Bringing The Message Home

Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our A.A. group at Friendship House.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 111-12

My family members suffer from the effects of my disease.  Loving and accepting them as they are---just as I love and accept A.A. members---fosters a return of love, tolerance and harmony to my life.  Using common courtesy and respecting others' personal boundaries are necessary practices for all areas of my life.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

"We who have accepted the A.A. principles have been faced with the necessity for a thorough personal housecleaning. We must face and be rid of the things in ourselves which have been blocking us. We therefore take a personal inventory. We take stock honestly. We search out the flaws in our make-up which caused our failure. Resentment is the number one offender. Life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. If we are to live, we must be free of anger." Am I free of resentment and anger?

Meditation for the Day

Keep in mind the goal you are striving for, the good life you are trying to attain. Do not let little things divert you from the path. Do not be overcome by the small trials and vexations of each day. Try to see the purpose and plan to which all is leading. If, when climbing a mountain, you keep your eyes on each stony or difficult place, how weary is your climb. But if you think of each step as leading to the summit of achievement from which a glorious landscape will open out before you, then your climb will be endurable and you will achieve your goal.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may realize that life without a goal is futile. I pray that I may find the good life worth striving for.

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Thought for Today

It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he already know

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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

"Everyone is looking for happiness and avoiding suffering. This is the purpose of philosophy, the basis of all religion and the drive to create indoor plumbing.

Domo Geshe Rinpoche

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Native American

"They also learned, and perhaps this was the most important thing, how to look at things through the eyes of the Higher Powers."

--Fools Crow, LAKOTA

Our eyes can only see our beliefs. Our beliefs cause us to make assumptions, draw conclusions and cause confusion. Our five senses are very limiting. The Creator has a way of allowing us to see or know in the spiritual world. This is called the Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense is like a radar system; our personal radar system. It will help us "see" opportunities and help us avoid disaster. This Sixth Sense is controlled by God. We must learn to listen to it. We must learn to trust it. We must learn to act on it even if our head says differently. We must learn to look at things through the eyes of God.

My Creator, guide me today. If my eyes cause confusion, let me close them and see through Your eyes. If my ears hear confusion, let me listen to my heart. Let me let You guide me.

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Keep It Simple

 Where there is no vision, a people perish.  ---  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Working our program teaches us to see things more clearly. We learn to look at who we really are. At first, we’re scared to see ourselves. But it turns out okay, even though were not perfect.

We also begin to see others more clearly. We see good in people we don’t like. And we see faults in people we thought we’re prefect. But we don’t judge people anymore. Nobody is perfect. Just as our program friends accept us as we are, we learn to accept others.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, sometimes I don’t like what I see. Help me to believe Your way will for me. Help me have a vision.

Action for the Day:  I will use my new way of seeing thing to avoid trouble today.

The Determination of our Founders

A year and six months later these three had succeeded with seven more.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 159

    If it had not been for the fierce determination of our founders, A.A. would have quickly faded like so many other so-called good causes. I look at the hundreds of meetings weekly in the city where I live and I know A.A. is available twenty-four hours a day. If I had had to hang on with nothing but hope and a desire not to drink, experiencing rejection wherever I went, I would have sought the easier, softer way and returned to my previous way of life.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day
You can prove to yourself that life is basically and fundamentally an inner attitude. Just try to remember what troubled you most a week ago. You probably will find it difficult to remember. Why then should you unduly worry or fret over the problems that arise today? Your attitude toward them can be changed by putting yourself and your problems in God's hands and trusting Him to see that everything will turn out all right, provided you are trying to do the right thing. Your changed mental attitude toward your problems relieves you of their burden and you can face them without fear. Has my mental attitude changed?

Meditation for the Day
You cannot see the future. It's a blessing that you cannot. You could not bear to know all the future. That is why God only reveals it to you day by day. The first step each day is to lay your will before God as an offering, ready for God to do what is best for you. Be sure that, if you trust God, what He does for you will be for the best. The second step is to be confident that God is powerful enough to do anything He wills, and that no miracle in human lives is impossible with Him. Then leave the future to God.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may gladly leave my future in God's hands. I pray that I may be confident that good things will happen, as long as I am on the right path.
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Thought for Today

Recovery
We have found that for us
recovery began with not drinking --
with getting sober and staying completely free of alcohol
in any amount, and in any form.
We have also found that we have to stay away
from other mind-changing drugs.
We can move toward a full and satisfying life
only when we stay sober.
Sobriety is the launching pad for our recovery.

Thought to Ponder . . .
Every recovery from alcoholism
began with one sober hour.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Absolute Abstinence.

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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Paradox of the Essenceless Self by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
But how, if the individual of the individual is pure, empty awareness, can a conventional self and a moving mind exist at all? Here is an example based on experiences we all have: when we dream, an entire world manifests in which we can have any kind of experience. During the dream we are identified with one subject, but there are other beings, apparently separate from us, having their own experiences and seeming as real as the self we take ourselves to be. There is also an apparent material world: the floors hold us up, our body has sensations, we can eat and touch.

When we wake, we realize that the dream was only a projection of our mind. It took place in our mind and was made of energy of our mind. But we were lost in it, reacting to the mind created images as if they were real and outside of ourselves. Our mind is able to create a dream and to identify with one being that it places in the dream, while disidentifying with others. We can even identify with subjects that are far different than we are in our life.

As ordinary beings, we are in the same way, identified, right now with a conventional self that is also a projection of mind. We relate to apparent objects and entities that are further mind projections. The base of existence (Kunzhi) has the capacity to manifest everything that exists, even being that become distracted from their true nature, just as our mind can project beings that are apparently separate from us in a dream. When we wake, the dream that is our conventional self dissolves into pure emptiness and luminous clarity.
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Native American
"Whenever you take anything from the earth, remember to leave an offering."
--Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
We need to look at nature and its inhabitants as our brothers and sisters. Whenever we pick plants or herbs, we should leave an offering of tobacco. We should talk to the plants and ask their permission to use them. The plants will feel honored to be of service for each of them knows they are here to serve. Each of them knows they carry a special medicine and this medicine is about continuing the cycle of life. We need always to be grateful to our brothers and sisters.
Creator, I thank you for the opportunity of life.
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Keep It Simple
The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.   ---  Stanley J. Randall

Trying to be perfect get us into trouble. Trying to be perfect means we're trying to control things.
We may be trying to cover up something. Maybe we aren't facing our pain. Maybe we've hurt
someone and we need to make amends.

We need to practice being human. Humans aren't perfect. In Steps Six and Seven, we face our human limits and our shortcomings. We then start the lifelong job of letting them go. To accept our human limits leads us to our Higher Power. We see how we need a guide in life. Our Higher Power makes a perfect guide.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me accept that I can't be perfect. Help me be a good human being.

Action for the Day:  Today, I'll list my shortcoming. I'll talk with a friend about them. I'll ask my friend to tell me what my good qualities are.



Come share your experience strength and hope with us at Friendship House

 

A Wretched Soul

This comment from another Bill reminds me of the lesson I learn over and over when I read Pages 66-67-68 of the BB of AA.

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.
William Shakespeare

Come join us at 202.

Free Online Speakers Tapes

Hey All,

The other day I was looking for something or another and I ran across a site made just for people like us. If you are looking for a great resource for speakers tapes, visit

http://www.aaspeakers.org/

For a great speakers meeting visit us at Friendship House on the first Friday of the month @ 7P.M.

We Just Try

My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive.

THE BEST OF BILL, pp. 46-47

As long as I try, with all my heart and soul, to pass along to others what has been passed along to me, and do not demand anything in return, life is good to me. Before entering this program of Alcoholics Anonymous I was never able to give without demanding something in return. Little did I know that, once I began to give freely of myself, I would begin to receive, without ever expecting or demanding anything at all. What I receive today is a gift of "stability," as Bill did: stability in my A.A. program; within myself; but most of all, in my relationship with my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God.



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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

"Who are you to say there is no God? This challenge comes to all of us. Are we capable of denying that there is a design and purpose in all of life as we know it? Or are we willing to admit that faith in some kind of Divine Principle is a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend? We find a great Reality deep down within us, if we face ourselves as we really are. In the last analysis, it is only there that God may be found. When we find this Reality within us, we are restored to our right minds." Have I found the great Reality?

Meditation for the Day

"Behold, I make all things new." When you change to a new way of life, you leave many things behind you. It is only the earth-bound spirit that cannot soar. Loosen somewhat the strands that tie you to the earth. It is only the earthly desires that bind you. Your new freedom will depend on your ability to rise above earthly things. Clipped wings can grow again. Broken wings can regain a strength and beauty unknown before. If you will, you can be released and free.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be freed from things that hold me down. I pray that my spirit may soar in freedom.

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Thought for Today

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down."

--Lily Tomlin

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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

As in the ocean's midmost depth no wave is born, but all is still, so let the practitioner be still, be motionless, and nowhere should one swell.

-Sutta-nipata, translated by Dines Anderson and Helmer Smith



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Native American



"The greater the faith, the greater the result."

--Fools Crow, LAKOTA

The Creator designed us to act on faith. We are able to do this by holding firm to our beliefs. If we believe something and if we don't want the belief to change, we need to add the power of the Great Spirit to this belief. We must always have the spiritual added to our beliefs. If we don't add the Spirit, then we may very well change our minds during the first time we are tested. Each time we are tested and we don't change our minds, we get stronger. The wind may blow on the red willow trees bending them and causing the roots to grow deeper. The more the wind bends the tree, the bigger, stronger and deeper the roots grow. We should be happy that we are tested. It's the Creator's way of making us have greater faith for greater results.

Great Mystery, Grandfather, I know if I am tested today that I can count on You to give me the courage to get to the other side. On the other side of every test is the reward of strength. Make me strong.

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Walk In Dry Places

All that Glitters
Tempting Moments

Though real sobriety means all lose of desire to drink, it's not uncommon to have moments when the old life takes on a sudden appeal. This appeal is never based on a realistic look at things as they were. It is more a rush of feeling connected with some alluring aspect of the drinking life.

Such a false feeling will always pass if we let ourselves remember what happened to us and why we needed to seek recovery. We cannot have this rush of feeling when we remember the misery, despair, and other pain from that part of our lives.

All that glitters is not gold, goes an old saying. All the glittering scenes connected with drinking are not really golden moments, either. They are, for us, always preludes to disaster.

I'll remember today to let realistic thinking rule my life even if there are moments when my feelings run temporarily awry.

If your feeling are temporarily awry, come by 202 and unawry yourself.

So Long Old Friend

I wanted to tell the friends of Friendship House that an old friend of ours, Charlie Parham, passed away on Monday, he was 53. So long my friend, it was an interesting adventure. See you the next time around.

The Rewards Of Giving

Visit us at Friendship House over the Winter Holidays

This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him. And then he discovers that by the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether his brother has yet received anything or not.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 109

Through experience with Twelfth Step work, I came to understand the rewards of giving that demands nothing in return. At first I expected recovery in others, but I soon learned that this did not happen. Once I acquired the humility to accept the fact that every Twelfth Step call was not going to result in a success, then I was open to receive the rewards of selfless giving.

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A.A. Thought for the Day

Our faith should control the whole of our life. We alcoholics were living a divided life. We had to find a way to make it whole. When we were drinking, our lives were made up of a lot of scattered and unrelated pieces. We must pick up our lives and put them together again. We do it by recovering faith in a Divine Principle in the universe that holds us together and holds the whole universe together and gives it meaning and purpose. We surrender our disorganized lives to that Power, we get into harmony with the Divine Spirit, and our lives are made whole again. Is my life whole again?

Meditation for the Day

Avoid fear as you would a plague. Fear, even the smallest fear, is a hacking at the cords of faith that bind you to God. However small the fraying, in time those cords will wear thin, and then one disappointment or shock will make them snap. But for the little fears, the cords of faith would have held firm. Avoid depression, which is allied to fear. Remember that all fear is disloyalty to God. it is a denial of His care and protection.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have such trust in God today that I will not fear anything too greatly. I pray that I may have assurance that God will take care of me in the long run.

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Thought for Today

"I thought I could change the world. It took me a
hundred years to figure out I can't change the world.
I can only change Bessie. And honey, that ain't easy
either."
--Bessie Delany
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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

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Native American

"My pottery is the handiwork of God."

--Teresita Naranjo, SANTA CLARA PUEBLO

The Great One has given every human being at least one special talent and one special gift. We need to develop and practice these gifts because they are the handiwork of God. Maybe we are artists-when people look at our work it puts joy in their hearts; maybe we are singers- when people listen to our songs, their hearts are happy; maybe we are writers of song or poetry-when people hear or read our work, it may change their lives. We need to honor ourselves and our gifts. We need to thank the Creator for our talents and our gifts."

My Creator, let me use my gifts to further Your work on the Earth.

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Keep It Simple

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. --- Edith Wharton

Our Higher Power is the candle. And our hearts, like a mirror, reflect a warm, loving glow.
But when we used alcohol and other drugs, we tired to be the candle. We wanted to have control. Many of us acted like this to hide how out of control we felt. We never thought we could be happy by admitting we were out of control.
In recovery, we accept that it’s okay to be the mirror. We accept that our Higher Power is the candle that guides us. We want to be the mirror that reflects how much our Higher Power loves us.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for the light and warmth You give me.

Action for the Day: Tonight, I’ll light a candle and place it in front of a mirror. I’ll study how they work together to light the room.