Thursday, July 5, 2012
Today's Gift
...you are the artist and your life is your creation. - Miguel Ruiz
You create the images and colors on the canvas called your life. Are you creating the picture you want? Does your canvas convey a life of fulfillment and growth? Or does your canvas convey chaos and despair?
You are the artist; you Higher Power is your co-creator. Together all things are possible. But when we mistakenly believe that other people control our destiny, we end up feeling bitter and hopeless. In truth, we're in partnership with a Higher Power, or whatever you choose to call it. Some people call that power God. We make the initial decisions; our Higher Power carries out our plans. Our Higher Power could not render our lives what they are without our assistance. We are the artists, and ultimately we call the shots.
I invite you to consider a different perspective. This may not be easy to swallow if you are a struggling single parent, someone who has just lost a job, or someone facing other tough circumstances. You're invited to first see whether you played a part in where you are. And the best news you can give yourself is to say yes, because if you played even a small part, there is something you can do to change that canvas of your life. But if you played no part whatsoever, then you may be waiting forever for someone to change the course of your life. And that could be a very long wait.
You're invited to be your artist. And you have at your fingertips all the necessary tools to turn your canvas into a masterpiece.
From the book 52 Weeks of Esteemable Acts by Francine Ward
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Keep It Simple
There are really only two ways to approach life--as victim or as gallant fighter--and you must decide if you want to act or react, deal your own cards or play with a stacked deck. And if you don't decide which way to play with life, it always plays with you. --Merle Shain
Being the victim is, or was, uncomfortably familiar to many of us. Perhaps some of us are only now realizing we have choices, that we need not let life happen to us. Becoming responsible to ourselves, choosing behavior, beliefs, friends, activities, that please us, though unfamiliar at first, soon exhilarates us. The more choices we make, the more alive we feel. The more alive we feel, the healthier our choices.
Our aim is recovery. Recovering means participating fully in our lives. It means self-assessment and self-direction. It means trusting to move forward, step-by-step, choice-by-choice, knowing all the while that no thoughtful action can trouble us.
Action for the Day: Many opportunities to make choices will present themselves today. The choices I make will satisfy me; they will move me toward my goal of recovery.
Reach Out
Isolation creeps up on us.
We can mask it with familiar props that are not in themselves bad.
We can isolate ourselves in an attempt to clean up our apartments
(and then not do the cleaning);
we can isolate ourselves in churches or in sleep; we can use family,
sweethearts, compulsive working, television. The list is long.
Reach out -- people can't read your mind.
Say ouch! Someone hears. Always.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], pp. 84-85
Thought to Ponder . . .
Isolation is a darkroom for developing negatives.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Y A N A = You Are Not Alone.
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Daily Motivation
Changes for the better
If you want the world to be a better place, then work to make it a better place. If you see something as a problem, then take responsibility for implementing a workable solution.
It’s a waste of time to prove how bad things are. Instead, put your thoughts, your passion, your energy and efforts into making things better.
When you find some aspect of life to be frustrating, or unjust, or abusive, don’t complain or assign blame. Come up with a positive alternative.
Life changes in every moment. So use this moment to make some changes for the better.
The future does not have to equal the past. You can choose your future by what you do with what you have right now.
Just because you’re in a difficult situation, doesn’t mean you’re stuck there. Make some changes for the better, and move your life in the direction you choose.
— Ralph Marston
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