Daily Reprieve

From Courage to Change of Sep 28:

I received a powerful lesson about letting go one night at an Al-Anon business meeting. It took lots of courage for me to suggest that my home group include the entire Serenity Prayer as part of the meeting opening. Another member suggested that we read the Traditions more regularly.

The group conscience approved the motion about the Traditions, while my pet project, the Serenity Prayer, was shot down. I sat there feeling swollen with offended pride, but something I had learned in Al-Anon kept pounding in my head: “…to place principles above personalities.” Suddenly it didn’t matter that my suggestion had been defeated. We were all together in fellowship, and that was all that mattered.

Within the safety of my Al-Anon group I learn to let go of needing to have my way. With practice, I am able to apply this lesson to all of my relationships.

Today’s Reminder

It is important to express my ideas. It is also important to accept the outcome. I can acknowledge myself for taking the risk to speak out, knowing that the results of my actions are out of my hands. Today I choose to trust those results to my Higher Power.

“Your proper concern is alone the action of duty, not the fruits of the action. Cast then away all desire and fear for the fruits, and perform your duty.” ~ The Bhagavad Gita

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NOTE: The Bhagavad Gita is not a person but a sacred text.

It is a 700-verse section of the Indian epic Mahabharata, written in Sanskrit. The title means “Song of God.” It takes the form of a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna, who serves as his charioteer.

• Context: The conversation happens on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, just before a great war. Arjuna is filled with doubt and despair about fighting his own kin, teachers, and friends.
• Content: Krishna counsels him, teaching about duty (dharma), devotion (bhakti), selfless action (karma yoga), meditation (dhyana), and knowledge (jnana).
• Significance: It has become one of the central texts of Hindu philosophy, but its teachings have also influenced people worldwide, including thinkers like Gandhi, Emerson, and Tolstoy.

So, when someone asks “Who is The Bhagavad Gita?” the clearest answer is:
It is a dialogue between Krishna (God’s voice) and Arjuna (the struggling human soul), preserved as scripture rather than as a person.

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Sometimes there is a clash between my hunger to be heard and the protection of the Program, that requires principles are exalted above personalities. If my idea is cut down, should I allow my ego to swell like a boil, to nurture protective pride so that it twists itself into righteous sulking? No, I remain inside the guardrails of the Traditions, where I find not comfort but containment. The compass points away from self-importance toward survival of the fellowship. My project is nothing. The journey is everything.

Rejection is not death. It is raw fuel. To speak is courage. To accept silence without begging is power. The paradox of Recovery sharpens its edge: I am strong enough to assert My voice, and I am strong enough to walk away when it is ignored. I refuse the begging bowl. I take instead the freedom of acceptance to protect my mind.

I am responsible to perform duty, and to choke the hunger for results. Work is mine. Product is God’s.  This is not surrender in chains — this is the weapon of detachment.  My worth is not in whether others approve. My worth is in the action I alone command.

Speak My truth. Accept the result. Release the fruit.
This is not silence, nor self-erasure. This is Intelligent Spirituality. This is Iconoclasm turned inward — smashing the false idol of my own wounded ego.