The Reginald & Dionne Smith Foundation

11/01/2025

Considering all the incredible work you do for the community, have you ever considered this perspective? Honestly, I hadn't until I read this.

Accessible Seating: Every Chair Tells a Story

Next time you walk into a waiting room, clinic, school, or community space, take a moment to look at the chairs.

Are they all the same?

Many spaces have one style of chair, either all with arms or all without. It may seem fine at first glance, but not every body, age, or ability can use the same type of seating.

A chair that feels “standard” to one person can be too low for someone with hip or back pain, too narrow for a plus-size person, too deep for someone of smaller stature, or too soft for someone who needs stable support to stand. A parent with a baby might need a sturdy chair with arms. A senior or person using a mobility aid may need a taller seat to help them rise safely. A child might simply want to sit beside a sibling.

Accessibility isn’t only about ramps, elevators, or signage. It’s about choice. It’s about creating an environment where everyone can comfortably take a seat without having to ask, wait, or wonder if the chair will support them.

Imagine a space with a mix of options: a few wider chairs, some with arms and some without, a taller stool-style chair, and a sturdy spot for someone plus size or a parent and child. Add a mixture of chairs and space for wheelchair users so every person feels welcome and can sit comfortably. That’s inclusion in action.

Every chair tells a story about who is welcome and who was forgotten. What story do the chairs in your space tell?



Photo description
5 black chairs line a wall with a window. 1 taller chair, 2 with arms, 2 without arms, one of them larger and sturdy.

11/01/2025

01 November

Acceptance Takes Practice

Page 316

"Acceptance is not an all-or-nothing event, and it doesn't necessarily happen all at once."

Living Clean, Chapter 1, "Growing Pains"

We talk about "practicing spiritual principles" because they take practice. That's certainly true of acceptance. At times, the only thing we fully accept is the fact that we're addicts. On those days, that's good enough. We practice acceptance by not picking up. And if we don't pick up, we won't use.

As we grow in recovery, we start to recognize where our acceptance falls short. Sometimes we might acknowledge a problem, but not fully accept its implications, especially when a solution requires us to take responsibility and make an effort. For example, we might sense relationship trouble, but may or may not adjust how much time we spend with a partner. Some of us can't accept, or even recognize, that we've been dishonest until we do a Tenth Step; the disease calls us to stop writing.

Our ability to practice acceptance sometimes wavers depending on who else is involved. We may be able to accept relapse from others, but not when it's a family member. Maybe we can accept the blunders of newcomers but not those mistakes made by oldtimers.

We celebrate the progress we make, no matter how small: "Today I told my boss why I was really late; that was a first!" Or big: "The loss of my beloved dog opened the floodgates, allowing me to revisit the grief of other losses and come to new levels of acceptance."

As we recover just a little more each day, practicing acceptance pays off. We experience rare and remarkable epiphanies with acceptance and recognize the path it took to get there. We can hear other members' struggles with acceptance and think, Yep, they're right where they're supposed to be.

Today I'll look at the conditions I place on acceptance and try to practice this principle more fully.

All NAWS subscriptions are free. We are able to provide this service due, in part, to the generous contributions of our members. If you are a member, you can make a contribution here: www.na.org/contribute

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NA World Services, Inc.
19737 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311

Copyright © 2025 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10/31/2025

31 October

Interdependence and the Spirit of Unity

Page 314

"When one addict helps another, NA is there. NA isn't one addict or the other; it's the helping, the sharing, the spirit of unity, the feeling of hope shared between us."

Guiding Principles, Tradition Nine, Opening Reflection

Tradition Nine begins with "NA, as such, ought never be organized." While it's true there are aspects of delivering the NA message that do require organization, what can never be organized is the spirit of our Fellowship. The active energy of that spirit, the flow between and among individual addicts and groups and service bodies--the "as such" part of NA--is our interdependence. We can't organize the magic that happens when one addict supports another.

We tell our stories of how we got here, despite the odds, despite our prejudgments, despite fear. Doing so helps us and it helps others. Same with sharing our experience of how we got through illness or grief--and how we had dreams, set goals, and then achieved them--or how we didn't get what we'd worked for and hoped for and survived that pain, too. Flawed and human, we mutually depend on each other; we're interdependent.

We can't ever predict when an idea that one group has will reverberate to another corner of the world where it's picked up and used by another. We don't have NA bosses, handing down edicts from on high; instead, our service bodies are created in response to issues that emerge. And the solutions to our problems are gleaned from the hard-won experiences and brand-new ideas of recovering NA members. We can't govern our way into unity or cooperation or participation. Or love. Instead, everyone pitches in however they're willing. We're a growing, evolving movement. When we band together, we are a power greater than the disease of addiction. Interdependence is our collective restoration to sanity.

I will practice interdependence by relying on others and allowing them to rely on me. NA, as such, only becomes stronger with our collective empathy, our creativity, our hope, our unity. Today I will participate in all that.

All NAWS subscriptions are free. We are able to provide this service due, in part, to the generous contributions of our members. If you are a member, you can make a contribution here: www.na.org/contribute

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NA World Services, Inc.
19737 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311

Copyright © 2025 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10/31/2025

31 October

Our relationship with a Higher Power

Page 317

"Ongoing recovery is dependent on our relationship with a loving God who cares for us and will do for us what we find impossible to do for ourselves."

Basic Text, p. 99

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Working the Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous gives us a fresh start in life and some guidance for living in the world. But the steps are more than a fresh start. When we do our best to work the steps, we develop a relationship with our personal Higher Power.

In the Third Step, we decide to allow a loving God to influence our lives. Much of the courage, trust, and willingness we need to continue through the succeeding steps comes from this decision. In the Seventh Step, we go even further by asking this Higher Power to change our lives. The Eleventh Step is a way for us to improve the relationship.

Recovery is a process of growth and change in which our lives are renewed. The Twelve Steps are the roadmap, the specific directions we take in order to continue in recovery. But the support we need to proceed with each step comes from our faith in a Higher Power, the belief that all will be well. Faith gives us courage to act. Each step we work is supported by our relationship with a loving God.

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Just for Today: I will remember that the source of my courage and willingness is my relationship with my Higher Power.

All NAWS subscriptions are free. We are able to provide this service due, in part, to the generous contributions of our members. If you are a member, you can make a contribution here: www.na.org/contribute

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NA World Services, Inc.
19737 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311

Copyright © 2025 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10/30/2025

30 October

Contemplating the Gift of Grace

Page 313

"Each day, we are faced with new challenges. And each day, through working our program of recovery, we are given the grace to meet those challenges."

Just for Today, "Meeting the day's challenge," May 27

Life is beautiful--and we may experience immense joy and serenity and love and all that good stuff--but it ain't easy. What addict will argue with that point? However, by getting and staying clean in NA, we develop the competence to deal with life on its own terms. Those "terms" refer not only to immense life-changing events but also to daily challenges that arise in work, family, and relationships. Ideally, meeting those challenges involves acceptance of our limited power, the courage to act in spite of this, and surrendering to the result. We do this with the gift of grace.

For some of us, the challenge we experience with grace is its intangibility. We don't really know what it is or where this gift is coming from. But maybe we don't have to fully understand grace to receive it.

Many of us are reluctant to use "grace" in our everyday language about recovery. We may bristle at its religious undertones, given that it's most often paired with "God," as in "God's grace." What if we don't conceive of our Higher Power as an almighty giver of gifts like grace or staying clean or life itself? Members who hold more traditional conceptions of a Higher Power may find it easier to accept the gift of grace. The rest of us may hesitate, especially if we feel ill equipped to define a gift we're supposed to be getting and then complicate matters by obsessing about the source of this gift.

Perhaps we can look at NA itself as the source of the gift of grace because it teaches us to surrender, be humble, and act with integrity. In essence, the program shows us how to live in accordance with our values. We can achieve a state of grace by striving to do just that.

Today I will put grace into action by approaching life's challenges with integrity and being grateful for the opportunity to do so. Even if I don't fully understand the gift of grace, I will accept it anyway.

All NAWS subscriptions are free. We are able to provide this service due, in part, to the generous contributions of our members. If you are a member, you can make a contribution here: www.na.org/contribute

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19737 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311

Copyright © 2025 by Narcotics

10/30/2025

30 October

Courage

Page 316

"Our newly found faith serves as a firm foundation for courage in the future."

Basic Text, p. 96

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Narcotics Anonymous is no place for the faint of heart! Facing life on life's terms without the use of drugs isn't always easy. Recovery requires more than hard work; it requires a liberal dose of courage.

What is courage, anyway? A quick look at a dictionary will tell us. We have courage when we face and deal with anything that we think of as difficult, dangerous, or painful, rather than withdrawing from it. Courage means being brave; having a purpose; having spirit. So what is courage, really? Courage is an attitude, one of perseverance.

That's what an addict in recovery really needs--perseverance. We make that commitment to stick with our program, to avoid using, no matter what happens. A courageous addict is one who doesn't use, one day at a time, no matter what. And what gives us courage? A relationship with a Higher Power gives us the strength and the courage to stay clean. We know that, so long as we are in our God's care, we will have the power we need to face life on its own terms.

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Just for Today: I have a Higher Power who cares for me, no matter what. Knowing that, I will strive to have an attitude of courage today.

All NAWS subscriptions are free. We are able to provide this service due, in part, to the generous contributions of our members. If you are a member, you can make a contribution here: www.na.org/contribute

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NA World Services, Inc.
19737 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311

10/29/2025

29 October

Integrity through Personal Responsibility

Page 312

"Everyone makes mistakes; promptly admitting when we are wrong shows integrity and responsibility for our actions."

Living Clean, Chapter 6, "Work"

Perception is a funny thing. Self-centeredness shapes the way we experience our lives, magnifying our own wants and minimizing our responsibility and accountability. It can be like walking through a carnival funhouse filled with distorted mirrors or echo chambers--our senses deceive us. We have a hard time perceiving reality for what it is, especially when it comes to responsibility for our lives and our actions. Checking our perspective with other addicts helps.

Working the program--especially the daily inventory of Step Ten--helps us make our way through the funhouse of personal responsibility. As we come to terms with our powerlessness and unmanageability, we blame others less for the wreckage of our past. We begin taking personal responsibility. As we take inventory and ask for help letting go of our defects and shortcomings, we lose the need to make excuses for current actions and choices. We take responsibility for making past wrongs right, and we make a practice of checking our perceptions regularly. We shift our senses away from the carnival distortions and get a better perspective on ourselves and our lives. The Steps help us get better and better at being the type of people we can be proud of being.

When we make a wrong turn on our way through the funhouse and find a dead end, it doesn't do us much good to pretend we're not lost. We ask for direction, and we backtrack if we have to. We make mistakes because we are human; we correct them because we have integrity.

My disease distorts my view of myself and the world around me. I will use regular inventory to adjust my skewed perceptions so that I can find my way out of the madhouse of addiction.

10/29/2025

29 October

Living in the now

Page 315

"Living just for today relieves the burden of the past and the fear of the future."

Basic Text, p. 94

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Thoughts of how bad it was--or could be--can consume our hopes for recovery. Fantasies of how wonderful it was--or could be--can divert us from taking action in the real world. That's why, in Narcotics Anonymous, we talk about living and recovering "just for today."

In NA, we know that we can change. We've come to believe that our Higher Power can restore the soundness of our minds and hearts. The wreckage of our past can be dealt with through the steps. By maintaining our recovery, just for today, we can avoid creating problems in the future.

Life in recovery is no fantasy. Daydreams of how great using was or how we can use successfully in the future, delusions of how great things could be, overblown expectations that set us up for disappointment and relapse--all are stripped of their power by the program. We seek God's will, not our own. We seek to serve others, not ourselves. Our self-centeredness and the importance of how great things could or should be for us disappears. In the light of recovery, we perceive the difference between fantasy and reality.

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Just for Today: I am grateful for the principles of recovery and the new reality they've given me.

All NAWS subscriptions are free. We are able to provide this service due, in part, to the generous contributions of our members. If you are a member, you can make a contribution here: www.na.org/contribute

UNSUBSCRIBE to stop receiving all NAWS emails.

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NA World Services, Inc.
19737 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311

Copyright © 2025 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10/28/2025

Daylight saving time ends Sunday in the US | AP News

It's time for most of America to move clocks back on Sunday. Daylight saving time ends in the U.S. at 2 a.m. local time, which means setting your clock back an hour.