Latest / Sober Readings / Surrender And Self-Examination
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- Scott Hayes: Welcome back to Sober Readings, everyone, and happy Friday. Today is the 17th of July. Let's begin today's episode with the Serenity Pro. Grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Today's reading from Daily Reflections Surrender and Self-examination. My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive. Thus, I think it can work out with emotional sobriety. If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependence and its consequent unhealthy demand. Let us, with God's help, continually surrender these hobbling demands. Then we can be set free to live and love. We may then be able to twelfth step ourselves and others into emotional sobriety. And that's from a book called The Language of the Heart, page two hundred thirty eight. Years of dependency on alcohol as a chemical mood changer deprived me of the capability to interact emotionally with my fellows. I thought I had to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-motivated in a world of unreliable people. Finally, I lost my self-respect and was left with dependency, lacking any ability to trust myself or to believe in anything. Surrender and self-examination while sharing with newcomers. helped me to ask humbly for help. Today's reading from twenty four hours, july seventeenth, AA thought for the day. The new life of sobriety we are learning to live in AA is slowly growing on us, and we are beginning to get some of that deep peace of mind and serenity that we never thought were possible. At first, we may have doubted that this could happen to us, but after any considerable length of time in AA, looking at the happy faces around us, we know that somehow it is happening to us. In fact, it cannot help happening to anyone who takes the AA program seriously. Day by day. So ask yourself today: can I see my own happiness reflected in the faces of others? The meditation for the day. God does not withhold his presence from you. He does not refuse to reveal more of his truth to you. He does not hold back his spirit from you. He does not withhold the strength that you need. His presence, his truth, his spirit, his strength. are always immediately available to you, whenever you are fully willing to receive them. But they may be blocked off by selfishness, intellectual pride, fear, greed, and materialism. We must try to get rid of these blocks and let God's spirit come in. In today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may remove all blocks that are keeping me from God. I pray that I may let God come into my life with power. The Daily Meditation Today from Touchstones I loaf and invite my soul. I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. That's a quote from Walt Whitman. How foreign the thought is to many men that we might make progress by loafing. Yet we probably have experienced it. We have felt more in tune with ourselves after taking a break. After an especially relaxing weekend, we feel more alive or clearer about ourselves. At those times we have invited our soul and have been rejuvenated. Centuries of spiritual practice from different ideologies have been Have taught the need for quiet relaxation in some form to invite the soul. Some have practiced a Sabbath day each week, others a time of prayer every day, even several times a day. Others have practiced a daily period of deep meditation. Simply a period of loafing with no particular goal in mind may invite conscious contact with our higher power. I pray for the ability to set aside my busy pace of life, my worrying and fretting, and my take charge attitude for a period of time today. And for today's final reading, we're gonna read from As Bill Sees It page three hundred one six Our Protective Mantle Almost every newspaper reporter who covers AA complains at first that Of the difficulty of writing his story without names. But he quickly forgets this difficulty when he realizes that here is a group of people who care nothing for acclaim. Probably this is the first time in his life he has ever reported on an organization that wants no personalized publicity. Cynic though he may be, this obvious sincerity quickly transforms him into a friend of AA. And that was written in a grapevine article in March of nineteen forty six. Moved by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as AA members, both among fellow alcoholics and before the general public. As we lay aside these very human aspirations, we believe that each of us takes part in the weaving of a protective mantle which covers our whole society and under which we may grow and work in unity. And that is on page one hundred and eighty seven of the twelve and twelve. And that's it for today's readings, but before I close, I want to go back and talk about the Walt Whitman quote in Touchstones today, and I'll read it again. I loaf and invite my soul. I lean and loaf at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass. So Whitman is saying, I slow down, relax, and quietly pay attention to the world around me. He's resting comfortably in the grass. Allowing himself to think and simply exist without rushing or working. The single blade of summer grass represents the beauty and the meaning that can be found even in the smallest, most ordinary parts of nature. I'm a trail runner. I love to run in the mountains. Stopping during a mountain run to notice the trees, the wind, the light, or the sound of water teaches me to be present instead of always pushing toward the next goal or destination. It reminds me that life is not only about achievement or mileage or reaching the summit. Sometimes the healthiest thing that I can do is stop, breathe, and recognize that I'm already part of something beautiful. As an alcoholic, that practice can be especially valuable. Addiction often pulls us into the past through guilt and regret, or into the future through fear and worry. Pausing on the trails brings me back to right now, and right now I'm sober. Alive and standing in the mountains. I'm not trying to solve my entire life. I'm simply taking the next breath and when I'm ready, the next step. And these moments can also become a form of prayer and meditation. I may feel gratitude for my sobriety, humility in the presence of something larger than myself, and connection with a higher power without needing to define or overthink it like I always do. The mountains can remind me that recovery is a lot like trail running. You don't have to see the entire path. I only need to stay aware, accept where I am, and keep moving forward one step at a time. And so that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, click the like button and share this episode with someone you think might need it, and also subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And if you'd like to be a guest reader on the show, I'd love to have you. Just send me an email at soberreadings with Scott at gmail.com. If you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, sobereadings.com and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening today. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll catch you in the next episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other. And remember, just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting, and keep coming back. Have a great day and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.