Your Daily Reprieve 10.01.20

 

 

Your Daily Reprieve for Thursday October 1, 2020   From Waynesville, NC

“The number one way to relieve pain is to forgive.” ~Grapevine: Hermosa Beach, California, February 1998     The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right.       -unattributed   Contentment comes as the infallible result of great acceptances, great humilities --of not trying to make ourselves this or that, but of surrendering ourselves to the fullness of life --of letting life flow through us.       -David Grayson   Spirituality has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition. ~Meister Eckhart   12 Step Meditations www.stepmeditation.com These are 12 meditations, each about 12 minutes long and the content (other than the meditation instructions) are straight from the text of the big book and 12 & 12 (created by Matt H.)

Big Book Quote   “Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress. If you persist, remarkable things will happen.” ~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 100~

Daily Share!   AA Speaker of the Day   Sister Bea Moore California   http://bit.ly/32PxYMN     Wee Willie’s Sobriety First Media AA CD’s Literature and tapes https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst

Celebrate Your Anniversary Here SHOW NEWCOMERS HOW IT WORKS!! Send your sober date to sober@yourdailyreprieve.com     SOBER DATE YOUR NAME YOUR LOCATION YEARS SOBER 6/10 (mo/day) Bob S Akron, OH 83   It will look like this : 6/10 Bob S. (Akron, OH).....85   October 2020 Miracles   10/1 Judy F. (Denver, CO)…..37 10/1 Judy G. ()…..37 10/1 Mark K. (Louisville, KY)…..14 10/4 Bob S. (Palo Alto, CA)…..16 10/5 Liam W. (San Francisco, CA)…..30 10/6 Nancy G. (Port Orchard, WA)…..15 10/9 Dorothy H. (Dallas, TX)…..39 10/9 Toby G. ()…..5 10/10 Dotty R. ()…..10 10/10 Sharon B. ()…..3 10/14 Carol H. (Glen Cove, NY)…..35 10/14 Mark D. ()…..1 10/14 Steve P. (Hampton, NH)…..35 10/15 Linda G. (Miramici, NB, Canada)…..13 10/15 Polly L. (Fort Lauderdale, FL)…..27 10/25 Wendy LHK (Francestown, NH)…..10 10/27 Sue B. (Seabrook, NH)…..35 10/31 Branden B, ()…..2 10/31 Chris L. ()…..27 10/31 Kit H. (Port St. Lucie, FL)…..7     0394 Total Years of Sobriety

12&12   Tradition Seven - "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions." What a debate we had on that one! The Foundation was really hard up just then; the groups weren't sending in enough for the support of the office; we had been tossing in all the book income and even that hadn't been enough. The reserve was melting like snow in springtime. We needed that ten thousand dollars. "Maybe," some said, "the groups will never fully support the office. We can't let it shut down; it's far too vital. Yes, let's take the money. Let's take all such donations in the future. We're going to need them." p. 164

Twenty-Four Hours   A.A. Thought For The Day A.A. will lose some of its effectiveness if I do not do my share. Where am I failing? Are there some things I do not feel like doing? Am I held back by self-consciousness or fear? Self-consciousness is a form of pride. It is a fear that something may happen to you. What happens to you is not very important. The impression you make on others does not depend so much on the kind of job you do as on your sincerity and honesty of purpose. Am I holding back because I am afraid of not making a good impression? Meditation For The Day Look to God for the true power that will make you effective. See no other wholly dependable supply of strength. That is the secret of a truly effective life. And you, in your turn, will be used to help many others find effectiveness. Whatever spiritual help you need, whatever spiritual help you desire for others, look to God. Seek that God's will be done in your life and seek that your will conforms to His.     Failures come from depending too much on your own strength. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may feel that nothing good is too much for me if I look to God for help. I pray that I may be effective through His guidance.

Daily Thought ^*^*^*^*^ (\    ~~    /) (     \(AA)/     ) (_ /AA\ _) /AA\ ^*^*^*^*^ Diagnosis "We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself. Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking. Try a drink and stop abruptly. Try it more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a case of the jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition." c. 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 31-2 Thought to Consider . . . I have learned that I did not get here a day early or a drink short. *~*AACRONYMS*~* Y A N A You Are Not Alone

Daily Reflection   LEST WE BECOME COMPLACENT   It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85   When I am in pain it is easy to stay close to the friends I have found in the program. Relief from that pain is provided in the solutions contained in A.A.'s Twelve Steps. But when I am feeling good and things are going well, I can become complacent. To put it simply, I become lazy and turn into the problem instead of the solution. I need to get into action, to take stock: where am I and where am I going? A daily inventory will tell me what I must change to regain spiritual balance. Admitting what I find within myself, to God and to another human being, keeps me honest and humble.

Pot Luck     TRUTH The effort to escape from truth is the father of anxiety. Consider the man who lies awake at night wondering whether his chest pains are the result of indigestion or heart trouble. If he fears going to a doctor to find out, he is carrying a burden he may not have to carry at all. Even if he finds that it IS his heart, he is free to deal with reality and take precautions that may save his life. Truth has not hurt, but healed. A world where truth does not shine is a world filled with fog and cobwebs, a gray miasma through which we run blind and lost and terrified, tripping over roots we do not see, dodging the threat of looming shapes, remaining separated from our fellows in the dripping, fear-filled darkness. The world of truth is the world of what is, the world of the Spanish line tree outside my window, wearing sunshine like a halo. It is the room I sit in, the sleeping kitten, the job that must be done, the pleasure to be had or planned. It is here. It is now. It is what is. It is my world, my truth, my reality, and in it I am no longer "a stranger and afraid/In a world I never made." True, this world of mine contains ingredients I do not like - pain, grief, anger, fear, tragedy. But these are the things I must accept, because they are part of the totality and I cannot change them. I wasted years escaping into the unreality of alcoholism. Until I faced the truth that I could not drink, I was alone in the fog and the silence. Before I learned to love truth, I had to learn to recognize it. Truth is not an immutable absolute, a granite peak, eternal, unmoving, hiding its head in a nimbus of clouds. Truth is a ballerina tracing arabesques in a pattern of color and music, ever-changing, harmonious. Truth is totality: question-and-answer, nail-and-hammer, inside-and-outside. It is never narrow or sectarian. It is not blind, because its own radiance banishes obscurity. Truth is multifaceted, because it is reality. Your truth and mine are different, because we are different. Your beliefs are your truth, as mine are mine. When that is accepted, any cause for conflict between us is resolved. Neither of us is right or wrong. We simply hold different pieces of the incredible jigsaw puzzle of life, and each piece has its place. Truth is immediate. What was true yesterday is no longer true today, and tomorrow is not born yet. Today - now - is truth. What is happening all over the world at this moment is truth, and no part is "truer" than any other part. We are all equal shareholders in reality. For an individual or group to believe he or it has captured the whole truth is absurd. When truth is so beautiful, why do we embrace the lie? As a practicing alcoholic, I escaped into non-truth because I felt ill-equipped to cope with reality. And yet the "reality" I perceived was a lie, too. I was escaping from one lie to another, seeming more pleasant. Because I felt, sober, that I was unlovable, ugly, awkward, and flawed, surrounded by hostile strangers who were devoting their entire attention to spotting my inadequacies, I got drunk. Then, for a while, I felt confident and safe enough from others to enjoy them and myself. Is it any wonder that I fought against returning to the ugly "reality" that sobriety seemed to offer? In one way is truth an absolute: WITHOUT IT, THERE CAN BE NO GROWTH. Truth is to inner space what sunshine is to a garden. In its absence, fear flourishes and imagination runs riot, conjuring up pursuing monsters where there are only paper dragons. I wonder why it takes so long to realize that nightmares can never be outdistanced, simply because THEY DO NOT EXIST. Unreality cannot be coped with precisely because it is unreal. Only when we open our minds and hearts to the truth can we expose our paper dragons for what they are - a child's forgotten toys. Truth liberates. Truth heals. Truth unlocks the door to the glory of reality, and gives us the means to live in harmony with reality. In return, it asks only that we surrender all lies and illusions and love what is. Why do we wait so long? J.W., Key West, FL The Best of the AA Grapevine Vol. 1, pp. 134-138

Speaker Recordings   Wee Willie’s Sobriety First Media AA CD’s Literature and tapes https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst *****   The Lights are On http://xa-speakers.org/     Recovery Speakers http://recoveryspeakers.com/

COVID-19 LINKS     List of Virtual Meetings & Speaker Archives https://www.thetokenshop.com/Online_AA_Meetings   On Line Meetings Directory http://aa-intergroup.org/directory.php?utm_source=AVLtoday&utm_campaign=e6058ed738-03.23.2020+AVL&utm_mediu     Sybil https://alcoholics-anonymous.eu/online-meetings/   Elizabeth Globalspeakersgroup.sxl.cn   Hugh http://aa-intergroup.org/directory.php   China AA Loners   http://chinaaaloners.com/online-meetings/       ARCHIVES   *NEW* GUIDED MEDITATION http://bit.ly/2Ogwe9v     http://www.bigbookfordummies.com/ An On-Line Study Resource   Daily Meditations Group Home http://groups.google.com/group/Your_Daily_Reprieve?hl=en     Daily Meditations Archive http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/7AMmeeting/   Blog http://todaysreprieve.blogspot.com/

Your Daily Reprieve is now on Facebook It is a PRIVATE GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourdailyreprieve/ To be added, email: sober@yourdailyreprieve.com Please share your wisdom, anecdotes and travels with other members of Your Daily Reprieve.   Twitter https://twitter.com/YourDailyReprie

AA Membership Survey (2014) http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/p-48_membershipsurvey.pdf   2015 http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/2015-Membership-Survey/Survey-Results-Page-2

Meditation Resources   http://www.peterrussell.com/TV/3Min.php   *****   Loving Kindness Meditations   With Music   http://www.excelatlife.com/mp3/direct_download.php?file=lovingkindnessmusic.mp3     Voice only http://www.excelatlife.com/mp3/direct_download.php?file=lovingkindness.mp3   ***** Free Guided Meditations http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

Resources     *NEW* Living Life Fully http://www.livinglifefully.com/   Great Minds Quotes https://twitter.com/GreatestQuotes   BIG BOOK SEARCH ENGINE: http://www.whytehou se.com/big_ book_search/   Twenty Four Hours a Day Since 1954, Twenty-Four Hours a Day has become a stable force in the recovery of many alcoholics throughout the world. With over nine million copies in print (the original text has been revised), this "little black book" offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for living a clean and sober life. A spiritual resource with practical applications to fit our daily lives. Copyright 1975 Hazeleden Foundation   Tammy’s recovery links http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/   NEW! Twisted Thinking Making Sense Out of Nonsense: Change Happens by Changing Your Perception by Georgia Hughes amazon.com/author/georgiahughes     AA Photo Archives http://www.rewritables.net/cybriety/aa_photos.htm   Heard at A Meeting https://twitter.com/heardinameeting   Breast Cancer Site Take a minute and click to provide free mammograms https://thebreastcancersite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/bcs/home   MEN FIGHTING CANCER TOGETHER America’s largest volunteer men’s cancer support group and advocacy national nonprofit organization. http://malecare.org/   Big Book Quotes http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BigBookQuotes/   The Universe https://www.facebook.com/scherie.dee   Prayables http://prayables.org/   Daily Reflections Link https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/daily-reflection    24 Hours A Day Book Link  https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/thought-for-the-day/twenty-four-hours-a-day   AA History Lovers is now located @ https://groups.io/g/AAHistoryLovers     As We See It (AWSI) http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AsWeSeeIt/     Keep It Simple Hazelden Meditations     Daily Thought http://groups.google.com/group/TransitionsDaily   Speaker Recordings http://storiesofrecovery.org/Workshops.htm {Under Reconstruction}   Wisdom of the Room http://www.theWisdomoftheRooms.com

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