*~*^Just For Today!^*~*
Just
like you, I have often thought myself the victim of what other people
say and do. Yet every time I confessed the sins of such people,
especially those whose sins did not correspond exactly with my own, I
found that I only increased the total damage. My own resentment, my
self-pity would often render me well-nigh useless to anybody. So,
nowadays, if anyone talks of me so as to hurt, I first ask myself if
there is any truth at all in what they say. If there is none, I try to
remember that I too have had my periods of speaking bitterly of others;
that hurtful gossip is but a symptom of our remaining emotional illness;
and consequently that I must never be angry at the unreasonableness of
sick people. Under very trying conditions I have had, again and again,
to forgive others - also myself. Have you recently tried this?
Letter, 1946
1967, AAWS, Inc., As Bill Sees It, page
268
*~*^As Bill Sees It^*~*
*~*^Big Book Quote^*~*