Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Today's Gift
Each day comes bearing its gifts. Untie the ribbons. —Ann Ruth Schabacker
Today will be filled with surprises, big ones and small ones, like the gifts at a birthday party. Maybe we'll see a friend we haven't seen for a while. Or we'll find something we thought was lost. Whatever happens today will be special, and is meant to help us grow in just the right way.
Growing up doesn't always feel easy. We're expected to be more responsible and thoughtful of others. We're expected to be honest about our feelings and needs. If we're angry or scared, we need to tell someone. Sharing our secret about being afraid relieves us of the fear, and we feel lighter, happier, like after opening a special gift.
When I receive today's gifts, will I stop to appreciate them?
From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©
Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is broken winged bird that cannot fly.
--Langston Hughes
Many of our dreams died as our addiction got worse. We felt the loss but couldn't speak it. With recovery, we regain our ability to dream. Dreams of sharing our lives with family and friends return. They push out thoughts of getting high. Dreams of pride and self-respect reappear. They replace the awful feeling of shame. Like the quote above says, "Hold fast to dreams...." Our dreams are our wishes for the future.
They hold a picture of who we want to be. In our dreams, we let our spirits soar. Often, we felt close to our Higher Power, others and ourselves. Thank God, we can dream again.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks to you, my wings have been mended. Guide me as I fly.
Step Two is the rallying point for all of us.
Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand together on this Step.
True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith,
and every AA meeting is an assurance that our Higher Power will restore us to sanity
if we rightly relate ourselves to Them.
- As Bill Sees It, p. 13
Thought to Ponder . . .
I sit at a meeting until the bus of sanity comes by; then, I climb aboard.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.
Daily Motivation
Figure it out
Life can be complicated, frustrating, unfair and highly arbitrary, and that can make it extremely difficult to know what’s best to do. Yet you have the ability, and the opportunity, to figure it out.
Plenty of people will be happy to give you advice, and much of that advice can be quite valuable. No one, however, can consider that advice from your unique perspective and apply it to your life as well as you can.
If you always depend on someone else to tell you what to do, your life will be long on resentment and frustration, and short on fulfillment. To enjoy real success and achievement, you must spend the time and effort to figure it out for yourself.
It is a serious, essential responsibility, and if you choose to see it as a burden, it will be. Yet you can just as realistically choose to see it as an opportunity, for it is truly a powerful and amazing one.
The fact is, you are fully capable of taking the initiative and figuring out the strategic direction for your work and your life. Though you never have to go it alone, you must have your very own clear and unambiguous sense of direction to which you’re fully committed.
This is your life to live and your chance to create outstanding, meaningful and delightful value. Figure out what will move your own world forward, and find real joy and fulfillment in making it happen.
— Ralph Marston
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