Thursday, June 20, 2019
Today's Gift
The trouble is not that we are never happy—it is that happiness is so episodical. ~Ruth Benedict
Happiness is our birthright. The decision to be happy is ours to make, every day, when confronted with any experience. Too many of us grew up believing that life needed to be a certain way for us to be happy. We looked for the right lover, the right job, and the right dress. We looked outside of ourselves for the key to happiness. In time, we even looked to alcohol, drugs, and food perhaps—to no avail.
Happiness lies within. We must encourage it to spring forth. But first we need to believe that happiness is fully within our power. We must trust that the most difficult circumstances won't keep it from us when we have learned to tap the source within.
Life is a gift we are granted moment-by-moment. Let us be in awe of the wonder of it, and then revel in it. We can marvel at creation for a moment and realize how special we are to be participants. Happiness will overcome us if we let it. We can best show our gratitude for the wonder of this gift by smiling within and without.
That I am here is a wonderful mystery to which joy is the natural response. It is no accident that I am here.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey ©
From: Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation - Thought for the Day http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/recovery/thought-for-the-day
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Keep It Simple
A whole world can be seen through even the smallest window. Knowing this can help us slow down and enjoy everyday events. We can listen to the regular rhythms of letter carriers and school children, dogs and delivery trucks, city buses and song birds playing out a piece of their daily lives outside the window.
We can greet the letter carrier who comes up the walk, feed the robin who lands on the sill, wave to the kids who've found a shortcut through our backyards on their way home from school.
It is not necessary, today, for us to fill our lives with important meetings, gala parties, expensive treats, toys, or outings to be happy. There is a whole world to be discovered just outside the nearest window.
Action for the Day: I will sit quietly and look to see what worlds lie on the other side of my window today.
From: Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums Daily Recovery Readings - http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2
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One Day At A Time
More Action
If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to
sense the flow of Spirit into us. To some extent we have
become Spiritually-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital
sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action,) p. 85
Thought to Ponder
Faith is mighty. Action with faith is mightier.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A B C = Action, Belief, Continue
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Daily Motivation
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
by Ralph Marston
The expectation that only certain things can make you happy will continue to keep happiness out of your reach. Putting conditions on happiness serves only to prevent it from happening.
The assumption that conditions must improve before you can be happy is precisely backwards. For when you can truly be happy with who you are and with what you’re doing, conditions cannot help but improve.
If you feel that you could never be happy with things the way they are, you’re absolutely right. So choose to be happy, and things will no longer be the way they are -- they’ll immediately start to get better.
Once you truly choose to be happy, then your thoughts and actions will reflect that choice. You’ll be moving in the direction of your most treasured values and desires, rather than holding yourself back from them.
But isn’t it naive or unrealistic or simplistic or disrespectful to choose happiness when the world is so filled with difficult and dangerous challenges? Not at all, because by choosing to be genuinely happy with yourself you’re also choosing to be the best, the strongest, the most effective person you can be.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
The expectation that only certain things can make you happy will continue to keep happiness out of your reach. Putting conditions on happiness serves only to prevent it from happening.
The assumption that conditions must improve before you can be happy is precisely backwards. For when you can truly be happy with who you are and with what you’re doing, conditions cannot help but improve.
If you feel that you could never be happy with things the way they are, you’re absolutely right. So choose to be happy, and things will no longer be the way they are -- they’ll immediately start to get better.
Once you truly choose to be happy, then your thoughts and actions will reflect that choice. You’ll be moving in the direction of your most treasured values and desires, rather than holding yourself back from them.
But isn’t it naive or unrealistic or simplistic or disrespectful to choose happiness when the world is so filled with difficult and dangerous challenges? Not at all, because by choosing to be genuinely happy with yourself you’re also choosing to be the best, the strongest, the most effective person you can be.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
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