Daily Recovery Readings - October

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October 30

Daily Reflections

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.

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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.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS

Referring to our list again. Putting out of our minds the wrongs others had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes. Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened? Though a situation had not been entirely our fault, we tried to disregard the other person involved entirely. Where were we to blame? The inventory was ours, not the other man’s. When we saw our faults we listed them. We placed them before us in black and white. We admitted our wrongs honestly and were willing to set these matters straight.

p. 67

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

And what can be said of many A.A. members who, for a variety of reasons, cannot have a family life? At first many of these feel lonely, hurt, and left out as they witness so much domestic happiness about them. If they cannot have this kind of happiness, can A.A. offer them satisfactions of similar worth and durability? Yes--whenever they try hard to seek
them out. Surrounded by so many A.A. friends, these so-called loners tell us they no longer feel alone. In partnership with others--women and men--they can devote themselves to any number of ideas, people, and constructive projects. Free of marital responsibilities, they can participate in enterprises which would be denied to family men and women. We daily see such members render prodigies of service, and receive great joys in return.

p. 120

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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.

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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.