The expression of real love is so easy between grandparents and children - and between good friends it passes effortlessly. But why is it so hard to share real love with a spouse or lover? Why, instead, do we want to possess them? And from them, we dream of selfless devotion. Yet neither possession nor devotion guarantees the security we long for.
Real love is not selfish; it frees both the giver and the receiver. Knowing we're loved sustains our hearts and diminishes our difficulties. It doesn't bind us, yet paradoxically it bonds our hearts. These encouragements to grow, to change, to dare to depart if it's for our own good, are expressions of real love. Real love is never ownership, only stewardship of this moment's experiences.
Let's be gentle with one another, and love fully with trust, as a child loves a grandmother.
You are reading from the book:
Life didn't promise to be wonderful. ---Teddy Pendergrass
Life doesn't promise us anything, except a chance. We have a chance to live any way we like. No matter how we choose to live, we'll have pain and we'll have joy. And we can learn from both.
Because of our recovery program, we can have life's biggest wonder---love. We share it in a smile, a touch, a phone call, or a note. We share it with our friends, our partners, our family. Life didn't promise to be wonderful, but it sure is full of little wonders! And we only have to open up and see them, feel them, and let them happen.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see the wonders of life today, in nature, in people's faces, in my own heart.
Action for the Day: I can help make a wonderful things happen for others, with a smile, a greeting, a helping hand. What "little" things will I do for somebody today?
Bill W.'s Miracle
As I see it, the ever-growing, multiplying, and compounding miracle of AA
is that because one man was lonely, afraid, and sick in a strange city,
I need never be alone again in a strange city.
Because he sought out a physician for his own incurable disease
and arrested it by helping to heal the physician, there is great hope for me.
Because one man -- greatly gifted by his Higher Power --
failed to live up to the expectations of the crowd, never scaled the heights
of social, financial, or professional worlds, and never made headlines
or created empires, but chose instead to share his private spiritual awakening
with other sufferers, I have a life to live and share.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2], p. 255
Thought to Ponder . . .
I'm not alone anymore.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
S O B E R = Simply Observe Bill's Enduring Recovery.
Now is new
Now is here, and now is not like any other time that has ever been. For right now, it doesn't matter who is to blame or what has held you back.
This is when you can take positive action. This is when you can step away from the problem and into the solution.
You are now free of past assumptions and connected to limitless possibilities. You are newly arrived in this moment, ready to live with more richness and fulfillment than ever before.
If you could choose to experience some specific positive change in your life right now, what would it be? How would it look, what would it feel like and how would it sound?
If there were one small, easily accessible step that you could take right now to begin making that change happen, what would it be? And what would be a step you could take after that?
Imagine, more vividly than ever before, living true to your most treasured dreams and highest values. Now is new, now is here, and now is when you can.
-- Ralph Marston
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