DAILY PONDERABLES Together WE Trudge The Road OF Happy Destiny Daily Reflections THE EASIER, SOFTER WAY If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 72 I certainly didn't leap at the opportunity to face who I was, especially when the pains of my drinking days hung over me like a dark cloud. But I soon heard at the meetings about the fellow member who just didn't want to take Step Five and kept coming back to meetings, trembling from the horrors of reliving his past. The Easier, softer way is to take these Steps to freedom from our fatal disease, and to put our faith in the fellowship and our Higher Power. From the book Daily Reflections © Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought for the Day In A.A. we find fellowship and release and strength. And having found these things, the real reasons for our drinking are taken away. Then drinking has no more justification in our minds. We no longer need to fight against drink. Drink just naturally leaves us. At first, we are sorry that we can't drink, but we get so that we are glad that we don't have to drink. Am I glad that I don't have to drink? Meditation for the Day Try never to judge. The human mind is so delicate and so complex that only its Maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different, actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different circumstances, influenced by such different sufferings, you cannot know all the influences that have gone to make up a personality. Therefore, it is impossible for you to judge wholly that personality. But God knows that person wholly and He can change it. Leave to God the unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God to teach you the proper understanding. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may not judge other people. I pray that I may be certain that God can set right what is wrong in every personality. From the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day © Copyright 1975 by Hazelden Foundation NA - Just for Today Onward on the journey Page 13 "The progression of recovery is a continuous uphill journey." Basic Text, p. 83 The longer we stay clean, the steeper and narrower our path seems to become. But God doesn't give us more than we can handle. No matter how difficult the road becomes, no matter how narrow, how winding the turns, there is hope. That hope lies in our spiritual progression. If we keep showing up at meetings and staying clean, life gets... well, different. The continual search for answers to life's ups and downs can lead us to question all aspects of our lives. Life isn't always pleasant. This is when we must turn to our Higher Power with even more faith. Sometimes all we can do is hold on tight, believing that things will get better. In time, our faith will produce understanding. We will begin to see the "bigger picture" of our lives. As our relationship with our Higher Power unfolds and deepens, acceptance becomes almost second nature. No matter what happens as we walk through recovery, we rely on our faith in a loving Higher Power and continue onward. Just for Today: I accept that I don't have all the answers to life's questions. Nonetheless, I will have faith in the God of my understanding and continue on the journey of recovery. From the book Just for Today © Copyright 1991-2013 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Thought for Today "When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive." --Alan Paton Life is a long lesson in humility. ~James M.Barrie  (thanks Gene H.) "When an alcoholic gets in a rut he/she decorates it." Jeff A. Buffalo Men's 7:3am Zoom Buddha/Zen Thoughts The Aim of Zen When enlightened Zen masters set up teaching for a spiritual path, the only concern is to clarify the mind to arrive at its source. It is complete in everyone, yet people turn away from this basic mind because of their illusions. Native American "But the great spirit has provided you and me with an opportunity for study in nature's university, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and the animals which include us." ---- Walking Buffalo, STONEY What we really need to learn is how to live life. Nature is the greatest university when we want to learn about balance, harmony, the Natural Laws and how to live life. But we will never learn unless we spend time in the "living university." Nature is full of examples, lessons, and exercises about life. Nature will help humans learn. Nature will help humans heal. Nature will help with Medicine, knowledge and healing. The reason our Elders are so wise is because they have attended the right educational system - nature's university. Great Spirit, help me to become wise. Keep It Simple Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat. --- Harry Emerson Fosdick Hate is like an illness. It steals our hope, our love, our relationships. Hate puts distance between people. Hate can give us a false sense of power. Do I use hate to make myself feel important? Our program tells us to let go of hate. Hate and sobriety don't mix. Hate doesn't let us connect with our Higher Power. Ours is a program of love and respect. We're taught that if someone treats us wrong, we still should be respectful in our response. Why? Because we're changed by our actions. If we act with hate, we become hateful. If we act in a respectful way, we become respectable. Prayer for the Day: Hate is the drug of those who are afraid. Higher Power, help me to be free from hate today. Action for the Day: It's self-centered to hate. Today, I'll read pages 60-62 of Alcoholics Anonymous(Third Edition) about being self-centered. Big Book Chapter 5    How It Works (pg 64 & top 65) Therefore, we started upon a personal inventory. This was Step Four. A business which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke. Taking commercial inventory is a fact-finding and a fact-facing process. It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade. One object is to disclose damaged or unsalable goods, to get rid of them promptly and without regret. If the owner of the business is to be successful, he cannot fool himself about values. We did exactly the same thing with our lives. We took stock honestly. First, we searched out the flaws in our make-up which caused our failure. Being convinced that self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered its common manifestations. Resentment is the 'number one' offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. In dealing with resentments, we set them on paper. We listed people, institutions or principles with who we were angry. We asked ourselves why we were angry. In most cases it was found that our self-esteem, our pocketbooks, our ambitions, our personal relationships, (including sex) were hurt or threatened. So we were sore. We were 'burned up.' On our grudge list we set opposite each name our injuries. Was it our self-esteem, our security, our ambitions, our personal, or sex relations, which had been interfered with? We were usually as definite as this example: I’m resentful at:                 The Cause                                               Affects my:                                                                                                       Sex relations.                                                                                                       Self-esteem (fear)                                        His attention to my wife.                         Sex relations. Mr. Brown                       Told my wife of my mistress.                  Self-esteem (fear)                                                         Brown may get my job at the office.       Security                                                                                                       Self-esteem (fear)                                       She's a nut  -- she                                       snubbed me.  She committed her          Personal relationship                                       husband for drinking                              Self-esteemMrs. Jones                    He’s my friend.                                       (fear)                                                               She’s a gossip.                                      Unreasonable-Unjust                                                                 - Overbearing -                                        Self-esteem (fear)  My employer            Threatens to fire                                      Security.                                                                        me for my drinking                                      and padding my ex -                                     pense account.                                      Misunderstands and                               Pride -- Personal          My wife                         nags. Likes Brown.                                 sex relations --                            Wants house put in                                 Security (fear)                                      her name.