Having Fun Yet?

Come Join Us For Some Fun At Friendship House

.  .  .  we aren't a glum lot.  If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn't want it.  We absolutely insist on enjoying life.  We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 132

When my own house is in order, I find the different parts of my life are more manageable.  Stripped of the guilt and remorse that cloaked my drinking years, I am free to assume my proper role in the universe, but this condition requires maintenance.  I should stop and ask myself, Am I having fun yet?  If I find answering that question difficult or painful, perhaps I am taking myself too seriously --- and finding it difficult to admit that I've strayed from my practice of working the program to keep my house in order.  I think the pain I experience is one way my Higher Power has to get my attention, coaxing me to take stock of my performance.  The slight time and effort it takes to work the program --- a spot-check inventory, for example, or the making of amends, whatever is appropriate --- are well worth the effort.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day Alcoholics are people whose drinking got them into a "blind alley." They haven't been able to learn anything from their drinking experiences. They are always making the same mistakes and suffering the same consequences over and over again. They refuse to admit they're alcoholic. They still think they can handle the stuff. They won't swallow their pride and admit that they're different from ordinary drinkers. They won't face the fact that they must spend the rest of their lives without liquor. They can't visualize life without ever taking a drink. Am I out of this blind alley? Meditation for the Day I believe that God has all power. It is His to give and His to withhold. But lie will not withhold it from the person who dwells near Him, because then it passes insensibly from God to that person. It is breathed in by the person who lives in God's presence. I will learn to live in God's presence and then I will have those things which I desire of Him: strength, power, and joy. God's power is available to all who need it and are willing to accept it. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may get myself out of the way, so that God's power may flow in. I pray that I may surrender myself to that power. *********************************

Thought for Today

"Aim at the sun and you may not reach it;
but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed
at an object on a level with yourself."

--I. Hawks

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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Let us live in joy, not hating those who hate us.

Among those who hate us, we live free of hate.

Let us live in joy, free from disease among those who are diseased.

Among those who are diseased, let us live free of disease.

Let us live in joy, free from greed among the greedy.

Among those who are greedy, we live free of greed.

Let us live in joy, though we possess nothing.

Let us live feeding on joy, like the bright gods.

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Native American

"Our true enemies, as well as our true sources of strength, lie within."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHUA NATION, PERU

A long time ago, the Creator put inside the human being the secrets to the laws of life. We usually know this is true even though we may not know what these laws are. If something goes wrong with our lives, we usually fix the blame on something outside of ourselves. We tend to give up accountability. One way or another we say, "It's not my fault." We need to realize that all permanent and lasting change starts on the inside and works its way out. If it's meant to be, it is up to me.

Oh Great Spirit, let me realize fully that my problems are of my own making. Therefore, so are the solutions.

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Keep It Simple

Sex, like all else between human beings, is never prefect.  ---  Theodore Isaac Rubin

Addiction made our sex lives a mess. Maybe we wanted prefect sex or we wanted no sex.
We were afraid. Maybe we wanted a high from sex we just couldn't seem to get it. Some of us had lots of sex partners; some of us had none. What now?
We're doing what we need to do by being in recovery. We're getting to know ourselves. We're living by our real values. We’re being honest with ourselves and others. We're learning to love and care about others. It's open, honest caring we express with our bodies. Thus, sex can be trusting and safe.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, I turn over my sex life and my will to You---Just for today. I know You want me to be happy.

Action for the Day:  What do I believe about sex? How does it match with what's said in the third paragraph above?

The Forest And The Trees

Visit Us At 202

.  .  .  what comes to us alone may be garbled by our own rationalization and wishful thinking.  The benefits of talking to another person is that we can get his direct comment and counsel on our situation.  .  .  .

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 60

I cannot count the times when I have been angry and frustrated and said to myself, "I can't see the forest for the trees!"  I finally realized that what I needed when I was in such pain was someone who could guide me in separating the forest and the trees; who could suggest a better path to follow; who could assist me in putting out fires; and help me avoid the rocks and pitfalls.

   I ask God, when I'm in the forest, to give me the courage to call upon a member of A.A.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

 

A.A. Thought for the Day

I had to show off and boast so that people would think I amounted to something, when, of course, both they and I knew that I really didn't amount to anything. I didn't fool anybody. Although I've been sober for quite a while, the old habit of building myself up is still with me. I still have a tendency to think too well of myself and to pretend to be more than I really am. Am I always in danger of becoming conceited just because I'm sober?

Meditation for the Day

I cannot ascertain the spiritual with my intellect. I can only do it by my own faith and spiritual faculties. I must think of God more with my heart than with my head. I can breathe in God's very spirit in the life around me. I can keep my eyes turned toward the good things in the world. I am shut up in a box of space and time, but I can open a window in that box by faith. I can empty my mind of all the limitations of material things. I can sense the Eternal.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that whatever is good I may have. I pray that I may leave to God the choice of what good will come to me.

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Thought for Today

 "Gratitude is the heart's memory."

--French Proverb

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Buddha/Zen Thoughts

There are six root delusions

Anger - highly disturbed aspect of mind that arises when we see something unpleasant - enemies, and so forth
Attachment - attachment to ego / self / others / things causes suffering (see attachment page)
Pride - is your inflated opinion of yourself and can manifest in relation to some good or bad object: your power, wealth, good qualities, family, wisdom, pure ethics - even your pleasant voice or physical prowess
Ignorance - not knowing, not seeing, not understanding, being unclear, and so forth. Ignorance is like blindness - not seeing the nature or mode of existence of something. Ignorance is the root of all delusions.
Doubt - directed towards the four truths, the Three Jewels, cause and effect

Deluded Views - there are 5

• The view that equates the self with the perishable
• Extreme Views - views such as the continuity of the 'I' as being discontinued at death
• The view of holding aggregates to be supreme
• Holding an ethic or mode of behaviour to be supreme
• Wrong views - such as Three Jewels do not exist, cause and effect do not exist

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Native American

"There are many things to be shared with the four colors of man in our common destiny as one family upon our Mother the Earth."

---- Traditional Circle of Elders, NORTHERN CHEYENNE

The Elders tell us the time will come when the four colors of Man will unite into one family. According to prophecies, we were told this would happen when the Sun was blocked in the Seventh Moon. There was an eclipse of the Sun in July, 1991. We are now in a new Springtime called the Coming Together Time. Each of the four colors of man has knowledge that the other colors need to heal their families. Let us all be willing to sit in a circle and respect our differences.

Creator, let me be willing to have an open mind.

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Keep It Simple

 Forgiveness is all-powerful. Forgiveness heals all ills.  ---  Catherine Ponder

We need to forgive so we can heal. Forgiveness means  not wanting to get even. Forgiveness  means letting go of self-will. Anger and hate are forms of self-will take up room in our heart. Yet, a still, small voice inside of us wants to forgive. Just as others have forgiven us, we need to forgive them. When we forgive, we give our will to our Higher Power. When we forgive, we make room in our heart for our Higher Power. By giving up our anger and our hate, we let that still, small voice come through a little louder. This is how we heal. This is why forgiving is so powerful for us.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me let go of self-will. Help me forgive people.

Action for the Day:  I will list any anger or hate I have. I will think about how this gets in my way, and I'll pray to have this removed.

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.