Daily Motivation 4-13-10

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Today's Gift

Are you willing to be sponged out, erased,/ cancelled,/made nothing?/Are you willing to be made nothing?/dipped into oblivion?/If not, you will never really change. —D. H. Lawrence

Many men have a self-centered attitude about change. They say, "Lift yourselves up by your bootstraps! Take charge! Be aggressive!" They have only a beginner's understanding of what real change is. When we try to change ourselves by our own methods, we simply give rebirth to our already limited controlling ideas. We recycle and intensify our problems.

This program has given us a profound possibility for change. We discover we are able to move beyond our compulsion to control by surrendering. The promises for recovery are clear and bright, if we yield to this program totally - but they do not come on our timetable. We yield. We allow ourselves to be helped. We allow change to overtake us. We earnestly seek to do our part. And change comes! It comes - not when we say, "Now I deserve, it," but when we are ready to accept it.

Today, I surrender again. Each day I learn to surrender and grow deeper.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.

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Twenty-Four Hours d Day

Keep It Simple

Many of us as children, were taught to hide our pain, to act as if we had none. We look for ways to hide our pain. Alcohol and other drugs helped us do this. But the pain always returned. We were ashamed that we hurt. We thought we were the only one who hurt so badly. and, worst of all, we thought our pain meant we were bad people. Ours is a program of honesty. As we live life, there will be troubles, and there will be pain. But now we know that we don't try to hide it. If we hide our wounds, they will not heal. We will listen to others pain and ask them to listen to ours. This will help us continue our journey in recovery.

Prayer for the Day: God, help me be honest about my pain. Help me see pain not as a personal defect, but as a part of life.

Action for the Day: I'll share my pain with a friend, a family member, my group, or sponsor. I'll ask them to do the same with me. I'll think of pain as part of life.

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One Day At A Time

Discovery

I have found rooms full of wonderful people,
and for me each and every one of the Big Book's promises have come true.
The things that I have learned from my own experience, from the Big Book,
and from my friends in AA -- patience, acceptance, honesty, humility,
and true faith in a Power greater than myself --
are the tools I use today to live my life, this precious life.
- Alcoholics Anonymous. p. 475

Thought to Ponder . . .
Recovery is discovery.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.

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Daily Motivation

Be the real you

Let life know who you are. If you have to hide yourself to get what you want, do you really even want it?

And while you're at it, make sure you let yourself know who you are. Be absolutely honest and authentic, especially with yourself.

It's easy to get what you want from life. The real difficult and essential work is figuring out what that is.

If you think it might be nice, that's not enough. If it looks good on somebody else, that's not enough.

What you truly want is what you dearly love. It is something that uniquely and elegantly expresses the real, live, passionate person you are.

You cannot find that or follow it by pretending to be who you're not. Be the real you, all the time, and joyfully feel the flow of your own great abundance.

-- Ralph Marston