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 January 2022
You can’t save your face and your behind at the same time.
Anonymous
02 January 2022
You’re of no use to anyone else if you’re in a devil of a state yourself.
Anonymous
Put your own oxygen mask on first.
Al-Anon saying
03 January 2022
Alcoholism is a lot like dancing with a gorilla; you’re not done dancing until the gorilla’s done dancing.
Anonymous
04 January 2022
O Lord, increase my faith,
strengthen me and confirm me in Thy true faith;
endue me with wisdom, charity, and patience,
in all my adversity, teach me to say Amen.
Henry Loosemore, c. 1607–1670, organist of King’s College Cambridge,
05 January 2022
GEORGE: In these matters you never do what your instincts tell you. Always, ALWAYS do the opposite.
JERRY: This is how you operate?
GEORGE: Yeah, I wish.
Seinfeld
06 January 2022
If everywhere you go, there’s a problem, GUESS WHAT!
Anonymous
07 January 2022
DENIAL
Don’t
Even
Notice
I
Am
Lying
Anonymous
08 January 2022
Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.
Nikolay Gogol
09 January 2022
Meditation is the quiet and sustained application of the mind to the contemplation of a spiritual truth. Its purpose is to deflect our minds from the problems we are experiencing, to raise our thoughts about the grievances and discontent that colour our thinking.
One Day At A Time In Al-Anon
10 January 2022
Fine words butter no parsnips.
British idiom
11 January 2022
[Of sponsorship:] You might as well tell them the truth, because they’re going to die anyway.
Anonymous
12 January 2022
Therapist: Are you always this charming?
AA member: What do you mean?
Therapist: Charm. Very alcoholic. See you next week.
Anonymous
13 January 2022
Al-Anon member: My husband keeps coming home drunk and falling asleep in the hall. What do I do?
Al-Anon sponsor: Leave him lay where Jesus flang him; step over the body and get on with your life.
Anonymous
14 January 2022
Oh, oobee doo
I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You’ll see it’s true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too
I Wanna Be Like You, Jungle Book
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
15 January 2022
It does things to you if you actually experience your deepest fears and they turn out to be not so bad—indeed, it turns out to be a mind-bending grace.
Jim Harbaugh, S.J.
16 January 2022
You’re a perfectionist? Wow. So, what are you perfect at?
Anonymous
17 January 2022
I was without power to change the course my life had taken.
The Keys of the Kingdom
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step One
18 January 2022
Roger: Mon, easy on those cookies, okay? Remember: they’re just food; they’re not love.
Friends (Season 1, Episode 13)
19 January 2022
Every doctor gets his quota of alcoholic patients. Some of us struggle with these people because we know that they are really very sick, but we also know that, short of some miracle, we are not going to help them except temporarily and that they will inevitably get worse and worse until one of two things happens. Either they die of acute alcoholism or they develop wet brains and have to be put away permanently.
The Keys of the Kingdom
20 January 2022
.... we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
The Mower, Philip Larkin
21 January 2022
Not only were they at peace with themselves, but they were getting a kick out of life such as one seldom encounters, except in the very young.
The Keys of the Kingdom
22 January 2022
WAIT: Why am I talking?
WAIST: Why am I still talking?
23 January 2022
You’re a rescuer, huh? So, tell me, who have you saved?
Anonymous
24 January 2022
Nothing in their lives took precedence over their response to a call for help from some alcoholic in need. They would travel miles and stay up all night with someone they had never laid eyes on before and think nothing of it. Far from expecting praise for their deeds, they claimed the performance a privilege and insisted that they invariably received more than they gave.
The Keys of the Kingdom
25 January 2022
Whatever form of upset confronts us, it has no power to change the happiness that forgiveness brings.
Ken Wapnick
26 January 2022
A.A. is not a plan for recovery that can be finished and done with. It is a way of life, and the challenge contained in its principles is great enough to keep any human being striving for as long as he lives. We do not, cannot, outgrow this plan. As arrested alcoholics, we must have a program for living that allows for limitless expansion. Keeping one foot in front of the other is essential for maintaining our arrestment. Others may idle in a retrogressive groove without too much danger, but retrogression can spell death for us. However, this isn’t as rough as it sounds, as we do become grateful for the necessity that makes us toe the line, and we find that we are compensated for a consistent effort by the countless dividends we receive.
The Keys of the Kingdom
27 January 2022
Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. And, experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.
Randy Pausch
28 January 2022
A complete change takes place in our approach to life. Where we used to run from responsibility, we find ourselves accepting it with gratitude that we can successfully shoulder it. Instead of wanting to escape some perplexing problem, we experience the thrill of challenge in the opportunity it affords for another application of A.A. techniques, and we find ourselves tackling it with surprising vigour.
The Keys of the Kingdom
29 January 2022
No job is beneath you. You ought to be thrilled you got a job in the mail room. And when you get there, here’s what you do: Be really great at sorting mail.
Randy Pausch
30 January 2022
As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.
Byron Katie
31 January 2022
Don’t believe everything you think.
Byron Katie
01 February 2022
Peace doesn’t require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there.
Byron Katie
02 February 2022
People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.
George Carlin
03 February 2022
Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be caused by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That’s not a possibility. It’s only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I’m the one who’s hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don’t have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I’m the one who can stop hurting me. It’s within my power.
Byron Katie
04 February 2022
Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.
George Carlin
05 February 2022
Being present means living without control and always having your needs met.
Byron Katie
06 February 2022
We buy stuff we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
George Carlin
07 February 2022
The only time I suffer is when I believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is, is what I want.
Byron Katie
08 February 2022
Dusting is a good example of the futility of trying to put things right. As soon as you dust, the fact of your next dusting has already been established.
George Carlin
09 February 2022
When you argue with reality, you lose 100% of the time.
Byron Katie
10 February 2022
Live you’ll die tomorrow. Farm like you’ll farm forever.
Brian Aldridge (from The Archers)
11 February 2022
Watch out for intellect,
because it knows so much it knows nothing
and leaves you hanging upside down,
mouthing knowledge as your heart
falls out of your mouth.
Anne Sexton
12 February 2022
How I’m doing is what I’m doing not how I’m feeling.
Anonymous
13 February 2022
Before talking to the teacher it is better to observe yourself a bit, in that way you might find the answer for yourself. It is better to be one’s own teacher or master rather than assigning this job to someone else. That is why the teacher, and above all a Dzogchen teacher, teaches us to observe ourselves and to discover our own condition, and always asks us all to become responsible for ourselves. Why do teachers ask these things? It is not because they are worried about being bothered, but because they know very well that always turning to one’s teacher is not a solution. The solution lies in observing ourselves and resolving our own problems by ourselves. Then, if we have no way of finding a solution, the teacher can certainly help us. If everyone did this it would be much easier.
Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
14 February 2022
Depression is boring, I think
and I would do better to make
some soup and light up the cave.
Anne Sexton
15 February 2022
“What does it matter how long I pray, so long as my prayers are answered?”
Sitting Bull, HUNKPAPA LAKOTA
Too often we worry about the words we use in prayer. We focus on the words. What really counts is the spirit and intent behind our words. It is the spirit and intent that the Creator responds to. He reads and listens to our heart. Prayer isn’t only when we fold our hands and pray. Prayer is when we talk to the Creator even when we are walking down a path or sitting on a hill or walking in the mountains. The Elders say, walk in prayer. We should be willing to talk with the Great One.
Meditations with Native American Elders
16 February 2022
Live or die, but don’t poison everything.
Anne Sexton
17 February 2022
When we fly in an airplane above the clouds, we realize that the sun is always shining even when it is cloudy and rainy below. In the same way, when we cease to hold on to our identity, our ego, we begin to see that the nonexistence of ego is a powerful, real, and indestructible state of being. We realize that, like the sun, it is a continuous situation which does not wax or wane. That state of being is called vajra nature.
Chögyam Trungpa
18 February 2022
Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.
Anne Sexton
19 February 2022
Fame isn’t everything, is it, Mr Potter?
Severus Snape
20 February 2022
Don’t bite till you know if it’s bread or stone.
Anne Sexton
21 February 2022
Hardships are inevitable for everyone, but the key is how we meet them. If we can maintain hope and optimism we will see hardships as opportunities to meet new situations and a new way to think about things rather than being weighted down by the burden of hardships.
17th Karmapa
22 February 2022
There, like the wind through woods in riot,
Through him the gale of life blew high;
The tree of man was never quiet:
Then ‘twas the Roman, now ‘tis I.
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
23 February 2022
Sure, my character defects have been removed, but they’ve not been removed far. They can be retrieved at any time.
Anonymous
24 February 2022
And now the fancy passes by
And nothing will remain,
And miles around they’ll say that I
Am quite myself again.
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
25 February 2022
The Four Horsemen of Procrastination: Napping; Snacks; Social Media; Minor Chores.
Anonymous
26 February 2022
One of the meditation techniques that is good to use — especially if you are busy — is mindfulness of the body. When you get disturbed it’s often hard to settle down again. Instead of going straight to present-moment awareness, silence, the breath, mettā, or whatever other type of meditation you use, sit down and just become aware of the sensations and feelings in your body. Focusing on the physical feelings is a way of giving ease to those feelings. This is particularly useful if you are tired or sick. And it’s not that hard. To make this sort of practice truly effective, use caring attention. Caring attention is not just being mindful but also looking upon those feelings with gentleness and compassion. You’re not just aware of the sensations, but you’re kind and gentle with them.
Ajahn Brahm
27 February 2022
Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.
14th Dalai Lama
28 February 2022
Everything is alive with the Spirit of the Creator. The water is alive. The trees are alive. The woods are alive. The mountains are alive. The wind is alive. The Great Spirit’s breath is in everything and that’s why it’s alive.
Meditations with Native American Elders: The Four Seasons, Don L. Coyhis
01 March 2022
Phil: I had no choice!
Claire: Oh, honey, you always have a choice; you just keep making the wrong one.
Modern Family
02 March 2022
The essence of thoughts that suddenly arise is without any nature. Do not inhibit their appearance in any way, and without thinking of any essence, let them arise clearly, nakedly, and vividly. Likewise, if one thought arises, observe its nature, and if two arise, observe their nature. Thus, whatever thoughts arise, let them go without holding onto them. Let them remain as fragments. Release them unimpededly.
Yang Gonpa
03 March 2022
When one gives completely, there is no one left to watch what is being given, and no one to appreciate how generous one is being. This is called “giving the giver.” The more one surrenders in this way, the more richness develops. There is never a problem of running out of things to offer. One’s human life is in itself an immensely rich situation to offer.
Chögyam Trungpa
04 March 2022
There are three types of people in the world. What three?
One who is like carving on a rock, one who is like scratching on the ground, and one who is like writing on the water.
What sort of person is like carving on a rock? Imagine a certain person who is always getting angry and his anger lasts long, just as carving on a rock is not soon worn off by wind, water or lapse of time.
What sort of person is like scratching on the ground? Imagine a certain person who is always getting angry but his anger does not last long, just as scratching on the ground is soon worn off by the wind, water and lapse of time.
And what sort of person is like writing on the water? Imagine a certain person who, even though spoken to harshly, sharply, roughly, is easily reconciled and becomes agreeable and friendly, just as writing on the water soon disappears.
Buddha
05 March 2022
First, when one feels one’s feelings, one must learn what to do with them and how to express them so as not to puke them on everyone in sight. There [is] a tendency . . . to explode all over whoever [is] present because of feelings that were triggered by something. This frequently was not helpful either to the puker or the person puked upon. The puker often instinctively knew that the intensity of the feelings was much more than the present situation merited (in fact, it might have been building up for years!) and when the person puked upon retorted that the anger (hurt, fear, etc.) was inappropriate, the person doing the puking secretly knew that the other person was right and either quietly slinked off or came on even more defensive and attacking. Whatever the response, the potential intimacy of getting in touch with the feelings was destroyed. Also, puking feelings in the way I have described always created the potential for a horrendous backlash, from an even more experienced puker coming at us hot and heavy.
Anne Wilson Schaef
06 March 2022
‘tis mad idolatry
To make the service greater than the god
Hector, in Troilus and Cressida
07 March 2022
T-21.in.1. Projection makes perception. 2 The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. 3 But though it is no more than that, it is not less. 4 Therefore, to you it is important. 5 It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. 6 As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. 7 Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. 8 Perception is a result and not a cause. 9 And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. 10 Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. 11 Nothing perceived without it means anything. 12 And where there is no meaning, there is chaos.
A Course In Miracles
08 March 2022
I believe that it is absolutely essential to get in touch with these old feelings, and the one who triggers these feelings (regardless of how obnoxious he or she may seem to us at the moment) has given a really important gift to us, the gift of allowing and even assisting us to get in touch with old, buried parts of ourselves. When something is triggered for us, it is our responsibility to get ourselves to a safe place where we can work through the feelings and see what they are related to and what they mean for us. Then, we may or may not want to go back to whoever triggered us and share what part of the feelings may [actually] be related to them.
Anne Wilson Schaef
09 March 2022
‘Child,’ said the Lion, ‘I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.’
The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis
10 March 2022
There comes a moment in life when we see that the horizon line no longer stretches to infinity and time’s a-wasting. The distractions of worldly clamours, whether within or without, lose their grip. We were given a purpose that has nothing to do with how much we earn, our job title, the kind of car we drive, or where we live. Authenticity becomes more important than others’ opinions.
‘This is the day the Lord hath made.’ THIS is the day. What will I do with it? What will I serve? Will I step closer to becoming who I was meant to be?
Anonymous
11 March 2022
Another way that intimacy was subtly avoided (often while attesting to it) was by talking about feelings and not feeling them as they were discussed. Some people are very expert at talking about feelings; they are just not very good at doing them. They are not good at being congruent within themselves about what is going on inside and what is being expressed outside.
Anne Wilson Schaef
12 March 2022
Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.
The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis
13 March 2022
I had a friend who once said that he believed that a relationship was simply being present to another person. I believe intimacy with oneself is simply being present to oneself and then being able to bring that self into relationship with others. In order to be intimate with another person, one must be intimate with oneself.
Once there is a certain modicum of knowledge, information, awareness, and presence with the self, there is a possibility of sharing that process that is the self with another. This, then, is the potential of intimacy between two people. If, however, one is not living one’s own process, it is never possible to share that process with another person or other people.
Anne Wilson Schaef
14 March 2022
Take care. It is so easy to break eggs without making omelettes.
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
15 March 2022
T-13.in.2. The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. 2 The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. 3 Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. 4 For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. 5 Children are born into it through pain and in pain. 6 Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. 7 Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. 8 They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. 9 They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. 10 And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. 11 Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.
A Course in Miracles
16 March 2022
For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.
The Magician’s Nephew, C. S. Lewis
17 March 2022
We aren’t all helpless victims. Sometimes we hit back first.
Anonymous
18 March 2022
All prayer arises from incompetence. Otherwise we would have no need of it.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
19 March 2022
The moment of clarity can take many, many different forms and arise from many situations, but it is basically the moment you admit to yourself that all your obsessive efforts to manage and control your life and the people around you so as to engineer an atom of happiness have never worked, are not working now, and are never going to work.
Heather King
20 March 2022
You do not tear from place to place and unsettle yourself with one move after another. Restlessness of that sort is symptomatic of a sick mind. Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a person’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in their own company.
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
21 March 2022
And, talking of sleepiness, I entirely agree with you that no one in his senses, if he has any power of ordering his own day, would reserve his chief prayers for bed-time—obviously the worst possible hour for any action which needs concentration. The trouble is that thousands of unfortunate people can hardly find any other. Even for us, who are the lucky ones, it is not always easy. My own plan, when hard pressed, is to seize any time, and place, however unsuitable, in preference to the last waking moment.
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
22 March 2022
You don’t have to call God by name. You don’t have to believe in him. You don’t even have to know you’re praying. But if you get on your knees and ask a power greater than you for help, the help will come. It may not come in the form you want or the form you’re expecting, but the help will come.
Heather King
23 March 2022
A clergyman once said to me that a railway compartment, if one has it to oneself, is an extremely good place to pray in “because there is just the right amount of distraction.” When I asked him to explain, he said that perfect silence and solitude left one more open to the distractions which come from within, and that a moderate amount of external distraction was easier to cope with.
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
24 March 2022
Nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent changes of treatment. A wound will not heal over if it is being made the subject of experiments with different ointments.
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
25 March 2022
To forgive for the moment is not difficult. But to go on forgiving, to forgive the same offence again every time it recurs to the memory—there’s the real tussle. My resource is to look for some action of my own which is open to the same charge as the one I’m resenting. If I still smart to remember how A let me down, I must still remember how I let B down. If I find it difficult to forgive those who bullied me at school, let me, at that very moment, remember, and pray for, those I bullied. (Not that we called it bullying of course. That is where prayer without words can be so useful. In it there are no names; therefore no aliases.)
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
26 March 2022
After running over a lot of different thoughts, pick out one to be digested thoroughly that day. This is what I do myself: out of the many bits I have been reading, I lay hold of one.
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
27 March 2022
I was never worried myself by the words ‘lead us not into temptation’, but a great many of my correspondents are. The words suggest to them what someone has called “a fiend-like conception of God,” as one who first forbids us certain fruits and then lures us to taste them. But the Greek word (πειρασμός) means “trial”—”trying circumstances”—of every sort; a far larger word than English “temptation”. So that the petition essentially is, “Make straight our paths. Spare us, where possible, from all crises, whether of temptation or affliction.”
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
28 March 2022
It is not the person who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
29 March 2022
By the way, you yourself, though you’ve doubtless forgotten it, gave me an excellent gloss on [the phrase ‘lead me not into temptation’]: years ago in the pub at Coton. You said it added a sort of reservation to all our preceding prayers. As if we said, “In my ignorance I have asked for A, B and C. But don’t give me them if you foresee that they would in reality be to me either snares or sorrows.” [...] If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where should I be now?
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
30 March 2022
You ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
31 March 2022
Many modern psychologists tell us always to distrust this vague feeling of guilt, as something purely pathological. And if they had stopped at that, I might believe them. But when they go on, as some do, to apply the same treatment to all guilt-feelings whatever, to suggest that one’s feeling about a particular unkind act or a particular insincerity is also and equally untrustworthy—I can’t help thinking they are talking nonsense. One sees this the moment one looks at other people. I have talked to some who felt guilt when they jolly well ought to have felt it; they have behaved like brutes and know it. I’ve also met others who felt guilty and weren’t guilty by any standard I can apply. And thirdly, I’ve met people who were guilty and didn’t seem to feel guilt. And isn’t this what we should expect? People can be ‘malades imaginaires’ who are well and think they are ill; and others, especially consumptives, are ill and think they are well; and thirdly—far the largest class—people are ill and know they are ill. It would be very odd if there were any region in which all mistakes were in one direction.
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
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