The sleeping tiger

Our disease is cunning and baffling. It’s hard to get a handle on it. We want it cured once and for all. But just when we think we have it under control and we understand the ins and outs of the problem, it rears its ugly head. Sometimes it reappears in its old familiar forms of persons, places and things. Sometimes it sneaks its way in through a back door disguised and thinly veiled in new forms and shapes.

In recovery, our disease is often described as a sleeping tiger. A wild, untamed, crafty, unpredictable animal who is resting, gaining strength, plotting and planning for the next violent assault on our sober and clean recovery. An animal, who, if we slacken our vigilance and let our guard down, will massacre and devour the fledgling remnants of sanity that we have left.

For the most part, our real line of defense is gathering together in a fellowship of strength with others susceptible to the periodic onslaughts of possible relapse.

Prayer and Action,

God, I pray you, keep the tiger sleeping. Help me to be daily ever vigilant lest I fall prey to a surprise attack or lulled into a nonnegotiable surrender, a seduction by the disease. Just for today help me to…

Today’s Meditation from:

90 Days One Day At A Time: A New Beginning for People in Recovery by John Behnke, CSP

The problem with using a crutch

The problem with using a crutch–alcohol, drugs, food, gambling–to numb our emotional pain is that in the end we come to rely on it instead of on our own inner strength. We learn to lie quite persuasively: “I don’t need to drink. I just like the taste.” “These pills have caffeine in them. It’s like drinking coffee”; “I work hard for my money. I deserve to gamble if it relaxes me.

It becomes easier and easier to convince ourselves that our problems are under control. Eventually, when there are serious consequences and the crutch is no longer available, the only way to regain our health and to remain well is to acknowledge the truth.

– Kay Conner Pliszka,/em>

This above all: to thine own self be true. - - William Shakespeare

Today’s Meditation from:

Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Peter Vegso, Gary Seidler, Theresa Peluso, Tian Dayton, Rokelle Lerner and Robert Ackerman

Demonstrating Respect in Recovery

“The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.,

Today I respect the law. In this way I respect the society in which I live. I am not “an island unto myself”. I live in a community and have a responsibility to myself and that community–such is sobriety.

For years I did what I wanted and tried not to be found out. I was manipulative, dishonest and unhappy; to stay sick is depressing and exhausting.

Then I decided to remove the pain. I accepted the disease and began to change my life. I discovered the spiritual law of freedom with responsibility. Law is the collective experience of the many who choose to live a certain way, and today I choose to live amongst them. My understanding of spirituality involves respecting the laws that give me the dignity of citizenship.

O Lord, help me to see that in the laws of civilization is the gift of freedom.

Today’s Meditation from:

Say Yes To Life: Spiritual Meditations for Daily Living by Leo Booth