Peace and Happiness

There is a door to man's heart; it is either closed or open.
When he holds a thing and says, 'This is mine,' he closes the door to his heart; but when he shares his goods with others and says, 'This is yours as well as mine,' this opens his heart.
We must learn consideration for others; it does not matter whether they are rich or poor.
We may have only one slice of bread, but when there is another sitting by our side we share that slice with him.
By doing this, even if our bodily appetite remains unsatisfied, our heart is filled with joy to think that we shared our happiness with another.
It is this spirit which is necessary just now to change the condition of the world, not political and commercial disputes.
We must be awakened to the main truth, that the happiness and peace of each can only be the happiness and peace of all.

The soul feels suffocated when the doors of the heart are closed. -- Bowl of Saki

Concern, Compassion, Consideration

None of us can ever fathom the glories and the uncharted regions of the universe. But we can live on earth and love one another. We can let in the beginnings of concern, compassion, consideration, and watch ourselves grow. With the tools and guideposts of Alcoholics Anonymous, we can learn a little of this precious gift -- our gateway to human spirituality.

Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional, growing spiritually is up to you.

Demands

If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency and its consequent unhealthy demand.  Let us, with God's help, continually surrender these hobbling demands.  Then we can be set free to live and love...

I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine.

Secrets

That meeting was a turning point for me. An overwhelming sense of honesty entered my heart. I didn't have to keep secrets any longer, and I surrendered fully.
I prayed that God would do for me what I couldn't do for myself.
The miracle occurred.

-- James

The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.

You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

The Magic Day

Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are. -- Nkosi Johnson, Twelve-year-old Zulu boy, living with AIDS

In order to make someone else happy or convince myself that someday my life would, as if by magic, get better, I have put my life on hold.
I know now that it didn't work.

The magic day never came, and I was waiting and hoping for happiness that was never going to come.
I am worthy of being happy, of having people love me the way I want to be loved, and of making my own choices about what happens to me.

It's my life. Today I take it back.

Time to Break Free by Judith R. Smith

Perfection

I never have been and never can be perfect. As that realization became a part of me, it brought me one of the greatest of the many blessings that have come to me from AA. I learned to accept myself as a fallible human being. Mistakes are permissible. . . And what a comfort that thought is to me, as I make my bemused way through life,one foot in a bucket, pushing on doors marked "Pull."

Tides of Life

I realized that I had to separate my sobriety from everything else that was going on in my life.
No matter what happened or didn't happen, I couldn't drink.
In fact, none of these things I was going through had anything to do with my sobriety; the tides of life flow endlessly for better or worse, both good and bad, and I cannot allow my sobriety become dependent on these ups and downs of living.

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.

Sponsors

Sponsors have been there, and they often have more concern, hope, compassion, and confidence for us than we have for ourselves.
They certainly have had more experience. Remembering their own condition, they reach out to help, not down.

A recovering alcoholic without a sponsor is much like a ship without a rudder.

E S H = Experience, Strength and Hope.

Values

I stood off and took a long look at life and the values I found in it: I saw a paradox, that he who loses his life does indeed find it. The more you give, the more you get. The less you think of yourself the more of a person you become.



Humility is not thinking less of myself, but thinking of myself less.

Living in the Present

One day at a time,

This is enough.

Do not look back and grieve over the past.

For it is gone. . .

And do not be troubled about the future.

For it has not yet come.

Live in the present, and make it so beautiful.

That it will be worth remembering.

Prayer

Prayer is then the first and most important step.
All through the life of faith one must resort constantly to prayer, because faith is not simply a gift which we receive once for all in our first act of belief.
Every new development of faith, every new increment of supernatural light, even though we may earnestly working to acquire it, remains a pure gift of God.

Prayer is therefore the very heart of the life of faith.

-- Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness

Fantasy

The more I drank, the more I fantasized everything. 
In my mind's eye I played and replayed scenes in which I was plucked magically from the bar where I stood nursing a drink and was instantly exalted to some position of power and prestige.  I lived in a dream world.  AA led me gently from this fantasizing to embrace reality with open arms.

 

Alcohol gave me wings to fly, then it took away the sky.

S O B E R = Son Of A Basket, Everything's Real.

Today

There is not anything one should not be ready to tolerate, and there is nobody whom one should not forgive.
Never doubt those whom you trust; never hate those whom you love; never cast down those whom you once raise in your estimation.
Wish to make friends with everyone you meet; make an effort to gain the friendship of those you find difficult ... No one is either higher or lower than oneself.
In all sources that fulfill one's need, one may see one source, God, the only source; and in admiring and in bowing before and in loving anyone, one may consider one is doing it to God.
In sorrow one may look to God, and in joy one may thank Him.
One does not bemoan the past, nor worry about the future; one tries only to make the best of today.
One should know no failure, for even in a fall there is a stepping-stone to rise.
In Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam:

'O my Beloved, fill the cup that clears today of past regrets and future fears. Why, tomorrow I may be myself, with yesterday's sev'n thousand years!'

By this he means:
Make the best of this moment; it is now that you can clearly see eternity, if you live in this moment. But if you keep the world of the past or the world of the future before you, you do not live in eternity but in a limited world.
In other words, live neither in the past nor in the future, but in eternity.
It is now that we should try to discover that happiness which is to be found in the freedom of the soul. -- Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Do not bemoan the past,
do not worry about the future,
but try to make the best of today.

Expectations

My disappointments are equal to my expectations.

I saw that if I were to wait for all the other people to shape up, I was going to get drunk and stay drunk a long, long time.  I saw that all the things I had considered, were not facts at all, but my own thoughts.  And this was very fortunate, because I could do something about changing my thoughts but nothing about changing the people around me.

W I S D O M = When Into Self, Discover Our Motives.

Dog Days of Summer

How to beat the heat!




--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

Meditation

Peace, love, and joy can be sought through quiet thinking and honest prayer.  The wholeness, the new awareness, that is produced affects one's relationship with God and man to a degree greater than would seem possible in ordinary life.

Meditation means trusting the silence around me for a while, as if it were an answer I had long sought.

F I T = Feel, Intuition, Trust.

Silent Revolution

I began to re-examine the beliefs I had thought beyond criticism. Almost imperceptibly my whole attitude toward life underwent a silent revolution. . . I found myself saying and thinking things that a short time ago I would have condemned as platitudes! A belief in the basic spirituality of life has grown and with it belief in a supreme and guiding power for good.



What are you coming to believe? Belief is a continuing action.

Service

The joy of life is in the giving. Being freed of my shortcomings, that I may give more freely to be of service, allows humility to grow in me. My shortcomings can be humbly placed in God's loving care and be removed.

Into action, out of self.

H O P E = Helping Other People Every day.


--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

Are You Still Carrying Your Past?

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much. -- Oscar Wilde

According to a Japanese legend, two monks were walking down the road when they saw a finely dressed young woman standing before a large mud puddle. She explained that she had no way of crossing the water without ruining her clothes. Without saying a word, the first monk picked her up in his arms and lifted her safely across the obstacle.

A few hours later the second monk said in an accusatory tone, "How could you have picked up that lady? Don't you know that the rules strictly forbid us to touch a member of the opposite sex?" His friend smiled and then replied, "I put the woman down back at the puddle. Are you still carrying her?"

Like the second monk, many of us are still carrying old hurts, resentments, and lost opportunities that we picked up many mud puddles ago. As long as we remain stuck in the past, we cannot fully hear the inner voice, which speaks to us in the present. Thus, in order to tap our intuition, we need to release and heal our unfinished business.

By following the example of the first monk, we can put the past down and walk on. See your past experiences as teachings that have guided you to this present moment. An endless array of opportunities and possibilities lie before you. Immerse yourself in this good, and the old hurts will have no place left to make their home.

Listening to Your Inner Voice by Douglas Bloch

Easy Does It

We must learn to walk before we can run. That's why we have these slogans. I use that "Easy Does It" every day, to slow me down a little. I have to watch myself all the time. So I don't just take the inventory at night -- I take it continually throughout the day. Before I step out and do anything, I stop and check it over first, and then let my conscience be my guide.

Rashness and haste make all things insecure: Take it easy!


--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.