Daily Recovery Readings
November 12, 2022
Daily Reflection
MORNING THOUGHTS
Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.
— ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 164
For many years I pondered over God’s will for me, believing that perhaps a great destiny had been ordained for my life. After all, having been born into a specific faith, hadn’t I been told early that I was “chosen”? It finally occurred to me, as I considered the above passage, that God’s will for me was simply that I practice Step Twelve on a daily basis. Furthermore, I realized I should do this to the best of my ability. I soon learned that the practice aids me in keeping my life in the context of the day at hand.
Big Book Quote
We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about.
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 49
24 Hours a Day – The Little Black Book
Thought for the Day
I am less critical of other people, inside and outside of A.A. I used to run people down all the time. I realize now that it was because I wanted unconsciously to build myself up. I was envious of people who lived normal lives. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t be like them. And so I ran them down. I called them sissies or hypocrites. I was always looking for faults in the other person. I loved to tear down what I called “a stuffed shirt” or “a snob.” I have found that I can never make a person any better by criticism. A.A. has taught me this. Am I less critical of people?
Meditation for the Day
You must admit your helplessness before your prayer for God will hear help. Your own need must be recognized before you can ask God for the strength to meet that need. But once that need is recognized, your prayer is heard above all the music of heaven. It is not theological arguments that solve the problems of the questing soul, but the sincere cry of that soul to God for strength and the certainty of that soul that the cry will be heard and answered.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may send my voiceless cry for help out into the void. I pray that I may feel certain that it will be heard somewhere, somehow.
The Language of Letting Go – Codependency
Timing
Wait until the time is right. It is self-defeating to postpone or procrastinate; it is also self-defeating to act too soon, before the time is right.
Sometimes, we panic and take action out of fear. Sometimes, we take untimely action for revenge or because we want to punish someone. We act or speak too soon as a way to control or force someone to action. Sometimes, we take action too soon to relieve feelings of discomfort or anxiety about how a situation will turn out.
An action taken too soon can be as ineffective as one taken too late. It can backfire and cause more problems than it solves. Usually, when we wait until the time is right – sometimes only a matter of minutes or hours – the discomfort dissolves, and we’re empowered to accomplish what we need to do.
In recovery, we are learning to be effective.
Our answers will come. Our guidance will come. Pray. Trust. Wait. Let go. We are being led. We are being guided.
Today, I will let go of my need to control by waiting until the time is right. When the time is right, I will take action.
Touchstone – Men’s Meditation
An ideal is a man’s portrait of his better self.
—Louis Binstock
When in training for athletics, we use a daily routine to reach a peak condition. We stretch; lift weights, run, and do special conditioning to develop our bodies and skills for that big day of competition. It’s hard work. Sometimes we hate it, but at other times we do it just because it feels so good. Then when the day of competition comes, we can depend on that practice. At a crucial moment there’s not time to think about how we will respond. We just do it the way we learned and use our physical ability to carry us through.
In this program we go to our meetings, we work the Steps on a personal level, we develop a relationship with our Higher Power, and we keep in touch with our sponsor. Some days we may wonder if it’s worthwhile, but most of the time the process is full and rewarding in itself. We make progress toward the ideal although we never achieve perfection. When the challenges or threats to our sobriety come, we have our conditioning within the program to carry us through.
In this day ahead I will remember that I am building myself to peak condition. I will be faithful to my “training program.”
Elder’s Meditation
“I don’t think that anybody anywhere can talk about the future of their people or of an organization without talking about education. Whoever controls the education of our children controls our future, the future of the Cherokee people, and of the Cherokee Nation.”
–Wilma P. Mankiller, CHEROKEE
The world has changed in the last 50 years. It will change even more in the next 50 years, and it will change even faster. We must educate ourselves to ensure our future generations will maintain the language and the culture of our people. We need to be concerned about our land because when our land goes away, so will our people. We need to be concerned about leadership, our families, and about alcoholism. We need to be concerned about what’s going on around the world. We can only do this by being educated. Then we can control our future.
Great Spirit, please guide our children; let me know how I can help.
Daily Horoscope – Cancer
You may succeed in infusing a creative project with your spiritual ideals at this time. As articulate Mercury in your creative 5th house supports ethereal Neptune in your 9th House of Beliefs, you can bring abstract concepts into physical form with ease. That said, you still might not be able to please everyone. An authority figure’s harsh take on your final product could wound your tender ego. Focus only on judgments from those that truly matter, and let the rest slide.
The Wandering Enigma 