Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Today's Gift
Communication leads to community - that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing. —Rollo May
We have all thought, "If I tell the innermost things about myself, I will be rejected or put down." Most real communication actually creates the opposite of what we fear. In this program, when we lowered our barriers and let our brothers and sisters know us better, they liked us more and our bonds became stronger. Are we concerned today about an intimate relationship? The way to deepen intimacy is to let ourselves be known. When talking about feelings, we need to emphasize those that make us feel most vulnerable.
The other side of communication is listening. In listening, our task is to hear without judgment and without trying to provide an answer or a cure for every pain. To express ourselves to others, to be fully understood, and to know we are understood will lift our hope and self esteem.
Today, I can make contact with people in my life by revealing my feelings to them and listening to what they are saying.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Walk In Dry Places
The Greatest Thing In The World___Love and Goodwill
In a famous sermon, Henry Drummond described love as a spectrum with nine ingredients. Love is patience, kindness, and generosity; it is humility, courtesy, and unselfishness. Finally, it is also good temper, gentleness, and sincerity. Drummond called love the "greatest thing in the world."
Growth in sobriety includes improvement in all the nine ingredients that make up love. It has been fashionable in recent years to talk and sing about love as something the world needs, and we have an opportunity to practice love when we strengthen the qualities that make us loving people. And if we are uncomfortable with love as a word, we can call it goodwill.
If we are practicing the elements of love or goodwill, we won't have to sing about it or tell people what we're
doing. They will see the change in our own lives and will be attracted by it. Love acts the part, and even people who cannot define love will respond to it. If love is present in our AA activities, it will cover a multitude of sins and will make up for many other shortcomings.
Action for the Day: I'll try to practice the nine ingredients that make up love. Around difficult people, I'll remember that my Higher Power's love is always present with us.
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One Day At A Time
The Lesson
I spent most of my life worrying about myself,
thinking that I was unwanted, that I was unloved.
I've learned since being in AA that the more I worry about me loving you,
and the less I worry about you loving me, the happier I'll be. . .
I have learned that the more I give, the more I will have;
the more I learn to give, the more I learn to live.
- Experience, Strength and Hope, p. 218
Thought to Ponder . . .
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Attitude Adjustment.
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Daily Motivation
Aside from the drama
You have created the stories in your mind that continue to give power to your limitations. And just as you have created those stories, you can let them go.
You have the ability to hold yourself back, and to hide your true power from yourself. And when you choose, you can reveal that great power, allowing yourself to become aware of it, and make full, creative, beneficial use of it.
What you have hidden or ignored, you can even more easily discover and utilize. Instead of struggling around what should or should not have been, awaken to the immense power and joyful possibility of what is.
Fulfillment is your natural state, if only you will let it be. Step easily and peacefully aside from the drama you've invented about what has been or what will be, and experience the positive power that is now.
In whatever you truly appreciate, you will find great value. So choose to appreciate all that is and all that you are.
Are you ready to live at the very highest level? Step completely into now with no judgments or reservations, and let yourself be.
-- Ralph Marston
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