A Day at a Time Reflections

In the past, and sometimes even now, I automatically have said, "Why me?" when I'm trying to learn that my first problem is to accept my present circumstances as they are, myself as I am, and the people around me as they are. Just as I finally accepted my powerlessness over gambling, so must I accept my powerlessness over people, places, and things. Am I learning to accept life on life's terms? To...

Today is the day for which I asked and for which I have been given strength. That in itself is a miracle. The fact that I am alive is the great miracle from which all other miracles will flow, providing I continue to do the things that have brought me this far in my new life. Am I grateful that I have been given this day? Today I Pray...May God's goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my lif...

I'm beginning to see just how unnatural my old life actually was, and that it became increasingly so as my illness progressed. The longer I'm in the Gamblers Anonymous Program, the more comfortable this new way of life seems. At first, it was impossible for me to extend my hand to a newcomer; such an act was wholly unnatural for me. But it is becoming increasingly easier for me to reach out to ano...

Gamblers Anonymous, wrote Dr. Robert L. Custer in the foreword to the Gamblers Anonymous Blue Book, is a Program of the Twelve Steps "that provides a framework of hope, structure, and friendship" for those who have chosen the road to a "successful adaptation to a life without gam bling." He adds, "This road can be smooth or rocky, but, in any case, it is never a painless journey. As a recovering c...

"Today is my lucky day." How often in the past we said that, when it was an empty prophecy. Today, those words are real; I am given a second chance. In my gambling days, I sacrificed every "today" for a dream of some distant tomorrow. Of all that I lost, I grieve most for all those "todays I cannot bring them back. But today-this day-I have. I will not sacrifice it or waste it. Do I truly believe...

STEP 1  - We admitted we were powerless over gambling that our lives had become unmanageable.  We at Gamblers Anonymous, believe our gambling problem is an emotional illness, progressive in nature, which no amount of human will-power can stop or control. We have facts to support this belief. We believed, at one time or another, that all of our problems could be solved with a big win. Some, patheti...

For a good part of my life, I saw things mostly in negative terms. Everything was serious, heavy, or just plain awful. Perhaps now I can truly change my attitude, searching out the winners in the Gamblers Anonymous Program who have learned how to live comfortably in the real world - without gambliing. If things get rough today, can I take a quiet moment and say to myself, as the philosopher Homer...

My gambling compulsion is threefold in that it affects me physically, mentally, and spiritually. As a compulsive gambler, I was totally out of touch, not only with myself, but with reality. Day after miserable day, like a caged animal on a treadmill, I repeated my self-destructive pattern of living. Have I begun to break away from my old ideas? Just for today can I adjust myself to what is, rather...

Before I came to the Gamblers Anonymous Program, I hadn't the faintest idea of what it was to "Live in the Now." I often became obsessed with things that happened yesterday, last week, or even five years ago. Worse yet, many of my walking hours were spent cleaning away the "wreckage of the future." "To me," Walt Whitman once wrote, "every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle...

In the old days, I saw everything in terms of forever. Endless hours were spent rehashing old mistakes. I tried to take comfort in the forlorn hope that tomorrow "would be different." As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud. Do I still think in terms of forever? Today I Pray...May I set my goals for the...

by Emily Dickinson If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain: If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.