Consider the brilliance of the human mind as revealed in our ability to interpret the unexpected world around us and create something totally new.  We’ve evolved as a species to combine present circumstances with what we have learned to elect a potentially brand new future.  If the channel is clear enough to process all the information we are receiving, we can create an incredible future.  If the channel clogs or is not receiving the power it needs, friction increases, capacity is reduced, and it doesn’t perform well.  It all depends on how fit we are to receive and process the information around us.

Let’s borrow the word “bandwidth” from technology to describe this process.   Bandwidth refers to how much traffic a channel can handle.  To get anything through a channel, engineers anticipate required bandwidth – such as how many people on a network, or how many homes in a power grid.  They think about capacity and maintenance.

Physical pipelines become clogged with sludge, like our brains, so the engineers set up maintenance programs to clean the lines. Residue left unchecked hardens like our arteries, to the point where nothing can get through the narrowing passage.  Wireless phone towers are designed with enough bandwidth to minimize dropped calls when they are overloaded, so our smartphones’ robots can deliver their Artificial Intelligence to us.

Am I wasting my bandwidth? Am I keeping spiritually fit?  Is my D.A. program stagnating with sludge?  Am I dropping too many D.A. calls for help?  Or am I of service to my Higher Power and to Debtors Anonymous?  Am I practicing “gratitude in action”?

Meditation for today:

Nature has set up a mysterious process for us to grow.  In order to increase our bandwidth to process life to the fullest and grow along spiritual lines, we must help the newcomer in D.A. by giving back what has been given to us.  The spiritual law of the universe is that in order to receive we must first give.

Just as we turn on a light switch to get light into a room, so we can get current into our lives for wondrous things to occur if we take the required action.  The corridors of peace expand as we complete the circuit of our life, by giving of ourselves to help others.

Affirmation for today:

As I go out today I will transform any circumstance into an opportunity to grow, learn, tolerate, help, or become a better person.  As I do this, the possibilities for healing (myself and others) are contagious, and limitless.

Prayer for today:

I hope to practice DA’s 12 Tools, 12 Concepts and 12 Traditions, so that I can in turn receive gratitude today.

Further Reading… A Currency of Hope

I was going to post a direct link to the DA book “A Currency Of Hope” on Amazon, but it is way too expensive there and they don’t have the 2nd edition yet anyway.  Instead I recommend you either try to get yourself to a DA meeting where they will likely have the book for between $11-$14, or go to the DebtorsAnonymous.org Book page and mail order it.  The book introduces the entire Twelve Step program of DA, and has terrific stories about recovery from the disease of compulsive debting.  It is DA’s equivalent of AA’s “big book”.

(By clicking the link above you will be brought to the DA website, where you can buy A Currency of Hope 2nd edition for $14 plus shipping as of the date of this blog post.  You will need to mail your payment though, which some of you may be reluctant to do. The DebtorsAnonymous.org website also has a list of DA meetings in your area.)

Also, “Hand To Mouth” is a humorous, smart, “slice of life” read…

Here is a great new book you will want to check out right away: Hand To Mouth: Living In Bootstrap America, by Linda Tirado.  Published by the Penguin Group, it is funny, entertaining and bitingly truthful about how hard it is to be poor.  It started out as a forum post in response to someone’s question “Why do poor people do so many things that seem so self-destructive”.  You can read her response at this link, entitled “Why I make Terrible Decisions, Or Poverty Thoughts”.

(By clicking the link above you will be brought to Amazon.com, where you can buy this book.  Using the link in no way increases your costs..  Using the link helps us defray the costs of running this website, as Amazon gives us a commission.)