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God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom to know the difference.
Thy will, not mine, be done.

October 11, 2005

         Daily Reflections

        SELF--RESTRAINT

          Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint.
          TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 91

          My drive to work provides me with an opportunity for self-examination.
          One day while making this trip, I began to review my progress in
          sobriety, and was not happy with what I saw. I hoped that, as the
          work day progressed, I would forget these troublesome thoughts,
          but as one disappointment after another kept coming, my discontent
          only increased, and the pressures within me kept mounting. I
          retreated to an isolated table in the lounge, and asked myself
          how I could make the most of the rest of the day. In the past,
          when things went wrong, I instinctively wanted to fight back.
          But during the short time I had been trying to live the A.A.
          program I had learned to step back and take a look at myself.
          I recognized that, although I was not the person I wanted to be,
          I had learned to not react in my old ways. Those old patterns of
          behavior only brought sorrow and hurt, to me and to others. I
          returned to my work station, determined to make the day a
          productive one, thanking God for the chance to make progress
          that day.

          ***********************************************************

          Twenty-Four Hours A Day

          A.A. Thought For The Day

          How good a sponsor am I? When I bring new members to a meeting,
          do I feel that my responsibility has ended? Or do I make it my
          job to stay with them until they have either become good members
          of A.A. or have found another sponsor? If they don't show up for
          a meeting, do I say to myself: "Well they've had it put up to
          them, so if they don't want it, there's nothing more I can do? "
          Or do I look them up and find out whether there is a reason for
          their absences or that they don't want A.A.? Do I go out of my
          way to find out if there is anything more I can do to help? Am I a good sponsor?

          Meditation For The Day

          "First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer
          your gift to God." First I must get right with other people and
          then I can get right with God. If I hold a resentment against
          someone, which I find it very difficult to overcome, I should
          try to put something else constructive into my mind. I should
          pray for the one against whom I hold the resentment. I should
          put that person in God's hands and let God show him or her the
          way to live. "If a man say: 'I love God' and hateth his brother,
          he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
          seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

          Prayer For The Day
          I pray that I may see something good in every person, even one I
          dislike, and that I may let God develop the good in that person.

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        As Bill Sees It            
        
         Walking Toward Serenity, p. 92

             "When I was tired and couldn't concentrate, I used to fall back on an
             affirmation toward life that took the form of simple walking and deep
             breathing.  I sometimes told myself that I couldn't do even this--that I
             was too weak.  But I learned that this was the point at which I could
             not give in without becoming still more depressed.

             "So I would set myself at a small stint.  I would determine to walk a
             quarter of a mile.  And I would concentrate by counting my
             breathing--say, six steps to each slow inhalation and four to each
             exhalation.  Having done the quarter-mile, I found that I could go on,
             maybe a half-mile more.  Then another half-mile, and maybe another.

             "This was encouraging.  The false sense of physical weakness would
             leave me (this feeling being so characteristic of depressions).  The
             walking and especially the breathing were powerful affirmations
             toward life and living and away from failure and death.  The counting
             represented a minimum discipline in concentration, to get some rest
             from the wear and tear of fear and guilt."

             Letter, 1960

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        Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Gratitude In Action

The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944.

At the end of my first year of sobriety, my wife agreed to leave her job after I found some work.  I thought that would be easy.  All I had to do was go see an employer and I'd be able to support my family in a normal fashion.  However, I looked for work for many months.  We didn't have much money, and I was spending the little we had going from one place to the other, answering ads and meeting people.  I was getting more and more discouraged.  One day, a member said, "Dave, why don't you apply at the aircraft factory?  I know a fellow there who could help you."  So that was where I got my first job.  There really is a Higher Power looking after us.

pp. 198-199

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         Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

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

When first challenged to admit defeat, most of us revolted. We had approached A.A. expecting to be taught self-confidence. Then we had been told that so far as alcohol is concerned, self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a total liability. Our sponsors declared that we were the victims of a mental obsession so subtly powerful that no amount of human willpower could break it. There was, they said, no such thing as the personal conquest of this compulsion by the unaided will. Relentlessly deepening our dilemma, our sponsors pointed out our increasing sensitivity to alcohol--an allergy, they called it. The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the process. Few indeed were those who, so assailed, had ever won through in single-handed combat. It was a statistical fact that alcoholics almost never recovered on their own resources. And this had been true, apparently, ever since man had first crushed grapes.

p. 22

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          A clear conscience is a good pillow.
           --American Proverb

          "It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." --Vince Lombardi

          There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range
          risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
          --John F. Kennedy

          The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them.  Just as
          love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is
          learning to listen to them.  It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but
          lends us His ear.  So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to
          listen to him.
          --Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together

          --Errol Strider

          ***********************************************************

          Father Leo's Daily Meditation

          ART

                                              "Art is not a thing; it is a way."
                                                   -- Elbert Hubbard

          In the spiritual twelve-step program it talks about "...a God as you understand Him."
          This is a liberating concept that teaches us to risk and think "big". God is not only found
          in churches, temples and rituals --- God can be found in the myriad of art forms. God is
          always to be found in the creative. Because art is always concerned with life and truth,
          God is always involved.

          Today I am able to look for God in His or Her World.

          In my recovery from the disease of addiction I need to discover the wonder and splendor
          of life that got damaged in my drinking days. Art can help me to feel again. It helps me to
          think and be concerned again. Art teaches me to be involved in life.

          Thank You for the artist --- another aspect of priesthood.

          ***********************************************************

          I will praise you O lord with all my heart.
          Psalm 138 : 1

          "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their
          trust in Him."
          Proverbs 30:5

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          Daily Inspiration

Think good and wise thoughts over and over again until you make them your own. Lord, You have given me a strong foundation and the strength to stand firm for what I believe.

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No one can live for himself alone for then he will have no purpose in life. To give of self is one of life's greatest joys and blesses us with a full and rich life. Lord, help me to be selfless and loving to those around me.

Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and ye shall find,
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Matthew 7:7

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