February 16, 2024 Readings and Journal

February 16 In This Moment, I’m sewing up my coat. I stopped by an ATM on the way to visit a doctor. On returning to my car, I couldn’t locate my keys. I went back to the ATM. No keys. I gingerly checked the car doors. All were locked. Inside the car were my pocketbook with the extra key, my gloves, and my cell phone. Just as I was about to panic, a little voice reminded me that my big coat has a hole in the pocket. Sure enough, my keys had slipped through the hole down to the hem area. Higher Power saved the day! —In This Moment Daily Meditations (Co-Dependents Anonymous Literature) —·— Elder’s Meditation of the Day February 16 “Because woman lives so close to our first mother, the Earth, she emanates the strength and harmonious nature of all things.” –Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA At an Elders gathering, held in July 1991, we were told the Indian woman would play an instrumental part in leading the healing of Indian nations. The old people said we were to look up to her in a sacred manner. They said the Earth Mother would give the woman special gifts of love. The woman and the Earth Mother are connected in a special way. Women should pay attention to the lessons coming from the earth. Men should treat the women with respect, dignity and honor. Grandfather, Grandmother, give the Indian woman Your strength to heal our earth. —Meditations With Native American Elders: The Four Seasons (White Bison Literature) —·— February 16 p.47 Step Two “We began to see the possibility that our beliefs about ourselves, formed while using, had been mistaken. We saw that our perceptions had been based in delusion.” —Life with Hope, 1st ed., p. 6 I started smoking pot because I was uncomfortable and unhappy, and I kept on doing it long after it started making me feel worse, not better. I thought that unhappiness was my lot in life. I thought I was doing life wrong; didn’t have what it took to be happy, successful and loved and that my life just was not going to work out. I came to MA thinking I just needed to quit smoking and everything would be fine. Because I stuck around, got involved, got honest, took the suggestions, and most of all, worked the Steps, I was able to accept myself as I am. I am a person with a disease, doing the best I can with what I have. I also got a new goal, not the “happiness” of ego gratification and getting what I want, but the peace, serenity and freedom of living life on life’s terms, one day at a time. Most of all, I learned that I am OK, and I am loved. I belong in the human race just as I am, and it is actually possible for me to be happy, joyous and free. Final thought: Today I know that peace and serenity are available to me, so long as I stay clean and keep practicing these principles in all my affairs. —·— COMMITMENT February 16 Understanding is the key to right principles and attitudes, and right action is the key to good living. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 125 There came a time in my program of recovery when the third stanza of the Serenity Prayer—"The wisdom to know the difference"—became indelibly imprinted in my mind. From that time on, I had to face the ever-present knowledge that my every action, word and thought was within, or outside, the principles of the program. I could no longer hide behind self-rationalization, nor behind the insanity of my disease. The only course open to me, if I was to attain a joyous life for myself (and subsequently for those I love), was one in which I imposed on myself an effort of commitment, discipline, and responsibility. —Daily Reflections (Alcoholics Anonymous Literature) —·— February 16, 2024 Faithful feelings Page 48 "When we refuse to accept the reality of today, we are denying faith in our Higher Power. This can only bring more suffering." IP No. 8,Just for Today Some days just aren't the way we wish they would be. Our problems may be as simple as a broken shoelace or having to stand in line at the supermarket. Or we may experience something far more serious, such as the loss of a job, a home, or a loved one. Either way, we often end up looking for a way to avoid our feelings instead of simply acknowledging that those feelings are painful. No one promises us that everything will go our way when we stop using. In fact, we can be sure that life will go on whether we're using or not. We will face good days and bad days, comfortable feelings and painful feelings. But we don't have to run from any of them any longer. We can experience pain, grief, sadness, anger, frustration - all those feelings we once avoided with drugs. We find that we can get through those emotions clean. We won't die and the world won't come to an end just because we have uncomfortable feelings. We learn to trust that we can survive what each day brings. Just for Today: I will demonstrate my trust in God by experiencing this day just as it is. —Just For Today Daily Meditations (Narcotics Anonymous Literature) —·— February 16, 2024 Service and Carrying NA's Message Page 48 "Everything that occurs in the course of NA service must be motivated by the desire to more successfully carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers." Basic Text, Introduction Of all the spiritual principles in this book, service may be the most directly related to action. Sure, service has a place in our hearts, minds, and souls, but we aren't practicing this principle unless we are doing something. Our primary purpose in Narcotics Anonymous is service. Essentially, that means carrying the message of recovery to the still-suffering addict who can be any of us at any moment. Participating in service to other addicts, both on an individual level and within the Fellowship, helps us to keep each other and NA alive and thriving. We often say there are no "musts" in NA, but the Basic Text says otherwise in one of its earliest passages. Depending on who we are, where we are in our recovery, or even what we ate for breakfast that morning, we may find this direction—that all of NA service must be motivated by our primary purpose—either inspirational or distressing. Some of us may be more driven than ever to carry the message. Others may start to second-guess our motivations for service. We may get defensive at the absoluteness of the statement that "everything" we're doing "must" be motivated by the purest, most fundamental "desire" to help another. Really? All the time? Truthfully, the framework of NA—the Steps, Traditions, Concepts, and principles—are indeed oriented toward our singular purpose. Because of the simplicity of service as a principle and its reliance on action to practice it, showing up is all we have to do, really: go to a meeting and share what's going on, answer the phone when our sponsee calls, pitch in for the Seventh Tradition, fill the teakettle. We come early and stay late. Our purely motivated desire to carry the message won't always be there, but we take the action anyway. That's service in a nutshell. ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— Simply, I will carry the message to the still-suffering addict today with intention. I'll contemplate my level of desire—and practice willingness along with service. ―A Spiritual Principle A Day (Narcotics Anonymous Literature) —·— —·— —·— I want to have peace of mind today. I want to be motivated by selflessness instead of the self-centeredness that I've grown so damn tired of. I know that the only way to shed myself of the chains of Self that bind me, to free myself of the prison of selfishness, self-centeredness and self-seeking behavior, is to commit myself to working a thorough and honest set of steps and to live the principles behind them in every aspect of my life. Acceptance, Surrender, Honesty, Openmindedness, Willingness, Trust, Faith, Hope, Tolerance, Kindness, Humility, Courage, Respect, and sooo many more principles, are necessary to remember in my day-to-day, moment-by-moment Walk. I know I'm not doing it alone today, though, nor by my own power. I have an all-powerful, loving Creator to guide me and help me along my Red Road. I just need to surrender my will and my life to It. Today, I have hope. I want so desperately to feel like I'm worth something, but also today, I know I am. By being of service to my fellow two-leggeds, to my Earth Mother, and to all my relations that walk on Her, I'm an important piece of All-That-Is. Today I don't have to worry about whether I'm doing it right, whether I'm good enough as I am, because I know I am. Creator tells me I am. I hear it in my thoughts, in my Sacred Heart. It tells me I'm on the right Path, and I'm doing well. My thinking is becoming less centered on myself, and more centered on what I can put into the River of Life, and how I can help those who are still struggling against the current to turn around and float, to enjoy life, and to give up the struggle so they can win the fight. I'm so grateful today. My life may be difficult at times, but I don't have to fight it anymore. Today I have a choice in the matter. I don't have to follow the old ways of thinking and behaving. I'm not acting that way, I'm losing the desire to act that way, and I'm finding a new way to live. I'm breaking free of the prison of Self, and it's all due to Tunkasila, my beloved Creator. Wópila, Tunkasila, pilamaya Yeló.