Ken L

JUNE 5 Reflection for the Day

The Gamblers Anonymous Program teaches me that not too many people can truthfully assert that they love everybody. Most of us have to admit that we’ve loved only a few, and that we’ve been quite indifferent to many. As for the rest, well, we’ve really disliked or hated them. We in Gamblers Anonymous find we need…[Read more]

JUNE 4 Reflection for the Day

Acceptance is a key. Too often I was unable to accept who I was, and therefore it was impossible to accept others. Before coming to Gamblers Anonymous, I hid from the truth because I was afraid of it. Now with the help of my GA brothers and sisters, I can walk through it. Today I actually find comfort in knowing the…[Read more]

June 3 Reflection for the Day

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves,and not to twist them to fit our own image,”wrote Thomas Merton.”Otherwise,we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”As I place my self-destructive addiction with a healthy dependence on the Gamblers Anonymous Program and its…[Read more]

June 2nd Reflection for the Day

In the process of learning to love myself and, in turn, to love others freely with no strings attached ,I’ve begun to understand these words of St. Augustine: “Love slays what we have been, that we may be what we were not. “More and more, I feel the enormous power of such love in the Gamblers Anonymous Program;…[Read more]

June 1 Reflection for the Day

Slowly, but surely, I’m becoming able to accept other people’s faults as well as their virtues. The Gamblers Anonymous Program is teaching me to “always love the best in others – and never fear their worst.” This is hardly an easy transition from my old way of thinking, but I’m beginning to see that all people -…[Read more]

MAY 31 Reflection for the Day

Giving love is a fulfillment in itself. It must not matter whether love is returned or not. If I give love only to get a response on my terms, my love is canceled out by my motives. If I have the capacity to give love, then any return I get for it is a special bonus. It is through giving love, freely and without…[Read more]

MAY 30 Reflection for the Day

Since I’ve been in Gamblers Anonymous, I’ve learned to redefine love. I’ve come to understand, for example, that sometimes it’s necessary to place love ahead of indiscriminate “factual honesty.” No longer, under the guise of “perfect honesty,” can I cruelly and unnecessarily hurt others. Today, I must always ask…[Read more]

MAY 29 Reflection for the Day

When we first reached Gamblers Anonymous and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was exhilarating. We felt that the problem of isolation had been solved. We soon discovered however, that while we weren’t alone anymore in a social sense, we still suffered…[Read more]

MAY 28 Reflection for the Day

We’ve all had times when we felt alienated, when it seemed we had nowhere to turn and no one to turn to. When we don’t know which way to turn, when there seems to be no one to help us, even then we’re not alone or without help; the presence of God is always with us. When we need strength or courage or comfort, God is…[Read more]

MAY 27 Reflection for the Day

When I have only myself to talk to, the conversation gets sort of one-sided. Trying to talk myself out of a “small wager” or “just one hand” is like trying self-hypnosis. It simply doesn’t work; most of the time, it’s about as effective as trying to talk myself out of a case of flu. When my heart is heavy and my…[Read more]

MAY 26 Reflection for the Day

I know today that I no longer have to proceed on my own. I’ve learned that it’s safer, more sensible, and surer to move forward with friends who are going in the same direction as I. None of us need feel shame at using help, since we all help each other. It’s no more a sign of weakness to use help in recovering from…[Read more]

MAY 25 Reflection for the Day

When we’re new in Gamblers Anonymous, we’re novices at reaching out for friendship – or even accepting it when it’s offered. Sometimes we’re not quite sure how to do it or, indeed, whether it will actually work. Gradually, however, we become restored; we become teachable. We learn, for example, as Moliere wrote, “The…[Read more]

MAY 24 Reflection for the Day

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…[Read more]

MAY 23 Reflection for the Day

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,…[Read more]

MAY 22 Reflection for the Day

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 -…[Read more]

MAY 21 Reflection for the Day

“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…[Read more]

May 20 Reflection for the Day

Compulsive gambling is a lonely disease; although it may have seemed that we were part of the lights-and-action crowd, we were often tortured by loneliness. Even before the end of our gambling days – before the debts and the guilt showed us how unmanageable our lives had become – nearly all of us felt that we didn’t…[Read more]

May 19 Reflection for the Day

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us,”wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes.I was never able to look at what was within me until I came to Gamblers Anonymous and I heard my story told.Then I no longer had my “uniqueness” to hide behind.What was more,the person seemed a…[Read more]