Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? —Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
We choose the lives we lead. We choose sadness or happiness; success for failure; dread or excited anticipation. Whether or not we are conscious of our choices, we are making them every moment.
Accepting full responsibility for our actions is one of the requirements of maturity. Not always the easiest thing to do, but necessary to our further development. An unexpected benefit of accepting our responsibility is that it heightens our awareness of personal power. Our well being is within our power. Happiness is within our power. Our attitude about any condition, present or future, is within our power, if we take it.
Life is "doing unto us" only what we allow. And it will favor us with whatever we choose. If we look for excitement, we'll find it. We can search out the positive in any experience. All situations present seeds of new understanding, if we are open to them. Our responses to the events around us determine whatever meaning life offers. We are in control of our outlook. And our outlook decides our future.
This day is mine, fully, to delight in - or to dread. The decision is always mine.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey ©
Inventory.
Which is worse: blaming ourselves or others for things that go wrong? A better question might be, Is anyone to blame? We're really better off, in 12 Step living, to begin dropping the idea of placing blame for our thinking altogether. Even is someone's responsibility for a mistake or wrong is fully evident, we get nowhere by pointing the finger at him or her. What often happens, in fact, is that the person becomes defensive... just as we do... And retreats into denial or anger.
Another problem is that placing blame quickly becomes the sticky business of taking another person's inventory. Let's leave such matters to courts and prosecutions and focus instead on solving our own problems.
Now is the time, the only time there is.
And if we are not kind to ourselves right now, we certainly cannot rightfully expect
respect or consideration from others.
We have found we can enjoy sober, every good thing we enjoyed while drinking
-- and many, many more. To do so is not selfish, but self-protective.
Unless we cherish our own recovery, we cannot survive to become unselfish,
ethical, and socially responsible people.
- Living Sober, p. 42
Thought to Ponder . . .
Keep your sobriety first to make it last.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
N O W = No Other Way.
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