me use it and not let my fear stop.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll five things I want to do but I’m afraid to try. I’ll talk to someone I trust about how I can do these things.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Because society would rather we always wore a pretty face, women have been trained to cut off anger. --Nancy Friday
Anger is an emotion. Not a bad one, nor a good one; it simply exists when particular conditions in our lives are not met as we'd hoped.
We can get free of our anger if we choose to take action appropriate to it. Anger can be a healthy prompter of action. But when no action is taken, anger turns inward, negatively influencing our perceptions of all experiences, all human interaction.
We need to befriend all of our emotions. We need to trust that they all can serve us when we befriend them, learn from them, act in healthy concert with them. Our emotions reveal the many faces of our soul. And all are valid, deserving respect and acceptance. They are all representative of the inner self.
Because we are less at home with anger, it becomes more powerful. When we deny it, it doesn't disappear. It surfaces in unrelated circumstances, complicating our lives in unnecessary ways. We can learn to enjoy our anger by celebrating the positive action it prompts. We can cherish the growth that accompanies it, when we take the steps we need to.
It's okay for me to be angry today. It's growthful, if I use it for good.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Doctor's Opinion

All these, and many others, have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity. It has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.
This immediately precipitates us into a seething caldron of debate. Much has been written pro and con, but among physicians, the general opinion seems to be that most chronic alcoholics are doomed.

p. xxx

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Women Suffer Too

Despite great opportunities, alcohol nearly ended her life. Early member, she spread the word among women in our pioneering period.

That was the beginning of a new life, a fuller life, a happier life than I had ever known or believed possible. I had found friends, understanding friends who often knew what I was thinking and feeling better than I knew myself, and didn't allow me to retreat into my prison of loneliness and fear over a fancied slight or hurt. Talking things over with them, great floods of enlightenment showed me myself as I really was and I was like them. We all had hundreds of character traits, of fears and phobias, likes and dislikes, in common. Suddenly I could accept myself, faults and all, as I was—for weren't we all like that? And, accepting, I felt a new inner comfort, and the willingness and strength to do something about the traits I couldn't live with.

pp. 206-207

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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."

Like most people, we have found that we can take our big lumps as they come. But also like others, we often discover a greater challenge in the lesser and more continuous problems of life. Our answer is in still more spiritual development. Only by this means can we improve our chances for really happy and useful living. And as we grow spiritually, we find that our old attitudes toward our instincts need to undergo drastic revisions. Our desires for emotional security and wealth, for personal prestige and power, for romance, and for family satisfactions--all these have to be tempered and redirected. We have learned that the satisfaction of instincts cannot be the sole end and aim of our lives. If we place instincts first, we have got the cart before the horse; we shall be pulled backward into disillusionment. But when we are willing to place spiritual growth first-- then and only then do we have a real chance.

p. 114

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God is the source of all I need, and all others need.
--Shelley

"Call on God, but row away from the rocks."
--Indian proverb

"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it."
--Mary Engelbreit

"Responsible persons are mature people who have taken charge of themselves and their
conduct, who own their actions and own up to them--who answer for them."
--William J. Bennett

"Silence fertilizes the deep place where personality grows. A life with a peaceful center can weather all storms."
--Norman Vincent Peale

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

FAITH

"Faith is never identical with piety."
-- Karl Barth

Drugs make us artificial and unreal. They create a world of fantasy, rather than reality
and teach us how to escape rather than live. Everything is exaggerated and dehumanized
especially the practice of our religion. Often for the addict, religion becomes part of the
escape, a ritual that becomes exaggerated and theatrical, expecting magic rather than
miracle.

Madonnas are kissed, promises are made, confessions become routine, prayers are
mouthed and God is manipulated with the disease. Piety, the religious art of
showmanship, keeps us a prisoner of the small "god".

Faith takes seriously our pain and isolation and promises recovery only with change and
accepted responsibility. We must walk our prayers and live our rosary!

O God, build Your temple in my heart and Your altar in my daily sacrifice of love to self
and others.

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“I say this because I know what I am planning for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give
you hope and a good future. Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to
me, and I will listen to you. You will search for me. And when you search for me with all
your heart, you will find me.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding..."
Proverbs 3:5

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Daily Inspiration

Study who you are and follow your heart because it will often lead you to miracles. Lord, in knowing who I am, I will become better able to know and serve You.

There is light behind every shadow. Lord, You are the light of the world. May I never forget to turn to You when my life fills with shadows.