Upkeep

From Having Fun Yet:

"When my own house is in order, I find the different parts of my life are more manageable. Stripped from the guilt and remorse that cloaked my drinking years, I am free to assume my proper role in the universe, but this condition requires maintenance.
 

 I should stop and ask myself, am I having fun yet? If I find answering that question difficult or painful, perhaps I'm taking myself too seriously and finding it difficult to admit that I've strayed from my practice of working the program to keep my house in order."


Daily Reflections, pg. 31

Living in the Moment

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.

~Albert Einstein

None of us knows anything for sure about the future. We don’t know if we’ll be sober tomorrow. But we can be sure of this moment. We get sober by moments. Our sober moments then stretch into hours, days, and years. Our program tells us to live in the present moment. This is because we can control this moment. We can’t control the past or the future. We need to have a sense of control in our life. In our illness, we were out of control. This was because we wouldn’t live from moment to moment.

Each moment is filled with as much life as we can handle. Each moment is filled with enough to keep us alive, interested, and growing!

SELF-EXAMINATION

. . . we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 86

When said sincerely, this prayer teaches me to be truly unselfish and humble, for even in doing good deeds I often used to seek approval and glory for myself. By examining my motives in all that I do, I can be of service to God and others, helping them do what they want to do. When I put God in charge of my thinking, much needless worry is eliminated and I believe He guides me throughout the day. When I eliminate thoughts of self-pity, dishonesty and self-centeredness as soon as they enter my mind, I find peace with God, my neighbor and myself.

New life

Freedom is not enough.

~Lyndon B. Johnson

We are free of alcohol and other drugs. We’ve been given a second or third chance. For that, we thank our Higher Power. We’ve started a new life. But to keep this life, we need to change. We need new friends. We need to let a Higher Power guide our hearts, minds, and bodies. We need to learn new values and how to stand up for them. We need to learn how to give and to receive.

Freedom from dependence is not enough.

Life

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.     ~Joseph Campbell

Over and over we tried to drink or use in ways that wouldn’t hurt us or those we loved. The harder we tried, the more out of control we became.

Recovery asks us to surrender and accept. We surrender to the reality that we were powerless over our addiction and that our lives were unmanageable. In order to step into our new life, we have to let go of the life we had wanted and the life we had planned. We step into a life our Higher Power has waiting for us. We must accept that there is nothing back there for us. We must look forward with anticipation.

Prayer for the Day