The Daily Ripples Podcast

You can be surrounded by people and still be completely isolated inside. Cristi and Pastor Mike explore what it actually takes to let people in — and why the quality of your circle matters as much as having one. Isolation strengthens struggle. Healing begins when I step out of self-focus and recognize that I was never meant to do life alone. Cristi opens as a self-identified introvert — isolation...

Gratitude is not a feeling. It's a discipline. And like most disciplines, it doesn't mean the same thing to everyone in the room. This episode is about the difference between gratitude as emotion and gratitude as proof. Gratitude shifts perspective. When I focus on what is lacking, life feels heavy. When I remember what has been given, my outlook changes. Mike opens with the Psalms — almost every...

The mind doesn't wait for permission to start running. This episode is about what you do in those first few minutes before it gets away from you. The weight of a lifetime can overwhelm, but today is manageable. Focusing on the present brings clarity and steadiness. Corey opens with what happens between the alarm and the coffee. Mike meets him there with the wild stallions — those racing morning th...

You can give someone anything — as long as they don't ask for it. This episode is about why that is, and what it means to give freely when you know it's going to cost you something. True generosity expects nothing in return. When giving is tied to reward, it becomes a transaction. When it is free, it becomes love. Mike opens with a confession: he'll give you the shirt off his back, the shoes out o...

Freedom isn't just the absence of what once held you. It's the ability to become who you were meant to be all along. This episode is about what that actually looks like. Freedom is not just release from what binds us. It is the ability to become who we were meant to be. Corey opens with how he reads — piece by piece first, then the whole thing, and that's when it lands. Reading this entry whole, h...

Forgiving someone else and forgiving yourself turn out to be the same river. This episode is about what happens when you stop damming it. Forgiving others and forgiving myself are deeply connected. When resentment builds, it blocks both. When it is released, healing begins to flow in both directions. Mike opens with a question: which is harder — forgiving someone else or forgiving yourself? Corey...

Forgiveness isn't a feeling you wait for. It's a decision you make before the feeling arrives. Corey and Bill work through what that actually looks like — from page 66 of the Big Book to the cross. Forgiveness often begins as a decision before it becomes a feeling. Willingness opens the door, even when the heart is not fully ready. Bill opens with Matthew 6:14-15 — right after the Lord's Prayer, J...

Resentment doesn't just make you angry. For an alcoholic, it cuts you off from the only thing keeping you sober. This is Corey alone with the Big Book, working through what that actually means. Resentment clouds the heart and disrupts peace. When I hold on to it, I distance myself from the very presence that brings clarity and rest. He opens on page 65 — the Mr. Brown inventory chart — and reads i...

Corey and Bill discuss the difference between humiliation and true humility, sharing how the 12 steps and faith in God turned past shame into a steady identity and freedom. They reflect on biblical imagery, practical commitments, and spiritual growth through honesty, willingness, and reliance on the Holy Spirit. Find every daily entry at dailyripples.com . Reach out anytime at wave@dailyripples.co...

Nobody actually wants to take the hard right path. That's the whole point. This episode is about why you do it anyway — and what's on the other side. Avoidance promises relief, but it often prolongs the struggle. What feels like the harder path at first is often the one that leads to real freedom. The episode opens with Proverbs 15:19 — the way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the wa...

The past doesn't change. But it doesn't have to stay in charge. This episode is about the mechanics of how it loses its grip — and why "just let it go" has never once worked as a strategy. The past cannot be changed, but it does not have to control the present. Healing begins when I stop reliving what has already been done. Corey opens with the honest problem: he doesn't have the power to simply d...

You can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone. This episode is about what actually closes that gap — and it's not proximity. Belonging grows where honesty lives. As long as I hide what is real, I remain on the outside, even when I'm surrounded by others. Pastor Mike opens with Ruth 1:16 — "where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay." Not a verse about God, technical...

Nobody can keep all their masks straight forever. In this episode, Mike and Corey dig into what it actually means to see yourself clearly — and why that's where freedom begins. Freedom begins with honesty. When I see myself clearly and accept who I am, I create space to become who I was meant to be. Corey opens with a question that sounds simple until you sit with it: who were you an hour ago, and...

Fear doesn't shrink when you avoid it. This episode is about what happens when you stop coasting and actually paddle — and why you probably can't do it without God. Fear often tightens its grip when I try to avoid it. Growth begins when I become willing to face what I have been resisting. Pastor Mike opens up straight out of the gate: he's got a real fear in his life right now, something around th...

Pride keeps the soul restless. In this episode, Paris and Corey work through what it actually takes to put it down — and why the fifth step is where rest begins. Pride keeps the soul restless. When I carry everything alone, I remain burdened. Peace begins when I stop hiding and allow myself to be known. We open in the morning — down on our knees, reading, sending a few messages to fellows in the p...

Truth is not a blunt instrument. This episode is about the difference between honesty that heals and honesty that harms — and how recovery teaches you to hold both at the same time. Truth should never be used as a weapon. Growth requires honesty about myself, but always with care and respect toward others. Corey opens with Big Book page 77 on amends — a passage that warns him twice in the same par...

What you hold back continues to hold you. In this episode, Corey and Paris dig into one of the harder truths in recovery: that honesty isn't just a virtue — for people like them, it's the whole ballgame. What I hold back continues to hold me. Healing begins when I stop filtering the truth and allow what's buried to come into the light. Paris opens with a question: have you ever squinted at a text...

Happy Cinco de Mayo — and for Corey and Paris, a holiday that used to look very different. Today Corey is back with his friend Paris — his sponsee, and someone who shared a past that makes their current kitchen table look like a miracle. Because it kind of is. They dig into emotional sobriety, which only appears once in all the AA literature — on the very first page of Step 12 — and what it means...

May the 4th be with you. And also with you. With that out of the way — today Pastor Mike closes out a great four-day run with Steffani and Memphis by digging into something trickier than it sounds: the difference between honesty and oversharing. Because you can be completely truthful and still do damage. Mike shares the three questions he runs every hard truth through before speaking it — does it...

Writing it down is a start. Saying it out loud to another person is where the real work happens. Today Pastor Mike, Steffani, and Memphis dig into what it takes to move from private truth to spoken honesty — and why that gap matters more than most people realize. Steffani shares how she does a new Step Five right alongside her sponsees, putting her own inventory on the table first to level the pla...

It's no longer just your story. It's God's tool. Today Pastor Mike, Steffani, and Memphis dig into what it means to let your past become someone else's hope — and Memphis lands on something worth sitting with: his shares used to sound like a badge of honor. Now they sound like testimony. That's growth, and Mike has had a front-row seat — he reveals today that he's been Memphis's sponsor for the pa...

We're only as sick as our secrets. Today Pastor Mike welcomes two new voices — Steffani and Memphis — who'll be joining him through May 4th while Corey is out. And they jump straight into the deep end: Step Five. What does it actually feel like to sit down with another human being and say the thing you swore you'd never say out loud? Steffani calls it a spiritual experience. Memphis talks about th...

The only way to keep it is to give it away. That's not a bumper sticker, it's the engine that makes the whole thing run. Today Mike and Corey close out April with one of the most beautiful paradoxes in recovery: the gift deepens the more you share it. Corey connects it to Tradition 5, to sponsor Doug, to his buddy Kevin who saved his life when he came back in the rooms, and in classic Corey fashio...

Freedom without limits isn't freedom — it's just chaos with better branding. Today Mike and Corey dig into what real freedom actually looks like, and it turns out it runs straight through discipline, not around it. Corey lands on Galatians 5:13 (called to be free, but not free to indulge) and connects it directly to the sick man's prayer from page 67 of the Big Book: how can I be helpful to him? M...

Two quiet virtues. No drama, no fanfare — just the steady work of staying teachable and showing up. Today Corey and Mike dig into why that prayer at the end of the ripple is actually kind of terrifying: Father, teach me the humility of Christ. Pastor Mike puts it plainly — you know how far God took it with Jesus. So what does saying that out loud actually mean? And yet the reward on the other side...