You
are reading from the book Today's Gift.
What is moral is what you feel good after. --Ernest Hemingway
Each of us has a little voice inside us that tells us what is good and
what is bad. For instance, if our friends are making fun of someone who
is different than we are, how do we feel if we join in the laughter? Do
we feel more comfortable if we refuse to join in, or if we tell them
their jokes are not funny?
As we grow, we learn more and more to trust the inner voice. Sometimes,
in times of dark confusion, we have to listen very hard, but it is
there to guide us. It is a beacon showing us the way out of the
darkness of uncertainty. It is our guide to goodness.
Will I have the courage to listen to my inner voice today?
You are reading from the book Touchstones.
If you can't fight and you can't flee, flow. --Robert Eliot
Too often, we men have lived with a single answer to every situation:
win. We saw our friendships in competitive terms, so we couldn't let
our guard down. We looked at life as a challenge to be conquered rather
than something to be enjoyed. Therefore, our first impulse was to fight
and come out a winner. Many of us have played life like a game with
only winners and losers, and we have neglected the deeper meaning in
our experiences. Living that way, many of us have felt
like losers.
We all experience moments when a situation is much more powerful than
we are. Those moments feel like defeat unless we allow them to open a
whole new viewpoint on our lives. When we can flow with a situation,
which will have its own way anyhow, we have become more mature men. We
can breathe a sigh of relief because much of the tension in our lives
is reduced when we stop trying to conquer every moment and instead
simply flow with it.
Today, I will practice playing a new game of flowing and thereby deepen
my awareness of life.
You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
Difficulties, opposition, criticism--these things are meant to be
overcome, and there is a special joy in facing them and in coming out
on top. It is only when there is nothing but praise that life loses its
charm, and I begin to wonder what I should do about it. --Vijaya
Lakshmi Pandit
To be alive means to experience difficulties, conflicts, challenges
from many directions. What we do with adverse conditions both
determines and is determined by who we are. Resistance, most of us have
learned, heightens the adversity. Acceptance of the condition, trusting
all the while the lesson it offers us is for our benefit, ensures that
we'll "come out on top."
Difficulties are opportunities for advancement, for increased
self-awareness, for self-fulfillment. So often we hear and remind one
another, that we grow through pain. We can face any situation knowing
we have the strength of the program to shore us up. Strangely, we need
challenges in order to grow; without growth we wither. Happiness is the
bounty for facing the momentarily unhappy conditions.
Any difficulty I meet today offers me a chance for even greater
happiness; it guarantees my growth.
You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Taking Risks
Take a risk. Take a chance.
We do not have to indulge in obviously foolhardy or self-defeating
risks, but we can allow ourselves to take positive risks in recovery.
We cannot afford to keep ourselves paralyzed.
We do not have to keep ourselves stymied and trapped out of fear of
making a mistake or failing. Naturally, we will make mistakes and fail
from time to time. That's part of being fully alive. There are no
guarantees. If we are waiting for guaranteed courses of action, we may
spend much of our life waiting.
We do not have to shame ourselves or accept shame from anyone else,
even those in recovery, for making mistakes. The goal of recovery is
not to live life perfectly. The goal of recovery is to live, learn our
lessons, and make overall progress.
Take a risk. Do not always wait for a guarantee. We don't have to
listen to I told you so. Dust yourself off after a mistake, and then
move on to the success.
God, help me begin to take healthy risks. Help me let go of my fear of
failure, and help me let go of my fear of success. Help me let go of my
fear of fully living my life, and help me start experiencing all parts
of this journey.
It is exciting to know that the more I listen to the chattering that
goes on in my mind,
the quicker I can identify the blocks to my positive and creative
energy. Today I release all negativity so that I can be fully alive in
the moment. --Ruth Fishel