Daily Recovery Readings
March 29, 2023
Daily Reflection
“They are servants. Theirs is the sometimes thankless privilege of doing the group’s chores.”
— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 134
In Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis describes an encounter between his principal character and an old man busily at work planting a tree. “What is it you are doing?” Zorba asks. The old man replies: “You can see very well what I’m doing, my son, I’m planting a tree.” “But why plant a tree,” Zorba asks, “if you won’t be able to see it bear fruit?” And the old man answers: “I, my son, live as though I were never going to die.” The response brings a faint smile to Zorba’s lips and, as he walks away, he exclaims with a note of irony: “How strange—I live as though I were going to die tomorrow!”
As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have found that the Third Legacy is a fertile soil in which to plant the tree of my sobriety. The fruits I harvest are wonderful: peace, security, understanding and twenty-four hours of eternal fulfillment; and with the soundness of mind to listen to the voice of my conscience when, in silence, it gently speaks to me, saying: You must let go in service. There are others who must plant and harvest.
From the book Daily Reflections
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Big Book Quote
“To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, Page 44~
24 Hours a Day – The Little Black Book
Thought for the Day
Before I met A.A., I was very dishonest. I lied to my spouse constantly about where I had been and what I’d been doing. I took time off from my work and pretended I’d been sick or gave some other dishonest excuse. I was dishonest with myself, as well as with other people. I would never face myself as I really was or admit when I was wrong. I pretended to myself that I was as good as the next person, although I suspected I wasn’t. Am I now really honest?
Meditation for the Day
I must live in the world and yet live apart with God. I can go forth from my secret times of communion with God to the work of the world. To get the spiritual strength I need, my inner life must be lived apart from the world. I must wear the world as a loose garment. Nothing in the world should seriously upset me, as long as my inner life is lived with God. All successful living arises from this inner life.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may live my inner life with God. I pray that nothing shall invade or destroy that secret place of peace.
The Language of Letting Go – Codependency
Getting Needs Met
Picture yourself walking through a meadow. There is a path opening before you. As you walk, you feel hungry. Look to your left. There’s a fruit tree in full ripe. Pick what you need.
Steps later, you notice you’re thirsty. On your right, there’s a fresh water spring.
When you are tired, a resting place emerges. When you are lonely, a friend appears to walk with you. When you get lost, a teacher with a map appears.
Before long, you notice the flow: need and supply, desire and fulfillment. Maybe, you wonder, someone gave me the need because someone planned to fulfill it. Maybe I had to feel the need, so I would notice and accept the gift. Maybe closing my eyes to the desire closes my arms to its fulfillment.
Demand and supply, desire and fulfillment — a continuous cycle, unless we break it. All the necessary supplies have already been planned and provided for this journey.
Today, everything I need shall be supplied to me.
Touchstone – Men’s Meditation
Restless man’s mind is,So strongly shaken
In the grip of the senses…
Truly I think
The wind is no wilder.
—Bhagavad Gita
What passions have swept away our reasoning powers? What lust have we pursued at the cost of our values and better judgment? As men in this program, we know the ferocious winds of addiction and codependency. Now we are in a program of recovery, learning to combine our sensual side with our mind and our morals.
Every day we feel the winds of our senses, and they are part of what gives us life. We can let them blow and not be carried away by them. In this way we take pleasure in being human beings and men. We have our minds, our thoughts, and our knowledge to turn to for guidance. And we have our inner voice – our Higher Power – on which we can rely through even the wildest hurricane.
I am learning to make room in life for my senses, my mind, and my Higher Power.
Elder’s Meditation
“Tell the people not to cry. Tell them to be happy.”
–John Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA (told to his son, Archie, as he died)
Our Elders know about the two Worlds, the Physical World and the Spiritual World. Many times, before we pass to the Spirit World, our relatives, who have gone there before us, will come for us and they will help us. The Spirit World, the Elders say, is a good, happy, and harmonious place. When we die, it means we have only entered another world. We will all see one another again.
Great Spirit, allow me to understand both the Spirit World and the Physical World. Today, let me be happy.
Daily Horoscope – Cancer
Your feelings could run off with you in a rather public fashion. You’re already inclined to be extra emotional while the Moon tours your 1st House of Self-Expression. Plus, her conflicting square to enthusiastic Jupiter in your 10th House of Reputation might incite you to say or do something that doesn’t reflect particularly well on you. If you find yourself needing a moment of release, try to do it in a private setting where you can avoid any recordings or potentially gossipy witnesses.
The Wandering Enigma 