Readings for each day of the week
Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 86 to 88; Step Eleven, morning
Friday
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
Saturday
In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
Sunday
We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn’t work. You can easily see why.
Monday
If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation. If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing.
Tuesday
There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
Wednesday
As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.” We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions.
Thursday
We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.
It works—it really does.
We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined.
Calendar readings
01 July 2020
Brother Lawrence spoke with great openness of heart concerning his manner of going to God whereof some part is related already. He told me that all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to God. We might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him with freedom and in simplicity. We need only to recognize God intimately present with us and address ourselves to Him every moment. We need to beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful and for rightly performing those which we plainly see He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have completed them.
Practising the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
02 July 2020
I’d been wanting to be a successful author my whole life. But when I finally did it, I was like a greyhound catching the mechanical rabbit she’d been chasing all her life—metal, wrapped up in cloth. It wasn’t alive; it had no spirit. It was fake. Fake doesn’t feed anything. Only spirit feeds spirit, in the same way only your own blood type can sustain you. It had nothing that could slake the lifelong thirst I had for a little immediacy, and connection.
So from the wise old pinnacle of my years, I want to tell you that what you’re looking for is already inside you. You’ve heard this before, but the holy thing inside you really is that which causes you to seek it. You can’t buy it, lease it, rent it, date it or apply for it. The best job in the world can’t give it to you. Neither can success, or fame, or financial security—besides which, there ain’t no such thing. J. D. Rockefeller was asked, “How much money is enough?” and he said, “Just a little bit more.”
Anne Lamott
03 July 2020
So I thought it might help if I just went ahead and told you what I think is the truth of your spiritual identity... Actually, I don’t have a clue. I do know you are not what you look like, or how much you weigh, or how you did in school, and whether you get to start a job next Monday or not. Spirit isn’t what you do, it’s ... well, again, I don’t actually know. They probably taught this junior year .... But I know that you feel it best when you’re not doing much—when you’re in nature, when you’ve very quiet, or, paradoxically, listening to music.
Anne Lamott
04 July 2020
We love the open road
No phones ‘til Friday
Far from the overkill
Far from the overload
Night Ride Home (4th of July) , Joni Mitchell
05 July 2020
We can see spirit made visible in people being kind to each other, especially when it’s a really busy person, taking care of a needy annoying person. Or even if it’s terribly important you, stopping to take care of pitiful, pathetic you. In fact, that’s often when we see spirit most brightly. It’s magic to see spirit largely because it’s so rare. Mostly you see the masks and the holograms that the culture presents as real. You see how you’re doing in the world’s eyes, or your family’s, or—worst of all—yours, or in the eyes of people who are doing better than you—much better than you—or worse. But you are not your bank account, or your ambitiousness. You’re not the cold clay lump with a big belly you leave behind when you die. You’re not your collection of walking personality disorders. You are spirit, you are love, and ... you are free. You’re here to love, and be loved, freely. If you find out next week that you are terminally ill—and we’re all terminally ill on this bus—all that will matter is memories of beauty, that people loved you, and you loved them, and that you tried to help the poor and innocent.
Anne Lamott
06 July 2020
Buddhism for a four-year-old:
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Sometimes people feel sad.
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Sometimes the thing that makes people sad is not getting something they want or getting something they don’t want.
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There is a way not to be so sad about not getting what you want or getting something you don’t want.
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The way is to not think so much about what you want at all, but instead think about how you can be kind and helpful to your family, your teachers, your friends, other people, animals, bugs, and everything that lives.
07 July 2020
So how do we feed and nourish our spirit, and the spirit of others? First, find a path, and a little light to see by. Every single spiritual tradition says the same three things: 1) Live in the now, as often as you can, a breath here, a moment there. 2) You reap exactly what you sow. 3) You must take care of the poor, or you are so doomed that we can’t help you.
Anne Lamott
08 July 2020
Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.
C. S. Lewis
09 July 2020
So I would recommend that you all just take a long deep breath, and stop. Just be where your butts are, and breathe. Refuse to cooperate with anyone who is trying to shame you into hopping right back up onto the rat exercise wheel. Rest, but pay attention. Refuse to cooperate with anyone who is stealing your freedom, your personal and civil liberties, and then smirking about it. I’m not going to name names. But in general, slow down if you can. Better yet, lie down. In my 20s, I devised a school of relaxation that has unfortunately fallen out of favor in the ensuing years—it was called Prone Yoga. You just lie around as much as possible. You could read, listen to music, you could space out, or sleep. But you had to be lying down. Maintaining the prone.
Anne Lamott
10 July 2020
You’ve graduated. You have nothing left to prove, and besides, it’s a fool’s game. If you agree to play, you’ve already lost. It’s Charlie Brown and Lucy, with the football. If you keep getting back on the field, they win. There are so many great things to do right now. Write. Sing. Rest. Eat cherries. Register voters. And—oh my God—I nearly forgot the most important thing: refuse to wear uncomfortable pants, even if they make you look really thin. Promise me you’ll never wear pants that bind or tug or hurt, pants that have an opinion about how much you’ve just eaten. The pants may be lying! There is way too much lying and scolding going on politically right now without your pants getting in on the act, too.
Anne Lamott
11 July 2020
A New Pair Of Glasses , Chuck Chamberlain
12 July 2020
Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand: Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!
Edna St Vincent Millay
13 July 2020
I wish my son were not a fool.
I wish my house was not a mess.
I wish the cow was full of milk.
I wish the walls were full of gold—
I wish a lot of things ...
Into the Woods , Stephen Sondheim
14 July 2020
God, I hereby renounce all preconceived opinions; please set aside for me my present habits of thought and my present views and prejudices; please jettison anything and everything that can stand in the way of my finding the truth; remove my fear of public opinion and of the disapproval of relatives or friends; help me see that my most cherished beliefs may be mistaken and that my ideas and views of life may be false and in need of recasting. Let me start again at the very beginning and learn life anew.
Adapted from Emmet Fox
15 July 2020
You’re so nice.
You’re not good, you’re not bad,
You’re just nice.
I’m not good, I’m not nice,
I’m just right.
I’m the witch.
You’re the world.
I’m the hitch, I’m what no one believes.
I’m the witch.
Into the Woods , Stephen Sondheim
16 July 2020
Original: Mot det förgångna: tack, till det kommande: ja!
To that which has been: thanks; to that which shall be: yes!
Dag Hammarskjöld
17 July 2020
Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What is past and what cannot be prevented should not be grieved for…
Big Elk, Omaha Chief
16 July
18 July 2020
And I know things now, many valuable things,
That I hadn’t known before.
Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood.
They will not protect you the way that they should.
And take extra care with strangers, even flowers have their dangers,
And though scary is exciting,
Nice is different than good.
Into the Woods , Stephen Sondheim
19 July 2020
Once the Baal Shem stood in the House of Prayer and prayed for a very long time. All his disciples had finished praying, but he continued without paying attention to them. They waited for him a good while, and then they went home. After several hours when they had attended to their various duties, they returned to the House of Prayer and found him still deep in prayer. Later he said to them: “By going away and leaving me alone, you dealt me a painful separation. I shall tell you a parable.
You know that there are birds of passage who fly to warm countries in the autumn. Well, the people in one of those lands once saw a glorious many-colored bird in the midst of a flock which was journeying through the sky. The eyes of man had never seen a bird so beautiful. He alighted in the top of the tallest tree and nested in the leaves. When the king of the country heard of it, he bade them fetch down the bird with its nest. He ordered a number of men to make a ladder up the tree. One was to stand on the other’s shoulders until it was possible to reach high enough to take the nest. It took a long time to build this living ladder. Those who stood nearest the ground lost patience, shook themselves free, and the whole thing collapsed.”
20 July 2020
“The dog has an enviable mind; it remembers the nice things in life and quickly blots out the nasty.”
“There is no such thing as a difficult dog, only an inexperienced owner.”
“I can train any dog in 5 minutes. It’s training the owner that takes longer.”
“Dogs understand your moods and your thoughts, and if you are thinking unpleasant things about your dog, he will pick it up and be downhearted.”
“Talking to animals isn’t a matter of words used, it is a matter of your thoughts, your expression, and above all the tone of your voice. A harsh voice from me can make my cows jump in terror. I shouted at old Queenie once and she got such a shock that she fell down just as if she’d been shot ...”
Barbara Woodhouse
21 July 2020
‘Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would!’ (Page 12)
‘My friend promised when these things were done, I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems.’ (Page 13)
‘We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men.’ (Page 28)
‘When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing.’ (Page 53)
Alcoholics Anonymous
22 July 2020
‘If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps.’ (Page 58)
‘Half measures availed us nothing.’ (Page 59)
‘Next we launched out on a course of vigorous action ...’ (Page 63)
‘If that is so, this step may be postponed, only, however, if we hold ourselves in complete readiness to go through with it at the first opportunity.’ (Page 74)
Alcoholics Anonymous
23 July 2020
‘Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.’ (Page 76)
‘[W]e will never get over drinking until we have done our utmost to straighten out the past.’ (Page 77)
‘Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience’ (Page 79)
‘If we are painstaking about this phase of our development’ (Page 83)
Alcoholics Anonymous
24 July 2020
‘One morning he took the bull by the horns and set out to tell those he feared what his trouble had been. He found himself surprisingly well received, and learned that many knew of his drinking. Stepping into his car, he made the rounds of people he had hurt. He trembled as he went about, for this might mean ruin, particularly to a person in his line of business. At midnight he came home exhausted, but very happy. He has not had a drink since.’ (Page 156)
Alcoholics Anonymous
25 July 2020
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
C. S. Lewis
26 July 2020
“Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.”
Sitting Bull, Teton Sioux
27 July 2020
Elder’s Meditation of the Day July 16
“Grandfather says…you must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life.”
–Wovoka, Paiute
The question one should ask oneself is: Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? If you want to be right, this is a request from your ego. If you want to be happy then this is of the Great Spirit. The only meaning anything has is the meaning we give it. Maybe we should develop a philosophy of: Today is the last day of the rest of my life. If this were true, how easy it would be to let things go – how easy it would be to forgive.
Oh Great Spirit, let me live today as if it was my last. Let me express Your joy and be happy today. Let me see the joy and honor of living on the Red Road.
Don Coyhis
28 July 2020
- Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
Don Miguel Ruiz
29 July 2020
- Don’t Take Anything Personally.
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
Don Miguel Ruiz
30 July 2020
“We are called hollow bones for our people and for anyone else we can help, and we are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honor.”
–Fools Crow, Lakota
In order for us to use our power well, we must become a hollow bone. We must prepare ourselves to become a channel. Our channel must be clean before we can use our power well. We must be free of resentments, guilt, shame, anger, self pity, and fear. If these things are in us, we cannot be hollow bones. These things block us from our power. The cleaner we are, the more power we move. We must become a hollow bone so the Creator can use us to do what he wants us to do.
My Creator, remove from me today all resentment, anger, fear, guilt and selfishness. Do not let my weaknesses stand in the way of my usefulness to You. Make me a hollow bone so Your power can flow through me.
Don Coyhis
31 July 2020
- Don’t Make Assumptions.
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
Don Miguel Ruiz
01 August 2020
- Always Do Your Best.
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Don Miguel Ruiz
02 August 2020
“What could be greater than to be Wakan-Tanka’s mind, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms, hands, legs, and feet here on Earth?”
–Fools Crow, Lakota
In order for the Creator to do His work on this earth, He needs the human being to do it. How He guides us is through our eyes, ears, hands, nose, mouth, arms, legs, and feet. We are instruments of the Creator. We are His keepers of the Earth. We are the keepers of our brothers. We are to teach His children. We are to respect the things He has made. We are to take care of ourselves and treat our bodies and our minds with respect. We are to do respectful things. We are to walk the Sacred Path. We should have good thoughts. We should do only things that we think the Creator would have us do. What an honor to be a human being. What an honor that He would talk to us and guide us to perform His wonders.
Oh Great Spirit, let me appreciate the role you have given me. Let my sense be sharp to hear Your voice. Keep my mind clean so I can do the things You would have me do.
Don Coyhis
03 August 2020
Just do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to do
The next right thing
I won’t look too far ahead
It’s too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make
Frozen II
04 August 2020
On his pastoral governance in Venice, Roncalli (Pope John XIII) wrote about the following rule, coming from Gregory the Great but also attributed to St Bernard, that he as a young priest knew as a motto of the bishop of Bergamo, Giacomo M. Radini-Tedeschi, ‘Omnia videre, multa dissimulare, pauca corrigere.’ ‘See everything, disregard most things, change a little.’
05 August 2020
“They also learned, and perhaps this was the most important thing, how to look at things through the eyes of the Higher Powers.”
–Fools Crow, Lakota
Our eyes can only see our beliefs. Our beliefs cause us to make assumptions, draw conclusions, and cause confusion. Our five senses are very limiting. The Creator has a way of allowing us to see or know in the spiritual world. This is called the Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense is like a radar system; our personal radar system. It will help us “see” opportunities and help us avoid disaster. This Sixth Sense is controlled by God. We must learn to listen to it. We must learn to trust it. We must learn to act on it even if our head says differently. We must learn to look at things through the eyes of God.
My Creator, guide me today. If my eyes cause confusion, let me close them and see through Your eyes. If my ears hear confusion, let me listen to my heart. Let me let You guide me.
Don Coyhis
06 August 2020
Pabbie: The past is not what it seems. A wrong demands to be righted. Arendelle is not safe. The truth must be found. Without it, I see no future.
Frozen II
07 August 2020
M-10.2. It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not judge, but that he cannot. 2 In giving up judgment, he is merely giving up what he did not have. 3 He gives up an illusion; or better, he has an illusion of giving up. 4 He has actually merely become more honest. 5 Recognizing that judgment was always impossible for him, he no longer attempts it. 6 This is no sacrifice. 7 On the contrary, he puts himself in a position where judgment through him rather than by him can occur. 8 And this judgment is neither “good” nor “bad.” 9 It is the only judgment there is, and it is only one: “God’s Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist.”
A Course In Miracles
08 August 2020
“We forget so we consider ourselves superior. But we are, after all, a mere part of the creation and we must consider to understand where we are and we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant. Somewhere and only there is a part and parcel of the creation.”
-- Chief Oren Lyons, ONONDAGA
Every human being gathers information from the center of a circle. If we are not careful, we soon think we are the center of all things. Therefore, it is easy to become self centered. Once we become self centered we start to think we are above all things and therefore superior. But we are really only one part of a great whole. The universe is all connected. Each part is here to do something special and according to its design. We are here to honor and respect the job of each part. We are neither above nor below anything. We need not be ruler over anything, we need only to live in honor and harmony with the system.
My Creator, help me to view and conduct myself in a manner of respect, dignity and honor to all creation. Let me see You in all things.
09 August 2020
M-10.3. The aim of our curriculum, unlike the goal of the world’s learning, is the recognition that judgment in the usual sense is impossible. 2 This is not an opinion but a fact. 3 In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. 4 One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. 5 And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. 6 Who is in a position to do this? 7 Who except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?
A Course In Miracles
10 August 2020
Olaf: We’re calling this “controlling what you can when things feel out of control.”
Frozen II
11 August 2020
Ethic 4 of Walking the Red Road
Community Code of Conduct
Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed, and treat them with respect. Honor the thoughts, wishes, and words of others. Never interrupt another or mock or mimic them.
Allow each person the right to freedom of opinion. Respect that opinion. Never speak ill of others. As you travel along life’s road never harm anyone, nor cause anyone to feel sad. On the contrary, if at any time you can make a person happy, do so.
“Even as you desire good treatment, so render it.”
Handsome Lake, Seneca, approximately 1735-1815
12 August 2020
Anna: You are not responsible for their choices, Elsa.
Anna (to Elsa): I don’t want to stop you from being whatever you need to be! I just don’t want you dying trying to be everything for everyone else too.
Frozen II
13 August 2020
M-10.4. Remember how many times you thought you knew all the “facts” you needed for judgment, and how wrong you were! 2 Is there anyone who has not had this experience? 3 Would you know how many times you merely thought you were right, without ever realizing you were wrong? 4 Why would you choose such an arbitrary basis for decision making? 5 Wisdom is not judgment; it is the relinquishment of judgment. 6 Make then but one more judgment. 7 It is this: There is Someone with you Whose judgment is perfect. 8 He does know all the facts; past, present and to come. 9 He does know all the effects of His judgment on everyone and everything involved in any way. 10 And He is wholly fair to everyone, for there is no distortion in His perception.
A Course In Miracles
14 August 2020
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
(Cassius) Julius Caesar , Shakespeare
15 August 2020
All this universe was made only for your journey. And all this universe was made only for the other guy’s journey. And for mine as well.
In our mind it is impossible. We are finite. When we put our minds to one idea, there is no room for any other. If one point is at the center, there is no center left for any other.
But G‑d is infinite. He can have as many heroes to His story as He wishes and each can take center-stage.
Each of G-d’s creatures is the center of the universe.
Reshimot 44
16 August 2020
M-10.5. Therefore lay judgment down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude. 2 Now are you free of a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it. 3 And it was all illusion. 4 Nothing more. 5 Now can the teacher of God rise up unburdened, and walk lightly on. 6 Yet it is not only this that is his benefit. 7 His sense of care is gone, for he has none. 8 He has given it away, along with judgment. 9 He gave himself to Him Whose judgment he has chosen now to trust, instead of his own. 10 Now he makes no mistakes. 11 His Guide is sure. 12 And where he came to judge, he comes to bless. 13 Where now he laughs, he used to come to weep.
A Course in Miracles
17 August 2020
Not only a person, but a situation can be made wrong through complaining and reactivity, which always implies that ‘this should not be happening.’ Being right places you in a position of imagined superiority in relation to the person or situation that is being judged and found wanting. It is that sense of superiority the ego craves and through which it enhances itself.
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
18 August 2020
Wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’
Plannin’ and dreamin’ each night of his charms
That won’t get you into his arms
Hal David / Burt Bacharach
You gotta take action to activate your faith; God ain’t gonna slide no hotdog under your door.
Pookie from Austin
19 August 2020
M-10.6. It is not difficult to relinquish judgment. 2 But it is difficult indeed to try to keep it. 3 The teacher of God lays it down happily the instant he recognizes its cost. 4 All of the ugliness he sees about him is its outcome. 5 All of the pain he looks upon is its result. 6 All of the loneliness and sense of loss; of passing time and growing hopelessness; of sickening despair and fear of death; all these have come of it. 7 And now he knows that these things need not be. 8 Not one is true. 9 For he has given up their cause, and they, which never were but the effects of his mistaken choice, have fallen from him. 10 Teacher of God, this step will bring you peace. 11 Can it be difficult to want but this?
A Course in Miracles
20 August 2020
Through the happy giving to others, God speaks, and, from behind the happy givers’ eyes, God smiles upon the earth.
There are those who give little of the much which they have—and they give it for recognition. Their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
Kahlil Gibran
21 August 2020
That is not our way, to set yourself apart and talk about who you are and what you’ve done. You let your life speak for you. With the Mohawk people, wisdom is how you live and how you interpret what your mother and father, what your grandmothers and grandfathers have told you about this world – and then how you interpret that into the fact of living every day.
Tom Porter, Mohawk
22 August 2020
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks,
and from behind their eyes God smiles upon the earth.
Kahlil Gibran
23 August 2020
Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and You are older than all need, older than all prayer … You are the life of all things.
Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
24 August 2020
Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilisation in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilisation in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that, in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink, or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety, and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilisation starts, Mead said.
We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilised.
Ira Byock
25 August 2020
Human kind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it! Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect!
Chief Seattle
26 August 2020
Michelangelo took a rough piece of marble and chipped away everything that did not look like the vision of David he held in his mind. Working this programme the best you can will help you chip away much of what is not like your Higher Power’s vision for you individually. You may experience your heart’s desire, His Will for you.
Al Kohallek
27 August 2020
POWER—OUR FIRST SPIRITUAL GIFT—’Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a Power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that’s exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem,’ (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 45). … Working the first eleven Steps will assure us of having a personality change, a shift in our perception sufficient to cause a spiritual awakening. Step Twelve opens with: ‘Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps…’
Al Kohallek
28 August 2020
LOVE—OUR SECOND SPIRITUAL GIFT—One of the most common human needs is love. The second part of Step Twelve is: ‘…we tried to carry this message.’ This is sharing; this is Love. We give but little when we give of our possessions, it is when we give of ourselves that we truly give. In the act of giving, passing on what we have received, we realise that giving and receiving are the same. In fact, the only way we can become a Master Receiver is to share with others everything we want for ourselves. We can love because our deepest nature is love. The messenger is the message.
Al Kohallek
29 August 2020
OUR HEART’S DESIRE—OUR THIRD SPIRITUAL GIFT—Awakening to the individual self we were created to be with purpose and meaning, in other words, to consciously live our Heart’s Desire, God’s Will for each individual. The third part of Step Twelve is: ‘…and to practice these principles in all our affairs.’ The only way we can fully realise who we are is to share what we currently are as the result of this process. When we are God-centred even for a moment we will have all the power and wisdom we need. In that moment we will be told or shown what to do, say, think and feel in a way we can currently hear, understand, and follow.
Al Kohallek
30 August 2020
Tradition One Affirmation—Let me remember that my fulfillment, love, joy and forgiveness come through my sharing and joining with others in our common welfare.
Joe McF
31 August 2020
Tradition Two Affirmation—Let me remember that God, as we understand Him, is our only True Source, that we are His children, His agents, His individual expressions, and that we have come together for His purpose. Even now He is guiding and directing us.
Joe McF
01 September 2020
Tradition Three Affirmation—Let me remember that out of enlightened self-interest I want and I choose to share all I can with whomever He brings.
Joe McF
02 September 2020
Tradition Four Affirmation—Let me remember that the one(s) I am sharing with and myself must come to our own decisions or agreements but not at anyone else’s expense.
Joe McF
03 September 2020
Tradition Five Affirmation—Let me remember that as an individual God created, we all have a special message to share. Joined with those we are drawn to, the sharing of this message is our primary purpose.
Joe McF
04 September 2020
Tradition Six Affirmation—Let me remember that we ought never try to share our special message with those for whom it is not intended nor endorse or give our power or prestige to a cause we have no business in, since doing so may divert us from our primary purpose.
Joe McF
05 September 2020
Tradition Seven Affirmation—Let me remember that as God’s agents we are able to be fully self-supporting—by His Divine Grace we can be free of outside interference. He will give us all we need to do His Will.
Joe McF
06 September 2020
Tradition Eight Affirmation—Let me remember that we were freely given our special gifts so we must share them freely, not as a professional.
Joe McF
07 September 2020
Tradition Nine Affirmation—Let me remember that we need to keep an open-mind for His guidance, His flow of love and wisdom, avoiding the closed-mindedness of too many rigid rules or over organization.
Joe McF
08 September 2020
Tradition Ten Affirmation—Let me remember that we need to stay focused on our primary purpose, avoiding useless arguments on outside issues.
Joe McF
09 September 2020
Tradition Eleven Affirmation—Let me remember that we must walk the talk. Our willingness to be His agent will attract what or whom we need to do His Will. Humility goes hand in hand with this willingness.
Joe McF
10 September 2020
Tradition Twelve Affirmation—Let me remember that we need to credit the results to Him to take off our mask and practice His Principles in all of our affairs.
Joe McF
11 September 2020
A strange flood has happened in Moomin valley. The small creatures are spooked and trying to figure out what happened.
‘I’ve been thinking and thinking the whole night. How could such a big wave occur without the wind blowing? This puzzles me, you see, and I think that either ...’
‘And what’s your name, if I might ask?’ Said the Mousewife, interrupting.
‘Homsan,’ answered the small creature without annoyance. ‘If only I could understand how it happened, the big wave would seem altogether natural.’
Tove Jansson, Farlig Midsommar
‘Katastrophen kennt allein der Mensch, sofern er sie überlebt; die Natur kennt keine Katastrophen.’
‘Catastrophes are recognised as such only by people, provided, that is, that they survive them. Nature does not recognise this notion.’
Max Frisch
12 September 2020
Il cielo è limpidissimissimo
sei tu che piovi
The sky is very very very clear
It’s you who rain
Rancore
13 September 2020
‘Can you tell me, friend, why folks see so much folly at home?’
‘Because there are so many fools in the world, I guess.’
‘I have been pleased to observe,’ said ‘Walsingham, with a mixture of philosophy and sarcasm, ‘the facility with which men denounce as folly whatever may be foreign to their tastes. ... It is comfortable, nay gratifying, to feel satisfied of the wisdom of our own views, and the consequent folly of all who dissent. Men differ in temperament and tastes and are intolerant of those differences. The spendthrift, not satisfied with his own prodigality, despises those who do not share his fault. The miser does not confine himself to the mere pleasure of hoarding but takes a higher delight in his superiority over those who are too short-sighted to follow his example. ... The poet ... poet revels in his ideal world, with a feeling of contemptuous pity for the practical man, against whom the fairy gates are closed; while he, in turn, regards his imaginative brother as a brain-sick fool, unfit for the earnest purposes of life. Each is intolerant of another’s taste—each accuses his brother of folly.’
Eros and Anteros, Judith Canute
14 September 2020
I Greet The Indwelling finder Within Us.
Today’s “Pay Forward” gift is – Here I am. “You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force” Publilius Syrus. Where, Oh! Where can I go to find my true Selves? I’ve been here and there looking for the real me, to no avail. I’ve tried all kinds of things to fulfil me, to no avail. I have sought out others to confirm my real Self; no one seem to know. Others seem to tell me more about themselves than about my Self. I turned to alcohol to give me insight and it gave me more illusions. I longed for closeness deeper than words, true intimacy; I felt would be found in sex, and my disappointment increased. I tried to learn all about love, and I realise the depth of love I was seeking cannot be learned, but experienced, realised as an expression of grace. Why couldn’t I bring love, grace and gratitude on demand? I went off into a far country as a Prodigal Son seeking outside myself what could not be found. When I realised my heart’s desire was hidden within me, by me, I turned Home. The Father within me, us all, doing the works called life, which is the Love and grace I seek and now find. Love is what we are, ready to be realised and seen with the eyes of faith. Acts of love are not Love but expressions of a deeper true Love, which does not come by works but by grace. Thy Love, Thy Will be done.
Al Kohallek
15 September 2020
One: Recognition:
I know that there is One Presence, One Power, One Life, One Intelligence, One Substance. It is perfect, whole, complete, and harmonious. It is the source of all things and is in and through all things. There is nothing separate from It. There is nothing that can limit Its action, there is nothing that can be separate from Its action. It always knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. It is the limitless source of every good thing. It is all joy, all happiness, love, harmony, and perfection in all that It is and does.
Ernest Holmes & Willis Kinnear
14 September
16 September 2020
Two: Identification:
There is One life , that Life is God, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life, now. There is nothing in me or in my experience separate from God. ‘I am that which Thou art, Thou art that which I am.’ What I am is God in me as me. I now rid my mind of any and all ideas of isolation and separation from God, and know that as I now turn to Him I permit and partake of an increased flow and influx of the Divine nature as what I am. I am one with God—all that is. My mind is a focal point, an individualization, of the Mind of God, the One Creative Power. The word I speak, the declaration I make is the word of God going forth through me into new tangible creation. In accord with the Law of Mind my word is its own fulfillment.
Ernest Holmes & Willis Kinnear
17 September 2020
Three: Declaration:
This word I speak is for me, about me, is the truth of me. There is nothing in my mind, or the mind of another, that can deny it. Its action and fulfilment cannot be delayed, deferred, or hindered. I know, affirm, and declare that Divine Intelligence, the Mind of God, now guides and directs my every thought, my every action. I know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Every good idea I have carries with it the knowledge of the ways and means for its achievement. I am vigorous and whole. I possess the vitality of the Infinite. I am strong and well. God’s Life is my life, now. His strength is my strength. His power is my power. My whole being is renewed, invigorated, made alive. There is peace, a Divine harmonious, dynamic, creative action at the centre of my being. Every breath I draw, every beat of my heart, is the perfect rhythmic action of Life Itself. The expression of the One Perfect Life in me, as me, is now perfectly maintaining every atom, cell, and organ of my body. My body is a Divine idea in the Mind of God and no thing, no situation or condition can prevent Its full and complete expression in and as me. God created my body, knows how to maintain it, to remove what doesn’t belong, and to rebuild it. This is occurring right now. Without reservation I know I now manifest and experience in all fullness and completeness God’s perfect idea of me, and in all respects, every action, function, and structure of my body now conforms to it. There is perfect assimilation, circulation, and elimination. All that I am is one with the One Perfect Life. All the joy there is, all the happiness, all the beauty are now mine. I am born of the Spirit. I am in the Spirit. I am the Spirit made manifest.
Ernest Holmes & Willis Kinnear
18 September 2020
Four: Acceptance:
I now accept the creative action of the words I have spoken as the law and the thing where unto they are directed. They go forth into immediate fulfilment. Right now are they fully manifest. There is no delay, there is nothing that can prevent them from now being fully and completely fulfilled in my experience. They are words of power and of good. I accept them, I know they are the truth of that which I am. In and through them God goes forth anew into creation. It is now done, it is now complete. For this knowledge, for this understanding, I am grateful. I give thanks that all this is so. I know and accept that there is One Life, that Life is God, that Life is perfect, and that Life is my life now.
Right now.
And so I let it be.
Ernest Holmes & Willis Kinnear
17 September
19 September 2020
Faith is not the result of experience.
On the contrary, faith creates experience.
God helps out because you trust He will.
20 September 2020
[Moses warned the Jewish people, “Take care lest] you say to yourself, ‘It is my own strength and the might of my hand that have accumulated this wealth for me.’“ Deuteronomy 8:17
Children often surpass their parents in many ways, even though they inherited their talents and abilities from their parents. The reason that children can manifest capabilities their parents do not seem to possess is because these talents remained dormant in the parents and only became active in their children.
Similarly, G‑d calls the Jewish people His “children.” He has indeed left it up to us to bring the world to its completion, granting us a measure of power that He has relinquished. Thus, when we accomplish something that helps bring the world closer to its ultimate fulfillment, we might mistakenly ascribe this accomplishment to our own power.
21 September 2020
Is it surprising we don’t understand His plans?
After all, if G‑d were only a little smarter than us,
He wouldn’t be G‑d.
22 September 2020
The Rebbe spoke about the suffering in the world, and when he came to these words, began to choke and sob:
If He is capable of anything,
why can’t He provide good without the bad?
There could be only one answer:
He does not wish us to know,
because if we knew
we might consent
and let such a world be.
Tzvi Freeman
21 September
23 September 2020
Teach us love, compassion and honour ... that we may heal the Earth, and heal each other.
Ojibwe prayer
24 September 2020
God is everywhere. God is all-powerful. God is big, strong, clever, creative, caring, and resourceful. God is with me right now and forever has been and will be. God loves and forgives me totally. Let me thus love and forgive everyone totally. God, show me where I have thought or acted wrongly, and show me what to think or do instead, then let me return to the present and think only of your permanent loving presence and how I can do your will now and in the future. God, give me direction and strength, because these are not my own. Let me realise that all fear is false, because nothing real can be destroyed and what is vulnerable is unreal. Take from me my foolish self-seeking dreams and the fear, frustration, and disappointment they bring. Give me instead the vision of your will and the path I am to follow, knowing that this surpasses anything I can dream for myself. Have me do everything I do attentively, for you, and for its own sake. God, let me finally be quiet, kind, and useful, and remember I am—as is everyone—but part of you. Amen.
Anonymous
25 September 2020
The Seventh Step Prayer. My Creator, I am now willing that You should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to You and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding.
Alcoholics Anonymous
26 September 2020
We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to ourselves, “This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done.’’ We avoid retaliation or argument.
Alcoholics Anonymous
27 September 2020
W-pI.184.15. Father, our Name is Yours. 2 In It we are united with all living things, and You Who are their one Creator. 3 What we made and call by many different names is but a shadow we have tried to cast across Your Own reality. 4 And we are glad and thankful we were wrong. 5 All our mistakes we give to You, that we may be absolved from all effects our errors seemed to have. 6 And we accept the truth You give, in place of every one of them. 7 Your Name is our salvation and escape from what we made. 8 Your Name unites us in the oneness which is our inheritance and peace. 9 Amen.
A Course In Miracles
28 September 2020
The Kingdom is perfectly united and perfectly protected, and the ego will not prevail against it. Amen.
A Course In Miracles
29 September 2020
3 What would You have me do? 4 Where would You have me go? 5 What would You have me say, and to whom?
A Course In Miracles
30 September 2020
... a healing prayer, to help us rise above defensiveness, and let truth be as it has always been:
Sickness is a defense against the truth.
I will accept the truth of what I am, and let my mind be wholly healed today.
A Course In Miracles
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