The Serenity Zone & In the News

Daily readings from recovery literature approved by Alcoholics Anonymous and Hazelden Foundation for addicts in recovery - and those who seek to be. And, hopefully an education in domestic and world affairs with headlines that are making news.

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Readings in Recovery

The Eye Opener

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

We are not in a position to give an opinion on leprosy, jungle fever, hoof-and-mouth disease or other minor ailments like that but, when it comes to the really “big sickness” — hangovers — we can speak with some authority.

How any piece of mechanism could take the rough treatment we gave our human bodies would make it appear, on the surface, that Nature intended to make us live to punish ourselves in a manner that Nature itself could not duplicate. Outraged Nature could only confine its retribution to the body. The mental and spiritual beating we took was administered by ourselves. That was the most cruel of all.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

A Day at a Time

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

Reflection for the Day When I say the Serenity Prayer, sometimes over and over, I occasionally lose sight of the prayer’s meaning even as I repeat its words. So I try to think of the meaning of each phrase as I say it, whether aloud or silently. As I concentrate on the meaning, my understanding grows, along with my capability to realize the difference between what I can change, and what I cannot.

Do I see that most improvements in my life will come from changing my own attitudes and actions?

Today I Pray May my Higher Power show me new and deeper meanings in the Serenity Prayer each time I say it. As I apply it to my life’s situations and relationships, may its truth be underlined for me again and again. May I realize that serenity, courage and wisdom are all that I need to cope with living, but that none of these three have value unless they grow out of my trust in a Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember God’s formula for living: Serenity, courage and wisdom.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

AA Thought for the Day How good a sponsor am I? When I bring new members to a meeting, do I feel that my responsibility has ended? Or do I make it my job to stay with them until they have either become good members of AA or have found another sponsor? If they don’t show up for a meeting, do I say to myself: “Well, they’ve had it put up to them, so if they don’t want it, there’s nothing more I can do?” Or do I look them up and find out whether there is a reason for their absence or that they don’t want AA? Do I go out of my way to find out if there is anything more I can do to help?

Am I a good sponsor?

Meditation for the Day “First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift to God.” First I must get right with other people and then I can get right with God. If I hold a resentment against someone, which I find it very difficult to overcome, I should try to put something else constructive into my mind. I should pray for the one against whom I hold the resentment. I should put that person in God’s hands and let God show him or her the way to live. “If a man say: ‘I love God’ and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”

Prayer for the Day I pray that I may see something good in every person, even one I dislike, and that I may let God develop the good in that person.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

Step by Step

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

” …A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling. We are convinced that a spiritual mode of living is a most powerful health restorative. We, who have recovered from serious drinking, are miracles of mental health. … “But this does not mean that we disregard human health measures. God has abundantly supplied this world with fine doctors, psychologists and practitioners of various kinds. Do not hesitate to take your health problems to such persons.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 9 (“The Family Afterward”), p 133.

Today, recovery from extended daily drinking will come in time and only if I allow it by total abstinence. It took a long time for my body, mind and spirit to become part of the alcoholic culture; it may take as long or longer to recover. In my zeal to recover, let me understand that my physical recovery may take weeks or months but that my spiritual and emotional recovery will take longer — perhaps a lifetime longer. And until my spiritual and emotional health is back on an even playing field although my body has recovered, I need to realize that the Twelve Steps are the way for me to recover. But should I suspect a need for medical or psychological treatment, let me not be reluctant to seek it out. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

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Readings in Recovery

Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.

-- Henry David Thoreau

To have a dream takes courage and a bit of hope. A dream guides us, even if we haven't let ourselves bring it to consciousness. How often do we stop to ask what our dreams are? Do we even know what we want? This path is about becoming the best men we can be. It's more about who we become than what we achieve. So it inspires us to create dreams for our development as men.

When we take a few moments to reflect on the kind of men we want to be, we create reference points, or beacons, to move toward. This gives us a way to measure our actions and our choices. Do our actions take us in the direction we want to go, or do they take us off course? Are we growing into the men we want to be, or have we forgotten to follow our beacons?

In my actions today, I will keep my dreams in mind and choose my course with confidence.

Hazelden Foundation

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Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 - Good morning and let's get going and make this gorgeous Friday as productive and worthwhile as we can

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Readings in Recovery

The Eye Opener

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

Who can estimate the Mozarts, the Shakespeares, the Edisons, the Raphaels or the Jeffersons who stumbled through life in an alcoholic haze and achieved no greater acclaim than the title of “Drunken Bum?” Many may have arrived at a drunkard’s grave with their talents remaining unsuspected. Their bodies died before their souls began to live.

You may never be a world-beater yourself, but you may say a word to someone else that might revolutionize his life, and that life may revolutionize the world.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

A Day at a Time

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

Reflection for the Day

When we allow our Higher Power to take charge, without reservations on our part, we stop being “anxious.” When we’re not anxious about some person or situation, that doesn’t mean we’re disinterested or have stopped caring. Just the opposite is true. We can be interested and caring without being anxious or fearful. The poised calm and faith-filled person brings something positive to every situation. He or she is able to do the things that are necessary and helpful.

Do I realize how much better prepared I am to do wise and loving things if I banish anxious thoughts and know that God is in charge?

Today I Pray

I pray that I may be rid of the anxiety which I have equated in my mind with really caring about people. May I know that anxiety is not an item of outerwear that can be doffed like a cap. May I know that I must have serenity within myself and confidence that God can do a better job than I can — and then my anxiety will lessen.

Today I Will Remember

Anxiety never solved anything.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

AA Thought for the Day When new members come into my AA group, do I make a special effort to make them feel at home? Do I put myself out to listen to them, even if their ideas of AA are vague? Do I make it a habit to talk to all new members myself, or do I often leave that to someone else? I may not be able to help them but, then again, it may be something that I might say that would put them on the right track. When I see any members sitting alone, do I put myself out to be nice to them, or do I stay among my own special group of friends and leave them out in the cold?

Are all new AA’s my responsibility?

Meditation for the Day You are God’s servant. Serve Him cheerfully and readily. Nobody likes a servant who avoids extra work, who complains about being called from one task to do one less enjoyable. A master would feel that he was being ill-served by such a servant. But is that not how you so often serve God? View your day’s work in this light. Try to do your day’s work the way you believe God wants you to do it, never shirking any responsibility and often going out of your way to be of service.

Prayer for the Day I pray that I may be a good servant. I pray that I may be willing to go out of my way to be of service.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

Step by Step

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

” …I think there are some of us who, at times, try to read extra messages and complexities into the Steps. …AA is within the reach of every alcoholic, because it can be achieved in any walk of life and because the achievement is not ours but God’s. …there is no situation too difficult, none too desperate, no unhappiness too great to be overcome in this great fellowship — Alcoholics Anonymous.” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch 11 (“A Flower of the South”), p 395.

Today, no searching for words of eloquence to convince anyone of the redemption, reconciliation and power of AA and, instead, letting my example serve as its most powerful testament. ” …No situation too difficult, none too desperate, no unhappiness too great to be overcome.” If today I think or feel that I have fallen too deeply too fast, am beyond saving or that the damage I have inflicted is so beyond repair that a new beginning is impossible, let me have if nothing else blind faith to make the call that could be my new beginning. Today, I do not and cannot accept that I am beyond the reach of recovery, and I set out to start anew — and sober. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

[christopherturner1]

Readings in Recovery

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.

-- Isak Dinesen

Sharing our experience, strength  and hope with others in this program helps to clarify for all of us the miracle of recovery. Telling another woman how we survived the most awful of experiences lets her know that her life is survivable too. It's not by accident that the founders of AA stressed the value of telling our stories.

Each time we share an aspect of our own traumatic past, its sting is diminished. The more we repeat these awful truths, the less their hold on us. Our storytelling lets our listeners know that their own experiences are not so different after all.

What lucky women we are. No longer do we hide ourselves from others. Each conversation with a sponsor, sponsee or friend is an opportunity to lighten our load.

I will tell a part of my story to someone today. She may be helped by it, and I will be freed from it!

Hazelden Foundation

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Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024 - Good morning and here's wishing a fantastical and gratifying Thursday for everyone and that we not get entailed in people and things that aren't worth it

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Readings in Recovery

The Eye Opener

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

So you killed the goose that laid the Golden Egg? That’s too bad. You can’t bring it back to life, but you can do the next best thing – you can eat the goose. You can’t unscramble an egg, but you can bake a cake.

It is water going over the dam that drives the machinery. You are an alcoholic — you can’t help that fact, but you can use your alcoholism for the benefit of other alcoholics and society generally.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

A Day at a Time

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

Reflection for the Day I remember once hearing someone in The Program say, “Life is a series of agreeings or disagreeings with the universe.” There is much truth in that statement, for I’m only a small cog in the machinery of the universe. When I try to run things my way, I’ll experience only frustration and a sense of failure. If, instead, I learn to let go, I’ll have time to count my blessings, work on my shortcomings, and live fully and richly in The Now.

Do I believe that what I am meant to know will come to my knowledge if I practice the Eleventh Step — praying only for knowledge of God’s will for me and the power to carry that out?

Today I Pray May I take my direction from the Eleventh Step — and not fall into my usual habit of making itemized lists for God of all my pleas and entreaties and complaints. May I no longer second-guess God with my specific solutions, but pray only that His will be done. May I count my blessings instead of my beseechings.

Today I Will Remember Stop list-making for God.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

AA Thought for the Day

Am I willing to be bored sometimes at meetings? Am I willing to listen to much repetition of AA principles? Am I willing to hear the same thing over and over again? Am I willing to listen to a long blow-by-blow personal story, because it might help some new member? Am I willing to sit quietly and listen to long-winded members go into every detail of their past? Am I willing to take it, because it is doing them good to get it off their chest? My feelings are not too important. The good of AA comes first, even if it is not always comfortable for me.

Have I learned to take it?

Meditation for the Day

God would draw us all closer to Him in the bonds of the spirit. He would have all people drawn closer to each other in the bonds of the spirit. God, the great Spirit of the universe, of which each of our own spirits is a small part, must want unity between Himself and all His children. “Unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.” Each experience of our life, of joy, of sorrow, of danger, of safety, of difficulty, of success, of hardship, of ease, each should be accepted as part of our common lot, in the bonds of the spirit.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may welcome the bonds of true fellowship. I pray that I may be brought closer to unity with God and other people.

Hazelden Foundation

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Readings in Recovery

Step by Step

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

” …’If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don’t really want it for them, and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate understanding and love.’” — Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 12 (“Freedom from Bondage”), p 552.

Today, if resentment is the deadliest poison to alcoholics alongside alcohol, I will make a sincere effort to free myself of it once and for all. If “Let Go and Let God” has failed because I have taken back my resentment, I’ll try what is suggested here — pray for the person or thing I resent to receive what I want for myself. Even if I can’t say I am sincere and honest in my hopes for whoever or whatever I resent, I will try for two weeks to pray for the best for them. God granting, after two weeks, the monkey on my back will be gone. Like alcohol and all the garbage that comes with it, as for resentment: enough is enough. Time to get rid of it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2024

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Readings in Recovery

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024

Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Guilt and Worry

With the Past, as past I have nothing to do; nor with the Future as future. I live now.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We discover a truth about the past and future in our recovery. They are areas over which we have no control, so it's useless to feel guilty about the past or worry over the future. Our Steps have allowed us to clean the slate and make amends for the mess of the past. We receive a generous and loving forgiveness from our Higher Power.

We ask our Higher Power to accept our past mistakes and to free us from the garbage those mistakes have produced. The future is in God's hands. There is nothing we can do about what might happen except to pray for acceptance of God's will. These prayers produce plenty of work for the present. When the future comes, we will be ready.

The amount of time I spend right now feeling guilty or being worried only uses time that I could spend thanking God for the moment I am living. Gratitude will always make mincemeat out of guilt and worry.

Hazelden Foundation