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 October 2025
I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that the ghosts may not wish to come out of hell, in the vague fashion wherein an envious man ‘wishes’ to be happy: but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free.
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
02 October 2025
DOCTOR STEPHEN STRANGE: I’m not ready.
THE ANCIENT ONE: No one ever is.
Doctor Strange
03 October 2025
The mind and the spirit do work together, but the spirit is the more noble organ and should always be honoured above the mind. If we know in our spirit that a thing is wrong, we should not allow reasoning to talk us into doing it. Also, if we know something is right, we must not allow reasoning to talk us out of doing it.
Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind
04 October 2025
Each of us is allocated from above just the amount of time we need to get our mission done. Some of that time will be for learning, teaching, helping others. Some of that time will be needed for making a living—also a divine task with purpose and meaning.
But none of us can justify our obsession with making a living by claiming that it leaves no time to learn or to teach.
This is nothing less than misappropriation of funds—spending all the allotted time on one task at the expense of your principal purpose in this world. Each of us is foremost a student and a teacher.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
05 October 2025
It is impossible to get from wrong behaviour to right behaviour without first changing thoughts. A passive person may want to do the right thing, but he will never do so unless he purposely activates his mind and lines it up with God’s word and will.
Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind
06 October 2025
I never heard the melody until I needed a song.
Tom Waits
07 October 2025
... il n’est pas un être qui ne soit avant tout son propre public !
... there is no one who is not, able all, his own public!
Hervé Bazin, La Mort du petit cheval
08 October 2025
Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
Proverbs, Chapter 23
09 October 2025
Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
Proverbs, Chapter 23
10 October 2025
Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
Proverbs, Chapter 23 (on drinking)
11 October 2025
“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.”
Proverbs, Chapter 23
12 October 2025
You and I do not complain with our mouth unless we have first complained in our thoughts. Complaining is definitely a wilderness mentally that will prevent us from crossing over into the promised land.
Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind
13 October 2025
We hate people and yet want to be with them, because it is only with people and amongst them we have a chance of staying alive without going mad. It turns out we cannot withstand being alone all that long, said Reger, we think we can be alone, we believe we can be left alone, we convince ourselves we can get along alone, said Reger, but that is a flight of fancy. We think we can get by without people, you know, we actually think we can get by without a single person, and we even imagine our only option is to be all by ourselves, but that is a flight of fancy.
Thomas Bernhard, Alte Meister (Old Masters)
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Wir hassen die Menschen und wollen doch mit ihnen zusammensein, weil wir nur mit den mit dem Menschen und unter ihnen eine Chance haben, weiterzuleben und nicht verrückt zu werden. Mit dem Alleinsein halten wir es ja nicht gar so lang aus, so Reger, wir glauben, wir können allein sein, wir glauben, wir können verlassen sein, wir reden uns ein, wir können allein weiterkommen, so Reger, aber das ist ein Hirngespinst. Wir glauben, ohne Menschen auskommen zu können, ja wir glauben sogar, ohne einen einzigen Menschen auskommen zu können und bilden uns ja auch ein, wir haben nur eine Chance, wenn wir nur mit uns selbst allein sind, aber das ist ein Hirngespinst.
14 October 2025
And what if you’re wrong?
Rocket, Avengers: Infinity War
15 October 2025
They all started out with bad directions
Tom Waits, Ninth & Hennepin
16 October 2025
she has that razor sadness
That only gets worse
Tom Waits, Ninth & Hennepin
17 October 2025
As the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
Till you’re full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out
Over the side to anyone who’ll listen
Tom Waits, Ninth & Hennepin
18 October 2025
Thus, little more remained of the dead man than this stone, forgotten fame, and the portrait. Likewise: a farmer in spring walks across a field, and later, in the summer, the trace of his footsteps is concealed by the swaying blessing of the wheat he sowed.
Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch (Radetzky March)
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Wenig mehr blieb also von dem Toten zurück als dieser Stein, ein verschollener Ruhm und das Porträt. Also geht ein Bauer im Frühling über den Acker—und später, im Sommer, ist die Spur seiner Schritte überweht vom Segen des Weizens, den er gesät hat.
19 October 2025
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4:2-3
20 October 2025
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
21 October 2025
All the rot we talk about to people who have nothing to do with us, he said, because we need listeners.
Thomas Bernhard, Alte Meister
22 October 2025
Let them be slow to believe evil of anyone, let them not be hasty in passing judgement ...
From a letter of St Polycarp to the Philippians
23 October 2025
Security in God is the only true security.
Dom Hubert van Zeller, And So To God
24 October 2025
She disdained the allurements of the world.
Of St Eulalia, in the 15th-century hymn Dulci deprómat cármine
25 October 2025
If you can see only what light reveals and hear only what sound announces, then in truth you do not see nor do you hear.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
26 October 2025
Do not fret because of the wicked.
Psalm 36 (37)
27 October 2025
Commit your life to the Lord, trust in Him and He will act.
Psalm 36 (37)
28 October 2025
Be still before the Lord and wait in patience.
Psalm 36 (37)
29 October 2025
Calm your anger and forget your rage.
Psalm 36 (37)
30 October 2025
Do not fret, it only leads to evil.
Psalm 36 (37)
31 October 2025
The Lord guides the steps of a man.
Psalm 36 (37)
01 November 2025
Though he stumble he shall never fall, for the Lord holds him by the hand.
Psalm 36 (37)
02 November 2025
A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
03 November 2025
Their instincts—so well honed and practised—for locating money, their hands—which could strike gold from rubble like sparks from flint—were unable to give pleasure to their hearts or health to their bodies.
Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch
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Ihre Sinne, so geschliffen und geübt, Geld zu finden, ihre Hände, die Gold aus Schottersteinen schlagen konnten, wie man Funken aus Steinen schlägt, waren nicht fähig, den Herzen Genuß zu verschaffen und den Leibern Gesundheit.
04 November 2025
No one has sole control of a train of events, and action must be judged not with reference to the intention behind it but based on the actual consequences that flow from it.
Golo Mann, German History of the 19th and 20th Centuries
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... niemand kontrolliert den Lauf der Dinge allein, und das ... Handeln ist nicht nach dem Willen, sondern nach den wirklichen Folgen zu bewerten.
05 November 2025
Older AAs who know the record are unanimous in their feeling that an intelligence greater than ours has surely been at work.
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
06 November 2025
O Lord manage me, for I cannot manage myself.
Anne Smith (Dr Bob was her husband)
07 November 2025
Know your enemy. It could be you. Do not let your emotions override your judgment.
Captain Marvel
08 November 2025
The process of being brought up, however well it is done, cannot fail to offend.
C. S. Lewis, The Funeral of a Great Myth
09 November 2025
... but You have held back my life from the pit of destruction ...
Isaiah 38
10 November 2025
... rules and regulations seem to be little good for us. They seldom work well.
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
11 November 2025
We choose our joys and our sorrows long before we experience them.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
12 November 2025
... it does no good to act one way why whilst holding divergent beliefs, or even espousing inherited ideas we do not believe.
Golo Mann, German History of the 19th and 20th Centuries
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Und es tut uns nie gut, das eine praktisch zu tun, das andere zu glauben oder nicht einmal zu glauben, sondern mit ungeglaubten, ererbten Worten zu bekennen.
13 November 2025
... do not allow us to be fascinated by this passing world and drawn away from You ...
Universalis
14 November 2025
Apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
15 November 2025
Surrender is a complete handing over of our wills to God, a reckless abandon of ourselves, all that we have, all that we think that we are, everything we hold dear, to God, to do what he likes with.
Anne Smith (Dr Bob was her husband)
16 November 2025
When either your joy or your sorrow becomes great, the world becomes small.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
17 November 2025
I’ve also served my time as a maker of rules, a regulator of other people’s conduct. I, too, have spent sleepless nights nursing my “wounded” ego, wondering how others whose lives I sought to manage could be so unreasonable, so thoughtless of “poor me.” I can now look back upon such experiences with much amusement. And gratitude as well. They taught me that the very quality which prompted me to govern other people was the identical egocentricity which boiled up in my fellow AAs when they themselves refused to be governed!
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
18 November 2025
I am glad that people are pleased with my work. But getting promoted? I’m not interested in being promoted; I am happy to leave that to others.
Henry Neff, in Fundbüro (Lost and Found), by Siegfried Lenz
19 November 2025
There is a light that this world cannot give. Yet you can give it, as it was given you. And as you give it, it shines forth to call you from the world and follow it. For this light will attract you as nothing in this world can do. And you will lay aside the world and find another. This other world is bright with love which you have given it.
A Course In Miracles
20 November 2025
And may that love within our hearts
Set fire to others with its flame
Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal
21 November 2025
Prayers are the daughters of almighty Zeus, wrinkled and halting they are, with downcast eyes, following in the steps of wilful Pride. But Pride is swift-footed and strong, and soon outruns them all, and scours before them over the earth bringing men down. Prayers follow on behind, trying to heal the hurt.
Homer, Iliad, Book IX, translated by A. S. Kline
22 November 2025
Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Ye are our gods’.
Hosea 14:3
23 November 2025
The major decisions in life obviously entail risks. But there are times when not deciding is the most dangerous course of action.
Golo Mann, German History of the 19th and 20th Centuries
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Die großen Entscheidungen im Leben sind ja mit Gefahren verbunden. Aber [Stunden] gibt es, in denen das Sichnichtentscheiden das Gefährlichste ist …
24 November 2025
Ultimately, these truths [of the Twelve Steps] govern his life, and he comes to live under their authority, the most powerful authority known, the authority of his full consent, willingly given. He is ruled, not by people, but by principles, by truths and, as most of us would say, by God.
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
25 November 2025
The first written record of AA experience was the book Alcoholics Anonymous. It was addressed to the heart of our foremost problem—release from the alcohol obsession. It contained personal experiences of drinking and recovery and a statement of those divine but ancient principles which have brought us a miraculous regeneration.
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
26 November 2025
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
27 November 2025
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
The Epistle of James
28 November 2025
Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead thou me on.
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
John Henry Newman
29 November 2025
... and already felt the thirst for alcohol, the thirst of drinkers, which is a thirst of the soul and the body. Suddenly, as if short-sighted, one sees little, as if hard of hearing, one hears little. One has to drink a glass, then and there.
Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch
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… und verspürte schon den Durst nach Alkohol, den Durst der Trinker, der ein Durst der Seele und des Körpers ist. Plötzlich sieht man wenig wie ein Kurzsichtiger, hört schwach wie ein Schwerhöriger. Man muß sofort, auf der Stelle, ein Glas trinken.
30 November 2025
The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
Proverbs 15:14
01 December 2025
Mr von Trotta had always sought to appear richer than he was. He had the instincts of a true gentleman. And, at that time, there were (and perhaps today, too, there are) no more expensive instincts. Those who are blessed with such curses know neither how much they have nor how much they spend. They draw from an invisible source. They do not calculate. They take the view that their assets keep pace with their magnanimity.
[To post but not to read out:]
Herr von Trotta hatte immer darauf gehalten, reicher zu erscheinen als er war. Er hatte die Instinkte eines wahren Herrn. Und es gab um jene Zeit (und es gibt vielleicht auch heute noch) keine kostspieligeren Instinkte. Die Menschen, die mit derlei Flüchen begnadet sind, wissen weder, wieviel sie besitzen, noch, wieviel sie ausgeben. Sie schöpfen aus einem unsichtbaren Quell. Sie rechnen nicht. Sie sind der Meinung, ihr Besitz könne nicht geringer sein als ihre Großmut.
Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch
02 December 2025
O God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
03 December 2025
Since personal calamity holds us in bondage no more, our most challenging concern has become the future of Alcoholics Anonymous; how to preserve among us AAs such a powerful unity that neither weakness of persons nor the strain and strife of these troubled times can harm our common cause.
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
04 December 2025
We have taken Liberty, because it is fun; we have left Equality and Fraternity, because they are duties and a nuisance.
G. K. Chesterton, on the three ideals of the French Revolution, from the Daily News, 16 August 1905
05 December 2025
If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Khalil Gibran, The New Frontier and Sand and Foam
06 December 2025
Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be
no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity:
in the habitations of thy majesty and glory,
world without end.
Amen.
John Donne
07 December 2025
It is a Power greater than ourselves which has lifted us out of the quicksand and set us safe on shore.
Bill Wilson, Language of the Heart
08 December 2025
The answer to the question “What is Wrong?” is, or should be, “I am wrong.” Until a man can give that answer his idealism is only a hobby.
C. S. Lewis
09 December 2025
Try to retain your own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved.
C. S. Lewis, paraphrasing a passage the New Testament
10 December 2025
If anything whatever is keeping you from God ..., whatever it is, throw it away.
C. S. Lewis, paraphrasing a passage the New Testament
11 December 2025
If you put yourself first you will be last.
C. S. Lewis, paraphrasing a passage the New Testament
12 December 2025
“What is all that business with the Confectioner, Mr Drosselmeier,” asked Marie. “Ah, my dear Miss Stahlbaum,” replied Nutcracker, “Here, the Confectioner is the unknown but quite awe-inspiring power, who, it is believed, can make out of a person whatever it wants; it is the fate that rules over this small, jolly people, and they are so frightened of it that, through the mere mention of its name, the greatest tumult can be quelled, as the Mayor has just shown. Then, each person thinks not of earthly things, of jabs in the ribs and bumps to the head, but goes inside himself and says, ‘What is man? And what can become of him?’”
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»Was bedeutet das mit dem Konditor, guter Herr Droßelmeier«, fragte Marie. »Ach beste Demoiselle Stahlbaum«, erwiderte Nußknacker, »Konditor wird hier eine unbekannte, aber sehr greuliche Macht genannt, von der man glaubt, daß sie aus dem Menschen machen könne was sie wolle; es ist das Verhängnis, welches über dies kleine lustige Volk regiert, und sie fürchten dieses so sehr, daß durch die bloße Nennung des Namens der größte Tumult gestillt werden kann, wie es eben der Herr Bürgermeister bewiesen hat. Ein jeder denkt dann nicht mehr an Irdisches, an Rippenstöße und Kopfbeulen, sondern geht in sich und spricht: ›Was ist der Mensch und was kann aus ihm werden?‹« (Nußknacker und Mäusekönig)
E. T. A. Hoffmann, Nutcracker and Mouse King
13 December 2025
And Marie was now to become the queen of a country where one can see sparkling Christmas woods and transparent marzipan castles wherever one looks, in other words all of the most splendid, most wonderful things, if only one had eyes to see them.
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… und Marie soll noch zur Stunde Königin eines Landes sein, in dem man überall funkelnde Weihnachtswälder, durchsichtige Marzipanschlösser, kurz, die allerherrlichsten wunderbarsten Dinge erblicken kann, wenn man nur darnach Augen hat. (Nußknacker und Mäusekönig)
E. T. A. Hoffmann, Nutcracker and Mouse King
14 December 2025
I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept.
Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales
15 December 2025
“Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know now how,
I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, good my page;
Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.”
In his master’s steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed.
Good King Wenceslas, by John Mason Neale
16 December 2025
‘I’m old-fashioned, I dare say, but why not have peace and goodwill at Christmas time?’
‘After all I’ve told you?’
‘I know, dear, I know. But all that’s in the past. It’s all done and finished with.’
‘Not for me.’
‘No, because you won’t let it die. You keep the past alive in your own mind.’
‘I can’t forget.’
‘You won’t forget—that’s what you mean, David.’
Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
17 December 2025
‘I believe the present matters—not the past! The past must go. If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it. We see it in exaggerated terms—a false perspective.’
‘I can remember every word and every incident of those days perfectly,’ said David passionately.
‘Yes, but you shouldn’t, my dear! It isn’t natural to do so! You’re applying the judgement of a boy to those days instead of looking back on them with the more temperate outlook of a man.’
Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
18 December 2025
‘I would like,’ said Hercule Poirot, ‘to converse—very often—very frequently—with members of the family.’ ‘You mean you’d like to have another shot at questioning them?’ asked the colonel, a little puzzled. ‘No, no, not to question—to converse!’ ‘Why?’ asked Sugden. Hercule Poirot waved an emphatic hand. ‘In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth!’ Sugden said: ‘Then you think someone is lying?’ Poirot sighed. ‘Mon cher, everyone lies—in parts like the egg of the English curate. It is profitable to separate the harmless lies from the vital ones.’
Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
19 December 2025
Sir Richard Carlisle [watching the family playing its annual game of charades]: Do you enjoy these games in which the player must appear ridiculous?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Sir Richard, life is a game, where the player must appear ridiculous.
Christmas at Downton Abbey
20 December 2025
“Then why, if man must perish, is he born?” demanded the boy.
“Everything perishes except the world itself and its keepers,” answered Ak. “But while life lasts, everything on earth has its use. The wise seek ways to be helpful to the world, for the helpful ones are sure to live again.”
Much of this Claus failed to understand fully, but a longing seized him to become helpful to his fellows, and he remained grave and thoughtful while they resumed their journey.
L. Frank Baum, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
21 December 2025
I believe, I believe; it’s silly, but I believe.
Susan Walker, Miracle on 34th Street
22 December 2025
It is true that great warriors and mighty kings and clever scholars of that day were often spoken of by the people; but no one of them was so greatly beloved as Santa Claus, because none other was so unselfish as to devote himself to making others happy. For a generous deed lives longer than a great battle or a king’s decree or a scholar’s essay, because it spreads and leaves its mark on all nature and endures through many generations.
L. Frank Baum, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
23 December 2025
Look, you believe in God, right?
Which one?
Any one, just pick one.
Christmas with the Coopers
24 December 2025
Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.
Conductor, The Polar Express
25 December 2025
If you’re worried and you can’t sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep. Then you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings.
Bob Wallace, White Christmas
26 December 2025
From: Laurie Lee, Things I Wish I’d Known At Eighteen, published in Village Christmas
Another regret, perhaps it’s common, I wish I’d been aware quite what a fool one makes of oneself at that age. You have this blind belief that you’ve discovered sex, truth, idealism, the sharpness of questioning the world, rebellion, but you don’t realise you’re repeating the questing and rebellion of every generation, and you say, “God, those old ones seem to have no idea how we feel!” Well, they have a very good idea. The old have felt it all, and suffered, and been heroes at the barricade, and have got over it. The young don’t know that the old are merely them. If they humiliate the old, they humiliate themselves. It is necessary to question at eighteen, and to put up all those ideals to be shot down again. So long as they don’t think they were the first to have them.
27 December 2025
From: Laurie Lee, Things I Wish I’d Known At Eighteen, published in Village Christmas
Oh, the blankness, at that age, the prejudices, you know, about the villains of this world, or the ones you thought were villains. It’s marvellous to believe you are the White Knight and that those are the black dragons coming over the hill to destroy all that is good. Later, you discover there are no clearly divided goods and evils. The more I’ve lived, the more I’ve realised the best of us are capable of cruelty if we think it’s in a good cause. Even the worst have gentleness, occasionally. People, on the whole, are better than you think. There’s no black and white. Just a pathetic greyness in which everyone is trying to find solutions.
28 December 2025
This day I completed my thirty-first year and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. But since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me that gloomy thought and resolve in future to redouble my exertions and at least endeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.
Meriwether Lewis, Journals
29 December 2025
As I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils, I will believe it a good comfortable road until I am compelled to believe differently.
Meriwether Lewis, Journals
30 December 2025
O most loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee who carest for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal.
Book of Common Prayer, 1928
31 December 2025
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
In Memoriam A. H. H., by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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