Thursday, October 3, 2019
Today's Gift
Life without idealism is empty indeed. We must have hope or starve to death. —Pearl Buck
Our ideals, the principles that order our lives, are essential to a healing life. Some of us have lived a pattern in which we did not know what we believed. If someone we liked stated a viewpoint, we might wear it for a while like a new shirt - but with no personal commitment. Others of us have indulged in negativism and hopelessness. Life is more fulfilling when we assert our beliefs and give ourselves to them. As human beings, we are unable to perfectly live out our beliefs, but we become a whole person by giving our energies to the attempt.
Is beauty in music, art, and nature a worthwhile ideal for us? Are fairness and justice for all people what we value? Are love and brotherhood ideals we hold dear? When we dare assert these values in our lives, they are life giving to us. They mature us. Reaching for what is worthwhile, rather than cursing what is not, gives us a design for making all our choices, and we have hope.
I will dare to meet my negativism with my ideals. My spiritual health will give me life.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©
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
We so often long to be understood. We imagine it would cure our loneliness and empty feelings. We think of it as a kind of intimacy. Yet, we may be longing for a false goal. We are each a unique man on an incomplete journey. We don't yet fully understand ourselves. There is still much mystery beneath the surface of our being. If our partners or friends completely understood us, where would we go from there? We would no longer belong to ourselves.
Perhaps we are completely understood by our Higher Power but not by another person. It is a fact of life that we continue to grow and to reveal deeper layers of ourselves. We have relationships in which we can share the mysteries as they unfold. We can talk and be understood. In communication we find our closeness and intimacy.
Action for the Day: Today, I will remember that at the deepest level no one can fully understand me. I will communicate with others to deal with my loneliness.
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 experienced people, of course, in all times and
places have practiced unsparing self-survey and criticism.
For the wise have always known that no one can make
much of their life until self-searching becomes a regular habit,
until they are able to admit and accept what they find, and until
they patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) p. 88
Thought to Ponder
I can’t fix something if I don’t know what’s wrong.
AA-related 'Alconym'
A G O = Another Growth Opportunity
From: AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) http://www.aa-alive.net/index.html
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Daily Motivation
Excerpt of The Daily Motivator
Mistakes
By Ralph Marston
Holding firm to a position is admirable, until it becomes clear that the position is wrong. Those who can admit that they were wrong are able to move forward. Those who stubbornly claim they are right, in the face of clear evidence to the contrary, become stuck in the quagmire of their own pride. To achieve excellence you must be willing and able to admit your mistakes and to change your opinions.
Mistakes are damaging enough on their own. There’s no need to compound the damage by holding on to them. The best thing you can do with a mistake is to admit it and learn from it. The worst thing you can do is defend it and continue it.
Mistakes can be great teachers. Mistakes are inevitable. When you attempt to achieve anything ambitious, you are certain to make some wrong turns. Yet even those wrong turns can move you forward if you have the courage and humility to admit you made them and then turn back from them.
Whenever you’re making progress, you’re also making some mistakes. Spot them, admit them, learn from them, make a course correction and then move yourself ahead faster than ever before.
From The Daily Motivator website at http://greatday.com/
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