There is no greater weakness than stubbornness. If you cannot yield, if you cannot learn that there must be compromise in life - you lose. —Maxwell Maltz
Glass is very hard, but fragile. By contrast, leather is tough and resilient. A blow to a glass dish will break it, but a blow to a shoe will just be absorbed. Our new way of life leads us to avoid the folly of being hard like glass, and we become tougher like leather. We must endure surprises, pressures, and blows from the world as a normal part of life. The more able we are to absorb the blows, the stronger and more whole we are as person.
A friend who has a different opinion from ours can be listened to and his ideas considered. There is no need to compete with him or prove that we are right. When our plan for a project at work gets set aside, we will feel the frustration but we need not come apart over it. Perhaps our Higher Power is leading us to a better plan. Frustrations with spouses or friends can be turned over to our Higher Power. We do not have a rigid recipe for life, and we must be open to more learning.
I will surrender my fragile stubbornness in exchange for the toughness I can learn in compromise.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©
Twenty-Four Hours a Day
We are generally so certain that we know what's best for ourselves. And we are just as often certain that what we think is best will guarantee happiness. Perhaps we should reflect on all the times in the past when our wishes didn't come true--fortunately.
Did any one of us expect to be doing today, what we each are doing? We may have expected children, a particular kind of home, a certain career, but did we really anticipate all that life has wrought? Addiction, and then recovery from it, was probably not in our pictures. But it does fit into the big picture. The happiness we experience today probably doesn't visit us in the way we anticipated a few years back. But it is measured out according to our needs. The choice to be happy with what is, is ours to make, every moment.
Action for the Day: I can take life as it is, and trust that it is just right, just what it needs to be. The big picture guarantees me lasting happiness. Today's experiences will move me a step closer.
Progress
No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence
to these principles. We are not saints.
The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.
The principles we have set down are guides to progress.
We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 60
Thought to Ponder . . .
Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional,
growing spiritually is up to me.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
K I S S = Keeping It Simple, Spiritually.
Positive example
Don’t merely wait or wish or hope for the world to become more positive. The world becomes more positive when you become more positive.
The experience of life in this world is not something that is imposed upon you. Life is precisely and reliably what you choose to make it.
What you cannot control, you can accept, interpret and make use of in a positive and purposeful way. Shine a genuine positive light where you are, and that light will quickly spread beyond you.
Don’t complain about how bad things are. Imagine how good life can be, and then persistently act on what you imagine.
Life is the way you live it. Live it well, with joy, with purpose, with care and commitment and love.
Live according to your highest vision and your most treasured dreams. Be the best positive example for all of life to follow.
— Ralph Marston
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