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May 8 - A Place of Peace · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, how y'all doing? Today is May 8th. I'm Paris. I have Corey with me. We're gonna go on and start with the stone.
• 0:10
  A place of peace. The stone. Pride keeps the soul restless. When I carry everything alone, I remain burdened.
• 0:20
  Peace begins when I stop hiding and allow myself to be known. Ripple 1, practical.
• 0:28
  Today, I release the weight of self-protection.
• 0:31
  I do not have to carry my struggle in isolation.
• 0:37
  Honesty, confessions to God, to myself, and to someone I trust
• 0:42
  create space for relief and clarity.
• 0:46
  Ripple 2, spiritual.
• 0:48
  When I humble myself before the Father,
• 0:53
  the Holy Spirit brings a deep sense of peace
• 0:56
  following the example of Christ
• 0:59
  who lived in complete openness and surrender.
• 1:02
  I find that humility is not humiliation.
• 1:07
  It is rest.
• 1:08
  Over time, I discover a steady place
• 1:11
  within grounded in truth and held by grace.
• 1:16
  Today is, I woke up,
• 1:19
  I woke up this morning during my prayer meditation
• 1:22
  and, you know, that's like you said
• 1:26
  on the last episode, you know,
• 1:29
  those are things that we have to do each day.
• 1:32
  And, man, it's crazy how much that helps me out,
• 1:37
  you know, to set my day up, to get me started.
• 1:41
  You know, getting down on my knees, reading,
• 1:46
  you know, and I sent out a couple messages
• 1:49
  to a couple fellows of mine,
• 1:51
  and, you know, just to get their day started,
• 1:54
  You know, because it's all about loving another person and helping another man that's, you know, dealing with the same everyday lifestyle that we go through.
• 2:04
  Just because I'm sober today doesn't mean that life is easy.
• 2:11
  Right.
• 2:12
  Still go through things.
• 2:13
  Oh, yeah.
• 2:14
  I ain't going to say, like, I mean, we still have families to take care of.
• 2:18
  We still got a job to work.
• 2:20
  You know, we still get frustrated throughout the day.
• 2:23
  You know, but today, you know, it's a sense of peace.
• 2:25
  And, man, when I, you know, and as it says, when I carry it alone, I remain burdened.
• 2:31
  You know, and that's why this fifth step is so important to, you know, release this information to, you know, to God or to someone that you really trust.
• 2:44
  Especially like something serious.
• 2:46
  Like, if you've been traumatized in your past and you're just holding on,
• 2:51
  you know, you got to find a way to be, become, you know, to sit down with someone.
• 2:56
  Because, I mean, I've seen people, you know, kill they self or, you know,
• 3:02
  or, you know, hurt another person just because they can't, they trapped inside.
• 3:10
  Step five in the 12 and 12.
• 3:14
  And this is cool about the fifth step.
• 3:15
  And I don't know,
• 3:18
  you haven't heard of this step yet,
• 3:20
  I don't think.
• 3:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:22
  No.
• 3:22
  But,
• 3:23
  so on page 57 of the 12 and 12,
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  it says,
• 3:28
  until we have talked with complete candor
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  of our conflicts
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  and have listened
• 3:33
  to someone else do the same thing,
• 3:35
  we still didn't belong.
• 3:37
  I'm not trying to put you in a bad place,
• 3:39
  But then it said, step five was the answer.
• 3:41
  It was the beginning of a true kinship with man and God.
• 3:45
  And so when I think about that, what it says right there, and why that is,
• 3:50
  and it says, you know, in the big book, you've read it, or we were talking about it,
• 3:54
  to find an understanding person.
• 3:57
  Well, the things I've heard from other men, sitting for hours with them,
• 4:05
  I did not come into this program, and I don't think other men came into this program being understanding persons and closed-mouthed friends.
• 4:15
  That didn't just come, right?
• 4:17
  They didn't just come in and they're like, yeah, that man, he can keep a secret.
• 4:22
  So when I do do a fifth step with another man, and I've told you things, and, you know, man, today it's a more personal thing.
• 4:31
  It's closer things to me today that, you know, maybe I'm not doing well in this area or this and this and this because that's my pride.
• 4:41
  And, you know, blocking me off from saying this because I think I'm somebody now.
• 4:45
  I'm nobody now.
• 4:47
  I'm a drunk.
• 4:48
  I have the privilege to help people.
• 4:51
  But anyways, to finish that off about that thought, you know, when I listen to another man's fifth step.
• 4:57
  and I've listened to my, I've said my, I've listened to another man's.
• 5:01
  You know, that puts me in a place, it's a spiritual experience within itself, man.
• 5:07
  I'll tell you, because I hear things from other people that I've heard in myself,
• 5:12
  that I've done, maybe I forgot about, maybe it comes to light in a different way,
• 5:16
  but it affects me in a spiritual way, and it's really cool, but go ahead, we'll be picking.
• 5:21
  Man, you know, I was thinking of, you know, the first thing,
• 5:25
  And when I reflect to the Bible that, you know, I looked at 1 Peter, you know, 1 Peter chapter 5, you know, 6 and 7 says,
• 5:37
  Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting out all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
• 5:48
  And, you know, today, you know, that's the exact thing of what we're talking about.
• 5:53
  Now, if a person didn't have somebody they can go to, you know, to be a close-mouth friend,
• 5:57
  they don't have no person they can trust.
• 5:59
  That's where God comes in, you know, comes in hand.
• 6:01
  You know, talk to him.
• 6:03
  But you got to get these stuff out and just to pray to somebody.
• 6:06
  And I can refer this back to, you know, we're talking about step three about surrendering.
• 6:11
  You know, we had to surrender.
• 6:12
  You know, then go to, you know, you got to depend on God about our calmness.
• 6:19
  Like on page, I'm going to go to page 45 in the big book.
• 6:25
  In the big book.
• 6:26
  Big book of alcoholics anonymous.
• 6:28
  Lack of power was our dilemma.
• 6:30
  See, that's the whole issue.
• 6:32
  And I love that Italian writing.
• 6:35
  They call it squiggly writing.
• 6:38
  You know, that's italicized.
• 6:40
  You know, we had to find a power greater than ourselves because when we, or when I, I ain't going to say when we.
• 6:48
  When I, me being an alcoholic and addict as I was, man, going through a lot of things where, you know, being truthful with others, it wasn't, it wasn't cool to do.
• 7:02
  Back when I was getting messed up, I couldn't be true to nobody.
• 7:05
  I lied to my girl forever.
• 7:07
  You know, one time, man, it was just, it was just crazy how, you know, it was just crazy how I would end up in the bars, you know.
• 7:18
  got a whole girlfriend at home, but I'm still looking for another girl to party with. You know
• 7:21
  what I mean? Just to see how the day can go. An understanding person. Yeah, an understanding person.
• 7:28
  But I'm not like that today. You know, my past, you know, it has taught me a lot. And even right
• 7:35
  now, even though I'm not in the day scene or, you know, I am in the day scene, but I'm not,
• 7:40
  you know, just not with anyone. But it's teaching me how to love myself and how to, you know,
• 7:46
  really be able to
• 7:50
  conform,
• 7:50
  like,
• 7:51
  you know,
• 7:51
  be more loving
• 7:52
  towards another human.
• 7:54
  Right.
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  Especially as
• 7:56
  my future woman
• 7:58
  when I get her,
• 7:59
  you know what I mean?
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  Just to be loving
• 8:01
  and showing
• 8:02
  honesty.
• 8:03
  Because that's my,
• 8:04
  that was my issue.
• 8:05
  Right.
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  I couldn't be honest.
• 8:07
  That's why a lot of my
• 8:08
  relationships fail.
• 8:09
  Right.
• 8:09
  You know what I mean?
• 8:10
  But that's the thing
• 8:11
  about this AA
• 8:12
  that works for me
• 8:14
  is really showing me,
• 8:16
  okay,
• 8:17
  what was I doing wrong?
• 8:19
  What was my problem with it?
• 8:21
  What was my fault?
• 8:22
  You know, there's more inventory.
• 8:25
  You know,
• 8:27
  we're kind of,
• 8:29
  you know, me and Michael
• 8:30
  will probably jump back on this, but
• 8:33
  I'm sure you've heard about
• 8:34
  you've heard me talk about the stones
• 8:36
  and you've heard Bill talk about
• 8:38
  but, you know, what's interesting
• 8:40
  is on the stones
• 8:42
  down here on page 75 of the big book
• 8:44
  of Alcoholics Anonymous, this is in the promises
• 8:47
  because this is kind of going into the sixth step,
• 8:49
  but it says,
• 8:52
  carefully reading the first five proposals.
• 8:55
  We ask God if we have omitted anything.
• 8:58
  In the first five proposals,
• 8:59
  you would go back to page 59,
• 9:01
  and that's the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, right?
• 9:04
  So that's the first five proposals.
• 9:06
  Am I powerless of alcohol?
• 9:07
  Man, I'll tell you,
• 9:09
  I don't know if I talked about this one before,
• 9:11
  but I lose a lot of guys after the fifth step.
• 9:14
  you would expect opposite, right?
• 9:17
  No.
• 9:17
  So I'll lose a lot of guys after they do a fifth step,
• 9:20
  and I don't know if it is because they didn't get out everything
• 9:22
  because there's a lot of promises on that too.
• 9:25
  You know, it says, you know, if we didn't get everything out,
• 9:28
  we didn't humble us and all this other stuff,
• 9:30
  that we would drink, right?
• 9:32
  Well, it's interesting.
• 9:33
  If I'm to drink, I'm to die.
• 9:35
  And that's what the book tells me, at least.
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  I have no idea.
• 9:38
  I haven't died yet.
• 9:40
  But, you know, so if you come up in that place,
• 9:43
  am I powerless?
• 9:45
  Maybe I do a fifth step and maybe the guy's like, hey, man, maybe I'm not an alcoholic.
• 9:50
  You know, so coming to that place or, you know, came to believe a power greater than myself could restore me the sanity.
• 9:55
  Do I believe that this will work for me?
• 9:59
  Right?
• 9:59
  It's crazy that you say that.
• 10:00
  I'm not cutting you off.
• 10:02
  I had somebody tell me yesterday.
• 10:04
  It was yesterday I was at an event and they told me they was an alcoholic.
• 10:11
  And I looked at them.
• 10:13
  I said, are you sure that, you know, that was in the past?
• 10:16
  Right.
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  Because I was told once the alcoholic, always alcoholic.
• 10:19
  Right.
• 10:20
  You know, and I had to kind of explain it to them, you know, because I can tell they're not doing book work.
• 10:27
  Right.
• 10:27
  That's what the issue come in at when not doing the book work.
• 10:31
  So you're thinking you cured already.
• 10:33
  But we're never cured of the problem.
• 10:36
  We got to do it.
• 10:37
  But, you know, maybe is this going to mess your wording up?
• 10:40
  Because, you know, it does say in this book, The Ex-Problem Drinker.
• 10:45
  Ooh, that's going to get...
• 10:49
  The Ex-Problem Drinker, yeah, yeah.
• 10:51
  But that's crazy, right?
• 10:52
  Uh-huh.
• 10:53
  And anyways, but I think the other part is, you know, so I come to step three, you know,
• 10:59
  I come to four or five, if I've omitted anything.
• 11:02
  And then come to, and then it says,
• 11:08
  For we are building an arch through which we can walk a free man at last.
• 11:12
  And so then I think about what a free man is.
• 11:15
  Well, free man is orange.
• 11:17
  Where does a free man talk about?
• 11:19
  Paris?
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  Anyways, it says I can go anywhere, anywhere else any men go.
• 11:25
  And so when I come to that, do I feel free after this?
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  Or have I omitted anything from sitting down with another man?
• 11:32
  Because usually up above it says, taking this book down from our shelf,
• 11:36
  we sit alone for an hour.
• 11:38
  right? But can I sit alone for an hour? Yeah. Maybe I can. And then it goes, are the stones
• 11:45
  probably in place? Well, what's the stones? And I think the first stone would be on page 12. Well,
• 11:51
  it might not be a stone, but it's the foundation. It says on page 12 of the big book, it says,
• 11:56
  upon a foundation of complete willingness, I might build what I saw in my friend, what I have,
• 12:02
  and of course I would. And that was only a matter of willing to believe in a power greater than
• 12:07
  myself. Nothing much more was required of me to make my beginning. So that's your foundation,
• 12:12
  right? So then you go to page 47 and page 47 says in the big book, it says, as soon as a man can say
• 12:20
  that he does believe or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he's on his way.
• 12:26
  It has been repeatedly reproven among us that upon this simple cornerstone, a wonderfully effective
• 12:33
  spiritual structure can be built. So it's a cornerstone, and I know you know this, but,
• 12:38
  you know, a cornerstone is an important piece on the building. And on some buildings, they'll put
• 12:42
  the date of that day that the cornerstone is put in, right? So you got a cornerstone, right? So then
• 12:47
  you go flip over to page 62. So you got a cornerstone, now you got the keystone. It says,
• 12:53
  he is the father of we are his children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the
• 12:58
  keystone of the new and triumphant
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  Arch through which we pass to freedom.
• 13:02
  Freedom is a bigger word than sober.
• 13:05
  I don't care about sober.
• 13:06
  I want to be free. I cannot
• 13:08
  drink for a couple days and feel like...
• 13:12
  Or I didn't mean to cuss again, crap.
• 13:15
  But I can feel very
• 13:16
  uncomfortable in my own skin, right?
• 13:18
  That's why that mental obsession may
• 13:20
  come back quickly, but I want to feel free.
• 13:23
  Because if I'm free,
• 13:24
  I don't think about it.
• 13:26
  Well, if you look at it, you know,
• 13:28
  there's a lot of promises in this book as well.
• 13:30
  Right.
• 13:31
  So page 63 is a good promise at the beginning.
• 13:34
  I mean,
• 13:34
  at the end it said,
• 13:35
  this was only a beginning though.
• 13:36
  If we honestly and humbly made in effect,
• 13:40
  sometimes we a very great one was felt at once.
• 13:44
  And you know what I mean?
• 13:44
  Like I had that promise.
• 13:47
  I had that kind of experience at one point in my life,
• 13:51
  uh,
• 13:51
  with doing these steps with you.
• 13:53
  And I,
• 13:54
  I just like how we are now,
• 13:58
  You know what I mean?
• 13:58
  Like, coming towards the end of this topic and the end of our time together, man, it just, this has been, you know, a very great experience, you know, to continue to, you know, work these things and, you know, work on ourselves and get ourselves together.
• 14:15
  I'm just proud of you and I'm proud of myself.
• 14:17
  You know what I mean?
• 14:18
  Like, no ego attended, but you know what I mean?
• 14:21
  Right.
• 14:21
  Just being happy about it.
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  Says a prayer.
• 14:25
  Father, bring me into a place of peace.
• 14:28
  through Your Spirit
• 14:29
  help me release
• 14:29
  what I've been carrying
• 14:30
  and lead me into the rest
• 14:32
  of what comes from living
• 14:33
  honestly before you.
• 14:35
  Amen.
• 14:35
  And also,
• 14:36
  thank you for sitting down.
• 14:38
  I, uh,
• 14:39
  I enjoy talking to you,
• 14:40
  my friend.
• 14:40
  Yeah, always, man.
• 14:41
  Anytime.