The first BWYA Virtual meetings started last night.  We had three and a half for the first and four for the second meeting.  Join us at 8:00 this morning or for two meetings tonight DAILY PONDERABLES Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny

Good resources for Quarantiners   https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting   (Including mobile apps) https://www.aa-intergroup.org/index.php https://www.aa-intergroup.org/directory.php   (Directory of online meetings) https://www.recoverytapers.com/ ****************************************************************** Daily Reflections OUR GROUP CONSCIENCE ". . . sometimes the good is the enemy of the best." ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS COMES OF AGE, p. 101 I think these words apply to every area of A.A.'s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Service! I want them etched in my mind and life as I "trudge the Road of Happy Destiny" (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164). These words, often spoken by co-founder Bill W., were appropriately said to him as the result of the group's conscience. It brought home to Bill W. the essence of our Second Tradition: "Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern." Just as Bill W. was originally urged to remember, I think in our group discussions we should never settle for the "good," but always strive to attain the "best." These common strivings are yet another example of a loving God, as we understand Him, expressing Himself through the group conscience. Experiences such as these help me to stay on the proper path of recovery. I learn to combine initiative with humility, responsibility with thankfulness, and thus relish the joys of living my twenty-four hour program. From the book Daily Reflections © Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought for the Day Before I met A.A., I was very unloving. From the time I went away to school, I paid very little attention to my mother and father, I was on my own and didn't even bother to keep in touch with them. After I got married, I was very unappreciative of my spouse. Many a time I would go out all by myself to have a good time. I paid too little attention to our children and didn't try to understand them or show them affection. My few friends were only drinking companions, not real friends. Have I gotten over loving nobody but my self? Meditation for the Day Be calm, be true, and be quiet. Do not get emotionally upset by anything that happens around you. Feel a deep, inner security in the goodness and purpose in the universe. Be true to your highest ideals. Do not let yourself slip back into the old ways of reacting. Stick to your spiritual guns. Be calm always. Do not talk back or defend yourself too much against accusation, whether false or true. Accept criticism as well as you accept praise. Only God can judge the real you. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may not be upset by the judgment of others. I pray that I may let God be the judge of the real me. From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day © Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation

NA - Just for Today God-centeredness Page 92 "Gradually as we become more God-centered than self-centered, our despair turns to hope." Basic Text, p. 95 What a glorious thing to have hope! Before coming to Narcotics Anonymous, many of us lived lives of utter hopelessness. We believed we were destined to die from our disease. Many members speak of being on a "pink cloud" their first months in the program. We've stopped using, made some friends, and life looks promising. Things are going great. Then reality sets in. Life is still life-we still lose jobs, our partners still leave us, friends still die, we still get sick. Abstinence is no guarantee that life will always go our way. When the reality of life on its own terms sets in, we turn to our Higher Power and remember that life happens the way life happens. But no matter what occurs in our recovery we need not despair, for there is always hope. That hope lies in our relationship with our Higher Power. This relationship, as expressed by the thought in our text, develops over time: "Gradually we become more God-centered". As we rely more and more on the strength of our Higher Power, life's struggles don't have to drag us into the sea of despair. As we focus more on God, we focus less on ourselves. Just for Today: I will rely on my Higher Power. I will accept that, regardless of what happens, my Higher Power will provide me with the resources to live with it. From the book Just for Today © Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Thought for Today "I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves." --Alexander Humboldt ISM --> I Separate Myself  The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous perform supernatural surgery upon all who live them. (thanks Maddi - Sober Voices Group)

Buddha/Zen Thoughts What is most essential to Buddhism is based on clarifying the mind. If you want your mind to be clear, it is important to put opinions to rest. If opinions are not stopped, then wrong and right are confused; if the mind is not clear, reality and illusion are mixed up. If you stop opinions and clear the mind, then reality and illusion are both empty, wrong and right do not stand. -Hsueh-yen

Native American "If anyone has children, they better teach their children to follow the traditions that we're leaving behind because it is later than we think with all that's going on." --Juanita Centeno, CHUMASH The habits, attitudes and beliefs that carry the human through the trials of life are developed at a very young age. If we are taught respect at a very young age, the odds are we'll be respectful through our whole lives. If we are taught to dance at a young age, we'll dance our whole lives. If we are taught to sing the traditional songs while we are young, we'll sing those songs through out whole lives. And who do we drum and sing songs to? Our children. This is how we keep it going. Great Spirit, today, teach me to teach the children.

Keep It Simple Spirituality is...the awareness that survival is a savage fight between you and yourself.  --- Lisa S. As recovering people, we're getting stronger each day. We go to meetings to learn how to be better people. But we also go to remind ourselves of the beast inside us---our addiction. This beast is waiting for us to slip---to go back to our addiction---so it can regain control. Thus, it's wise to learn all we can about our disease. That's why it's important to do a good job on our Fourth Step. When we work Step Four, we learn how our addiction acts, thinks, and feels. With the help of our program, we can quiet the beast. One Day at a Time., Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I'm fighting for my life. Thanks to You, I'm winning today and my life is free. Action for the Day: I'll talk to a friend about my addiction, the beast inside me. I'll do this so it will have less power over me.

Big Book Chapter 2 THERE IS A SOLUTION (pg 18 & top 19) An illness of this sort-and we have come to believe it an illness-involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can. If a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt. But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer's. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents—anyone can increase the list. We hope this volume will inform and comfort those who are, or who may be affected. There are many. Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve. Strangely enough, wives, parents and intimate friends usually find us even more unapproachable than do the psychiatrist and the doctor. But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished. That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured-these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again. ----------------------------------- Received this from a friend, who gave permission to pass it on. (Thanks Cheryl T) Hi , Thank you! For the Grace of God & Sisters like you I'm able to make it one day at a time. I'd like to share something I heard at my second meeting. It has taken me through some really dark & painful times. Please take from it what you can use & pass it on to someone you know who would benefit from it. The lady up at the podium was beautiful, well groomed & dressed. I could not help but wonder what was she doing at a speakers meeting of AA? She began to tell us her story of drug & alcohol abuse, prostitution, shame & near death. Then she related something that she heard at her first meeting that finally help her to make sense out of a senseless compulsion to drink. It went something like this---- I lost my job but I didn't drink -- why? because tomorrow I still would not have my job. I wrecked my car but I didn't drink -- why? because tomorrow my car would still be a wreck! My house burnt down but I didn't drink -- why? because tomorrow my home would still be gone! My dog died but I didn't drink -- why? because the dog would still be dead the next day! You only pick up a drink because you would use anything that happens to you as an excuse to drink --- Why? Because you WANT TO GET DRUNK! This beautiful woman went on for nearly an hour some 17 years ago & to this day I can still see & hear her. I have prayed for her everyday for making it very clear why I was a drunk -- because I WANTED TO DRINK! Thank God -- I no longer have that overpowering urge to pick up. So if you come across someone new to AA or someone who's coming back, pass this on. Maybe this will help them to make sense of a senseless compulsion to kill themselves.