Wednesday, January 2, 2012
Today's Gift
When you can't stand criticism you learn to be a perfectionist. —Anonymous
It's human to make mistakes and to feel incomplete. Perhaps if we were all smooth plastic printouts we could expect perfection of ourselves. Each person is actually a process. We are not things, but events - happenings - and the events are still unfolding. These are our creative spiritual adventures.
We have somehow learned that openness to criticism is dangerous. Perhaps we thought someone would not like us if we were wrong, or that we would get hurt or belittled. When we live with a relationship to our Higher Power, we can stand up for ourselves. A person has a right to make some mistakes! We grow more if we allow ourselves the leeway of simply being in process.
I will not ask to have the power of perfection. I will only ask that I not be alone in the process of living my life.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men©
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Kepp It Simple
I believe that true identify is found . . . in creative activity springing from within. It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. A person can best re-find theirself by losing themself in some kind of creative activity of their own. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Creative activity might mean bird watching, tennis, quilting, cooking, painting, writing. Creative activity immerses us fully in the here and now, and at the same time it frees us. We become one with the activity and are nourished by it. We grow as the activity grows. We learn who we are in the very process of not thinking about who we are.
Spirituality and creativity are akin. There is an exhilaration rooted deep within us that is a lifeline to our Higher Power. Creative activity releases the exhilaration, and the energy goes through us and out to others. We find ourselves and our higher power through the loss of our self-conscious selves while creating--a picture, a sentence, a special meal.
Action for the Day: Creativity is a given. It is another dimension of the spiritual presence guiding us all. I'll get out of its way today.
Today
And what is time to me now? It is a most precious asset.
I have the luxury of being able to cherish the memory of yesterday,
to live with serenity, to wait for tomorrow.
I find great contentment in just knowing where I was and where I am.
And I am grateful; grateful for the existence of AA;
grateful to my Higher Power for leading me to the doors of AA and to Him/Herself,
grateful for hope.
I am grateful for this minute. My eternity may be in it.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2], p. 21
Thought to Ponder . . .
Give Time time.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Awesome.
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Daily Motivation
Get things done
Today is a day to get things done. Today is a day to make real progress.
Don’t waste your time wishing for what might have been. Get up, get going and make the very best of what now can be.
Don’t get angry or frustrated about the way things are. Get to work and make things the way you would like them to be.
You have an outstanding opportunity right here and now. You can make creative, meaningful and valuable use of your time.
This is your chance to be effective. This is your chance to get out in front of life and to get beyond whatever may have been holding you back.
Stop waiting, stop wishing, stop complaining and start taking positive action. This is a day to get things done, so live it for all it’s worth.
— Ralph Marston
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