A Day at a Time Reflections

MAY 24 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "Easy does it"

Getting over years of suspicion and other self-protective mechanisms can hardly be an overnight process. We've become thoroughly conditioned to feeling and acting misunderstood and unloved-whether we really were or not. Some of us may need time and practice to break out of our shell and the seemingly comfortable familiarity of solitude. Even though we begin to believe and know we're no longer alone, we tend to sometimes feel and act in the old ways.  Am I taking it easy? Am I learning to wear the Gamblers Anonymous Program and life like a loose garment? Am I taking it easy? Am I learning to wear the Gamblers Anonymous Program and life like a loose garment? Today I Pray … May I expect no sudden, total reversal of all my old traits. My abstinence from gam bling is just a beginning. May I realize that the symptoms of my compulsion will wear off gradually. If I slip back, now and then, into my old self-pity bag or my grandiosity, may I not be discouraged, but grateful. At last, I can face myself honestly and not let my delusions get the best of me. Today I Will Remember … Easy does it.  A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠

MAY 23 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "Loneliness is curable"

When newcomers to Gamblers Anonymous experience the first startling feeling that they're truly among friends, they also wonder-with almost a sense of terror-if the feeling is real. Will it last? Those of us who've been in the Program a few years can assure any newcomer at a meeting that it is very real indeed, and that it does last. It's not just another false start, nor just a temporary burst of gladness to be followed, inevitably, by shattering disappointment. Am I convinced that I can have a genuine and enduring recovery from the loneliness of my compulsive gambling? Today I Pray … Please, God, let me not be held back by my fear of recurring loneliness. May know that the openness that warms me in this group will not suddenly close up and leave me out. May I be patient with my fear, which is swollen with past disappointments and losses. May I know that the fellowship of the group will, in time, convince me that loneliness is never incurable. Today I Will Remember … Loneliness is curable.  A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠

MAY 22 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "Sameness"

When I first listened to people in Gamblers Anonymous talking freely and honestly about themselves, I was stunned. Their stories of their own gambling escapades, of their own secret fears, and of their own gnawing loneliness were literally mind-blowing for me. I discovered and hardly dared believe it at first-that I'm not alone, I'm not all that different from everybody else and, in fact, we're all very much the same. I began to sense that I do belong somewhere, and my loneliness began to leave me. Do I try to give others what has been given freely to me? Today I Pray … May I begin to see, as the life stories of my friends in GA unfold for me, that our similarities are far more startling than our differences. As I listen to their accounts of compulsive gambling and recovery, may I experience often that small shock of recognition, a "hey-that's-me!" feeling that is quick to chase away my separateness. May I become a wholehearted member of the group, giving and taking in equal parts. Today I Will Remember … Sameness, not differences. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠

MAY 21 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "Value life"

"The language of friendship is not words, but meanings," wrote Thoreau. Life indeed takes on new meanings, as well as new meaning in the Gamblers Anonymous Program. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a Fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience not to be missed. Can I recall my initial reactions when I came to Gamblers Anonymous? Do I believe that I've finally come home? Today I Pray … As the GA Program has given life new meanings for me, may I pass along to others that same chance to re-evaluate their lives in the light of recovery, common purpose, friendships, and spiritual expansion. Praise God for my new vision of human life. Praise God for restoring for me the value and purpose of living. Today I Will Remember … I value my life. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠

MAY 20 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY "God can teach me"

Compulsive gambling is a lonely dis ease; although it may have seemed that we were part of the lights-and-action crowd, we were often tortured by lone liness. Even before the end of our gam bling days before the debts and the guilt showed us how unmanageable our lives had become-nearly all of us felt that we didn't quite belong. Either we were basically shy, or we were noisy good fellows craving attention and approval, but rarely getting it. Though we sought through the seeming sociability of gambling to overcome our loneliness, reckless risk was always lonely. Finally, even the Game itself betrayed us; we were struck down and left in terrified isolation. Have I begun to achieve an inner calm? Today I Pray … May I know the tenderness of an intimate relationship with God and the calm I feel when I touch God's spirit. May I translate this tenderness and calm to my relationships with others. May God deliver me from my lifelong feeling of loneliness and show me how to be a friend. Today I Will Remember … God can teach me to be a friend. A Day at a Time ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3EOjuiH⁠⁠⁠ G.A. A New Beginning ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/3E9YgPC⁠⁠