February 1

Wisdom for Today
One day I woke up and suddenly realized that I knew how to stay clean and sober. As long as I walked the walk, I knew I could make it. I was no longer worried about whether I could stay that way. But this was only the beginning. As I continued to work the steps, I also found new friends in the program. I wasn’t lonely anymore. I had found a new camaraderie and fellowship. I found new relationships with my family – not all of them, but most of my family. The barriers and walls I had built had been torn down. There was a new happiness in my heart.
I also found that many of my troubles and life's problems had either disappeared or diminished to the point that they no longer bothered me. Even my shortcomings were becoming less problematic. They had not vanished into thin air, but I found that I was behaving differently and no longer relied on my defects of character as a means to cope with life. I found that I was dealing with life differently. I found that I was different. God had done a lot to change my life and me. Am I starting to see the benefits of living the program?
Meditations for the Heart
I used to be filled with alcohol and drugs. Now I am filled with my Higher Power. I carry Him on the inside. He is also all around me and walks with me on this journey called recovery. With God on the inside and on the outside, He can see me as no other can. He knows the inner workings of my heart and mind. He sees what I do and how I behave. He is there and reminds me when I still fall short. He is also there to pick me up when I stumble on the path of life. He has given me new goals in life and has shown me the way. Can I see that my Higher Power’s way is the best way?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
Sometimes I get frustrated when other people don’t understand me, but You never frustrate me in this way. You know everything there is to know about me. You know me on the inside and on the outside. You know me even better than I know myself. Help me today to trust Your understanding and to look to You for guidance on this pathway of life. Let me continue to use the program in all that I do today.
Amen.

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You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Learning

In this program, we never stop learning. It takes time to absorb the OA way of life. Some of us start with great enthusiasm, expecting perfection all at once. When we do not achieve it, we are sometimes tempted to give up and go back to the old, self-destructive way of eating the wrong kinds of food in the wrong amounts.

One of the most important things we learn in OA is patience with ourselves. We seek progress, not perfection. We work for it one step at a time, one day at a time. Our Higher Power accepts us and loves us as we are right now, today. By turning our lives over to Him and humbly asking for guidance, we become receptive to His teaching.

As we grow - lowly--we learN from our mistakes even more than from our successes. We are willing to be again as little children, and we are willing to accept suggestions and help from those who have had more experience and time in the program. We do not have to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. We can learn the new way of life if we will walk into it patiently and slowly.

Open my body, mind, and heart to Your teaching, Lord.

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February 1

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
It's not enough to talk to plants, you also have to listen. --David Bergman
Plants grow best when we pay attention to them. That means watering, touching them, putting them in places where they will receive good light. They need people around them to notice if they are drooping at the edges or looking particularly happy in the sunlight. The more attention a plant receives, the better it will grow.
We need to be noticed in the same way. If we notice a family member or friend is drooping, perhaps we can pay some special attention to him or her. All of us need someone to care about how we are and to truly listen to us. We can share and double someone's happiness by noticing and talking about it also. We help the people around us to grow by listening to their droopy edges as well as their bright days. People need this as much as plants need light and water.
How can I help someone grow today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults. --Peter De Vries
Many of us, in entering recovery, are confronted with guilt about our roles as fathers. We can see so clearly with hindsight that we could have been better parents. Others of us recall the unfairness of our own parents and find it hard to forgive them.
This mixture of guilt and resentment is part of the package of recovery. If we remained the same and never learned anything new, we wouldn't have to feel guilty about the past or face our need to let go of resentments. Our spiritual renewal requires that we forgive ourselves and accept the forgiveness of those around us. Even today our children are not helped by our guilt, but they will be helped - at any age - by our amended lives. And all generations are enriched when we are able to repair broken connections with our parents.
I can accept the increased consciousness that recovery brings without punishing myself for what I didn't know.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.

You were there when I needed you. You stood above all of the others with your strength and you guided me. To each of you I offer my being, my love and all that I am. --Deidra Sarault
Each of us is guided while we act as guides to one another, throughout the day, throughout our lives. We are interdependent. Everywhere we look, someone is learning from us and we from her. We often know not what we give, when we give it. And we seldom realize the value of what we're receiving at the time we accept it.
Resistance to what another person is offering us may be our natural response. But the passage of time highlights the value of the experience. We can look for the comforters in our lives. They are there offering us strength and hope enough to see us through any difficulty.
We need both the rough times and the soft shoulders of a friend. They contribute equally to the designs our lives are weaving. The rough times press us to pray, to reach out to others for solace. And our pain gives others the chance to heal our wounds. We are all healers offering strength. And we all need healing.
One of the greatest gifts of my recovery is giving and receiving strength.


You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Step Two
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. --Step Two of Al-Anon
We come to believe in a better life through the powerful gift of other people - hearing them, seeing them, and watching the gift of recovery at work in their lives.
There is a Power greater than us. There is real hope now that things can and will be different and better for our life and us.
We are not in a "do it ourselves" program. We do not have to exert willpower to change. We do not have to force our recovery to happen. We do not have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps just so we believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves - one who will get the job done in our life. This Power will do for us what your greatest and most diligent efforts could not accomplish.
Our Higher Power will restore us to a sane and beneficial life. All we do is believe.
Look. Watch. See the people around you. See the healing they have found. Then discover your own faith, your own belief, your own healing.
Today, regardless of my circumstances, I will believe to the best of my ability that a Power greater than myself can and will restore me to a peaceful, sane way of living. Then I will relax and let Him do that.


I know that one step at a time I am making progress today. I am grateful for all my growth, even though it is not always very obvious. --Ruth Fishel

God help me to stay sober and clean today!

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http://www.meditationsforwomen.com/meditations/?p=813

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More Language Of Letting Go

Say woohoo

I put on my skydiving gear and headed for the airplane. Here I was again, ready to go. My hands were already sweating. I could feel the quiver in my lip. Why did I keep doing this to myself?
Once I boarded the airplane, I started what had become a routine for me. I don't have to do this, I told myself. I'm volunteering to skydive. It's not mandatory. Not wanting to overly embarras myself in front of the other, more experienced skydivers. I coped with my anxiety by fidgeting. I fidgeted with the altimeter on my hand. I fidgeted with the strap on my helmet.
I wanted to tell my jump master I couldn't jump because I was having a heart attack, but I knew he wouldn't believe me. It was just anxiety, fear building up to an unmanageable, uncontrollable level.
A friend was sitting across from me, watching. "How are you doing, Mel?" he asked.
"Scared," I said.
"Do you say woohoo?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"When you get to the door and jump, say woohoo," he said. "You can't have a bad time if you do."
I walked to the door of the plane, hoisted myself out, and waited for the nod from my jump master, signaling that he was ready for the count.
"Ready," I said. "Set." Then with all my might, I yelled, "WOOHOO," so loud the skydivers in the back of the plane heard me.
My jump master followed me out of the plane and then positioned himself in front of me. I looked at him and grinned. Then I grinned some more. So this is why I'm doing this, I thought. Because it's so much fun.
It was the best jump I'd had yet.
We're jumping into the unknown, when we have a baby or a new job.
Sometimes, however, we don't choose our experience. I can recall sitting on the edge of the bed in the hospital room after Shane's death, knowing that the journey I was about to embark upon would not be an exhilarating one. God, I don't want to go through this, I thought. It's not going to be over in three months or a year. This one I'll live with the rest of my life. I can remember standing in the parking lot outside the courthouse after my divorce from the children's father. I took one deep breath, feeling exhilarated and free. The next one was filled with terror and dread. My God, I was now a dirt-poor single parent with two children to raise.
Sometimes we jump out that door voluntarily. Sometimes we're pushed.
Feel your fear, then let it go. Dread is just a prejudice against the future. After having examined all the possibilites, we decide ahead of time that we're going to have the worst experience possible. So let go of dread,too.
Fidget if you must. Ask yourself what you're doing here. Then walk to the door and give the count. See how much fun it can be when you jump into the unknown and feel the rush of being fully alive.

God, help me take a deep breath and holler woohoo.

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Sharing with Your Neighbors
Constructive Connections

Take time to connect with people in your neighborhood to help build a vital community. Co-create, share, plan and spend time together.


Many of our relationships can be fleeting or do not deepen past a superficial level, yet these connections, as trivial as they can seem, often have the potential to grow into something much more essential. When we crave community, we should focus our attention on these casual acquaintances. To forge a bond with neighbors, we need to work together with them so that we have a context from which to begin a more mature relationship. Sharing tasks that are part of living can be a wonderful way to become a part of a larger community, make new friends, and lighten the workloads of everyone involved.

Creating a network of neighbors who agree to pool certain resources and share daily duties can be as easy as taking the initiative. If you are willing to take the first step by reaching out to the individuals and families who share your building or your street, you will likely find that others are receptive to the notion. Starting small, with just a few people, can help you orchestrate a smoothly running system. Together, you will need to decide what chores you want to do communally and what resources can be shared. Ideas for community sharing are child care, errands, housework, keeping a joint garden, cooking for the group, and carpooling. For instance, if you cook large meals for four neighbors once a week, you take off four nights after that. As you grow to trust one another, you can begin adding new members to your evolving network or introducing new tasks to your shared roster of duties.

Actions speak louder than words, so working closely with neighbors to ensure the well-being of the group can be a wonderful way to build a sense of community in your locale. Not everyone you approach will be open to the idea of becoming a part of a network of sharing. As you connect with those who do appreciate the merits of such a system, you will discover that others are just as eager as you are to create interpersonal connections that are defined by substance. Published with permission from Daily OM