Daily Reflection for 1/12/06 "Grateful for All Who..."

"...Grateful For All Who Have Come Before Me."

Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process required for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and the futility of life as we had been living it.

Page 25

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Daily Reflection for 1/11/06 "...I Spoke Of You..."

"...Shame on Me!"

Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination, has its satisfactions for us, too. Here we are not trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own rightousness.

12 and 12 / Page 67

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Daily Reflection for 1/10/06... "...A Good Hard Look..."

"...At Our Priorities."

So the difference between "the boys and the men" is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective and for the perfect objective which is that of God.

12 and 12 / Page 68

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I feel like this is the difference between having selfish motives and self-less motives. It's interesting that alcoholism & addiction of all things has given me a reason to be "selfless" (although I'm far from good at it).

I recall several stories of people who were under large amounts of stress, or going through extremely tough times with a breakup, a death in the family, or some other tragedy. They were told to be "of service", and came back after that period of hardship and talked about how being of service was so powerful and so meaningful for them. This same principle of being "outwardly" focused and action-oriented is the key to selfless behavior for many eastern spiritual traditions as well. I like it.

Be of service and help others so that your thoughts will not be so self-centered. It's impossible to be thinking about yourself while you're thinking about others. So be "of service" and you will necessarily feel better. What a beautiful lesson!