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 2023

SONYA: Tell me honestly, as a friend – are you happy?
ELENA: No.
SONYA: I knew that.

Vanya on 42nd Street

02 January 2023

I’m not a blackbelt in meditation; I’m a perpetual white belt who keeps coming back.

Anonymous

03 January 2023

I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any way. I am God’s Son, whose Self rests safely in the Mind of God.

A Course In Miracles, Lesson 119

04 January 2023

I will forgive all things today, that I may learn how to accept the truth in me, and come to recognize my sinlessness.

A Course In Miracles, Lesson 119

05 January 2023

Take the straight and narrow path
And if you start to slide,
Give a little whistle!
Give a little whistle!
And always let your conscience be your guide!
And always let your conscience be your guide!

Jiminy Cricket

06 January 2023

[Michael, to Hope, who is lying awake, obsessing about something]

It’s OK to sleep; you’ll still be miserable in the morning.

Thirtysomething

07 January 2023

From: Castle In The Sky: Laputa

Now, why was Laputa destroyed?
I know perfectly well.
There’s a song in the valley of Gondoa:
We need roots in the Earth;
Let’s live with the wind;
With seeds, make fat the winter;
With the birds, let’s sing of spring.
No matter how many weapons you may have,
Or how many poor robots you use,
You can’t live separated from the ground.

08 January 2023

Les hommes qui cherchent le bonheur sont comme des ivrognes qui ne peuvent trouver leur maison, mais qui savent qu’ils en ont une.

People who seek happiness are like drunkards who can’t find their home but know they have one.

Voltaire, Le Sottisier

09 January 2023

From: Mimi wo Sumaseba / Whisper of the Heart

Nishi: This is a stone called mica schist. Try peeking into the crack.
Shizuku: Ohhh! It’s so pretty!
Nishi: It’s called “beryl”. There’s an inclusion of raw emerald.
Shizuku: “Emerald”? The gemstone?
Nishi: That’s right. You and Seiji both, you’re like that stone.
Unpolished stones in their natural state. Now, I like even unpolished stones very much, but things like violin making and storywriting are different. You have to find the rough gems inside yourself, take the time, and polish them. It’s very time-consuming work.

10 January 2023

Si Dieu nous a fait à son image, nous le lui avons bien rendu.

If God made us in His image, we have more than returned the favour.

Voltaire, Le Sottisier

11 January 2023

In ‘Hook’, Peter Pan has grown up, become workaholic, and forgotten who he is. When he starts to reawaken, Tinkerbell reappears.

Peter: It’s finally happened. I’m having a total nervous breakdown.

Tinkerbell: Come on, Peter, follow me and all will be well.

12 January 2023

Les paroles sont aux pensées ce que l’or est aux diamants ; il est nécessaire pour les mettre en oeuvre, mais il en faut peu.

Language is to thoughts as gold is to diamonds; necessary to show them off, but a little goes a long way.

Voltaire, Le Sottisier

13 January 2023

So, do you polish your crown before you go to bed or when you get up in the morning?

Anonymous Al-Anon Sponsor

14 January 2023

The mind like is a closed economic system: one half manufactures defective goods; and the other half buys them.

Anonymous

15 January 2023

An alcoholic who drinks is nuts. An alcoholic who doesn’t drink one day at a time is sane. I don’t care what the rest of his state is like. I think it’s terribly important to hang onto the core of this programme, because the winds of life still blow, after you’re sober, and after you’re sober a long time, you can hit a spot in your life that’ll make you look back to your drinking days and wonder if it was ever this rough. But this programme gives a person something that never deserts them, that doesn’t blow with the winds, because it’s connected with the eternal: sanity, the ability to stand up and live one day at a time.

Tom Powers (unattributed co-author of ‘Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions’)

16 January 2023

Beware of the temptation to perceive yourself unfairly treated. In this view, you seek to find an innocence that is not Theirs but yours alone, and at the cost of someone else’s guilt. Can innocence be purchased by the giving of your guilt to someone else? And is it innocence that your attack on him attempts to get?

A Course In Miracles, T-26.X.4

17 January 2023

Why do we try to divert the river
When the water is
What will deliver us
Where we need to go?

Kaden MacKay, Passing Through

18 January 2023

As long as he needs me
Oh, yes, he does need me
In spite of what you see
I’m sure that he needs me
Who else would love him still?
When they’ve been used so ill
He knows I always will
As long as he needs me

Oliver!

19 January 2023

For fifteen minutes twice today we rest from senseless planning, and from every thought that blocks the truth from entering our minds. Today we will receive instead of plan, that we may give instead of organize. And we are given truly, as we say:

If I defend myself I am attacked. But in defenselessness I will be strong, and I will learn what my defenses hide.

Nothing but that. If there are plans to make, you will be told of them. They may not be the plans you thought were needed, nor indeed the answers to the problems which you thought confronted you. But they are answers to another kind of question, which remains unanswered yet in need of answering until the Answer comes to you at last.

A Course In Miracles

20 January 2023

Dorothy: Why is it whenever I think I’ve met Mr Right, I’m wrong?
Sophia: Because, Dorothy, you’re not the most perceptive woman in the world.

The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 3

21 January 2023

The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chasidism, saw a lesson in everything. He once prodded an equestrian to stop horsing around and return to Judaism, but the man’s mind was on his horse. “See how it runs!” he exclaimed. “It covers much more ground than the slowly Shleppers!”

“But,” asked the Rabbi, “if your horse takes a wrong turn, it’ll get lost faster than a slow horse!” “Aha!” said the horse fancier. “My horse makes up for lost time and returns real fast.” The Baal Shem Tov beat him to the chase. “You said it! The same drive that led you astray can get you back on track.”

22 January 2023

Fear is an incompetent teacher.

Picard

23 January 2023

One impossible thing at a time.

Picard

24 January 2023

Child: Daddy, when I grow up I want to be an alcoholic.
Father: Son, you can’t do both.

Recounted by Tom W

25 January 2023

Whether or not we live with active drinking, life is unmanageable whenever we lose perspective about what is and is not our responsibility. We take offence at actions that have nothing to do with us. Or we intervene where it is inappropriate and neglect our legitimate obligations to ourselves and others. Our misplaced concern for others becomes intrusive, meddling, resented, and doomed to failure. Instead of helping those we care about, we demonstrate a lack of respect for them and create discord in our relationships.

Al-Anon Family Groups, How Al-Anon Works

26 January 2023

Sisko: It’s just a little uncomfortable right now.
Dax: I suggest that you allow yourself to feel comfortable with your discomfort. Time can do the rest.

Deep Space Nine, S1: E3

27 January 2023

The Joranian ostrich hides by sticking its head underwater, sometimes even until it drowns.

Deep Space Nine, S1: E3

28 January 2023

When our preoccupation with others distracts us from our responsibilities to attend to our own physical, emotional, and spiritual health, we suffer. Our health and self-esteem decline. We become incapable of accepting reality, coping with change, or finding happiness. Our lives fly out of control.

Al-Anon Family Groups, How Al-Anon Works

29 January 2023

Guinan: When a man is convinced that he is going to die tomorrow, he’ll probably find a way to make it happen.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, S4: E1

I knew a man who was didn’t think he could stay sober. So he didn’t. Fear is a prayer for what you don’t want to happen.

Joe McF

30 January 2023

You need not stop thinking. Just cease being interested. It is disinterestedness that liberates. Don’t hold on, that is all. The world is made of rings. The hooks are all yours. Make straight your hooks and nothing can hold you.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

31 January 2023

With this First Step, we admit that we did not cause, cannot control, and cannot cure the alcoholic, the disease of alcoholism, or the fact that we have been affected by this disease. We are powerless over alcohol—and its effects on us. By ourselves, we can do nothing to overcome the effects of this disease. In fact, our attempts to exert power over alcohol have made our lives unmanageable.

Al-Anon Family Groups, How Al-Anon Works

01 February 2023

Guinan (talking about Picard, who has been assimilated by the Borg):

You’re going to have to do something you don’t want to do. ... You must let him go, Riker. It’s the only way to beat him. The only way to save him.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, S4: E1

Don P, talking of an alcoholic family member

If I let go of him, he might die. If I didn’t, he would definitely die.

02 February 2023

What if someone said to an embryo in the womb,
‘Outside of your world of black nothing
Is a miraculously ordered universe;
A vast Earth covered with tasty food;
Mountains, oceans and plains,
Fragrant orchards and fields full of crops;
A luminous sky beyond your reach,
With a sun, moonbeams, and uncountable stars;
And there are winds from south, north and west,
And gardens replete with sweet flowers
Like a banquet at a wedding feast.
The wonders of this world are beyond description.
What are you doing living in a dark prison,
Drinking blood through that narrow tube?’
But the womb-world is all an embryo knows
And it would not be particularly impressed
By such amazing tales, saying dismissively:
‘You’re crazy. That is all a deluded fantasy.’
One day you will look back and laugh at yourself.
You’ll say, ‘I can’t believe I was so asleep!
How did I ever forget the truth?
How ridiculous to believe that sadness and sickness
Are anything other than bad dreams.’

Rumi

03 February 2023

Taking the First Step allows a great weight to fall from our shoulders. We let go of the losing battle we have been waging. We recognize that there is no point in continuing the fight. We surrender completely.

Al-Anon Family Groups, How Al-Anon Works

04 February 2023

There are three types of business: My business; God’s business; and none of my business.

Anonymous Al-Anon

05 February 2023

Halfway to hell is still not a recommended destination.

Picard

06 February 2023

For example, many of us have confused love with interference. We don’t know how to show affection or support without giving advice, seeking to sway another’s decisions, or trying to get those we love to do what we think will bring them happiness. We confuse caring with controlling because we don’t know how to allow others the dignity of being themselves.

Al-Anon Family Groups, How Al-Anon Works

07 February 2023

The Traveller: Let it go, Wesley, let go of the anticipation, the expectation, the demands upon yourself, let it all go, leave it behind. Yes. The ability is there inside you. You do not need to look for it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, S4: E5

08 February 2023

... what we defend against we make real.

Courage To Change, June 3

It is essential to realize that all defences do what they would defend [against].

A Course In Miracles

09 February 2023

Jim: Some things time doesn’t heal.
Alistair: Only if you don’t deal with them.

The Archers

10 February 2023

Love cannot stop alcoholism.

Lorrie D

11 February 2023

Change always comes later than we think it should.

Picard

12 February 2023

He seemed to weave, like the spider, from pure impulse, without reflection. Every man’s work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.

George Eliot, Silas Marner

13 February 2023

My narcissistic psyche can delude me into thinking that a spiritual awakening is about my edification, my progress, my psychic comfort, security, and peace. Whereas genuine spiritual awakening seems to consist in a disappearance, however temporary, of self.

King, Heather. Holy Desperation: Praying as If Your Life Depends on It

14 February 2023

So, year after year, Silas Marner had lived in this solitude, his guineas rising in the iron pot, and his life narrowing and hardening itself more and more into a mere pulsation of desire and satisfaction that had no relation to any other being. His life had reduced itself to the functions of weaving and hoarding, without any contemplation of an end towards which the functions tended. The same sort of process has perhaps been undergone by wiser men, when they have been cut off from faith and love—only, instead of a loom and a heap of guineas, they have had some erudite research, some ingenious project, or some well-knit theory.

George Eliot, Silas Marner

15 February 2023

That is what you had to do to live in the camp: be engaged, not live for yourself alone. The self-centered life has no place in the world of the deported. You must go beyond it, lay hold on something outside yourself. Never mind how: by prayer if you know how to pray; through another man’s warmth which communicates with yours, or through yours which you pass on to him; or simply by no longer being greedy ... Be engaged, no matter how, but be engaged. It was certainly hard, and most men don’t achieve it.

King, Heather. Holy Desperation: Praying as If Your Life Depends on It

16 February 2023

It is seldom that the miserable can help regarding their misery as a wrong inflicted by those who are less miserable.

George Eliot, Silas Marner

17 February 2023

Still, a miracle isn’t a magic trick. God isn’t Santa Claus. A vision, for example, in and of itself means nothing. So the Virgin Mary spoke to you. And? A miracle is what happens as a result of the experience. A miracle has practical application. A miracle allows us to do something useful that serves others.

King, Heather. Holy Desperation: Praying as If Your Life Depends on It

18 February 2023

He turned immediately towards the hearth, where Silas Marner sat lulling the child. She was perfectly quiet now, but not asleep—only soothed by sweet porridge and warmth into that wide-gazing calm which makes us older human beings, with our inward turmoil, feel a certain awe in the presence of a little child, such as we feel before some quiet majesty or beauty in the earth or sky—before a steady glowing planet, or a full-flowered eglantine, or the bending trees over a silent pathway.

George Eliot, Silas Marner

19 February 2023

The only purpose we have in this world is to forgive whomever it is who has to be forgiven. There is no other purpose. The purpose is not to teach the Course, not to preach the Bible, nor to become famous and amass a lot of money. The only purpose that the Holy Spirit sees in this world is the healing of God’s Son (T-24.VI.4:1). This is accomplished by simply forgiving those people whom we live with, whom we work with, grew up with, etc. Indeed, this includes all people and relationships.

Kenneth Wapnick. The Journey Home: The Obstacles to Peace in A Course in Miracles

20 February 2023

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward.

George Eliot, Silas Marner

21 February 2023

On a smaller scale, within our own personal worlds, our feelings of inadequacy and self-hatred over factors such as our intellectual inferiority or incompetence with regard to computers or other skills, for example, are just shadows of the guilt that is in our minds. It is the content of this guilt that is the problem, not the specific forms in which it is symbolized.

The application of these principles to such feelings would be to simply realize that you are not a good secretary; you erased all the files in the computer. So what! If you regard the whole situation from the point of view of eternity, what difference does it make? You handle the situation by realizing that what is upsetting you is the interpretation you are making of what you did or what you failed to do. That is what is upsetting you. Not that you mistyped a letter, or flunked an exam, or pressed the wrong keys on the computer, or lost your keys for the tenth time, or you did not do whatever it is—that is not what is upsetting you. What is upsetting you is your interpretation of it, which is: “My God, what a terrible person I am, how inadequate; what a failure I am, what a sinful person I am.” That is the problem.

Kenneth Wapnick. The Journey Home: The Obstacles to Peace in A Course in Miracles

22 February 2023

It was as necessary to her mind to have an opinion on all topics, not exclusively masculine, that had come under her notice, as for her to have a precisely marked place for every article of her personal property: and her opinions were always principles to be unwaveringly acted on. They were firm, not because of their basis, but because she held them with a tenacity inseparable from her mental action. On all the duties and proprieties of life, from filial behaviour to the arrangements of the evening toilette, pretty Nancy Lammeter, by the time she was three-and-twenty, had her unalterable little code, and had formed every one of her habits in strict accordance with that code. She carried these decided judgments within her in the most unobtrusive way: they rooted themselves in her mind, and grew there as quietly as grass.

George Eliot, Silas Marner

23 February 2023

Similarly, if you read about something in the newspaper or hear about something on the radio, it is not the news that is upsetting you, it is your interpretation of it. That is why [the Higher Power] urges us to “seek not to change the world, but choose to change [y]our mind about the world”. He is urging us to recognize that it is never the situation or relationship in and of itself that bothers or upsets us, but always the reason for our choosing to see it the way we do. We choose to see a connection between the event and ourselves, and it is this connection of victimization that is the problem. In the context of the unreality of the world of time, [the Higher Power] explains that our problems do not lie in the past, but only in our holding on to them.

Kenneth Wapnick. The Journey Home: The Obstacles to Peace in A Course in Miracles

24 February 2023

“You’re right there, Tookey: there’s allays two ‘pinions; there’s the ‘pinion a man has of himsen, and there’s the ‘pinion other folks have on him. There’d be two ‘pinions about a cracked bell, if the bell could hear itself.”

George Eliot, Silas Marner

25 February 2023

Therefore, our interpretations would always come down to some belief that sin is real, whether it is in someone else or in ourselves. So the way out of it is to realize that what is upsetting me is not what I did or what others did. Rather, it is how I am looking at what they did. A Course in Miracles teaches us that perception is an interpretation, not a fact, a theme to which we shall repeatedly return throughout the book. Acceptance of this teaching takes a lot of hard work, especially because we have all made some very powerful symbols of our guilt and our failures. The most trivial thing in the world could set us off. But then we can look back on it with the help of [the Higher Power] and realize the nothing that it really is. Therefore it can have no effect on us if we change our interpretations, or to state it even more clearly, change the teacher who can instruct us about the meaning of what we behold.

Kenneth Wapnick. The Journey Home: The Obstacles to Peace in A Course in Miracles

26 February 2023

Bemused and besotted as we are, we still dimly know at heart that nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality. It is of the very nature of the real that it should have sharp corners and rough edges, that it should be resistant, should be itself. Dream-furniture is the only kind on which you never stub your toes or bang your knee.