Daily Recovery Readings - April

[bluidkiti]

April 9

Daily Reflections

FREEDOM FROM "KING ALCOHOL"

. . . let us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under
constraint. . . . Our former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready
again to clutch us to him. Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the
great "must" that has to be achieved, else we go mad or die.
As Bill Sees It, p. 134

When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical
confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and
self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells
that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than
hopes of reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow
whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that
willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened
for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free--in a kind of
extended daily probation--that need never end.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Third, alcoholics recover their proper relationship with other people.
they think less about themselves and more about others. They try to
help other alcoholics. They make new friends so that they're no
longer lonely. They try to live a life of service instead of selfishness.
All their relationships with other people are improved. They solve
their personality problems by recovering their personal integrity, their
faith in a Higher Power, and their way of fellowship and service to
others. Is my drink problem solved as long as my personality problem
is solved?

Meditation For The Day

All that depresses you, all that you fear, is really powerless to harm
you. These things are but phantoms. So arise from earth's bonds,
from depression, distrust, fear, and all that hinders your new life.
Arise to beauty, joy, peace, and work inspired by love. Rise from
death to life. You do not even need to fear death. All past sins are
forgiven if you live and love and work with God. Let nothing hinder
your new life. Seek to know more and more of that new way of living.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may let God live in me as I work for Him. I pray that I
may go out into the sunlight and work with God.

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As Bill Sees It

The "Slipper" Needs Understanding, p. 99

"Slips can often be charged to rebellion; some of us are more rebellious
than others. Slips may be due to the illusion that one can be 'cured' of
alcoholism. Slips can also be charged to carelessness and
complacency. Many of us fail to ride out these periods sober. Things
go fine for two or three years--then the member is seen no more. Some
of us suffer extreme guilt because of vices or practices that we can't or
won't let go of. Too little self-forgiveness and too little prayer--well,
this combination adds up to slips.

"Then some of us are far more alcohol-damaged than others. Still
others encounter a series of calamities and cannot seem to find the
spiritual resources to meet them. There are those of us who are
physically ill. Others are subject to more or less continuous exhaustion,
anxiety, and depression. These conditions often play a part in
slips--sometimes they are utterly controlling."

Talk, 1960

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Walk in Dry Places

Understanding Compulsion__Protecting Sobriety
Often called a "compulsive illness," alcoholism is still a baffling mystery to most people. All we really know is that a single drink, a pleasant beverage for many, becomes a deadly trigger for alcoholics. We may even think it's unfair that we're unable to enjoy the pleasant customs of social drinking. If we let down our guard, we can even entertain the thought that we've somehow been cured of the compulsion to drink.
But we don't have to understand the exact nature of compulsion to realize that we are victims of it. Bitter experience and the tragic examples of others should tell us that our compulsion exists and is activated by the first drink. That's really all the understanding we need for living successfully in sobriety.
If there's anything we should question, it's not whether we have the compulsion, but why we would have any doubts after so much bad experience with alcohol. After all, if we always had a bad reaction from any other food or beverage, we would soon give it up. Why is there so much persistence in denying that we are compulsively attached to alcohol?
We still may be trying to convince ourselves that we can take a drink safely, and this delusion is another way the compulsion works. All we have to understand is that a single drink leads to our destruction.
I'll remember today that I've accepted the fact that I am alcoholic and subject to disaster with a first drink. I'll live today with the knowledge that I only have to understand that I have a compulsion to drink.

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Keep It Simple

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day a time. --Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln did great things for the United States. He took life One Day at a time.. He broke the future into manageable pieces. We can do the same. We can live in the present and focus on the task at hand.
Spirituality comes when we focus this way. When we stay in the present we find choice. And we worry less about the future. Still, we must have goals.
We must plan for the future.
Goals and plans help us give more credit to the present than to the future. And when we feel good about the present, we feel good about the future.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me focus. Help me keep my energy in the present. Have me live life One Day at a Time.
Action for the Day: When I find myself drifting into the future, I'll work at bring myself back to the present.

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Each Day a New Beginning

For is it not true that human progress is but a mighty growing pattern woven together by the tenuous single threads united in a common effort? --Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek)
We each are spinning our individual threads, lending texture, color, pattern, to the "big design" that is serving us all. Person by person our actions, our thoughts, our values complement those of our sisters, those of the entire human race. We are heading toward the same destination, all of us, and our paths run parallel on occasion, intersect periodically, and veer off in singleness of purpose when inspiration calls us.
It's comforting to be reminded that our lives are purposeful. What we are doing presently, our interactions with other people, our goals, have an impact that is felt by many others. We are interdependent. Our behavior is triggering important thoughts and responses in someone else, consistently and methodically. No one of us is without a contribution to make. Each one of us is giving what we are called upon to give when we are in a right relationship with God, who is the master artist in this design we are creating.
Prayer and meditation will direct my efforts today. My purpose can then be fulfilled.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards

OUR WOMEN FOLK have suggested certain attitudes a wife may take with the husband who is recovering. Perhaps they created the impression that he is to be wrapped in cotton wool and placed on a pedestal. Successful readjustment means the opposite. All members of the family should meet upon the common ground of tolerance, understanding and love. This involves a process of deflation. The alcoholic, his wife, his children, his “in-laws,” each one is likely to have fixed ideas about the family’s attitude towards himself or herself. Each is interested in having his or her wishes respected. We find the more one member of the family demands that the others concede to him, the more resentful they become. This makes for discord and unhappiness.
And why? Is it not because each wants to play the lead? Is not each trying to arrange the family show to his liking? Is he not unconsciously trying to see what he can take from the family life rather than give?

p. 122

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable."

It is a tremendous satisfaction to record that in the following years this changed. Alcoholics who still had their health, their families, their jobs, and even two cars in the garage, began to recognize their alcoholism. As this trend grew, they were joined by young people who were scarcely more than potential alcoholics. They were spared that last ten or fifteen years of literal hell the rest of us had gone through. Since Step One requires an admission that our lives have become unmanageable, how could people such as these take this Step?

p. 23

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You have to leave the city of your comfort and go unto the wilderness
of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll
discover will be yourself.
--Alan Alda

Right now, this moment, is the time to celebrate by dancing beneath
the warmth of the sun.
--Gary Barnes

When we are doing our best to live as God would have us live, if we
are in harmony with God, we shall feel and be at peace.
--SweetyZee

Silence is the great revelation.
--Lao Tzu

"God answers all kneel-mail."
--Gary R.

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

Make a conscious effort to thank God today.
--Patricia Ferris

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SERVICE

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
Charles Dickens

As a drunk I thought that the world owed me a living. Everybody
existed for my employment and service; the world was waiting for my
telephone call! For years I manipulated people, and I was such a good
con artist they often left thanking me!

Today a part of my spiritual program requires service. I make the
coffee, put out the cookies, cook the meal and invite friends for
dinner. I make the telephone call, give the lectures, share in groups
and write articles. The life of service helps to keep me sober. I am
the message that I share. And I do it for me!

Thank you for making me aware of my need to give.

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It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:26

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal.
Matthew 6:20

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Daily Inspiration

Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to go on in spite of it. Lord, may I be strong in my abilities and courageous in my beliefs.

In life it is those that persevere that will succeed. Lord, every day is a fresh beginning. With You, I will come closer to my goals each day if only I don't give up and quit.