Daily Recovery Readings - December

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December 28

Daily Reflections

SUIT UP AND SHOW UP

In A.A. we aim not only for sobriety - we try again
to become citizens of the world that we rejected, and
of the world that once rejected us. This is the
ultimate demonstration toward which Twelfth Step work
is the first but not the final step.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 21

The old line says, "Suit up and show up." That action
is so important that I like to think of it as my motto.
I can choose each day to suit up and show up, or not.
Showing up at meetings starts me toward feeling a part
of that meeting, I can talk with newcomers, and I can
share my experience; that's what credibility, honesty,
and courtesy really are. Suiting up and showing up are
the concrete actions I take in my ongoing return to
normal living.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

A.A. may be human in its organization, but it is divine
in its purpose. The purpose is to point me toward God and
the good life. My feet have been set upon the right path.
I feel it in the depths of my being. I am going in the
right direction. The future can be safely left to God.
Whatever the future holds, it cannot be too much for me
to bear. I have the Divine Power with me, to carry me
through everything that may happen. Am I pointed toward
God and the good life?

Meditation For The Day

Although unseen, the Lord is always near to those who
believe in Him and trust Him and depend on Him for the
strength to meet the challenges of life. Although veiled
from mortal sight, the Higher Power is always available to
us whenever we humbly ask for it. The feeling that God is
with us should not depend on any passing mood of ours, but
we should try to be always conscious of His power and love
in the background of our lives.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that today I may feel that God is not too far away
to depend on for help. I pray that I may feel confident of
His readiness to give me the power that I need.

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As Bill Sees It

Alone No More, p.252

Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded
by people who loved us. But when our self-will had driven
everybody away and our isolation became complete, we commenced
to play the big shot in cheap barrooms. Failing even in this, we
had to fare forth alone on the street to depend upon the charity of
passers-by.

We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by
being dependent upon others. Even when our fortunes had not totally
ebbed, we nevertheless found ourselves alone in the world. We still
vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or
dependence.

For those of us who were like that, A.A. has a very special meaning. In
this Fellowship we begin to learn right relations with people who
understand us; we don't have to be alone any more.

12 & 12, pp. 116-117

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Walk In Dry Places

Rehearing Rejection
Fortitude
The possibility of rejection exists with almost everything we do, if we are free to choose. We might not like rejection, but we want the same freedom to reject others. As freely choosing people, we need to turn down ideas or proposals we don't like.
One thing we should never do, however, is rehearse rejections before they occur. If we do this, we may give up even before we have attempted what we hope to accomplish. In effect, we will be killing our hopes even before others have a chance to review them. This is always a ticket to failure.
Rejection is really a feedback mechanism that reports information we ought to have. It tells us either to change our approach or to seek acceptance elsewhere. It is not evidence that we're completely unacceptable.
Our problem with any single rejection may be that it causes us to recall all the rejections we ever had. We can learn to see any rejection as a normal event that can be beneficial if we accept it properly.
I'll not let any fear or visualization of rejection keep me from actions I ought to take today. I am an acceptable person, and there is a place for what I have to offer.

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Each Day a New Beginning

The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making. --Lillian Smith
As the sore tooth draws our tongue, so do rejections, affronts, painful criticisms, both past and present draw our minds. We court self-pity, both loving and hating it. But we can change this pattern. First we must decide we are ready to do so. The program tells us we must become "entirely ready." And then we must ask to have this shortcoming removed.
The desire to dwell on the injustices of our lives becomes habitual. It takes hours of our time. It influences our perceptions of all other experiences. We have to be willing to replace that time-consuming activity with one that's good and healthy.
We must be prepared for all of life to change. Our overriding self-pity has so tarnished our perceptions that we may never have sensed all the good that life daily offers. How often we see the glass as half-empty rather than half-full!
A new set of experiences awaits me today. And I can perceive them unfettered by the memories of the painful past. Self-pity need not cage me, today.

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Keep It Simple

If You Walk With Lame Men You'll soon Limp Yourself. Seaman McManus
Before recovery, we kept company with people who were as sick as us, or worse. We got angry and made fun of people who were trying to improve their lives. They scared us. They were like mirrors that reflected how spiritually lost we were becoming. Now we walk in the crowd we avoided. Now we have values. We have spiritual beliefs. Living up to these values and beliefs can be hard. We need to be around people who live by their values. In recovery, we learn that we need others. Remember, the first word in Step One is we. We need good people in our lives. We need friends who will not tell us what we want to hear, but what we are doing wrong.
Prayer for the Day: Sometimes I act like I need no one. Help me pick my friends wisely, for my life is at stake.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll pick one friend, and we'll talk about how we can better help each other.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

BILL'S STORY

We commenced to make many fast friends and a fellowship has grown up among us of which it is a wonderful thing to feel a part. The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty. I have seen hundreds of families set their feet in the path that really goes somewhere; have seen the most impossible domestic situations righted; feuds and bitterness of all sorts wiped out. I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities. Business and professional men have regained their standing. There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us. In one western city and its environs there are one thousand of us and our families. We meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship they seek. At these informal gatherings one may often see from 50 to 200 persons. We are growing in numbers and power.*

* In 2001, A.A. is composed of over 100,000 groups.

pp. 15-16

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

The Vicious Cycle

How it finally broke a Southerner's obstinacy and destined this salesman to start A.A. at Philadelphia.

Bill and Hank had just taken over a small automobile polish company, and they offered me a job--ten dollars a week and keep at Hank's house. We were all set to put DuPont out of business.

p. 227

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Three - "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."

How could we then guess that all those fears were to prove groundless? How could we know that thousands of these sometimes frightening people were to make astonishing recoveries and become our greatest workers and intimate friends? Was it credible that A.A. was to have a divorce rate far lower than average? Could we then foresee that troublesome people were to become our principle teachers of patience and tolerance? Could any then imagine a society which would include every conceivable kind of character, and cut across every barrier of race, creed, politics, and language with ease?

pp. 140-141

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"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."
--Charles A. Beard

"Learn from the negative as well as the positive, from the failures as well as the
successes."
--Jim Rohn

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening."
--Marge Piercy

"In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change--breaking
down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take
their place."
--Susan Taylor

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

HUMOR

"Humor is an affirmation of
dignity, a declaration of man's
superiority to all that befalls
him."
-- Romain Gary

Today I laugh at myself. Today I need to laugh at myself in order to stay sane. Today
I choose not to take myself too seriously.

When I tell jokes about the alcoholic, I am not belittling the person. I am making fun of
the disease that nearly killed me. For me to live with the disease, I need to be able to
laugh at the disease in this way I stop it from having power in my life.

Also I catch something of the symptoms of the disease in the jokes: the grandiosity,
arrogance, manipulation, insanity, ego, selfishness and exaggeration. The joke allows
me to face reality with a smile.

O God, thank You for the healing gift of humor.

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"For you are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord shall enlighten my darkness."
II Samuel 22:29

"Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!"
1 Chronicles 16:11

See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called
children of God.
1 John 3:1

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you
may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:13

"Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be
disappointed."
Isaiah 49:23

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is
born of God and knows God."
1 John 4:7

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Daily Inspiration

Do not run ahead of the Lord, but walk with Him, pray for His guidance and listen to His answers. Lord, let me put Your will first in my life.

Do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord and receive the fullness of His blessings. Lord, I thank You for the gifts that I have received and ask forgiveness for all that I have done wrong.