Episode 190 -- February 7, 2022

Meditation Monday: Good Trees Can Bear Good Fruit

Welcome to Meditation Monday. We're pausing each Monday for a few minutes of reflection and inspiration from the authors of the Hazelden Meditation series of books.

Meditations are daily reflections, prayers, slogans and phrases intended to offer inspiration and comfort, and above all hope to those of us in recovery.

The selections for this first Meditation Monday in February come from a trio of Hazelden's enduringly popular recovery resources: Answers in the Heart, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and The Promise of a New Day. Together, today's three meditations invite us to claim our basic goodness and the positive value we share as human beings—even as we seek to improve our lives and our relationships in recovery.

Answers in the Heart

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.
— William Saroyan

In our addiction we tend to think of other people as better than ourselves. We are quick to admire, to idealize. We are convinced that good people are good because they are born that way. And we, of course, are rotten.

But goodness comes through experience, and experience includes setbacks and even disasters. It's not so much what happens to us as the way we cope that makes the difference. What might be considered as failure can bring us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and other people.

Wisdom cannot be taught or transmitted; it comes directly from our personal experience in the world. And there we learn that goodness is a value extracted from the ordeals and adventures along our particular path. We can be quietly proud of our goodness.

I believe in my goodness and value
as a member of the human family.
— PW

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

AA Thought for the Day
Since I realized that I had become an alcoholic and could never have any more fun with liquor and since I knew that from then on liquor would always get me into trouble, common sense told me that the only thing left for me was a life of sobriety. But I learned another thing in AA, the most important thing anyone can ever learn: that I could call on a Higher Power to help me keep away from liquor; that I could work with that Divine Principle in the universe; and that God would help me to live a sober, useful, happy life. So now I no longer care about the fact that I can never have any more fun with drinking. Have I learned that I am much happier without it?

Meditation for the Day
Like a tree, I must be pruned of a lot of dead branches before I will be ready to bear good fruit. Think of changed people as trees that have been stripped of their old branches, pruned, cut, and bare. But through the dark, seemingly dead branches flows silently, secretly, the new sap, until with the sun of spring comes new life. There are new leaves, buds, blossoms, and fruit, many times better because of the pruning. I am in the hands of a Master Gardener, who makes no mistakes in His pruning.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may cut away the dead branches of my life. I pray that I may not mind the pruning, since it helps me to bear good fruit later.

The Promise of a New Day

Limited expectations yield only limited results.
— Susan Laurson Willig

Our thoughts determine our actions, and when our thoughts are negative, our successes are few. What we hold in our mind is certain to be reflected in the day's activities. And we are capable of fueling our thoughts positively, if we choose to.

Positive self-assessment and uplifting pep talks can become habitual if our desire to live up to our potential is great enough. The expectations we privately harbor, be they small or far-reaching, will set the pace for the progress we make today and every day.

We can greet a challenge with eager anticipation when we've grown accustomed to believing in our capability for success. First, we must expect to handle, with poise, whatever confronts us.

No one but me determines my course today.
My success begins in my mind.

Hazelden meditation books offer a brief reading for every day of the year. Today's selection from Answers in the Heart is from February 9. The meditations from Twenty-Four Hours a Day and The Promise of a New Day are from February 10.

About the Author:
The authors of Answers in the Heart, a man and a woman, have chosen to remain anonymous. Authorship is shown by the initials PW or SK at the end of each meditation.
Twenty-Four Hours a Day was written by Richmond W.
The Promise of a New Day was written by Karen Casey and Martha Vanceburg

Answers in the Heart © 1989 by P. Williamson and S. Kiser
Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation
The Promise of a New Day © 1983, 1991 by Hazelden Foundationr
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