Recovery in Safford

11/21/2025

Friday
Nov 21

For the trouble is that we are self-centered, and no effort of the self can remove the self from the centre of its own endeavor.
William Temple



This quagmire of troubles we were caught in came, in part, from our best efforts to be self-sufficient. The harder we worked to provide our own cures, to control others in our lives, or to control ourselves, the more we fixed our attention upon ourselves. We could not see that the answers we were using were actually part of the problem, not the solution. Even today we may be partially caught in the folly of this thinking. Whenever we think we see our problems and the answers clearly but don't open our incomplete selves to the wisdom of others, we are in danger of intensifying our self-focus. When we have a pattern of telling our fellow members the completed stories of our pain only when our pain has passed, we are maintaining our self-centered system. We can't lift ourselves out of our self-centeredness. We can only turn it over to our Higher Power and allow ourselves to be released. I am grateful for the healing, which comes when I stop being so self-centered in my efforts.

11/20/2025

Wednesday
Nov 19

In Their Honor

By the time I was twenty-one, I had lost two very close friends to addiction. Tommy overdosed on he**in, and a year later Shannon drove her car off the highway while under the influence of vodka and benzodiazepines. I sometimes question why their addiction stole their lives and I survived mine, but I'll never know, of course. What I do know is that I don't take lightly the fact that I found recovery. My lifestyle in my teenage and early adult years put me at extreme risk, as it did for most of my friends at the time. None of us were in recovery; we didn't even realize that there was a solution to the substance issues that we were experiencing. When I got into recovery, I started losing friends at an even faster pace, and today, with fentanyl-tainted drugs so prevalent, people are dying at even more alarming rates. Laura McKowen talks and writes about how "we are the luckiest" to have found recovery and a new way of life. I couldn't agree more, and I hope I never take for granted that I get to live my life in recovery. That I get to live, period. I recover in honor of those we have lost.

There but for the grace of god, or the universe, go I.

11/17/2025

🥹❤️

11/15/2025

❤️

11/14/2025

Twenty Four Hours a Day

Friday
Nov 14

Thought for the Day

A better way than judging people is to look for all the good in them. If you look hard enough and long enough, you ought to be able to find some good in every person. In A.A. I learned that my job was to try to bring out the good, not criticize the bad. Every alcoholic is used to being judged and criticized. That has never helped anyone to get sober. In A.A. we tell people they can change. We try to bring out the best in them. We encourage their good points and ignore their bad points. People are not converted by criticism. Do I look for the good in people?

Meditation for the Day

There must be a design for the world in the mind of God. We believe His design for the world is a universal fellowship of men and women under the fatherhood of God. The plan for your life must also be in the mind of God. In times of quiet meditation you can seek for God's guidance, for the revealing of God's plan for your day. Then you can live this day according to that guidance. Many people are not making of their lives what God meant them to be, and so they are unhappy. They have missed the design for their lives.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may try to follow God's design for today. I pray that I may have the sense of Divine Intent in what I do today.

11/14/2025

Thursday
Nov 13

Thought for the Day

Who am I to judge other people? Have I proved by my great success in life that I know all the answers? Exactly the opposite. Until I came into A.A., my life could be called a failure. I made all the mistakes one could make. I took all the wrong roads there were to take. On the basis of my record, am I a fit person to be a judge of other people? Hardly. In A.A. I have learned not to judge people. I am so often wrong. Let the results of what they do judge them. It's not up to me. Am I less harsh in my judgment of people?

Meditation of the Day

In our time of meditation, we again seem to hear: "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Again and again we seem to hear God saying this to us "Come unto me" for the solution of every problem, for the overcoming of every temptation, for the calming of every fear, for all our need, physical, mental, or spiritual, but mostly "come unto me" for the strength we need to live with peace of mind and the power to be useful and effective.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may go to God today for those things, which I need to help me live. I pray that I may find real peace of mind.

11/12/2025

11/11/2025

Tuesday
Nov 11

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. You take it.
Malcolm X



It does little good to complain about our wives/husbands or parents or lovers. We only accentuate our role as victims when we say, "I would be happier if she were different." "If he would just get off my back, I would act better." We each have a side, which is loyal to the victim within. Some of us take comfort in acting helpless and being taken care of; some of us relish the power of being catered to; some of us wallow in self-pity. These patterns of thought re**rd our recovery and put a drag on our relationships. When we decide that we aren't willing to live this way any longer, we are ready to assert our independence.

Real emancipation can't come at someone else's initiative or as a gift. It can only begin from within, by saying, "I will take my independence." Then we begin to be responsible because we own it on the inside.

Today, I will not wait for others to set me free. I will do what is within my own power to be free.

11/09/2025

Sunday
Nov 09

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.
Thomas Carlyle



Silence does not draw attention to itself. It is the ultimate in letting go and letting be. It is the opposite of the great dramatic event, so we easily forget silence is a basic means by which we grow. We live in a "can do" society that applauds a person of action who gets a job done. Perhaps we learned to think that being alone in silence is empty time with nothing happening.

In truth, some great things happen only by decisive action, but other great things happen only when we get ourselves out of the way and simply allow them to occur. It would be foolish to believe only in action and miss the benefits that come from quiet moments. When we withdraw from the hubbub of the world around us and quiet our minds, we are making room for great things to fashion themselves together.

Today, I will remember the importance of silence in my growth. I will set aside some of my busyness and be still.

11/08/2025

🙌❤️

11/07/2025

Friday
Nov 07

Thought for the Day

I have lost many of my resentments. I have found that getting even with people doesn't do any good. When we try to get revenge, instead of making us feel better, it leaves us frustrated and cheated. Instead of punishing our enemies, we've only hurt our own peace of mind. It does not pay to nurse a grudge; it hurts us more than anyone else. Hate causes frustration, inner conflict, and neurosis. If we give out hate, we will become hateful. If we are resentful, we will be resented. If we do not like people, people will not like us. Revengefulness is a powerful poison in our systems. Have I lost my resentments?

Meditation for the Day

It is not so much you, as the grace of God that is in you, that helps those around you. If you would help even those you dislike, you have to see that there is nothing in you to block the way, to keep God's grace from using you. Your own pride and selfishness are the greatest blocks. Keep those out of the way and God's grace will flow through you into the lives of others. Then all who come in contact with you can be helped in some way. Keep the channel open, free from those things that make your life futile and ineffective.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that all who come in contact with me will feel better for it. I pray that I may be careful not to harbor those things in my heart that put people off.

11/06/2025

Thursday
Nov 06

The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human.
Pablo Casals



The "shoulds" of our lives can be found all around us. We should wear our seat belts. We should not cry. We should go to our meetings. These "shoulds" usually serve as good guides for us, but they can intrude upon us. If we give them power, they only condemn us and give no useful help. At times we jump toward the "should" because we don't have the courage to live with the insecurity of being human.

If someone at work gets an unfair shake, it takes courage to speak up and say what we think. We may have an impulse to reach out to a stranger, but it takes courage to do it. When an inner feeling emerges from our honesty, fear may prompt us to avoid it, and we need to call on our courage. That is how we fulfill the uniqueness of each of us.

I am alive as a human being. I will not shy away from opportunities to express my humanity.