LIVE AND
LET LIVE
Never since it began has Alcoholics Anonymous been divided by a major
controversial
issue. Nor has our Fellowship ever publicly taken sides on any question
in an embattled
world. This, however, has been no earned virtue. It could almost be
said that we were
born with it. . . . "So long as we don't argue these matters privately,
it's a cinch we never
shall publicly. "
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 176
Do I remember that I have a right to my opinion but that others don't
have to share it?
That's the spirit of "Live and Let Live." The Serenity Prayer reminds
me, with God's
help, to "Accept the things I cannot change." Am I still trying to
change others? When it
comes to "Courage to change the things I can," do I remember that my
opinions
are mine, and yours are yours? Am I still afraid to be me? When it
comes to "Wisdom
to know the difference," do I remember that my opinions come from my
experience?
If I have a know-it-all attitude, aren't I being deliberately
controversial?
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I have real friends, where I had none before. My drinking companions
could hardly be
called my real friends, though when drunk we seemed to have the closest
kind of
friendship. My idea of friendship has changed. Friends are no longer
people whom I can
use for my own pleasure or profit. Friends are now people who
understand me and I them,
whom I can help and who can help me to live a better life. I have
learned not to hold back
and wait for friends to come to me, but to go half way and to be met
half way, openly and
freely. Does friendship have new meaning for me?
Meditation For The Day
There is a time for everything. We should learn to wait patiently until
the right time
comes. Easy does it. We waste our energies in trying to get things
before we are ready to
have them, before we have earned the right to receive them. A great
lesson we have to
learn is how to wait with patience. We can believe that all our life is
a preparation for
something better to come when we have earned the right to it. We can
believe that God
has a plan for our lives and that this plan will work out in the
fullness of time.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may learn the lesson of waiting patiently. I pray that I
may not expect things
until I have earned the right to have them.
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As Bill Sees It
To Rebuild
Security, p. 301
In our behavior respecting financial and emotional security, fear.
greed. possessiveness, and pride have too often done their worst.
Surveying his business or employment record, almost any alcoholic can
ask questions like these: In addition to my drinking problem, what
character defects contributed to my financial instability? Did fear and
inferiority about my fitness for my job destroy my confidence and fill
me with conflict? Or did I overvalue myself and play the big shot?
Businesswomen in A.A. will find that these questions often apply to
them, too, and the alcoholic housewife can also make the family
financially insecure. Indeed, all alcoholics need to cross-examine
themselves ruthlessly to determine how their own personality defects
have demolished their security.
12 & 12, pp. 51-52
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Walk In Dry Places
Who is a winner?
Staying Sober
Newcomers in AA are urged to "stick with the winners." But who is a
winner?
A winner in AA is one who finds sobriety and represents principles that
help others find and maintain sobriety. Any person who can help others
is a winner.
The losers are people who don't make enough of a commitment to
find and maintain sobriety. It may not be their fault. On the other
hand, some losers eventually become winners.
It is not our purpose to apply ratings to various individuals,
whether they're winner or losers. We must know, however, that we cannot
benefit from the suggestions of people who do not stay sober. We are
looking for the path of recovery, not the road to ruin. The winners are
people who can help us in our recovery.
I'll spend as much time as possible with people who want to stay
sober. I have no intention of joining anyone on the road to ruin.
***********************************************************
Keep It Simple
The universe is full of magical things waiting for our wits to grow
sharper.
---Eden Phillpots
How nice to have the fog lifted! Sobriety lets our wits grow
sharper. We can go after our dreams and ideas. We can listen to music
and sing. We are part of the magic of the universe. At times we may not
feel very magical, but we are. Our spirits hold much magic. Sobriety is
magic. We work at making the world a better place. In doing so, we get
magical powers. Power that heals and comfort others. Power that heals
and comforts others. Powers to understand things that before we could
not. Powers that let us see the world as we’ve never seen it. Enjoy the
magic and use your powers wisely!
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, let Your magic enter and fill my
heart.
Action for the Day: I’ll list four magical powers I have from being
sober.
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Each Day a New Beginning
Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply
points the way. --Florence Scovel Shinn
Should we make this move? Should we change jobs? Should we talk to
others about our feelings? We are seldom short on prayers when we're
filled with fear and indecision. We are, however, short on answers. Our
worries block them out.
No prayer ever goes unanswered. Of this we can be certain. On the other
hand, the answer may not be what we'd hoped for. In fact, we may not
recognize it as the answer because we are expecting something quite
different. It takes willingness on our part to be free of our
preconceptions--free to accept whatever answers are offered.
Our answers come unexpectedly, a chance meeting on the street, a
passage in a book or newspaper, a nagging feeling within. God speaks to
each of us throughout the day. Our prayers are answered, our problems
find solutions, and our worries are eased, if we but attune ourselves
to the messages. They are all around.
I will be attentive to all the signs from God today. Whatever answer I
seek is finding its way to me.
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition
Chapter 9 - The Family
Afterwards
We families of Alcoholics Anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet.
Everyone knows about the others’ alcoholic troubles. This is a
condition which, in ordinary life, would produce untold grief; there
might be scandalous gossip, laughter at the expense of other people,
and a tendency to take advantage of intimate information. Among us,
these are rare occurrences. We do talk about each other a great deal,
but we almost invariably temper such talk by a spirit of love and
tolerance.
p. 125
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition Stories
SAFE HAVEN - This A.A.
found
that the process of discovering who he really was began with knowing
who he didn't want to be.
At age sixteen I got a part-time job
as a disc jockey for a local radio station. Those in a position
to know observed that I had a knack for this kind of work, so I dropped
out of high school and started spinning records full time.
Drinking and partying went hand in hand with this job. Soon, a
pattern began that lasted for many years. When the alcoholism
became obvious to my employers and began to affect my job performance,
I would simply resign and seek employment with another broadcasting
company.
p. 453
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Foreword
A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their
nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession
to drink and enable sufferers to become happily and usefully whole.
A.A.'s Twelve Traditions apply to the life of the Fellowship itself.
They outline the means by which A.A. maintains its unity and relates
itself to the world about it, the way it lives and grows.
p. 15
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"Wherever you may be, look when there is apparently nothing to see,
listen when all is
seemingly quiet."
--unknown
"There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well as the
effort to
scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment."
--Orison Swett Marden
God seldom becomes a reality until God becomes a necessity.
--unknown
G I F T = God Is Forever There.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself
less.
--unknown
A well-spent day brings happy sleep.
--Leonardo da Vinci
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
FOOD
"Seeing is deceiving. It's eating
that's believing."
-- James Thurber
It may seem strange to many but for years my belief system revolved
around my
eating. I believed that if I could eat I would be okay. Food for me was
both the
pleasure and escape. I lived to eat. Feelings, good and bad, were
surrounded and
stuffed down with food. Some people drank to hide, used cocaine to
escape --- I ate to
avoid the problems in my life.
Seeing was deceiving for me because I refused to accept the reality of
my eating. I
covered myself with clothes, avoided the beach, rarely looked at my
body. I saw only
what I wanted to see --- and I was dying. Now I choose to face reality.
This for me is
the meaning of spirituality. I choose to show my love for me by loving
my food,
making choices around what I eat and eating slowly. Today I choose to
talk about my
problems, rather than eat them.
God, help me to accept my daily bread with gratitude and abstinence.
***********************************************************
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord
and may please him
in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the
knowledge of God, being
strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you
may have great
endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who
has qualified you to
share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
Colossians 1:10-12
For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are
possible.
Mark 10:27
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse
you, pray for those
who mistreat you.
Luke 6:27-28
Do not expect that your decision to forgive will result in major
changes in the other
persons. Instead, pray for them.
Matthew 5:44
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Daily Inspiration
Be inspired to try something new and much of what you dream can
become your life. Lord, thank you for giving me the freedom of choice,
and grant me the courage to experience my opportunities and create new
ones.
Worse than being a quitter is the one who is afraid to begin. Lord,
grant me the courage to believe in myself and the ability to focus on
what I can do, not what I can't do.
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NA Just For Today
Courage
"Our newly found faith serves as a
firm foundation for courage in the future."
Basic Text, p.93
Narcotics Anonymous is no place for
the faint of heart! Facing life on life's terms without the use of
drugs isn't always easy. Recovery requires more than hard work; it
requires a liberal dose of courage.
What is courage, anyway? A quick look
at a dictionary will tell us. We have courage when we face and deal
with anything that we think of as difficult, dangerous, or painful,
rather than withdrawing from it. Courage means being brave; having a
purpose; having spirit. So what is courage, really? Courage is an
attitude, one of perseverance.
That's what an addict in recovery
really needs - perseverance. We make that commitment to stick with our
program, to avoid using, no matter what happens. A courageous addict is
one who doesn't use, one day at a time, no matter what. And what gives
us courage? A relationship with a Higher Power gives us the strength
and the courage to stay clean. We know that, so long as we are in our
God's care, we will have the power we need to face life on its own
terms.
Just for today: I have a Higher Power
who cares for me, no matter what. Knowing that, I will strive to have
an attitude of courage today.
pg. 316
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You are reading from the book Today's
Gift.
You have three choices: keep on
fighting, ignore each other, or make up and be friends. --John Knoblauch
Once there were four
sixth-graders--two boys and two girls--who started to fight even though
they'd been friends for years. One morning at the bus stop, the boys
started playing keep-away with the girls' shoes and wouldn't give them
back. One of the mothers called the school.
Later that day, the counselor called
them in and asked them what the fight was all about. They said they
didn't really know.
"Well," said the counselor, "it
doesn't really matter why you started fighting. Right now, you've got
three choices: keep on fighting, ignore each other, or make up."
The group chose to ignore each other,
after discussing it among themselves. They were happy to be able to
stop fighting. About the time of winter vacation, they decided to be
friends again.
What conflicts can I resolve by
letting them be?
You are reading from the book
Touchstones.
That which is lacking in the present
world is a profound knowledge of the nature of things. --Frithjof Schuon
Most of us have very narrow, limited
ways of understanding what happens to us. We are generally practical
men, and if something goes wrong we immediately begin to think of how
to fix it. We take a cause-and-effect approach to understand the events
around us rather than a circular or symbolic approach. Perhaps we turn
quickly to blaming instead of asking what is the meaning or the message
in what is happening. We see our own experience as the center of
events. We forget that our lives are only today's expression in a line
of generations before us.
We become too self-satisfied with our
ways of understanding the world. It may be comforting to think we
understand what is going on. When we let go of that comfort and open
ourselves to a more profound awareness, we enter the spiritual realm.
Here we learn that facts are not enough to achieve truth. We begin to
understand that love - in the form of connections with all of creation
- is where we find the most profound meaning.
I am a part of the whole universe, and
my relationship with my Higher Power will open me to profound knowledge.
You are reading from the book Each Day
a New Beginning.
Intuition is a spiritual faculty and
does not explain, but simply points the way. --Florence Scovel Shinn
Should we make this move? Should we
change jobs? Should we talk to others about our feelings? We are seldom
short on prayers when we're filled with fear and indecision. We are,
however, short on answers. Our worries block them out.
No prayer ever goes unanswered. Of
this we can be certain. On the other hand, the answer may not be what
we'd hoped for. In fact, we may not recognize it as the answer because
we are expecting something quite different. It takes willingness on our
part to be free of our preconceptions--free to accept whatever answers
are offered.
Our answers come unexpectedly, a
chance meeting on the street, a passage in a book or newspaper, a
nagging feeling within. God speaks to each of us throughout the day.
Our prayers are answered, our problems find solutions, and our worries
are eased, if we but attune ourselves to the messages. They are all
a