It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our Creator - very self-consciousness - also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. —Annie Dillard
Getting outside of ourselves, moving beyond our own egos, opens the door to real communication with the people we'll meet today. We have to learn to look with loving appreciation into the soul of that person or child who stands before us. We have to practice being concerned with their needs before our own, and in time our concern will be genuine. The separation between us will exist no more.
This division from others, the barrier that keeps us apart, comes from our individual insecurities. We have grown accustomed to the quick comparisons of ourselves with those we meet. Either inferior or superior we determine them to be, and thus ourselves. Whatever gifts we have to offer each other are left unwrapped, at least for now.
Let's come together, truly together, with someone we've been holding off until now. We can trust that the people who have come into our lives are there by design. We are equal to them, and they to us. We need what they have to offer us, and their growth needs our gifts, too.
I will appreciate the design of my life today. I will draw myself close to the day.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey©
Living so fully. I can't image what any drug would do for me.---Joan Baez
When we were using alcohol and other drugs, our lives kept getting emptier. We tired to keep new things out of our lives. We were scared and tired. We saw feelings as bad. So we got high instead of feeling them.
Now we can live fully every day. We don't want to block our feelings. We aren't afraid to opening up to new things and people.
In spite of the great increase in the size and the span of this Fellowship,
at its core it remains simple and personal.
Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins
when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic,
sharing experience, strength, and hope.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. xxii
Thought to Ponder . . .
Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O P E = Heart Open; Please Enter.
Taking responsibility
It’s not their fault. It’s your responsibility.
If you’re not moving forward, what’s stopping you is you. That’s very good news, because it means you are in control of your own destiny.
If you continue to blame and complain and procrastinate and make excuses, you’ll continue to be disappointed with the way life unfolds. When you’re ready to stop all that, and when you really do, and when you choose to be responsible for it all, you dramatically change your outlook for the better.
It is difficult and uncomfortable to take full responsibility for your life and your world. The only thing that’s even more difficult is to not take that responsibility, and to live with the unending regret.
Yes, there are many things you cannot control, and most of the difficult challenges are not your fault. Even so, if you wish to create real fulfillment, the way to do so is by taking responsibility anyway.
This is your life, your opportunity, and your universe of beautiful possibilities. Take responsibility for it all, no matter what, and make it into a magnificent and increasingly joyful experience.
— Ralph Marston
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