Friday, June 3, 2011
Today's Gift
Don't miss out on today's learning experiences.
They won't come again. We will never have another day exactly like today, so let's take advantage of the lessons we're offered.
We don't like to make mistakes, and we don't like to be in situations that are fraught with stress, but mistakes and distress seem to go along with being human and alive. Both can be turned into sound learning experiences.
We don't learn if we try to deny or ignore the situation we don't like or don't handle well. How much better if we can accept the difficulty, see how we have contributed to it, and arrive at a positive course of action. And how often it helps to talk about the problem with someone else instead of pridefully insisting on muddling through alone. Very likely, we will discover that today's richest learning experiences are those we share with others.
I will accept the lessons today offers and share them with someone else so that we both can grow.
You are reading from the book:
Inner Harvest by Elisabeth L.
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
Walk in Dry Places
Assisting others
Self-help or Mutual Aid?
The Twelve step movement is sometimes called a self-help program. This falls short of describing what it really is. Mutual Aid might be a better term.
Self-help implies that an individual will help himself or herself. Mutual aid is a much different sort of thing. With mutual aid, we do help ourselves, but we hve found that the best way to do this is by helping each other.
Self-help says, "I can do it," where as mutual aid says... "WE can do it."
We should not dismiss the idea of self-help or of doing one's best in achieving self-improvement. We must know, however, that we need the assistance and loving help of others for our highest growth. There are times when we will feel helpless and alone. That's when mutal aid will carry the day for us and perhaps even save our lives.
Action for the Day: I'll realize today that I have a bond with others and that I can achieve my highest good only in mutual service with them.
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One Day At A Time
Honesty
I always thought honesty had something to do with telling other people the truth.
Dr. Silkworth explained that it had to do first with telling myself the truth.
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.
-- Experience, Strength and Hope, p.218
Thought to Ponder . . .
Honesty isn't an event -- it's a process.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Openmindedness, Willingness.
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Daily Motivation
Woven together
A strong, thick rope is not made of one solid strand of material. It is composed of dozens, or hundreds, or even thousands of small threads, all woven together in the same direction.
It is so easy to break a small thread that you might consider it to be insignificant. Yet if there were no small threads, there would be nothing with which to construct the strong, thick rope.
In the same way, every great achievement is made from dozens, or hundreds, or perhaps tens of thousands of smaller efforts, all woven together in the same direction. Though each effort may seem so trivial as to not be worth the effort, it is actually an essential component of the overall achievement.
In this very moment is your opportunity to make a small effort. Make use of the opportunity, and the next one, and the next.
When you do, you soon will have woven together something of great value, something strong and useful. You will have something big and impressive to show for all those small, focused efforts.
No effort is too small to matter. In every moment, and in every situation, you can move surely and steadily ahead.
— Ralph Marston
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