Your cart is currently empty!
August 20th – A Handbook for Living
“It’s as though I finally got that ‘How To’ manual I always wanted when I was younger.”
– Lightweight, Life with Hope, second edition, pages 186-187
This quote is from the story Lightweight in Life with Hope. I’d never wondered about a how-to manual growing up, but I related to this idea all the same. I grew up thinking everyone knew more than me. When I had a dilemma before recovery, I would ask eight different people what I should do, and get eight different answers. Only after working the Steps, did I begin to trust that I have my own answers, instead of relying on someone else.
I came to recovery unable to trust anyone or anything; mostly I couldn’t trust myself. I’d wanted to quit marijuana years before I was able, and I was constantly making other people my Higher Power. Eventually, working the program, and forming real friendships with other recovering addicts who were safe, has helped me learn how to trust myself. I finally got the tools I didn’t know I needed to help me learn to live a happy, joyous, and free life, clean, one day at a time.
Final thought: Today, I have a program and a fellowship to help me live life on life’s terms.
Living Every Day with Hope – Copyright © 2025 Marijuana Anonymous World Services. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Marijuana Anonymous groups have been granted limited permission to quote Living Every Day with Hope.
Hope Delivered To Your Inbox
By subscribing to Daily Dose of MA Recovery you receive via email the meditation of the day from Living Every Day with Hope and additional announcements from MA World Services.
A New Leaf – Online
Where Marijuana Anonymous members spark creativity by sharing experience, strength, and hope.
-
Are you?
Written by, Callie B. Are you awake?Are you here?We only have moments to spare…Are you aware of being aware?Wherever you are, are you there?Are you paying close attention?Is your attention intentional? Are you always running?Is your patience,thin, dull, dwelling?Is it drained, gone, numbing?Are you chasing it or is it chasing you? Are you afraid, and…
-
There Was A Reason
Written By, David L. I started using at 16. As soon as I got my own stash, my addiction began. It started as my nightly routine, helping me to escape my anxieties and calm my mind. Deep, relaxing sleeps turned into obsessive use… smoking joints on the way to school, avoiding my parents to hide…
-
Heard in a Meeting
“Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” Published in A New Leaf – September 2025
-
Onward Sober Soldiers
Written by, Anonymous I am engaged in a war with a beast that lives inside of me. It is old, born in the garden of Eden, enslaving all addicts. It is no coincidence that the Jewish holiday of Passover fell while I was detoxing, for this holiday celebrates the release of Jews from slavery. I…
-
Gifts of the Program
Written by, Terri R. I got my nine month chip at a Glendale MA meeting this week. I am the type of person who reflects on my progress whenever I reach a milestone like this. Course, I am very proud of myself. However, I’m also thinking of all the gifts I received from the program…
-
Love and Understanding
Written by, Terry M. In the book, “The Road Less Traveled,” Scott Peck defines love as “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” One of the first things I remember being told when I reached these rooms was “we will love you until you learn…
Copyright © 1989–2025 Marijuana Anonymous World Services—All Rights Reserved
—Marijuana Anonymous World Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, does not endorse or accept contributions from any outside enterprise—