02/02 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY
Looking back, I realize just how much of my life has been spent in dwelling upon the faults of others.  It provided much self-satisfaction, to be sure, but I see now just how subtle and actually perverse the process became.  After all was said and done, the net effect of dwelling on the so-called faults of others was self-granted permission to remain comfortably unaware of my own defects.  DO I STILL POINT MY FINGER AT OTHERS AND THUS SELF-DECEPTIVELY OVERLOOK MY OWN SHORTCOMINGS?

TODAY I PRAY
May I see that my preoccupation with the faults of others is really a smokescreen to keep me from taking a hard look at my own, as well as a way to bolster my own failing ego.  May I check out the "why's" of my blaming.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Blame-saying
Is game-playing

02/01 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY
The longer I'm in The Program, the more clearly I see why it's important for me to understand why I do what I do, and say what I say.  In the process, I'm coming to realize what kind of person I really am.  I see now, for example, that it's for easier to be honest with other people than with myself.  I'm learning, also, that we're all hampered by our need to justify our actions and words.  HAVE I TAKEN AN INVENTORY OF MYSELF AS SUGGESTED IN THE TWELVE STEPS?  HAVE I ADMITTED MY FAULTS TO MYSELF, TO GOD, AND TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING?

TODAY I PRAY
May I not be stalled in my recovery process by the enormity of The Program's Fourth Step, taking a moral inventory of myself, or by admitting these shortcomings to myself, to God and to another human being.  May I know that honesty to myself about myself is all-important.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
I cannot mend if I bend the truth.

01/29 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY
I used to imagine my life as a grotesque abstract painting: a montage of crises framed by end-upon-end catastrophes.  My days all were grey and my thoughts greyer still.  I was haunted by dread and nameless fears.  I was filled with self-loathing.  I had no idea who I was, what I was, or why I was.   I miss none of those feelings.  Today, step by step, I am discovering myself and learning that I can be free to be me.  AM I GRATEFUL FOR MY NEW LIFE?  HAVE I TAKEN THE TIME TO THANK GOD TODAY FOR THE FACT THAT I AM CLEAN AND SOBER -- AND ALIVE?

TODAY I PRAY
May calm come to me after the turmoil and nightmares of the past.  As my fears and self-hatred dissipate, may the things of the spirit replace them.  For in the spiritual world, as in the material world, there is no empty space.  May I be filled with the spirit of my Higher Power.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Morning scatters nightmares.

01/28 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY
Now that I am in The Program, I am no longer enslaved by alcohol and other drugs.  Free, free at last from the morning-after tremors, the dry heaves, the three-day beard, the misplaced eyelashes.  Free, free at last from working out the alibis and hoping they won't unravel; free from blackouts; free from watching the clock so that I can somehow get that deperately needed "first one."  DO I TREASURE MY FREEDOM FROM CHEMICAL ENSLAVEMENT?

TODAY I PRAY
Praise God that I am free of chemicals.  This is my first freedom, from which other freedoms will develop -- freedom to appraise my behavior sanely and constrctively, freedom to grow as a person, freedom to maintain relationships with others on a sound basis.  I will never cease to thank my Higher Power for leading me away from my enslavement.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Praise God for my freedom.