Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Today's Gift
Sometimes I think I'm the luckiest person in the world. There's nothing better than having work you really care about. Sometimes I think my greatest problem is lack of confidence. I'm scared, and I think that's healthy. —Jane Fonda
We each vacillate between feeling confident on some days, lucky on others, and yet frequently scared on others. It's very human to vacillate. We need not be anxious because our emotions refuse to stand still.
Changing emotions are part of the process of normal living. And changing emotions reflect an involvement with the moment. Situations do touch us, as they should. They do invite responses, as they should. And our responses will reveal our emotional involvement, as they should. We can cherish the variety of our emotions. They enrich us. But they may also create problems, if they go unchecked.
We need to maintain a balance. Confidence, certainly desirable, can become overconfidence and thus complacency. Confidence needs humility to temper it. Fear makes us cautious, and that's good; but too much can immobilize us. Being in charge of our emotions makes them work for us.
Emotions can energize me and keep me involved with the moment. They can also control me. It's my decision to be in charge.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey ©
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Keep It Simple
It is often easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them---Adlai Stevenson
It easy to talk about our values. But when the clerk at the store gives extra change my mistake, those values get put to the test. It feels good to read about spirituality in a comfortable chair at home. But when we get stuck in a traffic jam, it’s hard to live by our values. That’s why practicing our program daily helps. Practice prepares us for the tough times.
Maybe we’ll feel like drinking or using other drugs once a year. Maybe we’ll only get the wrong amount of change once a year. But if we live our values daily, we’ll be ready when the hard times come. Remember: “It’s not enough to talk the talk. You have to walk the walk.”
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me live this program each day. Help me “walk the walk.”
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll do a Step Ten, Taking an inventory tells me if I’m living up to my values.
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One Day At A Time
Unity
We know that AA must continue to live,
or else many of us and many of our fellow alcoholics throughout the world
will surely resume the hopeless journey to oblivion. That must never be.
As though by some deep and compelling instinct,
we have thus far avoided serious controversies.
Save minor and healthy growing pains, we are at peace among ourselves. . .
May God grant us the wisdom and fortitude ever to sustain an unbreakable unity.
- The Language of the Heart, p. 90
Thought to Ponder . . .
There is no strength without unity.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
U S = United Spirits.
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Daily Motivation
Living inspiration
Certainly you can inspire others with your words. Yet you can inspire other people even more with the way you live.
By skillfully arguing and presenting your beliefs, you can convince others to consider adopting those beliefs.
Yet you can express those beliefs even more convincingly by consistently applying them to your life.
With what you say, you can get some attention. With what you do, again and again, you can build real and lasting credibility.
If you wish to lift others up, the first step is to bring your own life to a higher level. Then you can bring along as many other people as you wish.
It's not selfish to follow your own authentic dreams and to create a life for yourself that's the best you can imagine. For in doing so, you also create outstanding opportunities along the way to be of real, meaningful service to others.
Your life has unique and immense value. Share that value far and wide by living your dreams and making your life a true inspiration.
-- Ralph Marston
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