Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Today's Gift
Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life. -Wayne Dyer
"This week, I went scuba diving," a man told me. "Hadn't done it for years. I forgot how much doing something I love, even for one afternoon, can change my entire outlook on life."
It's easy to tell ourselves we can't have what we want and can't do what we want. And sometimes, we can't. But once in a while, even for an afternoon, it is helpful to treat yourself.
How long has it been since you did something you loved? Are you willing to be open to what excites and inspires you? If you can't do what you love, can you find passion in what you are doing?
From the book 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact by Melody Beattie
Releasing the past.
Looking back, every one of us can point to moment when we made choices that helped set the course of our lives. It’s easy to waste time and energy wondering what our lives would have been like if other choices had been made at these critical points.
Such thinking is mostly a waste of time and may reflect dissatisfaction with our lives today. Whatever our past mistakes, the decisions we made that brought us sobriety were the correct ones. Realizing this, many of us even come to feel gratitude for the problem that brought us into the program.
We are never able to say with certainty that different choices made earlier in life would have been better in the long run. Bill W., an AA co-founder, said that a business setback moved him to make the calls that led him to Dr. Bob, the other co-founder. Had his business venture succeeded, it’s doubtful that Bill would have been thinking about helping another alcoholic.
The best choice any of us can make is to turn such maters and questions over to our Higher Power. We have a duty to do the best we can with today’s opportunities and conditions.
Although drugs and alcohol are not a part of my life
and I no longer have the compulsion to drink or use, it can still occur to me
what a good drink or hit tastes like and what it can do for me,
from my stand-at-attention alcoholic taste buds
right down to my stretched out tingling toes.
As my sponsor used to point out, such thoughts are like red flags,
telling me that something is not right,
that I am stretched beyond my sober limit.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 396-7
Thought to Ponder . . .
The monkey’s asleep but the circus hasn't left town.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Aware.
Daily Motivation
A life well lived
Pleasure is nice, but it is never enough. Material wealth can be immensely helpful, but brings no fulfillment of its own accord.
Power can give great satisfaction to your ego. Yet a life lived solely in the service of ego ends up being small and pathetic.
What truly makes life good is the commitment you put into making life good. What makes life good is the experience of making a difference.
There is much that’s already been given to you by virtue of your existence, and there is much more that may or may not be given to you. What matters at the core of your spirit, though, is not what you have but what you do with it.
No person, situation, event or possession can give you fulfillment. What brings about real fulfillment is your participation in bringing it about.
Life’s rewards are not what you long for. What you long for is to genuinely earn your own significance.
Every moment is an opportunity to do so. Treasure each of those opportunities, make full use of them, and you will have the priceless experience of a life well lived.
— Ralph Marston
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