Recovery
Meditations: June 17th
VICES AND VIRTUES
"It has been my
experience that folks who
have no vices have
very few virtues."
Abraham Lincoln
In doing a tenth step daily, I am faced with my character
defects -- and yes, even vices. While I may not be compulsively eating, I may
over-indulge in any number of other things like talking, whining, or frenetic
busy-ness. I have been told that in life I must learn to "take my foot off
the gas." I have also been told that I am "too intense" or just
"too much." I guess this means I am not moderate in all things (by a
mile.)
This thought comforts me in all of this: at least I am in
the game. If someone asks for my opinion, he or she will get it ~ straight from
the heart or the hip, as they say. If someone needs a favor, I am apt to be
excessive in performing it. If someone needs a friend, he or she often gets
much more than a casual acquaintance in me. In essence, my being "too much
in general" has its good side -- at least I am not asleep at the wheel. I
am fully engaged in life.
One day at a time...
I will not forget
that my zest for overindulging and overdoing-it-in-general has its counterpart
in my zest for goodness and service. I am alive and kicking. I will not hate
myself for being fully alive.
~ Q
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Each Day a New Beginning
Wisdom never kicks at the iron walls it can't bring down.
—Olive Schreiner
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. Many times - yesterday, last week, today, and even tomorrow - we'll come face-to-face with a seemingly intolerable situation. The compulsion to change the situation, to demand that another person change the situation, is great. What a hard lesson it is, to learn we can change only ourselves! The hidden gift in this lesson is that as our activities change, often the intolerable situations do, too.
Acceptance, after a time, smoothes all the ripples that discourage us. And it softens us. It nurtures wisdom. It attracts joy and love from others. Ironically, we often try to force changes that we think will "loosen" love and lessen struggle. Acceptance can do what our willpower could never accomplish.
As we grow in wisdom, as we grow in understanding, as we realize the promises of this program, we'll stand ready, as women, to weather all our personal storms. Like the willow in the wind, we'll bend rather than break. And we'll be able to help our sisters become wise through our example.
My lessons are not easy. But they will ease my way. Better days begin, today.
—Olive Schreiner
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. Many times - yesterday, last week, today, and even tomorrow - we'll come face-to-face with a seemingly intolerable situation. The compulsion to change the situation, to demand that another person change the situation, is great. What a hard lesson it is, to learn we can change only ourselves! The hidden gift in this lesson is that as our activities change, often the intolerable situations do, too.
Acceptance, after a time, smoothes all the ripples that discourage us. And it softens us. It nurtures wisdom. It attracts joy and love from others. Ironically, we often try to force changes that we think will "loosen" love and lessen struggle. Acceptance can do what our willpower could never accomplish.
As we grow in wisdom, as we grow in understanding, as we realize the promises of this program, we'll stand ready, as women, to weather all our personal storms. Like the willow in the wind, we'll bend rather than break. And we'll be able to help our sisters become wise through our example.
My lessons are not easy. But they will ease my way. Better days begin, today.
From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey
© 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.
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Food for Thought
Conflicts
To be alive is to have conflicts. We find ourselves in disagreement with other people and in conflict with ourselves. Often, the things we want seem mutually exclusive, such as more money and more free time, more food and fewer pounds.
Our Higher Power does not promise us freedom from conflict, at any rate, not in this life. Like all growing organisms, we struggle with opposing forces. Frequently, our overeating is an attempt to escape the conflicts, which we should be facing. Sometimes we need to be more self-assertive with those around us instead of futilely trying to suppress justifiable indignation with food. There are times when we need to fight for our legitimate requirements.
We cannot always resolve our internal conflicts without a long and difficult battle. Time and maturity are often necessary before a problem is seen in its proper perspective. Some problems we may expect to wrestle with as long as we live. Having faith in the light, even when we cannot see it, makes our darkness bearable.
Lighten our darkness, Lord.
To be alive is to have conflicts. We find ourselves in disagreement with other people and in conflict with ourselves. Often, the things we want seem mutually exclusive, such as more money and more free time, more food and fewer pounds.
Our Higher Power does not promise us freedom from conflict, at any rate, not in this life. Like all growing organisms, we struggle with opposing forces. Frequently, our overeating is an attempt to escape the conflicts, which we should be facing. Sometimes we need to be more self-assertive with those around us instead of futilely trying to suppress justifiable indignation with food. There are times when we need to fight for our legitimate requirements.
We cannot always resolve our internal conflicts without a long and difficult battle. Time and maturity are often necessary before a problem is seen in its proper perspective. Some problems we may expect to wrestle with as long as we live. Having faith in the light, even when we cannot see it, makes our darkness bearable.
Lighten our darkness, Lord.
From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L.
©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation
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The Language of Letting Go
Surrender
Master the lessons of your present circumstances.
We do not move forward by resisting what is undesirable in our life today. We move forward, we grow, we change by acceptance.
Avoidance is not the key; surrender opens the door.
Listen to this truth: We are each in our present circumstances for a reason. There is a lesson, a valuable lesson that must be learned before we can move forward.
Something important is being worked out in us, and in those around us. We may not be able to identify it today; but we can know that it is important. We can know it is good.
Overcome not by force, overcome by surrender. The battle is fought, and won, inside ourselves. We must go through it until we learn, until we accept, until we become grateful, until we are set free.
Today, I will be open to the lessons of my present circumstances. I do not have to label, know, or understand what I'm learning; I will see clearly in time. For today, trust and gratitude are sufficient.
Master the lessons of your present circumstances.
We do not move forward by resisting what is undesirable in our life today. We move forward, we grow, we change by acceptance.
Avoidance is not the key; surrender opens the door.
Listen to this truth: We are each in our present circumstances for a reason. There is a lesson, a valuable lesson that must be learned before we can move forward.
Something important is being worked out in us, and in those around us. We may not be able to identify it today; but we can know that it is important. We can know it is good.
Overcome not by force, overcome by surrender. The battle is fought, and won, inside ourselves. We must go through it until we learn, until we accept, until we become grateful, until we are set free.
Today, I will be open to the lessons of my present circumstances. I do not have to label, know, or understand what I'm learning; I will see clearly in time. For today, trust and gratitude are sufficient.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie
©1990, Hazelden Foundation
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Today's thought from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
The greatest gift we can give another person is the gift of ourselves.
When we can share our deepest convictions and failures, our ideals and disillusionments, our hopes and frustrations, our dreams and despairs, our answers and our questions – then we are loving our neighbors as ourselves as well as "loving our enemies."
A friend put it this way, "If I share the whole of me with you, I share the good as well as the bad. I don't hide anything of myself from you, not in a deep friendship, or a deep marriage for that matter. By sharing some things I hate about myself, I'm loving my inside enemy. I'm telling you I'm still human and have a lot of growing to do. I'd love to tell you about all my good points, it would make me feel a lot better, but it wouldn't be sharing all of me with you."
TODAY I will concentrate on sharing my insides and outsides with another; I will listen to myself as I talk. I will not be satisfied if I sit on my laurels or wallow in my woes. I will improve myself by becoming aware of how I communicate to others.
The greatest gift we can give another person is the gift of ourselves.
When we can share our deepest convictions and failures, our ideals and disillusionments, our hopes and frustrations, our dreams and despairs, our answers and our questions – then we are loving our neighbors as ourselves as well as "loving our enemies."
A friend put it this way, "If I share the whole of me with you, I share the good as well as the bad. I don't hide anything of myself from you, not in a deep friendship, or a deep marriage for that matter. By sharing some things I hate about myself, I'm loving my inside enemy. I'm telling you I'm still human and have a lot of growing to do. I'd love to tell you about all my good points, it would make me feel a lot better, but it wouldn't be sharing all of me with you."
TODAY I will concentrate on sharing my insides and outsides with another; I will listen to myself as I talk. I will not be satisfied if I sit on my laurels or wallow in my woes. I will improve myself by becoming aware of how I communicate to others.
You are reading from the book:
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