Today's Thought - September

[bluidkiti]

September 16

He brought me out into an open place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

~Psalms 18:19

We know in this program that our recovery was not an accident. We may be mystified by it or surprised to be feeling better. Some of us call it a miracle. We have worked hard in our recovery. We have suffered through some difficulties. Still, our recovery is not an achievement or an accomplishment. It is a gift from our Higher Power. We were powerless to help ourselves. All we could do was ask for help.

As we live an improved life and enjoy the benefits of our growth, we may ask why we were given this gift. As we seek to know the will of God, the ancient passage quoted today offers an answer. “He rescued me because he delighted in me.” Can we let that in?

Thanks to God for all the rescued moments and for all the times I have been saved from my excesses.

Today's reading is from the book Touchstones, A Book of Daily Meditations for Men

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September 17

Learning

It seems as if we’re particularly immature, especially in the early stages of recovery. When we were using, we handled all of our problems the same way: When faced with difficult relationships, we used. When faced with responsibilities, we used. When faced with life, we used. Substances took the place of learning experiences.

Fortunately, we’re in recovery now, and we can learn from our problems. We are more mature now that we understand our strengths and weaknesses better, and we know how to work the program to recover.

Am I learning from my experiences?

Higher Power, help me to be strong (enough) to evaluate and learn from my mistakes.

Today I will practice learning by…

Today's reading is from the book Day by Day, Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts

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September 18

They love the best who love with compassion.

~Ellen Anne Hill

Lucky indeed is the person who is loved by those with compassion. Hard indeed is the lot of those loved by rigid boundaries, quick judgments, and a small sense of humanity.

All of us are fighting a personal battle, all of us have been scarred, and all of us are riddled with contradictions and inconsistent behavior. To be human is to be flawed. Compassion is the state of being in touch with the bright, beautiful, and flawed nature of humanity.

Compassionate people are able to see the gold beneath the metal. They are able to see the effort beneath the occasional failure. They are able to see the intention beneath the mistake.

We have all made mistakes, experienced pain, and learned to heal. Where would we be—when the wounds are fresh—without the compassion of others?

I am aware that life is difficult for everyone. Today, I will be especially sensitive and kind.

Today's reading is from the book Days of Healing, Days of Joy, Daily Meditations for Adult Children

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September 19

Overachieving may be symptomatic.

Suffering from low self-esteem is common. Some of it may be blamed on growing up in families affected by alcohol or other drugs. Perhaps the criticisms heaped on us at school or in a bad marriage triggered it. We may have thousands of reasons for lacking a sense of our worth. The bottom line is, we were insecure and full of doubt—good breeding ground for the superstar achiever. Much good occasionally comes from low self-esteem. Working really hard, excelling in many extracurricular activities, being available when a favor is asked—these are common characteristics of people with low self-esteem.

The program is spiritually based, and in it we are introduced to a Higher Power. Many of us didn’t have one before, at least not one we relied on, to help us feel better about ourselves. We are learning to turn to our Higher Power every day for peaceful assurance that we are loved, that we are being taken care of. In time we’ll grow to love ourselves, and then we’ll be free of the need to overachieve.

I will accept my worthiness today and trust that my Higher Power has something wonderful in store for me.

Today's reading is from the book A Life of My Own, Meditations on Hope and Acceptance

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September 20

Time can shift according to how we choose to experience it. Do we sense time differently when we are waiting for someone who is late than when we are the one who is late? Time also often seems to slow down when things are harder in winter or with the experience of pain.

Time has very little to do with clocks and everything to do with thought and perception. Yet most people are in a 24/7 competition against the timepiece, obeying the orders of their calendars, their completely charted days, or their clock-crazy, appointment-driven, dizzying timetable of overscheduled duties. The weight of overwhelming demands, commitments, and options and the endless list of responsibilities can easily pull us off balance.

Our collective obsession with clock time creates a magnetic pull toward overcommitment and speed. In our mad dash to get things done, we often bow down to the tyranny of the urgent, forgetting that multitasking is not a normal human state, even if our idea of it is holding a remote control and eating chips simultaneously.

Our inner artist allows us to break out of this hourglass prison and enter a world where each moment is unfolding just so—no matter whether the vehicle for such unfolding is song, dance, painting, sculpting, or writing.

With recovery, I need not be afraid that boredom will lead me to destructive choices. I enjoy the timelessness found in practicing my art form.

Today's reading is from the book Cornerstones, Daily Meditations for the Journey into Manhood and Recovery

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September 21

We are sturdy beings. But in many ways, we are fragile. We can accept change and loss, but this comes at our own pace and in our own way. And only we and God can determine the timing.

~Codependent No More

Hard times, stressful times, are not all there is to life, but they are part of life, growth, and moving forward. What we do with hard times, or hard energy, is our choice. We can use the energy of hard times to work out, and work through, our issues. We can use it to fine-tune our skills and our spirituality. Or we can go through these situations suffering, storing up bitterness, and refusing to grow or change.

Hard times can motivate and mold us to bring out our best. We can use these times to move forward and upward to higher levels of living, loving, and growth.

The choice is ours. Will we let ourselves feel? Will we take a spiritual approach, including gratitude, toward the event? Will we question life and our Higher Power by asking what we’re supposed to be learning and doing? Or will we use the incident to prove old, negative beliefs? Will we say “Nothing good ever happens to me. I’m just a victim. People can’t be trusted. Life isn’t worth living”?

We do not always require hard energy, or stress, to motivate us to grow and change. We do not have to create stress, seek it, or attract it. But if it’s there, we can learn to channel it into growth and use it for achieving what’s good in life.

God, let my hard times be healing times.

Today's reading is from the book The Language of Letting Go, Daily Meditations on Codependency

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September 22

Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.

~Standing Bear

The wisdom of Native American spirituality is deeply centered on the natural world. It teaches us to respect the earth and all natural things. It teaches us, as many world religions do, that we are made of earth and live by the gifts of nature. Remember, the word humility comes from the word humus, meaning “of the earth.” When we become alienated or too far removed from nature, we become disconnected from ourselves. We lose our place and become willful.

Humility is not the same as shame. Humility is self-respecting, and it expresses that we have a place in the entire web of life. One aspect of a spiritual life is the feeling of awe. Where better to return to the feeling of awe than in sight of a mighty river, a powerful storm, or the intricate details of a flower or a stone.

Today, I will return to the natural world around me, and with awe, I will give thanks.

Today's reading is from the book Stepping Stones, More Daily Meditations for Men

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September 23

Most of us can, as we choose, make of this world either a palace or a prison.

~Sir John Lubbock

Oh, really? If we could choose to live our life in a palace or a prison, we’d all be living in palaces, right? Wrong. Perhaps we would all wish to live in palaces, but would we do the work it takes to make that choice?

Making a choice means deciding where to spend our time and energy. Making a choice means we choose a goal and do the work to get to our goal.

We can’t stay sober today by wishing for sobriety. But we can stay sober by choosing sobriety today—or even by choosing sobriety this hour or this minute, one moment at a time. When we choose sobriety, we put our time and energy toward things that will keep us sober. And the things that will keep us sober—caring for others, being honest, doing our work well, eating and exercising to stay healthy—take up our time and energy.
Prayer for the Day

Higher Power, help me realize today that the way I spend each moment is how I choose what my life will be. Thanks for helping me get sober so I can make good choices.
Today's Action

Today I will make a list of the things I wish for. Are they worth the work? Will I choose to live my minutes, hours, and days to get them?

Today's reading is from the book God Grant Me, More Daily Meditations from the Authors of Keep It Simple

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September 24

We yield, and we realize God has wrought something in us, and that the wings of our souls have learned to beat the upper air.

~Anonymous

Where are our resting places? Where are the free spaces where we find nurturing and peace? For some of us, it is within ourselves: a place where we live quietly, engaged in inarticulate creation. We go to that silent space because we are safe there. We find what we need to be replenished until we are ready to go into the world again.

For some of us, the resting places are primarily outside ourselves: the earth, the sea, the mountains. We call this “getting away from it all,” but it’s really going to something we need as much as we need air and food. We all will find a resting place in anything to which our hearts call us: music, a journal, books on recovery, solitude. We all need sanctuary, time to be recreated, time to become reconnected to who we truly are.

Within my solitary sanctuary, my Higher Power is always with me.

Today's reading is from the book Answers in the Heart, Daily Meditations for Men and Women Recovering from Sex Addiction

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September 25

No Sainthood

Life leads never to perfection but always toward it.

~James Lane Allen

Our friends in the program repeatedly pound into our heads: “We are not saints.” The improvement we make in recovery could easily lead us to believe that we may be approaching sainthood. That idea doesn’t last past one honest inventory. Old-timers remind us “Don’t try to be a saint by Thursday.”

If we believe we are superior because of our success in recovery, we will find ourselves impossible to live with. We seek spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. Perfection is impossible for humans to achieve. Our limitations, as well as our potentials, add to our spiritual growth.

Those who have all the answers for themselves and others, and reject suggestions or advice are probably headed toward relapse.

One of the best pieces of advice for improving myself and my attitude is “Easy does it.” There really isn’t anything beyond the very best I can do.

Today's reading is from the book Easy Does It, A Book of Daily Twelve Step Meditations

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September 26

Politeness is the art of choosing among one’s real thoughts.

~Abel Stevens

We’re flooded with thoughts nearly every minute. We’re making grocery lists, rehearsing conversations, or making plans for tomorrow. Our mind is seldom quiet in anticipation of God’s timely messages for us and others. And we’re sometimes too quick to speak before we think. The result is that we too often fail to share the messages we have for others, and we fail to consider how our misguided words affect them.

The people who always seem to be gentle, diplomatic, thoughtful, and “successful” in their conversations aren’t blessed with more skills for living than we are. Perhaps they have learned to rely on their intuition before speaking—let their Higher Power help them sort out appropriate responses before they blurt out their views.

Pausing before speaking calms us. It ensures better communication, and it honors God, the people around us, and ourselves.

I will experience many moments of calmness today, and I’ll see positive results.

Today's reading is from the book In God's Care, Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery

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September 27

Pity is the deadliest feeling that can be offered to a woman.

~Vicki Baum

We must move forward with confidence, trusting that the strength we need will be given us, having faith in our visions to guide us. Problems need not daunt us. Rather, they can spur us on to more creative activity. They challenge our capabilities. They insist that we not stand still.

Pity from others fosters inaction, and passivity invites death of the soul. Instead, our will to live is quickened through others' encouragement. All else dampens the will. Pity feeds the self-pity that rings the death knell.

We can give strokes wherever we are today and know that we are helping someone live. And each time we reach out to encourage another, we are breathing new life into ourselves, new life that holds at bay the self-pity that may appear at any moment.

We can serve one another best, never by commiserating with sadnesses, but by celebrating life's challenges. They offer the opportunities necessary to our continued growth.

Someone needs a word of encouragement from me. l will brighten her vision of the future.

Today's reading is from the book Each Day a New Beginning, Daily meditations for Women

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September 28

Reflection for the Day

“When a man has reached a condition in which he believed that a thing must happen when he does not wish it, and that which he wishes to happen can never be, this is really the state called desperation,” wrote Schopenhauer. The very real pain of emotional difficulties is sometimes very hard to take while we’re trying to maintain sobriety. Yet we learn, in time, that overcoming such problems is the real test of the program’s way of living. Do I believe that adversity gives me more opportunity to grow than does comfort or success?
Today I Pray

May I believe firmly that my Higher Power, in its infinite wisdom, does not send me those occasional moments of emotional stress in order to tease my sobriety, but to challenge me to grow in my control and my conviction. May I learn not to be afraid of emotional summits and canyons, for the program has outfitted me for all kinds of terrain.
Today I Will Remember

Strength through adversity.

Today's reading is from the book A Day at a Time, Daily Reflections for Recovering People

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September 29

AA Thought for the Day

“What draws newcomers to AA and gives them hope? They hear the stories of men and women whose experiences tally with their own. The expressions on the faces of the women, that undefinable something in the eyes of the men, the stimulating atmosphere of the AA clubroom conspire to let them know that there is haven at last. The very practical approach to their problems, the absence of intolerance of any kind, the informality, the genuine democracy, the uncanny understanding that these people in AA have is irresistible.” Have I found a real haven in AA?
Meditation for the Day

“If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” The eye of the soul is the will. If your will is to do the will of God, to serve Him with your life, to serve Him by helping others, then truly shall your whole body be full of light. The important thing is to strive to attune your will to the will of God, a single eye to God’s purpose, desiring nothing less than that His purposes be fulfilled. Try to seek in all things the advance of His kingdom, seek the spiritual values of honesty and purity, unselfishness and love, and earnestly desire spiritual growth. Then your life will emerge from the darkness of futility into the light of victory.
Prayer for the Day

I pray that my eye may be single. I pray that my life may be lived in the light of the best that I know.

Today's reading is from the book Twenty-Four Hours a Day, A Spiritual Resource with Practical Applications for Daily Life

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September 30

One must lose one's life in order to find it.

~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

We are often so busy trying to control the outcome of the happenings in our daily lives, so intent on projecting our tomorrows, that we let life slip by. Life is today. This is all we have for sure—the moments in our lives we cannot hold. Sometimes it feels as if those moments were beyond time and place, gifts from God to receive and give up at the same time, like a dragonfly that lights on our hand and will either be crushed or will fly away if we try to close our fingers over it.

Life is a series of things to let go of—our friends and loved ones, our children as they grow, our dreams. or our youth. Only we ourselves, our inner selves, are a constant to be found and learned about every day, in the present moment.

How well can I enjoy each moment today?

Today's reading is from the book Today's Gift, Daily Meditations for Families