comes to a person; a person doesn’t go looking for it. ~Sister Maurice
It’s a pretty safe bet that none of us woke up one fine morning and announced, “I think I’ll become an addict today! I want to make my parents proud and impress my friends. Why don’t I swing by the liquor store and pick up a 12-pack and then on the way home stop by the crack house and give them any money I have left?” Just like a heat-seeking missile, chemical dependency hunts us down, and we usually are not aware of just when the disease goes off inside us. But, just because we didn’t ask for this disease doesn’t mean we get to pity ourselves. Who asks for cancer, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis? Unlike most other diseases, we actually have a choice in our recovery! Wow, what a blessing! So, instead of feeling sorry that this “terrible” disease found us, we ought to give thanks that such a glorious recovery has found us!
I turn my “dis-ease” to a sense of ease
by giving thanks that recovery found me.
We believe that, for one reason or another, a Force of a positive nature, which we call a Higher Power, guided us here to C.D.A.
∼Chemically Dependent Anonymous P 20-21
January 5
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. ∼Aristotle
The Steps don’t know or care who works them. The Steps don’t know or care how many times they are worked. Step Three doesn’t discern, “Oh, this guy is special, he doesn’t need me.” Just as Step Four doesn’t say, “This gal has got a great mind. She doesn’t need to write down an inventory. Keeping it in her head will be fine.” Members of C.D.A. have learned that if you work the Steps, they will work. The only time they do not work is when you do not work them. So, we get into the habit of working our Steps by doing them in the manner suggested by our sponsors. We are what we repeatedly do! We ask ourselves, “What am I doing today that defines who I am?”
I work the Steps so they can work on me.
As we work the Steps, our spirits begin to heal, developing a relationship with a higher power.
∼Chemically Dependent Anonymous P 46
January 6
We can change our negative beliefs about life and whether we have the power to stop our pain and take care of ourselves. ~Melody Beattie
They tell us there are no victims, only volunteers. Yet, why does it so often feel like we are being victimized? This is because we have not yet learned to take responsibility for our own choices in recovery. When using, our disease chose for us. In early recovery our sponsor may have chosen for us. Today, we must choose for ourselves. If someone is being abusive with us, we have not yet chosen to take personal responsibility for how we allow others to treat us. If we always sit home alone, we have not yet chosen to be of service in the Program. If we suffer from feelings of depravation in our lives, it is because we have not yet chosen to let our Higher Power become our Employer. Our choices reflect our beliefs. Whether they are negative or positive is up to us.
The choices I make today will
effect my tomorrows.
I used to think that a negative attitude would be there forever, that I had no way out of my depression or my moods. I know better, now.
∼Chemically Dependent Anonymous P 127
January 7
Happiness is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day. ∼Benjamin Franklin
Happiness is not by chance, good luck, or dropped in our lap by winning the lotto. It is the by-product of an attitude coupled with action. This attitude comes as a result of our willingness to learn from the Fellowship, and the action comes when we apply what we learn. The attitude that creates happiness is expressed in the Prayer of Saint Francis. We seek to give … not to receive, to serve … not to be served, and to care … not to be cared for. The actions that create those “little advantages” that produce happiness are: reaching out to give; serving within the Fellowship; and, caring for newcomers as they enter the rooms. When practicing the right attitude, coupled with the right action, we find that happiness is that certain something acquired while we’re too busy to be miserable.
I seek to give rather than receive, to serve
rather than be served, and to care for
rather than be cared for.
What I've learned, through all that's happened to me, is that if I'm not spiritually fulfilled, I won't be happy.
~Chemically Dependent Anonymous P 247
January 8
Listen to guidance and follow the guidance given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many forms; in dreams, in times of quiet solitude and in the words and deeds of wise elders and friends. ∼The Sacred Tree
Many of us come into the rooms with a chip on our shoulders about God and especially about organized religion. Advice we hear includes: borrow our God, use a doorknob, use the group, or wait and see; don’t look for God—let God find you. As alcoholics and addicts, we have well-established track records of being untrustworthy and unreliable. However, in the matter of choosing a Higher Power that works for us, only we are trusted with that precious and awesome responsibility. We are not told to whom to pray, whose path to follow, or to what religion to subscribe. The freedom to choose a Higher Power that works for us is that vital act of accepting trust that frees us from the bonds of active addiction.
I am grateful for the gift of choice that gave
me the God of my understanding.
As long as we remain willing, remain teachable, we will be able to accept this new way of living, and our growth and success will be limited only by our imaginations.
~Chemically Dependent Anonymous P 108
January 9
Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. ~Barbara S. Cole
The essence of all growth in C.D.A. is a willingness to change for the better. We attain this willingness for change by working through the Steps which enables us to see our attitude and our perception on life transform. Newcomers ask us, “When does it get better?” We tell them, “It gets better when your behavior changes.” Gradually, what newcomers need to do becomes what they want to do, and change becomes simple. In the new lives we create, we slowly shed the fear of the past and fear of the unknown while eagerly grasping the freedom that this program so generously offers. Our negative thoughts and ideas are replaced with positive ones. As a result of this, we transform, attaining the spiritual awakening that is needed in order to become the people we are meant to be.
My new outlook on life is mirrored, as I slowly become the person I always pretended to be.
