Monday, April 1, 2019
Today's Gift
To be wildly enthusiastic, or deadly serious--both are wrong. Both pass. One must keep ever present a sense of humor. --Katherine Mansfield
How familiar wild enthusiasm and deadly seriousness are to most of us. We experience life within the extremes. The thrill of wild enthusiasm we try to trap, to control. We are exhilarated and feel good. Our serious side traps us, controls us, lowers a pall on all our activities. Both expressions keep us stuck. Neither expression allows the freedom of spontaneity so necessary to a full, healthy life.
Through our addiction--the liquor, the upper, the person, the food--we were searching for a feeling we didn't feel. We were searching for an unnatural state of happiness, even perhaps wild enthusiasm, because we had so little of any enthusiasm for life. Our search failed. Again and again we'd "catch it," only to have it elude us.
Action for the Day: Today will offer me a chance to be wildly enthusiastic and a chance to be deadly serious. I'll try to focus on the middle ground and cultivate my sense of humor.
Causes and Conditions
Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action, the first step of
which is a personal housecleaning, which many of us had never attempted.
Though our decision was a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent
effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of,
the things in ourselves which had been blocking us. Our dysfunction was but a symptom.
So we had to get down to causes and conditions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) pp. 63 - 64
Thought to Ponder
Delay is dangerous, and rebellion may be fatal.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
Beyond you
Any idea, person or object can be a Medicine Wheel, a mirror for people. The tiniest flower can be such a mirror, as can a wolf, a story, a touch, a religion, or a mountaintop. —Hyemeyohsts Storm
The ancient spiritual teachings of the Cheyenne Indians tell us that we meet ourselves in almost everything we confront. A group of people spending a night on a mountaintop will each have a different experience. One may be overcome with a sense of awe, another may spend every moment gripped by fear, and another may sleep the night away. While the mountain is the same, each has brought them self to it and has a different experience. When we meet an animal, feel a touch, or take a hike down the street, we see a reflection of ourselves and of humanity.
This day is a Medicine Wheel for each of us. Our response to today's circumstances will tell us more about ourselves. We need not waste energy judging ourselves harshly, but learn from our feelings and reactions. Our reflections point the way for further growth.
Today, I will look for my own reflection in what I meet and for the reflection of all humanity.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©
From: Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation - Thought for the Day http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/recovery/thought-for-the-day
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Keep It Simple
How familiar wild enthusiasm and deadly seriousness are to most of us. We experience life within the extremes. The thrill of wild enthusiasm we try to trap, to control. We are exhilarated and feel good. Our serious side traps us, controls us, lowers a pall on all our activities. Both expressions keep us stuck. Neither expression allows the freedom of spontaneity so necessary to a full, healthy life.
Through our addiction--the liquor, the upper, the person, the food--we were searching for a feeling we didn't feel. We were searching for an unnatural state of happiness, even perhaps wild enthusiasm, because we had so little of any enthusiasm for life. Our search failed. Again and again we'd "catch it," only to have it elude us.
We may not have given up the search. But we will come to accept both states of mind as temporary and search instead for the middle ground. A sense of humor will make all of life's loads easier to bear. A sense of humor will offer us the balance that has been missing for so many years.
Action for the Day: Today will offer me a chance to be wildly enthusiastic and a chance to be deadly serious. I'll try to focus on the middle ground and cultivate my sense of humor.
From: Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums Daily Recovery Readings - http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2
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One Day At A Time
Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action, the first step of
which is a personal housecleaning, which many of us had never attempted.
Though our decision was a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent
effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of,
the things in ourselves which had been blocking us. Our dysfunction was but a symptom.
So we had to get down to causes and conditions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) pp. 63 - 64
Thought to Ponder
Delay is dangerous, and rebellion may be fatal.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A B C = Accept, Begin, Continue
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net)
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
by Ralph Marston
Let go of the empty thoughts that revolve only around yourself. Let in a sense of pure wonder and awe for the whole of existence.
Don’t let your small ego deprive you of connection to the massive splendor in which you’re immersed. Choose the power of a perspective that encompasses all that is, and all that ever has been.
There is so very much substance, energy, knowledge, beauty, goodness, and wisdom in the vast realm that exists beyond your own limited concerns. Keep yourself open to all that abundance, to all its possibilities.
Look up at the night sky, and realize that some of the light just now reaching your eyes has traveled for thousands of years to get to you. Feel the vastness that is impossible to fully grasp.
Give yourself a perspective that enables you to quickly transcend all the petty, meaningless noise. Inspire yourself with a sense of wonder and awe that directs your energy toward those things that matter most.
By realizing how small you are compared to all that is, you can understand what a tremendous opportunity it is to be alive in every moment. Over and over again, you can create real goodness and value from that opportunity.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
Let go of the empty thoughts that revolve only around yourself. Let in a sense of pure wonder and awe for the whole of existence.
Don’t let your small ego deprive you of connection to the massive splendor in which you’re immersed. Choose the power of a perspective that encompasses all that is, and all that ever has been.
There is so very much substance, energy, knowledge, beauty, goodness, and wisdom in the vast realm that exists beyond your own limited concerns. Keep yourself open to all that abundance, to all its possibilities.
Look up at the night sky, and realize that some of the light just now reaching your eyes has traveled for thousands of years to get to you. Feel the vastness that is impossible to fully grasp.
Give yourself a perspective that enables you to quickly transcend all the petty, meaningless noise. Inspire yourself with a sense of wonder and awe that directs your energy toward those things that matter most.
By realizing how small you are compared to all that is, you can understand what a tremendous opportunity it is to be alive in every moment. Over and over again, you can create real goodness and value from that opportunity.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
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