The Work-In

Daily Motivation 1-30-2012

2012-01-30T06:23:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 30, 2012

Today's Gift

One cannot have wisdom without living life. --Dorothy McCall

Understanding circumstances, other people, even ourselves, comes with the passage of time and our willingness to be open to all the lessons contained within a moment. We must be willing to participate fully in the events that have requested our attendance. Then we can discover the longed-for clarity about life and our role in it. Immersion in the moment accompanied by reflective quiet times promises a perspective that offers us wisdom.

We all long for happiness, an easier life, and wisdom. We learn so slowly that both happiness and the easier life are generally matters of attitude. Therein lies our sought-after wisdom. How much simpler it makes living through even our most feared experiences when we have acquired the wisdom to know that the mind we carry into the moment, any moment, will be reflected in the outcome.

It takes patience and willingness to live fully enough to reap the benefits that accompany wisdom.

From the book The Promise of a New Day by Karen Casey and Martha Vanceburg

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Fortunately [psycho]analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist. --Karen Horney

The passage of time, coupled with an openness to the messages gleaned from our conversations with others, can provide answers we need for the way out of painful situations. Life is ebb and flow, peaks and valleys, struggles and sweet times. What we fail to realize, all too often, is that the struggles make possible the times that are sweet.

Our conflicts are our special lessons in life. We can learn to flow with them, move through them, trust their value to us as growing, changing women. How good it feels to have found security with one another and that power greater than ourselves who can, when we are willing, show us the path to resolution.

Life will never be free of conflict--nor should it be. Our lessons move us to higher planes of awareness. We can experience the joy hidden within the conflict. We can help one another remember that the sweetness of a moment is tied to the pain of a former, forgotten moment.

Action for the Day: All events, all experiences, are connected. The path I travel, alone and with others, is bringing me brighter days. I will trust my path. It's right for me.

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One Day At A Time

Judging Others

If I judge others, I am probably judging myself.
Whoever is upsetting me most is my best teacher.
I have much to learn from him or her, and in my heart,
I should thank that person.
- Daily Reflections, p. 289

Thought to Ponder . . .
By what measure I judge others, I judge myself.
By what measure I forgive others, I forgive myself.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
WISDOM = When Into Self, Discover Our Motives

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Daily Motivation

Make use

You don’t have to keep running to catch up. You can make use of the opportunity of today to get out in front of life.

You don’t have to settle for less than the best. You can make use of your unique perspective, skills, knowledge, experience and passions to make life outstanding.

You don’t have to waste any more time. You can make use of each precious moment to bring beautiful, meaningful and satisfying fulfillment.

There are valuable possibilities stretching out in every direction. There is great abundance in this life and you are exquisitely equipped to tap into it.

Lovingly dive deep into your essence and feel your authentic passion. Make use of the energy of that passion to make a difference wherever you are, with whatever you have.

Make use of the immense and magnificent opportunity that is your life in this moment. Make use, and make life even more beautiful by the way you live it.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-27-2012

2012-01-27T07:24:00.000-06:00

Friday, January 27, 2011

Today's Gift

When men are rightfully occupied, then their amusement grows out of their work as the color petals out of a fruitful garden. —John Ruskin

What do we need most in order to be happy? Certainly we all need to be loved. Yet we need even more than that. The spirit also wishes to be needed. When we are needed, no matter what age we are, we serve a purpose for others. When we are needed, we will be loved, as well as respected, imitated, and rewarded with gratitude. Our needs are not great empty pits to be filled any way we can. They are the couplings by which we connect to those we love. Our needs also tell us what others want, and how to enrich their lives--which also enriches ours. How do we become needed? We have only to look at our own needs and give what we need to others--love, respect, kindness, and generosity. When we realize we are needed, we realize we also need others.

What do I need that I can give to another person today?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

They is no they, only us .--Bumper sticker

For most of us, addiction was full of doubt. We stopped believing in ourselves. Our thoughts had turned to "stinking thinking." We didn't believe in much of anything. We didn't take risk. We always looked for the easier, softer way. In recovery, we start to believe again. We believe in the program. We believe in a Higher Power. We believe in people. And, over time, we believe in ourselves again. We become better at taking risk. We are able to stay sober because we believe,
because we take risk. As we stay sober, we can face almost anything---with the help of others.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I have learned to believe in You. Help me believe in myself. I have something to give to this world. Help me give it freely.

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One Day At A Time

Our Founders

Dr. Bob noted that Bill W. "was a man who had been cured by the very means
I had been trying to employ. . . .
*Of far more importance, was the fact that he was the first human being who knew
what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience.
In other words, he talked my language.*"
- Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, p.68

Thought to Ponder . . .
A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Awesome.

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Daily Motivation

Plan to succeed

Success comes from taking one step after another, with purpose, focus, discipline and persistence. To make your efforts their most effective, put together a plan.

To get where you choose to go, you must know clearly where that is. The more precisely you can envision and anticipate the steps along the way, the more successful you’ll be.

There are many factors working against you when taking each step along the path to success. One powerful way to facilitate taking the next step is to know what precisely it is.

When you have a good, solid plan, the distractions are not as distracting. When you are following your plan, you can more quickly recover from the setbacks.

Your plan keeps you focused and connected with your purpose. Having a plan enables you to build powerful, positive momentum in your efforts.

Anything that’s worth doing is also worth the time and effort spent to establish a workable plan. Plan to succeed, and you will.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-26-2012

2012-01-26T06:10:00.000-06:00

Thursday, January 26, 2012
Today's Gift

Nothing is more difficult than competing with a myth.— Francoise Giroud

Sometimes we think we need to try and be something we're not. Maybe we feel pressure from friends to behave or dress like someone else. All we need to do is remember when we were younger and dressed in our parents' clothes and shoes. We pretended to be grownups, and it was fun for a while. Then the huge shoes on our feet grew clumsy and uncomfortable and the mountain of rolled-up sleeves kept falling down and getting in the way. Soon we grew tired of the game and stopped pretending. Today when we start feeling the pressure to be someone else, let's remember how hard it is to play a role that doesn't fit us.

What can I do today that is most like me?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face,
And show the world all the love in your heart,
Then people gonna treat you better.
You're gonna find, yes, you will,
That you're beautiful as you feel.
--Carole King

"Act as if." There's magic in behaving the way we want to be, even though we don't yet feel it. The behavior seems to lead the way. The attitude, the mental state, follows. Many days we may not get up with love in our hearts for our family, our friends, our co-workers. We may, in fact, want them to show their love for us first. But if we reach out, give love unconditionally; focus on another's needs, love will return tenfold. And the act of loving them will lift our own spirits. We will know love; we will feel love for ourselves and the many other persons close to us.

The attitude we cultivate, whether one of love or selfishness, inferiority or superiority, will determine how the events of our lives affect us. The principle is so simple. If we meet life with love, with a smile, we'll find love and something to smile about.

Action for the Day: My attitude will make this day what it becomes. Meeting it head-on, with love, will assure me of a lovely day.

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One Day At A Time

Decision
Clear away the wreckage of your past.
Give freely of what you find and join us.
We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit,
and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164

Thought to Ponder . . .
Life will take on new meaning.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Alive.

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Daily Motivation

Magnificent consequences

What you do, matters. The words you speak, the things you feel, the thoughts you hold, and the actions you take all have an influence on the quality of your life.

You cannot escape the consequences of the way you choose to live. So your best strategy is to make those consequences magnificent.

Instead of having to pay a price for your actions, you can be reaping the rewards of your actions. The choices you make in each moment are what make the difference.

If you carry around negative thoughts and feelings, and then express that negativity in your actions, you make your whole world a darker, more dismal place. Choose instead to adopt a positive perspective, seeing the best in other people and in the situations you encounter, and you’ll be adding new, meaningful value to your world.

In every little moment, the way you choose to be truly matters. Make a little positive difference, again and again, and it all soon adds to a life of real fulfillment and joy.

You have a very powerful influence on the world in which you live, and on the life you experience. Live as though everything matters, because it does, and bring your own magnificent consequences to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-25-2012

2012-01-25T06:46:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Today's Gift

The time of discipline began. Each of us the pupil of whichever one of us could best teach what each of us needed to learn.—Maria Isabel Barreno

"When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears." Life's lessons often come unexpectedly. They come, nevertheless, and they come according to a timeframe that is Divine. As we grow emotionally and spiritually, we are readied for further lessons for which teachers will appear. Perhaps the teacher will be a loving relationship, a difficult loss, or a truant child. The time of learning is seldom free from pain and questioning. But from these experiences and what they can teach us, we are ready to learn. As we are ready, they come.

We all enjoy the easy times when the sailing is smooth, when all is well, when we are feeling no pain. And these periods serve a purpose. They shore us up for the lessons which carry us to a stronger recovery, to a stronger sense of ourselves. To understand that all is well, throughout the learning process, is the basic lesson we need to learn. All is well. The teacher is the guide up the next rung of the ladder.

Let me be grateful for my lessons today and know that all is well.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Handling Trouble

Finding a Higher Good
There are times when things just don't work out, despite our best efforts. Even in sobriety, we can have business or marriage failures, accidents, sicknesses, or trouble in holding a job. Sobriety is no guarantee that things will always work out according to our expectancies.

But no disappointment or failure has to throw us or cause permanent distress. It is some comfort to remember that the meeting of the first two AA members came out of a business failure, not a success. On many occasions, a disappointment or a setback can actually give a person the insight and understanding needed for a new, more successful effort.

We do not, of course, want to rationalize failure. We should also accept responsibility when failure has been the result of negligence or wrong action on our part. Nevertheless, as we continue to seek and to follow our Higher Power's guidance, we will find the course of our lives that fits our needs and capabilities. There is a higher good in everything.

Action for the Day: I will not waste time today brooding over mistakes or losses.

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One Day At A Time

Turning It Over
Any willing newcomer feels sure AA is the only safe harbor
for the foundering vessel he has become.
Now if this is not turning one's will and life over to a newfound Providence,
then what is it?
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 35

Thought to Ponder . . .
If I self-forget I find.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
L E T G O = Leave Everything To God, Okay

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Daily Motivation

Live with substance

Make your life mean something. Make your moments count.

Don’t merely get by, and don’t just settle for keeping up appearances. Live with substance and live with meaning.

It’s easy to get caught up in being trendy and popular, and to think that those things are all that matter. Yet you are capable of so very much more.

It’s easy to get discouraged when the little things don’t go your way. But remind yourself that the little disappointments will soon pass, and you’ll have new opportunities for real fulfillment.

What you can do with this moment is far more important than the little distractions that come your way. What you can do with your life is far more important than the pains and disappointments that occasionally trouble you.

Remember often how truly unique you are, and how precious and powerful your life is. Then, easily, naturally, and joyfully, fill each day and live each moment with meaning and purpose.

— Ralph Marston

Ed Negron's Daily Motivation 1-24-2012

2012-01-24T08:21:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Today's Gift

You have got to know what it is you want, or someone is going to sell you a bill of goods somewhere along the line that can do irreparable damage to your self esteem, your sense of worth, and your stewardship of the talents that God gave you. —Richard Nelson Bolles

...getting to know ourselves sometimes means developing a new form of toughness. As we deepen our relationships with ourselves, we have a clearer sense of what we care about, what is truly important, and what is not. Certainly we have learned there is evil in the world. Harm does come to good people and the good side does not always win. So we must be men who know ourselves and are not pushovers when our basic values and needs are challenged. We leave room for being wrong, and we continue to grow and learn. But we stand up for what we believe as we see it today.

We must not join the forces that would put us down or destroy us. Those negative forces are within us more often than they are outside. Wherever they come from, knowing clearly what we want and care about is our strongest defense.

I will seek the wisdom to know my values and the strength to defend my beliefs.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

The time of discipline began. Each of us the pupil of whichever one of us could best teach what each of us needed to learn. --Maria Isabel Barreno

"When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears." Life's lessons often come unexpectedly. They come, nevertheless, and they come according to a time frame that is Divine. As we grow emotionally and spiritually, we are readied for further lessons for which teachers will appear. Perhaps the teacher will be a loving relationship, a difficult loss, or a truant child. The time of learning is seldom free from pain and questioning. But from these experiences and what they can teach us, we are ready to learn. As we are ready, they come.

We all enjoy the easy times when the sailing is smooth, when all is well, when we are feeling no pain. And these periods serve a purpose. They shore us up for the lessons which carry us to a stronger recovery, to a stronger sense of ourselves. To understand that all is well, throughout the learning process, is the basic lesson we need to learn. All is well. The teacher is the guide up the next rung of the ladder.

Action for the Day: Let me be grateful for my lessons today and know that all is well.

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One Day At A Time

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Daily Motivation

Keep going

When you have a long way to go, keep going. When you’ve almost reached the goal, keep going.

Success is achieved by those who simply do whatever it takes to keep going. All it ever takes, is taking the next step.

When you’re frustrated, make note of your frustration and keep going. When you’re tired and weary, take time out for a little rest, and then keep going.

The real joy is in the journey, so give yourself the joy of making that journey. Pick yourself up, again and again, and keep going.

You know full well that you can do it, so do it. Remind yourself why you’ve chosen to get there, and keep going.

You are a bundle of beautiful and unique possibilities. Keep going, and bring the best of them to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-23-2012

2012-01-23T05:55:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 23, 2012

Today's Gift

Only when we humbly ask for help are we ready to receive it.

On occasion, our problems seem overwhelming, and we don't know where to turn. Our job is stressful. Our health is failing. But many of us face no truly threatening situations, and we still have problems. Being alive, being human, means having experiences that trouble us.

It's hard to ask for help when we are in a troubling situation because we fear that means we are inadequate. After all, we are grown men and women who have taken care of others and ourselves for years. We don't have the wisdom to handle every situation, and yet we think we should.

Seeking guidance from friends, family, and our Higher Power gets easier with practice. Asking for help is a learned behavior. And practice we must!

But just as important as the seeking is the receiving. Are we actually open to the wisdom offered? Do we want it badly enough to truly listen to the guidance?

I will open my heart to my Higher Power's wisdom today and find help for whatever troubles me.

From the book A Life of My Own by Karen Casey

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Raising self-esteem

Thinking well of ourselves
Although there may have been conceit and cockiness in our past behavior, most of us suffered from feelings of low self-esteem. We often felt alone and unworthy. Often, we had memories of parents and others who reminded us of our shortcomings or compared us unfavorably with others.

Whatever our past problems, we can raise our self-esteem in the present. We can begin by forgiving ourselves and others for past wrongs and mistakes. We must become willing to give up any belief or practice that causes us to dislike ourselves. We can remember that our self-esteem does not depend on achievements or on winning in competitions with others. Despite our failings, now and in the past, we are worthy...

If we think well of ourselves, in the right sense, others will tend to think well of us, too. With proper self-esteem, we will not be crushed or dismayed when someone seems to dislike us. Our feelings about ourselves will be much more than a mirror of others’ opinions.

Action for the Day: I will think well of myself today, I will not put myself down, even jokingly.

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One Day At A Time

Imperfection
There would be no music if high C were the only note,
no art if spectrum red were the only color,
no joy in pleasure if pleasure were the only feeling -- and paradoxically,
there would be no perfection without imperfection.
What does this mean to me? Well, first it means that *I don't have to be perfect.*
All I have to do is grow at a pace natural to me --
and that is all I have a right to expect of others.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], pp.60-61

Thought to Ponder . . .
Give me the courage to be imperfect.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G R A C E = Gently Releasing All Conscious Expectations.

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Daily Motivation

Create

From the possibilities, you can create. From those things you create, come many more possibilities.

You can take what is, and make it into what has never been before. Starting with just an idea, you can create objects, expressions, and experiences that flow from that idea.

With what you are able to create, you can make a positive and meaningful difference in the world. With what you create, you can bring great fulfillment to your own life and to the lives of those around you.

The amazing ability to create is an ability that has no limit. No matter how much value you’ve already created, there is always more for you to create.

In an endless process of creation, life is always renewing itself. With your life, you can do the same.

With your time, with your thoughts, with your efforts and resources, create. There’s always a way to bring more meaning and richness to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-20-2012

2012-01-20T06:24:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 20, 2011

Today's Gift

The pain of leaving those you grow to love is only the prelude to understanding yourself and others. —Shirley MacLaine

Life is a process of letting go, letting go of conditions we can't control, letting go of people - watching them move out of our lives, letting go of times, places, experiences. Leaving behind anyone or anyplace we have loved may sadden us, but is also provides us opportunities for growth we hadn't imagined. These experiences push us beyond our former selves to deeper understandings of ourselves and of others.

So often those experiences that sadden us, that trigger pain, are the best lessons life is able to offer. Experiencing the pain, surviving the pain that wrenches us emotionally, stretches us to new heights. Life is enriched by the pain. Our experiences with all other persons thereafter are deeper. Instead of dreading the ending of a time, the departure of a loved one, we must try to appreciate what we have gained already and know that life is fuller for it.

Today will bring both goodbyes and hellos. I can meet both with gladness.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

SERVICE---A beautiful word fallen upon bad days.---Claude McKay

Service is really a beautiful word. Service means respect. When we serve others we're part of the human race. We all need to help each other. Service is a sure way to stay sober. Helping someone else stay sober helps us stay sober. And service frees us from self-will. It teaches us about how to care for ourselves and others. It teaches us that we're worthwhile. It teaches us that we make a difference. Service keeps us feeling good. Am I quiet when the topic of service comes ap at meetings? If so, how can I change this?

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, show me where I can be of help. Give me the courage to make a difference. Give me the courage to really serve others in need.

Action for the Day: I'll list five ways service has made or can make my life better.

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One Day At A Time

Forgiveness
I must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a matter of form, but in my heart.
I do this not for the other persons' sake, but for my own sake.
Resentment, anger, or a desire to see someone punished,
are things that rot my soul.
Such things fasten my troubles to me with chains.
- Daily Reflections, p.88

Thought to Ponder . . .
Forgiveness is the final form of love.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
N O W = No Other Way.

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Daily Motivation

As you are

You are here, as you are, and it is good. You are alive, aware, uniquely inspired, and able to choose from a vast array of possibilities.

Don’t get caught up in worrying about what could have been or what should have been. Instead, turn your awareness toward the very real and present beauty of what is.

There is a great and growing abundance that surrounds you. From that abundance you can fashion meaningful joy and fulfillment.

With what you have here and now, you can live your life in the way you choose. You are ready and able right now to move solidly in the direction of your most treasured dreams.

The problems will come and you can successfully deal with them. The joys will come and you can delight in them.

You have this amazing and valuable moment, so live it to the fullest. Feel the immense goodness, as you are, and be all you can be.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-19-2012

2012-01-19T08:04:00.002-06:00

Thursday, January 19, 2012
Today's Gift

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. ~ Marianne Williamson

Owning Our Power

Sometimes, owning our power means we realize we are victimizing ourselves - and others are not doing anything to hurt us. They are living their lives, as they have a right to, and we are feeling victimized because we're attempting to control their process or we're unreasonably expecting them to take care of us. We may feel victimized if we get stuck in a codependent belief such as: Other people make me feel.... Others hold the key to my happiness and destiny.... Or, I can't be happy unless another behaves in a particular way, or a certain event takes place...

Other times, owning our power means we realize that we are being victimized by another's behavior. Our boundaries are being invaded. In that case, we figure out what we need to do to take care of ourselves to stop the victimization; we need to set boundaries.

Sometimes, a change of attitude is all that's required. We are not victims.

We strive to have compassion for the person who victimized us but understand that compassion often comes later, after we've removed ourselves as victims in body, mind, and spirit. We also understand that too much compassion can put us right back into the victim slot. Too much pity for a person who is victimizing us may set up a situation where the person can victimize us again.

We try not to force consequences or crises upon another person, but we also do not rescue that person from logical consequences of his or her behavior. If there is a part that is our responsibility to play in delivering those consequences, we do our part - not to control or punish, but to be responsible for ourselves and to others.

We try to figure out what we may be doing that is causing us to feel victimized, or what part we are playing in the system, and we stop doing that too. We are powerless over others and their behavior, but we can own our power to remove ourselves as victims.

Today, I will take responsibility for myself and show it to others by not allowing myself to be victimized, I cannot control outcomes, but I can control my attitude toward being victimized. I am not a victim; I do not deserve to be victimized.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Willpower Isn't the Power_____Power

We almost universally agree that willpower simply does not work as a direct force in overcoming alcoholism. The alcoholic who believes that a strong will and determination bring sobriety is probably headed for disaster.

In the same way, willpower is ineffective in dealing with a number of personal problems. In fact, the mustering of willpower seems to strengthen the problems or cuase them to take other forms. We know that we are using willpower on problems when there is a great deal of tension and anxiety in letting our Higher Power handle matters in a way that brings contentment and satisfaction. When excessive will is involved, we usually suppress feelings that ought to be expressed in positive ways.

The solution is not to fight problems in ourselves or in the outer world. By turning all matters over to the Higher Will, we will find the best way to deal with the evils within ourselves and with the opposition in our world. "Self-will run riot" was a problem in drinking, and it can be equality destructive in sobriety. Our will should be joined with the Higher Will for true success in living.

Action for the Day: I will rely on my Higher power as I go through the day. God can do the many things I cannot do for myself.

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One Day At A Time

Resentment
Perhaps "justifiable" resentment is the trickiest of all to handle.
It's the end product of "righteous" anger, after long cherishing,
and if it is allowed to continue,
it will slowly undermine our defenses against taking a drink.
- Living Sober, p.39

Thought to Ponder . . .
Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Avoid Anger.

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Daily Motivation

Doing

The way to achieve is not to try. The way to achieve is to do.

The difference between trying and doing is all in your perspective. That difference makes all the difference in the world.

When you see yourself as trying, you are burdening yourself with the expectation of failure. Instead, put all your energy and focus into doing your very best, and into expecting the best results.

Merely trying is itself an excuse, and it gives you permission to make all sorts of other excuses. Doing, on the other hand, gets results.

If you’re going to make the effort, then make it count. Let go of any thoughts that you’re just trying, and embrace the most positive expectations.

You are absolutely capable of making a real and valuable difference. So forget about trying, and with well-deserved confidence, go ahead and get it done.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-18-2012

2012-01-18T06:34:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Today's Gift

Communication leads to community - that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing. —Rollo May

We have all thought, "If I tell the innermost things about myself, I will be rejected or put down." Most real communication actually creates the opposite of what we fear...

...Are we concerned today about an intimate relationship? The way to deepen intimacy is to let ourselves be known. When talking about feelings, we need to emphasize those that make us feel most vulnerable.

The other side of communication is listening. In listening, our task is to hear without judgment and without trying to provide an answer or a cure for every pain. To express ourselves to others, to be fully understood, and to know we are understood will lift our hope and self esteem.

Today, I can make contact with people in my life by revealing my feelings to them and listening to what they are saying.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

The reality is that changes are coming....they must come. You must share in bring them. --John Hersey

Change. It's scary. It's hard. It's needed. Sometimes it feels bad. But one thing is for sure: it keeps on happening. Just when our life seems settled, it changes. We can't stop life. We can't stay this age forever. The world changes. Life moves on. There are always new things to do and learn.

Changes means we're always beginners in some ways. We need to ask for wisdom and courage. We get it by listening, by praying, by meditating. When we ask, our Higher Power will teach us to be part of good changes.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me believe that Your plans call for good changes.

Action for the Day: Today I'll think about the changes in my life. I've lived through a lot. I'll be okay when more changes come, with my Higher Power's help. I can keep on growing.

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One Day At A Time

Weeds

When we find envy, jealousy, resentments, creeping into our thinking,
let's weed them out.
The simple way, it seems to me, is to review our actions each day.
Check where we could have been a little more understanding,
or tolerant to someone else -- whether the time we blew up
was really as important as we tried to make it...
...We'll usually find, as always, that the fault is within us.
So let's talk the misunderstandings out.
Let's give another fellow the word of encouragement that he needs.
It is good to get away by ourselves and think things through,
honestly, humbly...
- The AA Grapevine, September, 1948, Vol. 5, No. 4

Thought to Ponder . . .
The Seven T's -- Take Time To Think The Thing Through.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
P U T = Patience, Understanding, Tolerance.

*********************
Daily Motivation

In each challenge

In each challenge is great opportunity. So step forward, meet the challenge, work persistently through it, and make the opportunity yours.

It’s difficult, complicated, inconvenient, and demanding. And you are wonderfully able to deal with all that, to create a valuable outcome.

There are plenty of excuses you could make, and yet you know the excuses have no real value. There will be times when you feel like quitting, and yet in every case you know you can overcome the desire to quit with your positive enthusiasm for seeing it through.

You’ve successfully endured every challenge in your life so far, and you certainly have what it takes to successfully take on even bigger challenges. You are able to make a difference, and the more you make use of that ability, the stronger it grows.

Though many things will go wrong, you know from experience that even in adversity there is much value to be gained. Each obstacle makes the eventual achievement all the more rewarding.

You’re good at dealing with challenges, so put that ability to meaningful and rewarding use. Step forward, meet the challenges that lead to your dreams, and bring those dreams to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-17-2012

2012-01-17T06:24:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Today's Gift

There is no reality except the one contained within us. --Herman Hesse

Claude Gellee painted lovely pictures of the English countryside. Europeans loved his landscapes, with their blue hues and mild distortions. But when the people went for the carriage rides in the country, they were disappointed because it didn't look the way Gellee had painted it. Then someone discovered that if you held blue glass up to your eyes and looked through it, the trees and hills and sky looked just like a Gellee painting! Soon everyone was looking through "Claude glasses" when they travelled.

We often let others do our seeing for us. We get lazy and rely on the images of television and movies, instead of really seeing with our own eyes. Our world becomes distorted and we lose sight of the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Each of us carries reality inside ourselves, and as we grow stronger within, we discover that we can see clearest when we trust our own eyes. There is a glorious world, full and rich, just waiting for us to glimpse it.

Will I see the world through my own eyes today?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

I feel we have picked each other from the crowd as fellow-travelers, for neither of us is to the other's personality the end-all and the be-all. --Joanna Field

We must look around at the people in our lives today, and know that we have something special to offer each of them, and they to us. We do travel separate paths together. We may need to learn tolerance; perhaps a friend's behavior pushes us to be more tolerant. Impatience may be our nemesis, and everywhere we turn are lines, slow cash registers, traffic jams. Our experiences with others aren't chance. Fellow travelers are carefully selected by the inner self, the spiritual guide who understands our needs in this life.

We are both the teachers and the pupils. We need both our friends and those we may label our enemies for what they can help us learn.

Action for the Day: I will carefully look about me today with gladness at the travelers I've selected to learn from.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Freedom
. . . we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone,
we will see how our experience can benefit others.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp.83-84

Thought to Ponder . . .
Within our wonderful new world,
we have found freedom from our fatal obsession.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H J F = Happy, Joyous, Free.

********************
Daily Motivation

Live the richness

Stop focusing your thoughts on wanting things, because whatever you want, by definition, you do not have. Instead, put your thoughts, your energy and your efforts into more fully manifesting and enjoying what you already do have, which is everything.

When your thoughts are focused on want, those thoughts build a wall of separation between you and life’s immense abundance. As soon as you let go of the want, you begin to see, to feel and to make positive use of the very real connections between you and whatever you envision.

Quit telling yourself you don’t have it, and begin realizing that you can already start to experience it. Look at your most treasured dream not as something you hope to achieve someday, but as something that is already unfolding right now as a result of your actions.

Don’t let your highest vision for life become a source of frustration by merely wanting it. Allow it to be a source of inspiration, power, effectiveness and fulfillment by expressing it in whatever you do.

The path you are on today is connected to another path, which is connected to another path, and another. You have access to the whole of life’s abundance, and by walking the path, step by step, you experience the beautiful fullness of that abundance.

Remove the conditions you’ve placed on life’s richness, and see that it is here for you today. Go ahead, live that richness, and create more and more fulfillment as each moment passes.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-16-2012

2012-01-16T07:51:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 16, 2012

Today's Gift

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. --Oscar Wilde

I've made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes.

Everybody makes mistakes. The difference now is that I can see them more clearly afterward, and I am not living in denial about them.

If I become too critical of myself when I do make a mistake, I can remind myself that it's part of being human. I can remind myself that it's a learning experience and a mistake I won't make so easily in the future. Mistakes are not made intentionally, but they are errors caused by a lack of information or lack of attention.

Today I pay attention more than ever before and have more information than I ever have had. Mistakes will still happen, but they probably won't be as serious or dangerous as they were in my past. I can allow myself to make mistakes, understanding that when I give myself this freedom, I am accepting myself for who I am and loving myself unconditionally.

From the book Time to Fly Free by Judith R. Smith

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Everything is so dangerous that nothing is really very frightening. --Gertrude Stein

Life is full of dangers and risks and challenges. We can choose to meet them fearfully or in a spirit of welcome. To choose fear, to say, "I won't take that risk because I might lose," is to prevent ourselves from ever winning. If we welcome the danger, the risk, or the challenge, we acknowledge that life is made up of losses as well as victories, of gains as well as pain.

Life holds the dangers as well as the rewards. We choose how we will act. Sometimes we may feel trapped in a cycle of fearfulness. If we examine our own part, will we find that we are neglecting to take a balanced view? Perhaps, through a fear of losing, we are missing many chances for satisfaction.

Action for the Day: I will remember: I have the power to choose what my attitude will be toward this day's offerings.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Dealing With Feelings

Provided you hold back nothing,
your sense of relief will mount from minute to minute.
The dammed-up emotions of years break out of their confinement,
and miraculously vanish as soon as they are exposed.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 62

Thought to Ponder . . .
A fear faced is a fear erased.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F E E L = Feel, Experience, Express, Let go.

********************
Daily Motivation

Bring the best to life

Be at peace with what has been. That enables you to focus all of your attention and energy into making the best of what can be.

Let go of the need to prove you’re right. Instead, concentrate your thoughts and efforts on being your best.

Get beyond your worries about what may or may not happen, or what other people might think of you. Invest yourself in the real and present actions you can take to make a positive difference.

Your life is too important to waste even a moment or two on things you can’t do anything about. There is so very much you can do instead, and so very many things you can positively influence.

Put all your efforts into what will bear fruit. Give your time and attention to the things that have meaning and value for you.

Feel love instead of fear, joy in the place of worry, and focus on your possibilities instead of resentments. Visualize life at its best, and bring the best to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-13-2012

2012-01-13T08:11:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 13, 2011

Today's Gift

The adventure of connection is to speak out. . .

The feeling of connection we yearn for with our partner comes when we speak what is on our mind; we have to stop guessing what each other feels and stop guarding against all offenses. A relationship with vitality is not so guarded that we constantly have to avoid rubbing each other the wrong way. We expect offenses and misunderstandings occasionally.

The greatest offense we can commit in an intimate relationship is dishonesty. Perhaps when we speak to our partner we will not express what we really mean on our first try. Or we will not realize how our partner feels about what we say until he or she tells us. In vibrant and living relationships people agree that they will keep talking when someone feels hurt, misunderstands, or disagrees. The adventure of connection is to speak our thoughts and feelings in their complete form, and then continue to talk until they become clear and understood.

Tell your mate something you have been guarding in your mind.

From the book: The More We Find In Each Other by Merle Fossum and Mavis Fossum

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

The greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention to one another's existence. --Sue Atchley Ebaugh

We all want to matter to others. Very often in the past and sometimes in the present, our behavior screams for the attention we seek from others. Perhaps, instead of trying to get attention, we ought to give it. The program tells us we have to give it away in order to keep it. Wisdom of the ages also dictates that in life there are no accidents. Those people close to us and those just passing through our lives have reason to be there. Giving attention to another's humanity is our calling.

Action for the Day: I will fully attend to another person I have occasion to be with today. They will matter to me, and my attention will matter to them.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Instant Magic

Whenever I start climbing the walls for some reason -- usually because
I'm unable to have things my way, like the behavior of my boss,
my son's attitude, or even my country's politics -- I have an instant cure.
I close my eyes and visualize one of the many moments
of past horror and humiliation: waking up in the street,
begging a stranger for money, talking my way into buying a bottle on credit,
or trying to convince a doctor to hospitalize me because I had nowhere to go.
This and the Serenity Prayer always work instant magic.
- AA Around the World, p. 33

Thought to Ponder . . .
Pray to God, row to shore.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A S A P = Always Say A Prayer.

********************

Daily Motivation

Just a little progress

Even just a little progress, is progress. Even the smallest step forward is very much worth taking, because it maintains a positive momentum.

If you’re not moving ahead as fast as you’d like, don’t get discouraged. Get creative, get inspired, get focused and get truly enthusiastic about the direction you’re going.

Then, take the next step, and keep yourself moving steadily toward the goal. Remind yourself that even when you’re going slowly, you’re going solidly in the direction you’ve chosen.

Yes, the setbacks will certainly come, and when they do, you’ll know exactly how to quickly recover because you’ve been doing it all along. Get back up, face forward, and take the next step.

Even if it were possible, you wouldn’t want all your dreams to be fulfilled at once. It’s far more satisfying to savor each milestone as it comes, and to know that there will be many more.

Spend this day celebrating, enjoying and making use of your chance to make a little progress. Feel how great it feels to continue moving forward.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-12-2012

2012-01-12T08:18:00.001-06:00

Thursday, January 12, 2012
Today's Gift

Recovery is civil war, but it is a war that can be won. --Sister Imelda

How often do we hear people say, "Sure, I know it's the right thing to do - but it's easier said than done!'' But "it," whatever "it" is for each of us, is actually easier done than not done. As hard as it is to turn our will and our behavior toward recovery, failing to recover is much harder. Ultimately, any price we pay for recovery is far less than the cost of giving up everything we've gained.

Some of us have a very difficult time making phone calls. Others are scared to death of speaking at meetings, talking to strangers, or admitting that we have feelings. But the alternative has simply been too painful. Whatever we have to do is worth it. The payoff is immense. How many of us, when we did attend that meeting that frightened us, felt an enormous surge of self-confidence and happiness? How often, when we have stood our ground and found it did not kill us, have we felt that we could lick the world? The payoff is that we learn to like ourselves more, and that is as good as it gets.

I will make sure today that I am not forgetting the benefits of recovery and only considering the price of recovery.

From the book: Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming . . . This all sounds very strenuous and serious. But now that I have wrestled with it, it's no longer so. I feel happy--deep down. All is well.--Katherine Mansfield

All is well. In the midst of turmoil, let us remember, all is well; in the midst of the pain of self-awareness, all is well. The struggle of the turmoil, the pain that accompanies the lessons of self-awareness, are preparing us for becoming all we are meant to become. We each have a special gift to offer in this life. We will come to understand those gifts and be able to give them as we grow with the pain of self-understanding. All is well. Deep down happiness ripples, it's rippling to the surface of our lives.

Action for the Day: My lesson for today is understanding, of myself and others. Happiness is the grade I earn each day of my "becoming."

**********************

One Day At A Time

Loneliness
There was always that mysterious barrier
we could neither surmount nor understand. It was if we were actors on a stage,
suddenly realizing that we did not know a single line of our parts.
That's one reason we loved alcohol so well. It did let us act extemporaneously.
But even Bacchus boomeranged on us; we were finally struck down
and left in terrified loneliness.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 57

Thought to Ponder . . .
I'm not alone anymore.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Y A N A = You Are Not Alone.

*********************
Daily Motivation

Before you complain

Whenever you complain about something negative in your world, you reinforce your connection with that negativity. Your complaint can actually focus your energy toward perpetuating and empowering whatever you’re complaining about.

A much better strategy is to come up with a positive alternative, and then to act on it. Instead of merely reinforcing what is wrong, you have an opportunity to change the situation for the better.

Complaints, because of their negative nature, are usually met with some degree of defensiveness. Positive alternatives, on the other hand, will naturally be met with cooperation and appreciation.

The next time you have the urge to complain, stop and ask yourself what it is you really want. Do you simply want to complain or do you want to do something that will improve the situation?

Somewhere within each complaint is a genuine desire to improve the situation, but the complaint itself is never enough to do that. So skip beyond the complaint and use your efforts and resources to truly make a positive difference.

Make the choice not to aggravate a bad situation with your complaints. Choose instead to transform it with your positive thoughts, ideas and actions.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-11-2012

2012-01-11T06:25:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Today's Gift

Fear is only an illusion. It is the illusion that creates the feeling of separateness -- the false sense of isolation that exists only in your imagination. —Jeraldine Sounders

We are one. We are connected, interdependent parts of the whole. We are not separate from each other except in the mind, in our false understanding of reality. As we come to understand our connectedness, our need for one another to complete the whole of creation, our fears will die.

It is often said we learn who we really are by closely observing our behavior toward the people in our lives. We meet ourselves in those others. They are our reflections. They are, perhaps, parts we ourselves have not yet learned to love. The program's message is to trust, to have faith; our higher power is in control. We are faced with no person, no situation too big to handle if we trust the program, if we remember the connections among us all.

I will look around today at others, with knowledge of our oneness. Fearing not, I will smile upon the wholeness of life.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Remember always that you have not only the right to be individual, you have an obligation to be one. --Eleamnor Roosevelt

When we were using alcohol and other drugs, we often thought that we were different from others. We secretly thought that no one could understand us. Maybe we tried to be one of the group, but we were lonely. Now we know for sure--we are different from others. Everyone's unique. We all have this in common. Being like others helps us feel safe and normal. But we need to feel good about the ways we're different from others too. We think a little different, act a little different, and look a little different from anyone else. We each have our own way to make life better for others.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be an individual. Help me use my special gifts, not hide them.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a list of the things I'm good at. I'll think about how I can use these gifts.

**********************

One Day At A Time

Patience

Few experiences are of less value than fast sobriety.
Too many times discouragement has been the bonus for unrealistic expectations.
. . . The secret of fulfilling my potential is in acknowledging my limitations
and believing that time is a gift, not a threat.
- Daily Reflections, p. 70

Thought to Ponder . . .
Give Time time.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
S I T = Stay In Today.

*********************
Daily Motivation

Make it happen

The obstacle itself is not enough to stop you. What stops you is your assumption that you can’t get past that obstacle.

The problem is not that you have too much of this or too little of that. The problem is, you’re waiting for perfect conditions that will never come.

The achievement that really happens, happens in the real world. The things that get done, get done in less than ideal conditions.

Don’t make excuses for why you can’t get it done. Focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.

There will always be challenges. And there will always be something you can do to get beyond each one.

Listen closely, and hear that your dreams are calling you. Feel their pull, feel their positive power, and do what it takes to make them real.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-10-2012

2012-01-10T06:37:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Today's Gift

You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment. —David D. Burns

Good thoughts are like bright colors in a painting. Negative thoughts are dark and dreary and drab. Each day we paint pictures of our own lives with our thoughts. If we step back and look at the canvas, we will see whether the picture is alive with bright colors or dreary and lifeless like a dark cloud. Our thoughts have the power to bring joy or sadness our way, depending on what we expect or look for in our surroundings. The choice of how we want our lives to be is ours. Since we paint a new picture each day, we are always free to change things when they don't please us. What better time than the present?

Is there something in my life I'd like to change today?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

A complete revaluation takes place in your physical and mental being when you've laughed and had some fun. --Catherine Ponder

Norman Cousins, in his book Anatomy of an Illness, describes how he cured his fatal illness with laughter. Laughter recharges our entire being; every cell is activated. We come alive, and full vitality restores us physically and emotionally. Many of us need both emotional and physical healing, but perhaps we've overlooked the times to laugh because we've been caught in a negative posture.

Unfortunately, negativity becomes habitual for many of us. However, it's never too late to turn our lives around, to laugh instead of complain. Choosing to see the bright side of life, to laugh at our mistakes, lessens our pain, emotional and physical. Laughter encourages wellness. It is habit-forming and, better yet, contagious. Bringing laughter to others can heal them as well.

We all want health and happiness in ourselves and others, and we can find it by creating it. The best prescription for whatever ails us may well be a good laugh.

Action for the Day: Today Ill seek out those chances to dispense a little medicine.

***********************

One Day At A Time

'Someone'
In those days I had no one to whom I might take my troubles.
Today I have. Today I have Someone who will always hear me;
I have a warm fellowship among men who understand my problems;
I have tasks to do and am glad to do them, to see others who are alcoholics
and to help them in any way I can to become sober men.
I took my last drink in 1937.
~ Jim S., Akron, Ohio, early member ~
- Experience, Strength and Hope, pp. 276-77

Thought to Ponder . . .
Trust God. Clean house. Help others.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Answer Available.

********************
Daily Motivation

The positive possibilities

Frustration comes from focusing on what you cannot control. Achievement, on the other hand, comes from focusing on all the useful and valuable things you can do.

Resentment comes from seeing yourself as a victim. Effectiveness comes from stepping up and taking responsibility.

If you constantly complain that life is unfair, you’ll blind yourself to the best opportunities. Yet by simply accepting that what’s done is done, you’ll find a way to make the most of it.

Don’t waste your time arguing and fighting with life. Instead, invest your time and resources in inspiring and encouraging the best in yourself and in those around you.

There is good, positive, fulfilling value to be lived every day, in any situation. Choose to be the person who shines a light on that potential value and who brings that value fully to life.

Let go of the frustration, resentment and despair by letting the positive possibilities fill your awareness. Embrace and enjoy the immense power that comes from taking full, unconditional responsibility for all you are and all you experience.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-9-2012

2012-01-09T07:40:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 9, 2012

Today's Gift

Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf. ~Jonatan Mårtensson

Leaving Room for Feelings

We need to allow enough room for others and ourselves to have and work through our feelings.

We are people, not robots. An important part of us - who we are, how we grow, how we live - is connected to our emotional center. We have feelings, sometimes - difficult ones, sometimes-disruptive ones, and sometimes-explosive ones that need to be worked through.

By facing and working through these feelings we and others grow. In relationships, whether it be a love relationship, a friendship, a family relationship, or a close business relationship, people need room to have and work through their feelings.

Some call it "going through the process."

We need time to work through feelings. We need the space and permission to work through these feelings in the awkward, uncomfortable, sometimes messy way that people work through feelings.

This is life. This is growth. This is okay.

I can set reasonable boundaries for behavior and still leave room for a range of emotions.

From the book The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

The Chinese say that water is the most powerful element, because it is perfectly nonresistant. It can wear away a rock and sweep all before it. --Florence Scovel Shinn

Nonresistance, ironically, may be a posture we struggle with. Nonresistance means surrendering the ego absolutely. For many of us, the ego, particularly disguised as false pride, spurred us on to struggle after struggle. "Can't they see I'm right?" we moaned, and our resistance only created more of itself. Conversely, flowing with life, "bubbling" with the ripples, giving up our ego, releases from us an energy that heals the situation that smoothes the negative vibrations in our path. Peace comes to us. We will find serenity each time we willingly humble ourselves.

Action for the Day: Resistance is more familiar. Nonresistance means growth and peace. I'll try for serenity today.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Listening
If you really listen (not just hear) what is being said,
you may find the person talking has quietly slipped inside your head
and seems to be describing the landscape there --
the shifting shapes of nameless fears, the color and chill of impending doom --
if not the actual events and words stored in your brain.
- Living Sober, p. 85

Thought to Ponder . . .
Learn to listen; listen to learn.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
E S H = Experience, Strength and Hope.

********************
Daily Motivation

Raise those expectations

After life has dealt you a setback, it may seem reasonable to lower your expectations. And yet, it is in fact just as reasonable, and much more advisable, to raise those expectations.

What has already happened has indeed set the stage for what is to come. However, your past does not have to control your future, because you can control and direct what you do right now.

If you visualize and expect more disappointment, you’re sure to get it. But you don’t want to do that.

Instead, use this moment to break the pattern. Stop looking down on what has been, and choose to look upward to the best that can be.

You are more experienced, more knowledgeable, and more determined than ever before. So raise your expectations accordingly.

Form your expectations based on the best you know you can be. Feel the power of your most treasured dreams as you enthusiastically bring those dreams to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-6-2012

2012-01-06T06:24:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 6, 2012

Today's Gift

There are as many ways to live and grow as there are people. Our own ways are the only ways that should matter to us. —Evelyn Mandel
Wanting to control other people, to make them live as we'd have them live, makes the attainment of serenity impossible. And serenity is the goal we are seeking in this recovery program, in this life.

We are each powerless over others, which relieves us of a great burden. Controlling our own behavior is a big enough job. Learning to behave responsibly takes practice. Most of us in this recovery program have behaved irresponsibly for much of our lives. Emotional immaturity is slow to depart, but every responsible action we take gives us the courage for another - and then another. Our own fulfillment is the by-product of the accumulation of our own responsible actions. Others' actions need not concern us.

Today, I will weigh my behavior carefully. Responsible behavior builds gladness of heart.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

********************************Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Perfectionism.

No Need to be PerfectWe often declare that we suffered from perfectionism while we were drinking. This did not mean that we did things perfectly or always met high standards. More likely, it meant that we had grandiose ideas of the perfect people we wanted to be, but felt deep inadequacy about our failure to meet these high standards.

While we should develop good standards and values for our lives, we place an impossible demand on ourselves by wanting to be perfect in every way. What is this but a secret desire to be better than others, to occupy a superior position that will enable us to look down on others and, at the same time, to receive their approval and admiration?

In some manufacturing fields, there is a useful saying that serves as a guideline for inspectors: "Good enough is best." If something is good enough for its intended purpose, it may be equal to the best. If my performance and actions this day are good enough, it maybe that they are as good as they have to be or as my Higher Power wants them to be.

Action for the Day: I will not expect impossible things from myself today. I will meet reasonable standards without permitting myself to become tense or strained.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Inner Voice
Long before nagging and pressures from others
concerning my excessive use of alcohol or drugs made any impression on me,
the nagging voice of conscience -- my own inner voice of truth and right --
apprised me of the irrevocable fact that I had lost control of alcohol or drugs,
that I was powerless.
I know now that the inner voice was my Higher Power speaking.
- Came To Believe . . . p. 83

Thought to Ponder . . .
If I think I am an alcoholic or addict, chances are I am.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G I F T = God Is Forever There.

********************

Daily Motivation

Even if

Even if the challenges are immense and the obstacles are many, step forward and live the life you choose to live. Your dreams are worth every effort.
Even if you get knocked down again and again, get right back up and get going. With enough persistence, any goal is within your reach.
Even if no one believes you, insist on being truthful. Keep the power of truth always on your side.
Even if you can’t see all the way to the end of the road, go ahead and take the first step. Each time you make some progress, you’ll find new ways to make even more.
Even if your results fall short of your expectations, keep making the effort. Each new day brings you more experience, wisdom and effectiveness.
Even if you’ve been deeply disappointed in the past, focus on the positive possibilities. For your future is what you choose to make it now.
— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-5-2012

2012-01-05T07:22:00.000-06:00

Thursday, January 5, 2012
Today's Gift

. . and, when the time comes to let it go, . . . let it go. —Mary Oliver

If we all let go of one thing we like, and take instead each other's hand; if we all let go of three minutes each day, and find instead a few perfect words for someone in the house; if we all withhold our judgments for one hour, and reveal during that time one of our own small secret sins; if we all skip the same meal each week, and spend the time together in the park; would we have less or more than what we started with?

It is one of the great and pleasing mysteries of life that we gain by giving things up.

Instead of grabbing things or demanding from others if we give something up, we leave a space for something new to enter our lives.

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Instead of concentrating on why we can't do a thing, we would be wise to change our "Yes, but . . ." attitude to a more positive one. Saying "yes" means I really do want to change my life for the better. --Liane Cordes

We truly can do these things that are our "hearts' pure desires." However, most of us look at the whole task and feel overwhelmed. We need, instead, to look at the task's many parts. One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves. I know a recovering woman who wrote a 300-page dissertation, the final achievement to obtain her PhD. When asked at a meeting how she ever did it, her reply was, "One word at a time." That's wonderful advice. No matter how many goals were missed or plans dashed when we were still using, now that we are recovering, each of us can do whatever is in our hearts--if we do it little by little, not all at once, today.

Action for the Day: Today, I will do one small task that will contribute toward the achievement of a life goal.

***********************
One Day At A Time

Time
And what is time to me now? It is a most precious asset.
I have the luxury of being able to cherish the memory of yesterday,
to live today with serenity, to wait for tomorrow.
I find great contentment in just knowing where I was and where I am.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2], p. 21

Thought to Ponder . . .
I am grateful for this minute. My eternity may be in it.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
O D A A T = One Day At A Time.

********************
Daily Motivation

Best place to start

Where is the best place to start, when you’re determined to make real improvements in your life? Where is the best place to start, when you’re totally committed to following your dream?

The best place to start is precisely where you are. The best time to start is the moment you are in.

As difficult and challenging as your situation may be, in that situation is a way to move forward. From where you are right now, there is a path that leads to precisely where you would like to be.

Don’t waste your time wishing for a more favorable starting point. Instead, make use of the starting point you have, and get going.

Rather than complaining about not having enough, use your creativity and imagination to become more and more effective with what you do have. Devote your energy to creating new value in the present, not to resentment of the past.

This is the best place to start, because this is the place from which you can start right now. From here you can literally go anywhere, so go ahead, take that first step and don’t look back.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-4-2012

2012-01-04T06:16:00.002-06:00

Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Today's Gift

We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.--Martin Buber

"One of the best ways I know to get in touch with myself," a woman explained, "is to write my thoughts and feelings. When I express my reactions to the happenings of life - in the privacy of a journal - I can more easily sort out and work through my positive and negative feelings. A journal is a great tool for self-knowledge. And I don't have to be a ‘great writer' to have it work. All I have to have is an earnest desire to know myself.

"You know, I've often surprised myself with my own insight and common-sense solutions to seemingly hopeless situations. And all I did was take time to clarify my thoughts by writing them down. It's wonderful to discover my deepest feelings and values. It's even greater to share my thoughts after they're clear in my own mind. Not only do I benefit from journal writing. But all my loved ones do too!"

TODAY - I will take time to get to know myself by putting my thoughts and feelings on paper. Clarifying my attitudes and reactions will help me share my concerns with others more calmly and serenely. I will also get a better perspective of myself and my experiences.

From the book The Reflecting Pond by Liane Cordes

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore. --Dorothy Bryant

Sometimes we feel buried in sand, blocked, clogged, unable to move. Then we must remember that we are not alone. Help is at hand, if only we will ask for it. If we invoke our higher power, our source of spiritual strength can help us to believe that there is gold somewhere in all this sand, and that the sand itself is useful.

No one and no thing is good all the time. Let us remember that if we expect nothing but gold, we are distorting life, getting in our own way. We don't want to falsify the texture of our lives; the homespun quality helps us to appreciate the gold when it appears.

Action for the Day: I will find some gold among the sand, today.

**********************

One Day At A Time

Any Length
If you have decided you want what we have
and are willing to go to any length to get it --
then you are ready to take certain steps.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 58

Thought to Ponder . . .
The express elevator to sobriety doesn't work -- please use the Steps.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.

*********************
Daily Motivation

Extreme advantage

Before you make a plan, make a connection. Connect your plan with a purpose that is genuinely yours.

To reach whatever you plan, you must plan to reach something that has real and captivating meaning for you. To make your plan succeed, define the success of that plan in a way that resonates with who you are.

Doing something just because everyone else thinks it’s a good idea, won’t give you much drive or determination or commitment. An important key to success is knowing precisely what success means to you.

You have what it takes to reach whatever goal you truly desire. The way to reach your full potential is to make sure you are fully engaged in the endeavor.

Align your intentions with your convictions, and you’ll be able to put the full power of those convictions into your efforts. Follow a purpose that is your very own, and you’ll always be able to find an effective way forward.

Give your intentions and your efforts an extreme advantage. Let them flow from the power of your purpose.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-3-2012

2012-01-03T07:06:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Today's Gift

Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. —Faith Baldwin

Change surrounds us. It lies within us, too. The trees in the yard have changed. They've grown taller. Their leaves die and scatter on the ground in the fall. We don't resemble our baby pictures much anymore, either. Like trees, we've grown up. As babies, we couldn't walk. But we learned to run, ride bikes, and go out alone to movies and parties. Some changes we don't notice while they're going on. The snow melts; the birds fly south; our hair grows a little every day. Other changes startle us. A best friend moves away. Perhaps a favorite grandparent dies. These changes we wish hadn't happened, and we have to remember that change is as natural as breathing. We can't keep it from happening, but we can trust that change never means to harm us. It's a sign we're growing up.

Today I will remember that change brings opportunity.

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Releasing the past

Forgiving others
There is a general reluctance on the part of most people to forgive old injuries. Some of us wasted lots of time brooding about old wrongs done to us or trying to get even for some past injuries.

But the only way we can ever really get even is to forgive others completely and without the slightest hidden reservation. If we haven't forgiven others, the old resentments are a poison in our own lives. We continue to feel the pain of the original injury, and the ensuing resentment destroys our peace of mind and endangers our relationships.

In forgiving others, we do not grant a favor to them, but to ourselves. By extending forgiveness, we release thoughts and feelings that have been like a cancer in our lives. We are not giving up a possession or a right; instead, we are freeing ourselves from a burden that nobody needs to carry. We are letting go of garbage that we do not need in our lives. When we forgive others, we also realize that we are forgiven. As it is stated in closing meetings, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Action for the Day: I will not review past hurts and injuries this day. I will go through the day knowing that my Higher Power forgives me to the extent that I forgive.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Self-will Run Riot
So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.
They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic and addict is an extreme example
of self-will run riot, though she or he usually doesn't think so.
Above everything, we alcoholics ansd addicts must be rid of this selfishness.
We must, or it kills us! Our Higher power makes that possible.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 62

Thought to Ponder . . .
If I self-forget I find.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
W I S D O M = When Into Self, Discover Our Motives.

********************
Daily Motivation

Made to make a difference

Doing only what is easy and convenient, comfortable and free of challenge, doesn’t get you very far. Chasing after something for nothing ends up getting you nothing of real value.

In order to experience true fulfillment in any undertaking, you must invest yourself in it. It is your active participation and contribution to life that makes it so good to live.

If you continually take the easy way out, avoiding effort, challenge and commitment, you’ll end up being very disappointed. You are made to make a difference, so embrace every opportunity to do so.

You are here to participate, not just to observe. The true joy you feel will come not from meaningless possessions or empty pleasures, but from creating and expressing and experiencing the goodness of life in your own unique way.

Don’t waste your precious time in a fruitless attempt to get something for nothing. In every moment there are plenty of opportunities to create real value that flows from the authentic beauty of who you are.

Your deepest desires and your most difficult problems are challenging you to make a positive difference. Do yourself a big favor, accept the challenge, make the effort, and create the true fulfillment that is your destiny.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 1-2-2012

2012-01-02T08:05:00.002-06:00

Monday, January 2, 2012

Today's Gift

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. ~Oprah Winfrey

Reflection for the Day

In the old days, I saw everything in terms of forever. Endless hours were spent rehashing old mistakes. I tried to take comfort in the forlorn hope that tomorrow would be "different." As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud. Do I still think in terms of "forever"?

Today I Pray

May I set my goals for the New Year not at the year-long mark, but one day at a time. My traditional New Year's resolutions have been so grandly stated and so soon broken. Let me not weaken my resolve by stretching it to cover "forever" - or even one long year. May I reapply it firmly each new day. May I learn not to stamp my past mistakes with that indelible word, "forever." Instead, may each single day in each New Year be freshened by my new-found hope.

Today I Will Remember

Happy New Day!

From the book A Day at a Time (Softcover) by Anonymous

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

I believe that true identify is found . . . in creative activity springing from within. It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. Woman can best re-find herself by losing herself in some kind of creative activity of her own. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Creative activity might mean bird watching, tennis, quilting, cooking, painting, writing. Creative activity immerses us fully in the here and now, and at the same time it frees us. We become one with the activity and are nourished by it. We grow as the activity grows. We learn who we are in the very process of not thinking about who we are.

Spirituality and creativity are akin. There is an exhilaration rooted deep within us that is a lifeline to our Higher Power. Creative activity releases the exhilaration, and the energy goes through us and out to others. We find ourselves and our higher power through the loss of our self-conscious selves while creating--a picture, a sentence, a special meal.

Action for the Day: Creativity is a given. It is another dimension of the spiritual presence guiding us all. I'll get out of its way today.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Habits
Our drinking/drugging was connected with many habits -- big and little.
Some of them were thinking habits, or things we felt inside ourselves.
Others were doing habits -- things we did, actions we took.
In getting used to not drinking or using, we have found that we needed new habits
to take the place of those old ones. . .
After we spent a few months practicing these new, sober habits
or ways of acting and thinking, they became almost second nature to most of us.
- Living Sober, p. 1

Thought to Ponder . . .
Every recovery from alcoholism and/or addiction began with one sober hour.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue.

********************
Daily Motivation

Give yourself a dream

Give yourself a good, solid, clear and meaningful reason to do whatever you’re doing. Give yourself a real, authentic dream.

Give yourself a dream that has meaning, and that compels you forward. Keep yourself solidly connected to that dream.

Let your dream flow naturally and honestly from the vision you have for how life can be. Make your dream so big and exciting that you cannot fail to put the best of yourself into it.

Give yourself a dream, and give it to all the world as well. Choose a dream that enables you to lift others higher as you lift yourself higher and do what you truly love.

Let go of the excuses, the complaints, the anger, envy and frustration. Put the miraculous power of your thoughts, words and actions into the good and positive things that truly matter.

At this time of new beginnings, choose to live with more substance and meaning than ever before. Give yourself a dream, and give all of life the unique benefit of the very best you can be.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-30-11

2011-12-30T08:57:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 30, 2011

Today's Gift

Telling the truth is a pretty hard thing. —Thomas Wolfe

Lying can be like sailing choppy waters. The more we lie, the higher the waves get, and the harder the sailing. When we lie, we feel we've failed ourselves and others. We have to work hard to cover up our lies, and the fear of someone finding out is always with us.

If we ask our Higher Power for courage to tell the truth, we can be like the sailboat on a clear and calm day. We can enjoy the small waves and the light warm breeze we've given ourselves. Honesty is a good habit, and is easy. With a little faith in our own worth, we can choose the calm waters' honesty and apply our creativity to new, growth-oriented activities instead of covering up old mistakes.

How can I smooth my waters right now?

From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Being less than perfect.

It was not a perfect year. But is there ever a perfect year? Being clean and sober does not purport or offer perfection. It gives us a chance to strive for progress. When we keep our Higher Power in our thoughts and actions, we come closer to perfection all the time.

Despite the disappointments of our complex lives, we are finally beginning to learn how to live. We are finally making progress.

Am I content to be less than perfect?

Action for the Day: Higher Power, I pray that I may continue to strive for progress and be satisfied to be an imperfect human.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Simple Arithmetic
It is not always the quantity of good things you do,
it is also the quality that counts. . .
Above all, take it one day at a time.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 11

Thought to Ponder . . .
Just for today, I choose not to drink.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .O D A A T = One Day At A Time.

********************

Daily Motivation

Transform limitations

Every limitation is nothing more than a situation you’ve chosen to consider as, and to handle as, a limiting factor. Though you often cannot change the underlying situation, you can quickly and easily change the way you perceive and deal with it.

The very definition of a limitation is something that can stop you or hinder you. As such, the reason anything becomes a limitation is because you assume it to be a limitation.

However, you can always choose to make a different assumption. You can decide to focus on the positive possibilities, and to make use of them in moving forward.

Yes, life is very often difficult, complicated and challenging. Yet for every factor that threatens to hold you back, there are dozens of other possibilities for moving forward.

The limitations are not really what hold you back. To the degree that you are hindered, it is because you put more focus, energy and effort into negative thoughts and excuses than into positive possibilities and effective actions.

Sure, life is tough, but you have what it takes to create great value and fulfillment no matter what the obstacles. Remind yourself often of your own positive power, and transform every limitation into a reason to succeed.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-29-11

2011-12-29T07:59:00.001-06:00

P align=center>Thursday, December 29, 2011
Today's Gift

Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

After we get a new understanding about ourselves we think, "Now I will never have to make the same mistake again!" But our lessons are usually not that easily learned. We have to get them into our muscles and bones as well as our heads. Some of us have to learn how to be kind; others, how to be good listeners or how to stand up for ourselves in many different ways. Every new situation calls on a little different way of knowing, and perhaps we have to fall a few times in the learning.

The most important asset in our lives is the faith to get up again and continue. We must accept our imperfections. Each time we fall and with each mistake we make, we're vulnerable to doubting and losing faith. By rising again, we make progress in our learning and continue to become better men.

Today, I will have faith, even in the midst of my mistakes.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

No Regrets of the Past

Mending the past
"The past is best mended by living so fully today that its errors have no place in our lives." These words by an AA member suggest an approach for healing from the past.

All of us would benefit to use today's knowledge to deal with situations we mishandled in the past. But we must remember that whatever mistakes we made, we had available only the knowledge and resources we possessed the, and we may have done about as well as we possibly could at this time.

We should also remember that active alcoholism and addiction are crippling and ugly diseases with many terrible consequences. It's not surprising that bad things happened to others and us when we were drinking and/or using. We can only be grateful that we are now recovering and that matters are better, not worse, than they once were.

Action for the Day: I'll live fully today, allowing no thoughts of regret from my past to intrude.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Higher Power

If you arrive at AA with no religious convictions you can, if you wish,
make AA itself or even your AA group your "Higher Power."
Here's a large group of people who have solved their alcohol problem.
In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you.
Even this minimum of faith will be enough.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 310

Thought to Ponder . . .
Hope leads to faith if you let it.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Answer Available.

********************
Daily Motivation

Just because

Just because you don’t know how, doesn’t mean you can’t. There is much you can learn by simply getting started, and you have plenty of ways to learn even more.

Just because it’s difficult and complicated, doesn’t mean it’s impossible. For you are able to make a little progress, one step at a time, then make a little more and a little more, until the goal is reached.

Just because something is standing in your way, doesn’t mean it has to stop you. The fact is, you can take the necessary actions to get beyond whatever obstacles may confront you.

Just because people tell you that it can’t be done, or that you can’t do it, doesn’t mean they are correct. Remind yourself, again and again, that you can do what you choose to do, making use of your commitment, thoughts, and actions.

Just because there is strife and pain and negativity in the world, doesn’t mean you have to give up on life. You can change your own life, and many, many other lives for the better, when you decide to do so.

Just because you’ve been reckless or frustrated or disappointed in the past, doesn’t mean the future has to be that way. Today is a new day, your life is yours to live, and there’s no limit to the goodness and joy you can now create.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-28-11

2011-12-28T07:58:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Today's Gift

The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making. —Lillian Smith

As the sore tooth draws our tongue, so do rejections, affronts, painful criticisms, both past and present draw our minds. We court self-pity, both loving and hating it. But we can change this pattern. First we must decide we are ready to do so. The program tells us we must become "entirely ready." And then we must ask to have this shortcoming removed.

The desire to dwell on the injustices of our lives becomes habitual. It takes hours of our time. It influences our perceptions of all other experiences. We have to be willing to replace that time-consuming activity with one that's good and healthy.

We must be prepared for all of life to change. Our overriding self-pity has so tarnished our perceptions that we may never have sensed all the good that life daily offers. How often we see the glass as half-empty rather than half-full!

A new set of experiences awaits me today. And I can perceive them unfettered by the memories of the painful past. Self-pity need not cage me, today.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

It is only framed in space that beauty blooms; only in space are events, and objects and people unique and significant and therefore beautiful. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh

We must look closely; focus intently on the subjects of our attention. Within these subjects is the explanation of life's mysteries. To observe anything closely means we must pull it aside with our minds and fondle it, perhaps. We must let the richness of the object, the person, the event, wash over us and savor its memory.

Many of us only now are able to look around ourselves slowly, with care, noting the detail, the brilliant color of life. Each day is an opportunity to observe and absorb the beauty while it blooms.

Action for the Day: I will look for beauty today, in myself, and in a friend, and I will find it.

**********************

One Day At A Time

Staying Sober
Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out not to be the grim,
wet-blanket experience we had expected!
While we were drinking and/or using, a life without alcohol or drugs seemed like no life at all.
But for most members of AA , living sober is really living -- a joyous experience.
We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking and/or drugging.
One more note: anyone can *get* sober. We have all done it lots of times.
The trick is to stay and to *live* sober.
- Living Sober, foreword

Thought to Ponder . . .
I am worth staying sober for.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Alive.

*********************
Daily Motivation

Do something positive

Worrying about what you don’t want will not keep it from happening. In fact, by focusing your worry on what you don’t want you actually give more power and possibility to it.

Wishing for what you do want will not bring it about. Constant wishing can prevent you from getting what you want by taking away time, effort and focus that could be spent on effective action.

The reliable, proven strategy for avoiding what you don’t want and for getting what you do want is the same. Do something positive about it.

The way to get it done is to get busy working on it right now. The way to make a difference is to take focused, purposeful, persistent action.

You are fully capable, and uniquely inspired, to act in your own best interest and in support of the things you care about. So instead of wishing or worrying your time away, get busy doing something positive and effective.

Make constructive use of your valuable time. Use it to do something positive, and move your life and your world in the direction of your choice.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-27-11

2011-12-27T08:39:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Today's Gift

Try not to become a person of success. Rather become a person of value. —Albert Einstein

The marketplace and fashion entice us in countless ways to indulge our individual pleasures. Some say that success will be with the man who follows those seductive beckonings. Even sacrificing long hours by working two jobs to become a financial success or to achieve high career goals can be self-centered activity. It may be time and energy spent seeking power and glory at the cost of time with our family and friends - time for enjoying each other and growing. Sadly, external success leads to superficial pleasure but never to peace within ourselves.

However, when we pursue the values of honesty, humility, and service, we will find enduring self-respect and close friendships. This path provides a genuine experience of life's greatest rewards rather than the glitter of passing excitement.

Today, I will strive toward the greater values rather than superficial successes.

From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Fortitude

Rehearing Rejection
The possibility of rejection exists with almost everything we do, if we are free to choose. We might not like rejection, but we want the same freedom to reject others. As freely choosing people, we need to turn down ideas or proposals we don't like.

One thing we should never do, however, is rehearse rejections before they occur. If we do this, we may give up even before we have attempted what we hope to accomplish. In effect, we will be killing our hopes even before others have a chance to review them. This is always a ticket to failure.

Rejection is really a feedback mechanism that reports information we ought to have. It tells us either to change our approach or to seek acceptance elsewhere. It is not evidence that we're completely unacceptable.

Our problem with any single rejection may be that it causes us to recall all the rejections we ever had. We can learn to see any rejection as a normal event that can be beneficial if we accept it properly.

Action for the Day: I'll not let any fear or visualization of rejection keep me from actions I ought to take today. I am an acceptable person, and there is a place for what I have to offer.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Kinship

Because of our kinship in suffering,
and because our common means of deliverance
are effective for ourselves only when carried to others,
our channels of contact have always been charged with
*the language of the heart.*
- The Language of the Heart, p. 242

Thought to Ponder . . .
An open heart is never a lonely one.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
C A R E = Comforting And Reassuring Each other.

********************
Daily Motivation

No guarantees

Even when you can’t be certain of what it is, you can be sure that there’s a way forward. Even when there are no guarantees, there are plenty of reasons to be confident.

When the situation is far from perfect, that’s the perfect time to make progress. For when there is much to be desired, there is much that can be accomplished.

Adversity does not prevent or preclude achievement. On the contrary, it is when things are not right that there is the greatest motivation to make improvements.

Stop wishing or waiting for conditions to be perfect. Accept and embrace the situation for what it is, and get busy making positive use of it.

When things go wrong, that’s not the time to complain. It’s the time to innovate and commit to making valuable improvements.

When there’s much that must be done, that’s the very definition of opportunity. Make the effort to make things better, and you can make things great.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-26-11

2011-12-26T09:06:00.002-06:00

Monday, December 26, 2011

Today's Gift

You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called present. -Shifu: Kung Fu Panda

As we approach a new year, many of us feel fear. We look back on the past and worry about the future. But if we remember we only have today, we can work to make that future better. We have found true friends in our fellowship, and this is a time to be with them.

Am I ensuring a fruitful future by working with all I've got today?

Higher Power, I pray for guidance for today and for freedom from worry about tomorrow.

From the book: Day by Day - Second Edition by Anonymous

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Reading is to the Mind, what exercise is to the body.
Good ideas are the seeds that start our growth. Reading is special because we do it when we're alone.
We read in quiet times, when we can think. We can read as fast or as slow as we want. We can mark special words and come back to them again and again. We'll figure things out in our way, but we need help to get started. That's why we read. It gives us good ideas to think about.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, speak to me through helpful readings and help me learn at my best pace.

Action for the Day: Reading is easier the more I do it. Today I'll feel proud that I've read to get my mind thinking in a healthy way.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Gratitude
Gratitude should go forward, rather than backward.
In other words, if you carry the message to still others,
you will be making the best possible repayment for the help given to you.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 29

Thought to Ponder . . .
Grateful is a feeling; gratitude is an action.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Awesome.

********************
Daily Motivation

Creative approach

When you’re faced with a tough problem, get creative. When you’re confronted with a difficult challenge, that’s your chance to take a creative approach.

Don’t get your thoughts bogged down in the difficulty of the situation. Instead, get enthusiastic about the creative possibilities.

Don’t get trapped into overanalyzing what’s already been done. Take advantage of the opportunity you now have, and create a completely new approach.

You never have to be stopped by those who say it can’t be done. With a positive creative approach, it can indeed be done.

Step back, give yourself some perspective, and open your mind to all the possibilities, even the ones that seem outrageous. When you’re confident that you’ll come up with a creative solution, you will.

History is filled with examples of people who have used creativity to turn negative situations into positive value. Get creative, and you can do the same.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-23-11

2011-12-23T08:38:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 23, 2011

Today's Gift

... [To] take something from yourself, to give to another, that is humane and gentle and never takes away as much comfort as it brings again. --Thomas More

We take different kinds of pleasure in giving. Perhaps the purest is the gift to a child so young it doesn't really know who the gift came from; the pure joy that the teddy bear or pull-toy produces is our regard, unmixed by any expectation of return.

When children get older, we want something back from them: gratitude, respect. The gift is less pure. When lovers exchange gifts, their pleasure is often tinged with anxiety: Did I give more than I got? Did I get more than I gave? Or with power: He'll always remember where he got that shirt; she owes me something for the fur jacket.

To friends and relations our gifts reflect many things: our appreciation of their lives, our shared memories, our prosperity. We tend to give in a spirit of self-expression.

Perhaps the closest we can come to a pure gift is an anonymous one; a gift of volunteer work, of blood, or a contribution to a charity. Such a gift which can never be acknowledged or returned by those it comforts can heal our spirits when they are wearied by too much ego.

The gift of myself can be a gift to myself.

From the book: The Promise of a New Day by Karen Casey and Martha Vanceburg

********************************Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple
We not only need to be willing to give, but also to be open to receiving from others.---from On Hope

Many of us took so much from others during our addiction that now we may not want to ask for anything.

We may be afraid to ask for help, so our needs go unmet. In fact, many of us would rather give than receive. In recovery, we need to understand the difference between taking and receiving.

Giving to others is important. So is receiving from others. As we grow spiritually, we learn to accept gifts. The gift of sobriety teaches us this. We need to accept the gifts the world gives us without shame. We are entitled.

Our Higher Power loves us and will give us much if we're willing to receive it.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be receptive to Your gifts. Help me see and believe that I'm entitled to all the happiness of the world.

Action for the Day: I'll think of what a friend has given me. I'll thank this friend.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Not-worrying

None of us has to understand our Higher Power or worry about things beyond our control.
We can indulge ourselves in the luxury of not-worrying.
Any of us can handle just one day; all each of us has to try at is our own job,
our own family life. We don't have to try fixing up the whole world
or understanding what no theologian of any faith has ever understood.
We simply stop messing in our Higher Power's business.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 116

Thought to Ponder . . .
Worry is negative meditation.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
J F T = Just For Today.

********************
Daily Motivation

Be real and be effective

The way to be passionate is to be honest. True passion comes from true purpose.
If you only pretend to be passionate, what have you really accomplished? You’ve merely managed to be ineffective at something you didn’t want to do anyway.
You have the power and the ability to do great things. It just makes sense to direct that power into what really matters.
Why waste your time faking it just so you can look good? You can use your time to follow a sincere and authentic path that will bring you the life you truly desire.
The best way to be is to be real. Anything else is certain to eventually bring frustration and disappointment.
Be real, be honest, and be willing to admit with your words and your actions what is truly important to you. Be real, and live at your most effective and fulfilled level.
— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-22-11

2011-12-22T07:39:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 22, 2011
Today's Gift

There isn't enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the light of one little candle. —Anonymous

Our lives can be like a battle between darkness and light. The darkness might be in our moods when we wake in the morning with feelings of despair. Then we can turn to the light of a prayer for openness: "God help me feel your love and acceptance." The darkness is there when we are tempted to take advantage of a clerk who gives us too much change. Perhaps we tell ourselves, "Everyone does it, it won't matter if I do."

Then the light comes as we remember that this program demands rigorous honesty, and each choice for honesty promotes our growth. The darkness may be when someone we care about is hurt or in danger, and we think, "I have to step in to prevent bad things from happening." Then we turn to our Higher Power for strength to stay in the relationship, but not control it.

Today, I can take a leap of faith by choosing an action and accepting that one small choice for the light makes a difference - even in all the darkness.

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

It is possible to be different and still be right.--Anne Wilson Schaef
Each of us is special. In some ways we're all different. It's a good thing too. We'd be bored if we were all the same. Sometimes though, we try to hide the special things about us. We don't want to be "different."

But the ways that we're different makes us special. Others have a knack of fixing things. Some of us make beautiful art. Others are great with kids. Our Higher Power made us as different, as unique, as beautiful snowflakes.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me use my special gifts the way You want me to. Help me be thankful that You have given me something special to share with others.

Action for the Day: I'll think of one thing about me that's special. I'll talk with someone about it.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Staying Sober
Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out
not to be the grim, wet-blanket experience we had expected!
While we were drinking, a life without alcohol seemed like no life at all.
But for most members of AA, living sober is *really* living -- a joyous experience.
We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking or using.
- Living Sober, Preface

Thought to Ponder . . .
I had to get sober to be amazed.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
B E S T = Been Ejoying Sobriety Today?

********************
Daily Motivation

Embrace the goodness

Today, life is more beautiful and meaningful than it has ever been. Right now, the possibilities for richness and fulfillment are greater than at any other time.

Whatever may seem to have been lost has not really been lost. For the beauty and wonder of it all are still very much alive in your heart.

The frustrations and disappointments are possible only because you are certain of how very good life can be. Life’s goodness is real, and there is no end to how much of that goodness you can continue to create.

Love is your true nature. The more love you give, the richer and more meaningful your life continues to grow.

See the beauty, follow the possibilities, and feel the love as it flows through your world. Remember, again and again, how truly magnificent it all is.

Rise above the petty distractions and live true to the best of who you are. Embrace the goodness and make it ever more abundant.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-21-11

2011-12-21T07:08:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Today's Gift

You can feel only your own feelings, not another person's.

Having empathy for those we love, and being able to share their joys and sorrows, is part of our nature as warm, caring human beings. Taken to an extreme, however, too much empathy can mean that we lose our boundaries as emotionally separate individuals. When that happens, nobody wins.

We're responsible for our own feelings. If we're too deeply involved in another person's emotional state, we may not be truly aware of our own feelings. If we take on someone else's response to a situation, we lose our own in the process.

In any situation, particularly one that is highly charged with negative emotions, we need to maintain a sense of self. If we allow ourselves to be swept up in the anger, fear, grief, or despair of someone close to us, we become less capable of giving help and support. Emotional maturity is one of the goals of recovery. We progress toward it as we differentiate how we feel from how another person appears to feel.

I can respect the feelings of others without making them my own.

From the book Inner Harvest by Elisabeth L.

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Good Orderly Direction

Keeping the Faith with Guidance
Does guidance from our Higher Power always come through? We must believe that it does, even when we don't seem to receive a visible answer.

Spiritual guidance usually doesn't come as we think it should. What we're likely to find instead is that over time, a number of unrelated events come together for a good purpose. Although this appears to be chance or coincidence, very important outcomes often develop from simple happenings___ maybe just from meeting someone on the street.

We can never really determine how any chain of events will play out. The best we can do is to continue seeking guidance while following the highest principles in our program. Many chance happenings will be recognized as guidance when we look back at an entire chain of events.

Action for the Day: My best way to seek guidance is simply to remember today that my life and affairs are in my Higher Power's care and keeping. The highest good will come from this.

**********************

One Day At A Time

Footprints of Hope
Going the whole route looked too hard -- until someone said to me, "One step at a time." So I looked ahead, along the path marked by the footprints of hope, commitment, and action. All around me were many happy, sober people who had walked that path. Listening intently to their stories, I heard some more horrifying than mine . . . It was plain that all these alcoholics had once felt the same hopelessness, fear, pain, and anger I had experienced. It was also obvious that people with drinking troubles like mine could come out of them and -- unbelievable as it seemed at first -- laugh at them!
Reprinted from The Best of the Grapevine (Vol. 2), Page 136, from the Grapevine. Reprinted with permission of The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.

Thought to Ponder....
Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Recovery Related Acronym

S T E P S = Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety.

*********************
Daily Motivation

You can do

You can see, you can feel, you can imagine, and you can create. You can wonder, you can love, you can be amazed, and you can understand.

There is so much you can do. There is so much value you can bring to life in your very own, unique way.

When circumstances bring you down, you don’t have to stay down. You can pick yourself up, and move yourself positively forward, again and again.

What you don’t know, you can learn. What you must have, you can find or create.

You can forge meaningful, lasting connections with others, and greatly multiply the richness in life. You can cooperate and collaborate and bring about magnificent achievements.

Life can be challenging and difficult, and will ask much of you. That’s a great opportunity, because there is so much you can do.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-20-11

2011-12-20T06:26:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Today's Gift

Give to the world all that you have, and the best will come back to you. —Mary Ainge De Vere

When we share something of our own with a friend, it gives both of us a special feeling. Generosity blesses the giver as much as the receiver. Sometimes we feel selfish, wanting to hoard all our treats or treasures. But when we secretly hide them away, we cheat even ourselves from enjoying them.

Giving love and friendship to others works in just the same way. When we express love and kindness to others, we feel more love toward ourselves. Though we may not understand just how it works, we can be certain it does. The more of anything we give away to others, the greater our own rewards will be.

How can I practice generosity today?

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
---Edith Wharton

Our Higher Power is the candle. And our hearts, like a mirror, reflect a warm, loving glow.
But when we used alcohol and other drugs, we tired to be the candle. We wanted to have control. Many of us acted like this to hide how out of control we felt. We never thought we could be happy by admitting we were out of control.

In recovery, we accept that it’s okay to be the mirror. We accept that our Higher Power is the candle that guides us. We want to be the mirror that reflects how much our Higher Power loves us.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for the light and warmth You give me.

Action for the Day: Tonight, I’ll light a candle and place it in front of a mirror. I’ll study how they work together to light the room.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Carrying The Message
Step Twelve, ". . . we tried to carry this message to alcoholics."
What message? Hope. Example. The way out. The way back.
A handful of simple principles to unravel most of our snarled-up problems.
A touch of humor -- not taking ourselves so damned seriously.
Meetings. Availability. Talk, talk, talk.
The willingness to listen with understanding as the still-suffering alcoholic
thrashes his way out of his mental mire.
Tolerance. Guilelessness. . . .
"Carrying the message" is all these things.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2], p. 179

Thought to Ponder . . .
The Twelve Steps -- a manuscript for rational living.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O P E = Helping Other People Every day.

********************
Daily Motivation

The magic in each moment

The gentle rain falls, and life sings a new song. The cool breeze blows, setting all the world in motion with its invisible hand.

The magic in each moment cannot be explained or defined. Yet it is easy and wonderful to feel.

Certainly life can be painful and inconvenient, frustrating and disappointing. Still, it is absolutely worth all the trouble and more.

In each moment there is unique and endless richness, if you’ll merely open yourself to it. Though it is wonderful and beneficial to do more and more, it is also more than enough just to be.

Whatever you have, wherever you are, there is much for which to be thankful. In the ups and downs, in the certainties and in the mysteries, there are always great treasures to be found.

Allow the magic of this moment to fill your awareness and to nourish your spirit. And joyfully realize how truly rich you are.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-19-11

2011-12-19T06:33:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 19, 2011

Today's Gift

Fear is only an illusion. It is the illusion that creates the feeling of separateness - the false sense of isolation that exists only in your imagination. --Jeraldine Sounders

We are only alone in our minds. In reality, we are each contributing necessary parts offering completion to the wholeness of the universe. Our very existence guarantees our equality, which, when fully understood, eases our fears. We have no reason to fear one another's presence, or to fear new situations when we realize that all of us are on equal footing. No one's talents are of greater value than our own, and each of us is talented in ways exactly appropriate to our circumstances.

Freedom from fear is a decision we can choose to make at any time. We can simply give it up and replace it with our understanding of equality with all persons. Taking responsibility for our fear, or our freedom from it, is the first step to a perspective promising healthier emotional development.

If I am fearful today, it's because I have forgotten the reality of my existence. I am equal to all the people in my world, and we are necessary to one another.

From the book The Promise of a New Day by Karen Casey and Martha Vanceburg

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Raising Self-Esteem

The Fear Of Loneliness
The fear of being alone brings strange results. It may cause us to cling to arrangements and relationships that are unsatisfactory or destructive. Some of us become enablers for loved ones who are still drinking; quite often this can involve putting up with abuse we shouldn't have to endure.

We endure such relationships because we fear we'll be alone and defenseless without them. We may even put up with friends who are manipulative or treacherous because we can't visualize having happier, healthier friendships.

When we recognize that we are holding on to unsatisfactory relationships for such reasons, we need to apply the program more diligently in our own lives. Usually, we need more self-esteem--a belief that we deserve satisfactory relationships. We do not have to be alone, but neither do we have to endure what amounts to abuse and rejection.

Action for the Day: WhetherI'm with people or alone today, I'll know that all of my relationships should be satisfactory for everybody involved. I'll let my Higher Power guide me to the relationships that are right for me.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Faith
Believe more deeply.
Hold your face up to the Light,
even though for the moment you do not see.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 3

Thought to Ponder . . .
Faith dares the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F A I T H = Finding Answers In The Heart.

********************
Daily Motivation

With persistence

Persist, and small actions lead to big results. Persist, and you make time work in your favor.

If you give up after the first or second attempt, your level of success will be mediocre at best. When you persist for as long as it takes, you’re able to create magnificent, outstanding achievements.

Persistence is not a complicated or inaccessible strategy. All you have to do is choose to keep going.

After a successful day, instead of resting on your accomplishments, keep going. After a disappointing day, instead of wallowing in self pity, keep going.

Persist, and the small steps forward add together to create great advances. Persist, and even the setbacks will eventually work in your favor.

Set your sights on a worthy, meaningful goal, and persist. With persistence, you can take yourself anywhere you choose.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-16-11

2011-12-16T07:11:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 16, 2011

Today's Gift

Because you're not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are. —Madeleine L'Engle

Sometimes we expect far too much of the people around us, and because no one can ever live up to those expectations, we are almost always disappointed. But wouldn't it be better if we just let go, and let people be who they are? Then we'd be able to see them as they are - with all their beauty and goodness in which we take joy, and with all their faults, which we can also see in ourselves.

When we have put someone up on a pedestal, sculpturing them to fit our needs and desires by smoothing out the rough edges and creating new curves here and there, we cannot see the real person underneath our work. All we see is the illusion we have created. That is denying the person's real identity and is disrespectful. It's much better for our friends and for ourselves if we drop our expectations and illusions, and accept them all just the way they are.

What unfair expectations do I have of others?

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Charity sees the need, not the cause.--German proverb.

Charity is not just giving money to good causes. Charity is having a heart that's ready to give. Charity is helping a friend at two in the morning. Charity is going early to the meeting to put on coffee without being asked.

Service is how Twelve Step programs refer to "Charity". Service and charity are a lifestyle. We see a need, so we try to help. Our values and our heart will guide us in how we help. Service is a big part of our program. Service helps us think of others, not just of ourselves. We stop asking, "What's in it for me?" The act of helping others is what's in it for us. Sobriety is what's in it for us. Serenity is what's in it for us.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You have given me many talents. Help me see how my talents can make the world a better place. Giving of myself is believing in You and myself.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll list my talents and I'll think of ways I can use them to help others.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Changed
In working the program, my life and my old way of thinking have changed.
I have no control over some of the things that happen in my life,
but with the help of my Higher Power I can now choose how I will respond.
Today I choose to be happy and when I'm not,
I have the tools of the program to put me back on track.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 381

Thought to Ponder . . .
My life hereafter is from this moment on.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Awesome.

********************
Daily Motivation

A chance to improve

Don’t see it as a problem. See it as a chance to improve.

You can always learn from where you are, whether it is where you want to be or not. You can always learn from what you attempt, whether it brings the results you intended or not.

Don’t spend a lot of time regretting your mistakes. Instead, transform those mistakes into improvements.

Little by little, day by day, you can constantly make improvements in your life. Very quickly, those improvements add up to create great new value in your world.

When things are going well, be thankful, and harness the energy of your gratitude to make improvements. When times are tough, use the energy of your frustration as a catalyst for making positive improvements.

Gratefully accept what is, and then look for ways to improve it. Keep reaching higher, and you’ll continue moving higher.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-15-11

2011-12-15T06:41:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 15, 2011
Today's Gift

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear. –Buddha

It's okay to have and feel our feelings - all of them.

Many of us needed to shut down the emotional part of ourselves to survive certain situations. We shut down the part of us that feels anger, sadness, fear, joy, and love. We may have turned off our sexual or sensual feelings too. Many of us lived in systems with people who refused to tolerate our emotions. We were shamed or reprimanded for expressing feelings, usually by people who were taught to repress their own.

But times have changed. It is okay now for us to acknowledge and accept our emotions. We don't need to allow our emotions to control us; neither do we need to allow our emotions to control us; neither do we need to rigidly repress our feelings. Our emotional center is a valuable part of us. It's connected to our physical well being, our thinking, and our spirituality.

Our feelings are also connected to that great gift, instinct. They enable us to give and receive love.

We are neither weak nor deficient for indulging in our feelings. It means we're becoming healthy and whole.

Today, I will allow myself to recognize and accept whatever feelings pass through me. Without shame, I will tune in to the emotional part of myself.

********************************
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Happiness is a form of freedom, and of all people I should be the freest. I've earned this happiness and this freedom.--Angela L. Wozniak

Life is a process, and we are progressing beautifully. We are no longer abusing our bodies and minds with drugs. We are taking special time, daily, to look for guidance. We are working the Steps of the program, better and better as the abstinent days add up. We are free from past behaviors. And we can be free from our negative attitudes too.

Making a decision to look for the good in our experiences and in our friends and acquaintances frees us from so much frustration. It ushers in happiness, no only for us but for the others we are treating agreeably. Happiness is a byproduct of living the right kind of life.

We can take a moment today, each time an action is called for, to consider our response. The one that squares with our inner selves and feels good, is the right one. Happiness will accompany it.

Action for the Day: Happiness is always within my power. My attitude is at the helm.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Solitude
When we cease to fear loneliness
and begin to cherish and use our solitude to advantage,
we have come a long way.
We realize a little solitude is necessary
to think and to try to work some of the Steps.
In solitude, we take our inventories.
In solitude, we admit the exact nature of our wrongs.
In solitude, our spirits seek that Power greater than we are;
in solitude, we seek through prayer and meditation to be aware of our Higher Power's will for us.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 109

Thought to Ponder . . .
The stillness of our Higher Power speaks louder than a choir of voices.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O P E = Heart Open; Please Enter.

********************
Daily Motivation

Make life good

Your resentment gives more power and influence to whatever you resent. Is that really what you want?

There’s no reason why a negative situation has to make you negative. You always have plenty of other options.

You don’t have to let your attitude be poisoned by other people, situations, or events. You can choose a positive, powerful perspective no matter what.

You don’t have to let your life be thrown into a turmoil by every little thing that happens. Instead, you can decide to be directed by a deep and abiding sense of true purpose.

Remember who you are, and why you are, and what’s important to you. Focus a little more on what matters, and a little less on what just arbitrarily comes your way.

Live on purpose, live with purpose, and with constant, loving attention to that purpose. You can make life good in your own way no matter what.

— Ralph Marston

Ed Negron's Daily Motivation 12-14-11

2011-12-14T06:34:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Today's Gift

Each day comes bearing its gifts. Untie the ribbons. —Ann Ruth Schabacker

Today will be filled with surprises, big ones and small ones, like the gifts at a birthday party. Maybe we'll see a friend we haven't seen for a while. Or we'll find something we thought was lost. Whatever happens today will be special, and is meant to help us grow in just the right way.

Growing up doesn't always feel easy. We're expected to be more responsible and thoughtful of others. We're expected to be honest about our feelings and needs. If we're angry or scared, we need to tell someone. Sharing our secret about being afraid relieves us of the fear, and we feel lighter, happier, like after opening a special gift.

When I receive today's gifts, will I stop to appreciate them?

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is broken winged bird that cannot fly.
--Langston Hughes

Many of our dreams died as our addiction got worse. We felt the loss but couldn't speak it. With recovery, we regain our ability to dream. Dreams of sharing our lives with family and friends return. They push out thoughts of getting high. Dreams of pride and self-respect reappear. They replace the awful feeling of shame. Like the quote above says, "Hold fast to dreams...." Our dreams are our wishes for the future.
They hold a picture of who we want to be. In our dreams, we let our spirits soar. Often, we felt close to our Higher Power, others and ourselves. Thank God, we can dream again.

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks to you, my wings have been mended. Guide me as I fly.

Action for the Day: Today, I'll take time out to dream and share my dream with those I love.

**********************

One Day At A Time

Sanity
Step Two is the rallying point for all of us.
Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand together on this Step.
True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith,
and every AA meeting is an assurance that our Higher Power will restore us to sanity
if we rightly relate ourselves to Them.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 13

Thought to Ponder . . .
I sit at a meeting until the bus of sanity comes by; then, I climb aboard.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.

*********************
Daily Motivation

Figure it out

Life can be complicated, frustrating, unfair and highly arbitrary, and that can make it extremely difficult to know what’s best to do. Yet you have the ability, and the opportunity, to figure it out.

Plenty of people will be happy to give you advice, and much of that advice can be quite valuable. No one, however, can consider that advice from your unique perspective and apply it to your life as well as you can.

If you always depend on someone else to tell you what to do, your life will be long on resentment and frustration, and short on fulfillment. To enjoy real success and achievement, you must spend the time and effort to figure it out for yourself.

It is a serious, essential responsibility, and if you choose to see it as a burden, it will be. Yet you can just as realistically choose to see it as an opportunity, for it is truly a powerful and amazing one.

The fact is, you are fully capable of taking the initiative and figuring out the strategic direction for your work and your life. Though you never have to go it alone, you must have your very own clear and unambiguous sense of direction to which you’re fully committed.

This is your life to live and your chance to create outstanding, meaningful and delightful value. Figure out what will move your own world forward, and find real joy and fulfillment in making it happen.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-13-11

2011-12-13T06:41:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Today's Gift

To heal ourselves is a reclamation of the power we all have as living beings to live in harmony with the life energy and to fulfill our potential as creatures among many on this planet. —Chellis Glendinning

We live in a world that tells us healing only comes from outside ourselves. To some, it may seem odd to think each of us has the ability to heal ourselves.

How is this possible? Easy - we can do it if we believe we can. Whatever we believe we cannot do will remain beyond our ability. But believing we can heal ourselves gives us access to many healing ways. Self-acceptance is healing. Singing, playing, walking by a river are healing. Even helping others with their problems can be healing to us. There are as many ways of self-healing as there are people in the world. Once we experience what is healing for us, we can go on to discover many more healing acts to share with others.

What healing things do I like to do?

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Occupation is essential. --Virginia Woolf
Having desires, setting goals, and achieving them are necessary to our fulfillment. There is purpose to our lives, even when we can't clearly see our direction; even when we doubt our abilities to contribute. Let us continue to respond to our opportunities.

Many of us experienced the clouds of inaction in earlier periods waiting, waiting, waiting, hoping our circumstances would change, even praying they would, but taking no responsibility for changing what was in our power. Inaction caged us. Stripped of power, life held little or no meaning. However, we've been given another chance... We have a reason for living, each day, even the days we feel hopeless and worthless.

Maybe we are without a goal at this time. Perhaps the guidance is not catching our attention. We can become quiet with ourselves and let our daydreams act as indicators. We have something essential to do, and we are being given all the chances we'll need to fulfill our purpose. We can trust in our worth, our necessity to others.

Action for the Day: I will remember, ... I must have a part to play. I will look and listen for my opportunities today.

***********************

One Day At A Time

Awakening
The realization that even I had experienced something spiritual
was in itself a spiritual experience,
and I am only slowly understanding its implications.
What happened in the past, without my knowledge, is probably continuing now.
And in the future, when tomorrow becomes today, it can go on and on.
All that is required is a desire to stop drinking/drugging and to stay stopped.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2], pp. 193-194

Thought to Ponder . . .
A spiritual awakening is our greatest gift.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G I F T S = Getting It From The Steps.

********************
Daily Motivation

See the goal

See the goal clearly and you make it less distant. See the goal passionately and you make it more real.

See the goal in rich detail and you’ll figure out how you can get there. See the goal from the perspective of your life and your purpose, and you’ll understand why you must get there.

Simply visualizing the goal will not make it happen. Yet it will indeed make you make it happen.

Every moment you live, you have an influence on life. A clearly defined goal will focus all those momentary influences into meaningful achievement.

See the goal, and see what you must do. See the goal, not only with your eyes but with all you are, and you’ll understand why it matters.

See the goal, and as soon as you do, you begin to live it. See the goal, and make it real.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-12-11

2011-12-12T06:22:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 12, 2011

Today's Gift

If I am to be remembered, I hope it is for the honesty I try to demonstrate, the patience I try to live by, and the compassion I feel for others. —JoAnn Reed

Each of us hopes we are leaving a lasting, positive impression on those we befriend and maybe even those we encounter by chance. Having others speak well of us provides the strokes that are often necessary to our "keeping on" when difficulties surface. What we sometimes forget is that we are responsible for whatever lasting impression we leave. Our behavior does influence what another person carries away from our mutual experience.

We may have left unfavorable impressions during our using days. On occasion, we do yet. However, it's progress, not perfection, we're after. And each day we begin anew, with a clear slate and fresh opportunities to spread good cheer, to treat others with love and respect, to face head-on and with full honesty all situations drawing our attention and participation.

As I look forward to the hours ahead, I will remember that I control my actions toward others. If I want to be remembered fondly, I must treat each person so.

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Responsible attitudes.

Keep the Focus on Personal Responsibility
Alcoholics often try to shift responsibility to others. We once thought it was possible to blame others for our drinking, and we had sneaky ways of manipulating family members so they would feel guilty and comply with our demands.

In sober living, we must not allow ourselves to slip back into this mode of thinking. Keeping the focus on personal responsibility is our best way of approaching all problems. "What is my responsibility in this?" is a good question to ask in evaluating our part in situations.

We are always responsible for our own sobriety. Beyond that, we're also responsible for maintaining good attitudes and making sure that our own anger and pride do not make any situation worse than it already is.

Action for the Day: I'll be responsible today for my own thoughts, feelings, and actions. If any stressful issue or situation arises, I'll keep my focus on personal responsibility.

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One Day At A Time

Acceptance
It is only by accepting and solving our problems
that we can begin to get right with ourselves and with the world around us,
and with Him who presides over us all.
Understanding is the key to right principles and attitudes,
and right action is the key to good living...
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 125

Thought to Ponder . . .
Joy is in knowing there is an answer.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue.

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Daily Motivation

Let yourself enjoy

Let yourself be. Let yourself enjoy.

Let yourself see and participate, know and feel, listen and understand. Let yourself live the brilliant richness that shines through even the smallest details of this very time and place.

Let go of the worries, the fears, the grievances, insecurities and inhibitions. Simply and lovingly live the beauty of this day.

Without judgment as to whether it is difficult or easy, popular or unpopular, do what you know is right, and what you feel is right for you. Let yourself be curious, in awe, inspired and in love with the ineffable reality of existence.

Live authentically as the unique person you really, truly are. Allow the fulfillment that naturally comes when you let all you do come from the best of who you are.

Let yourself be joyful, and generous with your joy, just because you can, and just because it feels so good. Right now, let yourself live in the best, most positive way you can imagine.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-9-11

2011-12-09T06:46:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 9, 2011

Today's Gift

To do nothing is failure. To try, and in the trying you make some mistakes and then you make some positive changes as a result of those mistakes, is to learn and to grow and to blossom. —Darlene Larson Jenks

Life is a process, one that is continuously changing. And with each change, we are offered unexpected opportunities for growth. Change is what fosters our development as women. It encourages us to risk new behavior and may even result in some mistakes. Fortunately, no mistakes can seriously hinder us. In fact, most mistakes give us an additional opportunity to learn.

Where we stand today is far removed from our position last year, or even last week. Each and every moment offers us new input that influences any decision from this moment forward. The process that we're participating in guarantees our growth as long as we remain conscious of our opportunities and willingly respond to them. We can be glad that the life process is, in fact, never static. always moving, always inviting us to participate fully.

I will have the courage to make a mistake today. It's a promise of growth.

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Walk In Dry Places

Self-acceptance.

Fixing things that aren't broken
At the beginning of our AA sobriety, we were reminded that we were not reformers. Yet we sometimes have a tendency to want to "reform" ourselves or others after we've established sobriety.

This can become a practice of "fixing things that aren't broken". We may not realize it, but many things in our lives and personalities were always all right, all along. In believing that we should be changed, we may be taking on the opinions of someone else. There might be no need for change at all.

We also may be trying to please people who disapproved of us. Perhaps we're trying to obtain the affection of a parent who always rejected us. But if we're already on a spiritual path and are living rightly, there's no need for change. We'd be trying to fix something that isn't broken.

Action for the day: I'll accept myself and others as we are today. We are not out to reform anyone, including ourselves.

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One Day At A Time

Honesty
I always thought honesty had something to do with telling other people the truth.
It was explained that it had to do first with telling myself the truth.
I spent most of my life worrying about myself,
thinking that I was unwanted, that I was unloved.
I've learned since being in AA that the more I worry about me loving you,
and the less I worry about you loving me, the happier I'll be.
- Experience, Strength and Hope, p. 218

Thought to Ponder . . .
Honesty isn't an event -- it's a process.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.

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Daily Motivation

Value in the doing

The reward is rewarding because you have earned it. It is the work that goes into the planting and cultivation that makes the harvest worth celebrating.

Your effort is what makes your opportunities come to life. Fulfillment has meaning precisely because of the work it demands.

Practice and commitment are what make your skills and abilities yours to use. Discipline and focused effort are what make the achievements worth achieving.

No effort, no job, no task is beneath you. For with each effort comes a new opportunity to enrich your life and your world.

Sure, the task may be difficult. Instead of worrying or complaining about how difficult it is, think about the value it enables you to create.

Embrace the challenge, jump into the effort, and work your way through the difficulties. There is great value in the doing, and now is your opportunity to bring that value to life.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-8-11

2011-12-08T06:25:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Today's Gift

We are Divine enough to ask and we are important enough to receive. --Wayne Dyer

Valuing Our Needs

When we don't ask for what we want and need, we discount ourselves. We deserve better.

Maybe others taught us it wasn't polite or appropriate to speak up for ourselves. The truth is, if we don't, our unmet wants and needs may ultimately come back to haunt our relationships. We may end up feeling angry or resentful, or we may begin to punish someone else for not guessing what we need. We may end the relationship because it doesn't meet our needs.

Intimacy and closeness are only possible in a relationship when both people can say what they want and need. Sustained intimacy demands this.

Sometimes, we may even have to demand what we want. That's called setting a boundary. We do this not to control another person, but to gain control of our life.

Our attitude toward our needs is important too. We must value them and take them seriously if we expect others to take us seriously. When we begin to place value and importance on our needs we'll see a remarkable change. Our wants and needs will begin to get met.

Today, I will respect the wants and needs of others and myself. I will tell others, my Higher Power, and myself what I want and need. I will listen to what they want and need too.

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring. --Dodie Smith

Repeatedly, today and every day, we will be in new situations, new settings with old friends, and old settings and situations with new friends. Each instance is fresh, unlike all the times before. And inspiration can accompany each moment, if we but recognize how special it is.
"We will not pass this way again," so the song says, which heightens the meaning of each encounter, every experience. Acknowledging that something can be gained each step along the way invites inspiration.

Inspiration moves us to new heights. We will be called to step beyond our present boundaries. Maybe today. Whenever the inspiration catches our attention, we can trust its invitation; we are ready for the challenge it offers. We need not let our narrow, personal expectations of an experience, a new situation perhaps, prevent us from being open to all the dynamic possibilities it offers.

Action for the Day: I must be willing to let my whole self be moved, inspired. I must be willing to let each moment I experience be the only moment getting my attention.

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One Day At A Time

Action
In shame and despair, I went to my first AA meeting.
By some minor miracle, I was able to suspend opinion, analysis, judgment,
and criticism, and instead to listen and hear.
I heard someone say that AA works for those who work for it,
and those who put action into the program. . .
I tried it, and it worked.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 42

Thought to Ponder . . .
Learn to listen; listen to learn.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Accountable Actions.

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Daily Motivation

Be amazed

Don’t be ashamed to be amazed. Life is wondrous and amazing, so let yourself experience that amazement to its fullest extent.

Even the most ordinary aspects of your life are really quite amazing. Think about the amazing things that have become commonplace and familiar, and be amazed again.

Though you’ve explored and fulfilled many great possibilities, there are even more possibilities to bring to life. Consider the best of them, and feel your sense of amazement grow.

The fact that you can feel anything at all is itself the height of amazement. Let that amazement lift your spirit and open your senses to the ever-expanding possibilities.

Even when it seems that you’ve seen it all, you’ve really only seen a small fraction. Live with amazement, and you’ll experience much, much more.

Be amazed, and be a conduit for life’s most positive, creative energy. Be amazed, and be richly and delightfully alive.

— Ralph Marston

Daily Motivation 12-7-11

2011-12-07T08:03:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Today's Gift

Only people who have joyfully accepted themselves can take all the risks and responsibilities of being themselves. —John Powell

If we have ever gone to school with a black eye, we know how embarrassing it can be. We feel self-conscious and ill at ease. Friends come up to us one after another to ask how we got it. We may want to stay away from people until the eye is better. All of us have things about ourselves we have a hard time accepting. It doesn't have to be as unusual as a black eye. We may think we're too big, too little, too slow, not good readers, not good looking enough, or not popular enough.

We may need to talk about these things with someone else, so these bits of ourselves we don't accept won't limit our freedom to grow. By talking to another, we may find those traits aren't noticed by anyone but ourselves. We may also find that what we once thought of as weak points can be turned to strengths.

What weakness can I turn to a strength today?

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Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

Each day provides its own gifts. --Ruth P. Freedman
We are guaranteed experiences that are absolutely right for us today. We are progressing on schedule. Even when our personal hopes are unmet, we are given the necessary opportunities for achieving those goals that complement our unique destinies.

Today is full of special surprises, and we will be the recipient of the ones which are sent to help us grow--in all the ways necessary for our continued recovery. We might not consider every experience a gift at this time. But hindsight will offer the clarity lacking at the moment, just as it has done in many instances that have gone before.

We are only offered part of our personal drama each day. But we can trust our lives to have many scenes, many acts, points of climax, and a conclusion. Each of us tells a story with our lives, one different from all other stories and yet necessary to the telling of many other stories too. The days ahead will help us tell our story. Our interactions with others will influence our outcomes and theirs. We can trust the drama and give fully to our roles.

Action for the Day: Every day is a gift exchange. I give, and I will receive.

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One Day At A Time

Challenges
Life is meant to be lived by facing the challenges it brings.
Otherwise, I'm not living, just existing.
My Higher Power didn't give me this gift of sobriety to sit in a rocking chair,
imagining myself as some wise old woman who has arrived somewhere.
There is no easier, softer way. . . .
The teaching I receive in AA about courage and love
helps me to continue to grapple with the challenges of life
as they are given to me, one day at a time.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 3], p. 320

Thought to Ponder . . .
Sobriety is a gift, the price of which is eternal vigilance.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Aware.

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Daily Motivation

In this unique moment

This is a precious and irreplaceable day in your unique, one-of-a-kind life. Make sure to make good and worthy use of it.

This is your chance to live with richness, meaning and fulfillment. This is when you can joyfully express the outstanding beauty and value of who you are.

This is your time to imagine the very best of what is possible, and then to make it happen. This is when you can give real, meaningful substance to your life.

Today is the culmination of all you’ve ever been. Today is the beginning of the best that you can be.

In this unique moment be true, be honest, be authentic, and be joyful. Let your life come more fully to life than ever before.

This is your day, your moment to live, so do it with passion and purpose and love.

— Ralph Marston