Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Today's Gift
We have within us a limitless supply of new beginnings.
--Joan Fitzgerald
We can start our day over any time we choose. If we wake up crabby, on the "wrong side of the bed," we are not doomed to a day of gloom. Each minute can be a new reality for us. We can start a new day with just an ounce of willingness. There are days when we get stuck in the mud of depression. Part of us wants to begin again and another part seems to like to dig around in our problems. We might even feel like just staying stuck in the dark side of today. As addicts, we are used to feeling betrayed, injured, persecuted, and generally sick and tired.
Willingness to try another way is the start. We can take a second to choose to look at our gray day in a more positive way.
Today let me start over when I find myself glued to my troubles and negativity.
--Joan Fitzgerald
We can start our day over any time we choose. If we wake up crabby, on the "wrong side of the bed," we are not doomed to a day of gloom. Each minute can be a new reality for us. We can start a new day with just an ounce of willingness. There are days when we get stuck in the mud of depression. Part of us wants to begin again and another part seems to like to dig around in our problems. We might even feel like just staying stuck in the dark side of today. As addicts, we are used to feeling betrayed, injured, persecuted, and generally sick and tired.
Willingness to try another way is the start. We can take a second to choose to look at our gray day in a more positive way.
Today let me start over when I find myself glued to my troubles and negativity.
You are reading from the book:
Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Walk in Dry Places
Practical Thinking
Practical Thinking
Are Sobriety Dates Important?
Observing anniversaries of getting sober has become a time-honored custom in AA. Many group name lists include the individual members' sobriety dates. It's also customary in many groups to celebrate anniversaries with cakes and to award coins with numerals denoting years of sobriety. To outsiders, this custom may seem frivolous. What is the benefit in celebrating the day one too the last drink or in adding up the number of sober years?
Observing anniversaries of getting sober has become a time-honored custom in AA. Many group name lists include the individual members' sobriety dates. It's also customary in many groups to celebrate anniversaries with cakes and to award coins with numerals denoting years of sobriety. To outsiders, this custom may seem frivolous. What is the benefit in celebrating the day one too the last drink or in adding up the number of sober years?
These celebrations of sobriety dates actually underscore the important goal of staying continuously sober. We may know alcoholics who "went back out" from time to time, and then failed to come back at all. Members who slip and do come back to tell us that it was an agonizing experience, and that they feared they wouldn't have another chance to lead a sober life. We also hear people say: "I may have another drunk in me, but I'm not sure I can find another sobering up."
The message is clear: Get sober mark that date, and continue to build on it. We stress the importance of sobriety when we acknowledge the importance of sobriety dates.
Action for the Day: I'll stay sober today. Whatever my length of sobriety, I want to honor it and build on it.
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One Day At A Time
Willingness
~ Scroll down for share ~
The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better
and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder
whatever responsibility this entails.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 115
Thought to Ponder . . .
Life will take on new meaning.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.
A MEMBER SHARES:
Hi, I am Ricky and I am an alcoholic. For me, willingness alone was not enough -- I had to act on it. Being willing, but not knowing to do the next thing, has caused me problems throughout. Along with willingness, I had to have a sense of clarity and commitment -- clarity of purpose and direction. Without that, I would be directionless, and I had to have commitment. I was always a starter in life, never a finisher. I would start something, get bored halfway, sometimes find things too tough, and move on to the next thing. It had been my old behaviour. Therefore, I needed commitment -- especially commitment to personal responsibility -- understanding that I and I alone, am responsible for my life and the choices I make in it. Other people and events do not shape my life. They may impact my life, but they never shape my life. I found directions through my sponsor and other members of AA. I was told this was the way to find some semblance of peace in my life. It was my choice to do it, but the desire to be willing and act on it had to come from me and me alone. Nobody could give that to me. Thanks!
and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder
whatever responsibility this entails.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 115
Thought to Ponder . . .
Life will take on new meaning.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.
A MEMBER SHARES:
Hi, I am Ricky and I am an alcoholic. For me, willingness alone was not enough -- I had to act on it. Being willing, but not knowing to do the next thing, has caused me problems throughout. Along with willingness, I had to have a sense of clarity and commitment -- clarity of purpose and direction. Without that, I would be directionless, and I had to have commitment. I was always a starter in life, never a finisher. I would start something, get bored halfway, sometimes find things too tough, and move on to the next thing. It had been my old behaviour. Therefore, I needed commitment -- especially commitment to personal responsibility -- understanding that I and I alone, am responsible for my life and the choices I make in it. Other people and events do not shape my life. They may impact my life, but they never shape my life. I found directions through my sponsor and other members of AA. I was told this was the way to find some semblance of peace in my life. It was my choice to do it, but the desire to be willing and act on it had to come from me and me alone. Nobody could give that to me. Thanks!
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Daily Motivation
Daily Motivation
Your true self
Who have you always been? Who will you always be?
Who have you always been? Who will you always be?
Think of what means more to you than anything else. Think, for a moment, of why.
In your most authentic purpose you will find your most persistent strength. At the center of your being is the purpose that will pull you triumphantly through anything.
If you want to be strong, be you. Be the real you that no circumstance, no twist of fate can diminish.
If you want to be magnificent, be you. The world won't always agree with you, yet life will always reward your authenticity.
Give yourself a moment to feel how truly good it feels to be you. Share your true self with all of life, and spread the joy far and wide.
-- Ralph
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