Thoughts Just For Today
 

SO NOW I WILL SAY:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I've learned....That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned....That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned....That money doesn't buy class.


I've learned....That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned....That the Lord didn't do it all in one day: What makes me think I can?

I've learned....That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned....That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned...That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned...That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned....That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned....That there's nothing sweeter than sleeping with your babies and feeling their breath on your cheeks.

I've learned...That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned...That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned...That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned...That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned...That I wish I could have told those I cared about that I love them one more time before they passed away.

I've learned...That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned...That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned...That I can't choose how I feel, but I can choose what I do about it.

I've learned...That when your newly born child holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned...That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned...That it is best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life threatening situation.

I've learned...That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP WEEK TO YOU!!!!!! YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I AM HONORED


Have a Blessed Day and remember, the life you save today might be your own.

Think these came from George Carlin


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The Power of Now - The Daily Guru

My will or divine will?

"It is important not to need what you are calling to you but rather to have a certain detachment about it. Let it be all right if it doesn't come, or if it comes in a different form than what you expect. After you have asked for something, surrender to whatever comes as being appropriate."

-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

"Acceptance says, True, this is my situation at the moment. I'll look unblinkingly at the reality of it. But I'll also open my hands to accept willingly whatever a loving Father sends me."

--Catherine Marshall

"This business of hozho. The way I understand it ... I'll use an example. Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. Spring dried out. No water. The Hopi, or the Christian, maybe the Moslem, they pray for rain. The Navajo has the proper ceremony done to restore himself to harmony with the drought. You see what I mean. The system is designed to recognize what's beyond human power to change, and then to change the human's attitude to be content with the inevitable."

-- in ˜Sacred Clowns" by Tony Hillerman
The power of silence

"Growth takes place in a person by working at a deep inner level in a sustained atmosphere of silence."

-- Dr. Ira Progoff

"Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others... And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude."

-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It's the place of reflection and contemplation, and it's the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way."

-- Angeles Arrien

Power

"There are two kinds of men who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else."

-- Cyrus H. Curtis

"Compassion, caring, teaching, loving, and sharing your gifts, talents, and abilities are the gateways to power."

-- Jamie Sams
Need to let go of control?

"The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order."

-- Henry Miller

Need to let go of control?

"The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order."

-- Henry Miller

Ego believes that it needs to protect us from external dangers. Through control and manipulation, it aims to keep us safe. This need of ego is based in fear.

If we hope to live in love, we must become acquainted with soul. Experiencing soul brings a deep knowing that this is a loving universe. Experiencing soul also builds faith. We learn to trust that we don’t have to run the show. And when we do this, we tap the source of true freedom and joy.

"It is not action or effort that we must surrender; it is self-will, and this is terribly difficult. You must do your best constantly, yet never allow yourself to become involved in whether things work out the way you want."

-- Eknath Easwaran

"True spiritual surrender responsibly opens itself to the unknown."

-- Stephen V. Doughty

Who are you?

Please tell me who you are and what you want. And if you think those are simple questions, keep in mind that most people live their entire lives without arriving at an answer.

-- Gary Zukav

Mysterious and intimidating to contemplate, the human brain is the most complex thing there is and the most difficult task it can undertake is to understand itself.

-- David Noonan

I don't think God cares where we were graduated or what we did for a living. God wants to know who we are. Discovering this is the work of the soul, it is our true life's work.

-- Bernie Siegel

Hope and disappointment

"It's precisely the disappointing stories, which have no proper ending and therefore no proper meaning, that sound true to life."

-- Max Frisch

"Hope is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles."

-- Samuel Smiles

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof."

-- Barbara Kingsolver

Learn to let go

To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.

-- Lao Tzu

When guilt rears its ugly head confront it, discuss it and let it go. The past is over. Forgive yourself and move on.

-- Bernie S. Siegel

What is your body telling you?

There are times when we may fool ourselves. There are times when we can fool others. But we can never fool our body. It is the most sensitive barometer of our inner world.

-- Sherrill Sellman

Instead of frittering away your vibrancy with worry or distraction, realize your mind and body are inextricably united. What calms and tones up one, soothes and improves the other.

-- Marsha Sinetar

"When you are saying that you are happy and you are not, there will be a disturbance in your breathing. Your breathing cannot be natural. It is impossible."

-- Osho

"Your body is the ground and metaphor of your life, the expression of your existence. It is your Bible, your encyclopedia, your life story. Everything that happens to you is stored and reflected in your body. In the marriage of flesh and spirit divorce is impossible."

-- Gabrielle Roth

"If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?"

-- Unknown source

Create happiness right now

"It is our basic right to be a happy person, happy family, and eventually a happy world. That should be our goal."

-- Dalai Lama

" ... we can no longer afford to throw away even one ‘unimportant’ day by not noticing the wonder of it all. We have to be willing to discover and then appreciate the authentic moments of happiness available to all of us every day."

-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Do you engage in violence?

"There are three kinds of violence: one, through our deeds; two, through our words; and three, through our thoughts. ... The root of all violence is in the world of thoughts, and that is why training the mind is so important."

-- Eknath Easwaran

"The ancestor of every destructive action, every destructive decision, is a negative thought."

-- Eknath Easwaran

"We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far."

-- Swami Vivekananda

From my site The Five As, posted in 2010

Because of the abuse in my life, it was hard for me to become vulnerable and let people into my space.

Those little things, inviting people to my home, spending time with someone, be it a meeting, coffee shop, a movie. I had immense walls along with a lot of anger, so it took a long time to remove those bricks. I think I put up glass ones, so people could see, but don't touch.

When You Thought I Wasn't Looking
 

Love this, generally for me it means action. Going on the computer and sharing does it, listening to music, reading (sometimes depends on the material), picking up the phone, going to a meeting, in the past it was taking a nice relaxing bath, but I can't do that these days, because I can't get in and out of the tub, so my shower it is along with a prayer of cleansing and removing any attachments and issues that are not mine to take on.

Going down to the mall, 95% of the time, I see at least 2 or more people I know, at least 2 people in recovery or use to be in recovery, they both can carry a message to me, one of gratitude.

Meditation is the great of all. Spending time alone with my God and finding that White Light within, and being open to what He has to share with me in today.

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M Y E D

Motivate
Yourself
Every
Day !

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

You are reading from the book Today's Gift

Into each life some rain must fall. Some days must be dark and dreary.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Coping with problems and weathering troubled times - is part of life. Those of us who have survived painful experiences have a duty to help younger ones prepare to face bad times by sharing the solutions we found.

When stormy weather comes, we need to feel we are like other people. It's not that misery loves company, but that we don't want to feel we're in this alone.

We will never have perfect living conditions. The only place where every day is a sunny one is in the desert. When pain comes, we can walk through our problems and settle things quickly, rather than prolonging the hurt by battling our way around the obstacles in an effort to avoid them.

What problem can I confront and eliminate today?

Playing the blame game. Pointing finger`s at someone, means that I have three coming back at me. It is important to lower my expectations of others and myself, and raise my level of acceptance.

I was always told, do it right or don`t do it at all, especially if I had fear of failure. If it wasn`t my mom`s way, it wasn`t the right way, and I carried that old take all of my life. It is something my God and I are still working on.

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This is why I say the Third Step Prayer and follow it with the Seven Step Prayer.

Step Three: Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer myself to Thee-to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do thy will always."

It has been my practice to add, "Thy will, not Mine, be done. Amen!"

Seventh Step Prayer: My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.

From Big Book - p. 76

The difference between a demand and a simple request is plain to anyone. The Seventh Step is where we make the change in our attitude which permits us, with humility as our guide, to move out from ourselves toward others and toward God. The whole emphasis of Step Seven is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. If that degree of humility could enable us to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we could possibly have.

I need to get out of the way, so my God can work through me, instead of having to go around me.

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Humility, not humiliation as so many people think it means. It is about saying, "I don't know and being willing to learn." It isn't about feeling shame and failure because you don't know. You can't know what you have never been taught. I have had some great teacher put in my path. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. My thoughts are not original, they came through others, they are what I have been given, and I pass them on with the hope that it will help others as it helped me. It is also my perception and my interruptation of what I heard, so it is my thoughts and my truth. When I do my prayer and meditation, I ask for an open mind, clarity of thought, new perception and awareness.

I was told to obtain true humility, you had to remain teachable. When I think I know it all, I know nothing. I pray that I never get to a stage in my recovery, that I think that I need to teach instead of being open to be taught or given new insight.

Every time a newcomer comes into the rooms of recovery, they teach me: 1) It isn't any better out there. 2) This disease is still cunning, baffling and powerful. 3) That all I have is today, daily reprieve for this 24 hours. 4) That I am only an arms length away from my first drink and that all I have in defense is my spiritual condition. 5) to be grateful, not only saying it but by showing it.

Step Seven says, "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings." When I fall short of who I believe my God would have me be in today, I take things to Him, knowing that of myself, I do not have the power to change. Like when I was drinking, I could stop but I couldn't stay stopped. It was only when I went to AA, that I found that I didn't have to drink, one day at a time.

I no longer have to act out in my disease. I can take those thoughts and actions to my Higher Power. When I go to Him and ask for help, I know that I am empowered to do what I need to do for myself, just for today. I am not the power, I am not the center of my Universe, and I am not the be all, know all, to everyone else and playing God with their life and my own.

Something I posted on another site.

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When I am open to listening for the good orderly direction in my life, then I become aware of those special gifts that are there, that prior to recovery I wouldn't have even noticed, let alone know they were even there for the taking.

Humility for me, is being able to listen to other ideas other than my own. Doesn't mean I will always agree with them, but it is about being open to receiving the message and not shutting down when it comes to something I don't totally believe in.

Humiliation kept me from allowing myself to become vulnerable. Humility allows me to be vulnerable and open to new things.

Thanks for sharing this Jo. I liked the Sober Acronyms. I copied it and printed it out for my Sobriety Notebook. I'm also going to share it with my alcoholic friend in Iowa.

Have had a big spiritual awakening the past week! God keeps bringing me to it, and FINALLY, I woke up and saw the Light go on!

Question:

Why am I here? How come I am in a bachelor apartment? Why haven't I had a phone for nine days and a computer for 10 weeks? Oh woe is me!

Answer:

Because...
You can't say no!
If you shut everyone out and don't make room for them in your space, then they can't come in and try to control and take over YOUR space.
Boyfriends can't get comfortable in your space instead of making space for themselves.
My son can't come home to mother because there is no couch or bed to sleep on.

If you make the space small enough, there is only room for you.

Sounds like my disease talking don't you think?

Wrote this in August 25th, 2005 on another site.

We need to make our homes and personal space safe. I still have problems with my son, thinking that he has a right to whatever is mine, is his, just because it is there. What is mine is his. It is my job as a mother to always be there, whether it is want, need, or just because.

It is a part of his disease. He says I don`t understand him. He doesn`t realize that I can see my disease reflected in him, and I am just grateful that I don`t have to act out in my dis-ease in today.

It isn`t about drinking and drugging in today, it is my emotional sobriety and the stinking thinking behind my addiction.

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Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence. - Vince Lombardi.

Like this. In Al-Anon, it says our primary spiritual aim. As you say, "We can aim for perfection, and often we fall short and beat ourselves up." Perfection isn't a recovery tool, it is part of my disease. Know that our expectations need to be lowered, so our goals are reachable. Good is obtained through my God, it is not my works but His Will be done.

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My drug of choice is more....

More of what you are having, more of what I am having, and more of anything else that comes my way.

Anything that takes me out of self.

Anything that takes me out of the reality of the moment.

Anything that takes away the responsibility of coping with today.

Anything that takes away the feeling of being alone with me.

Anything that takes away my feelings,

Anything that is in front of me.

I am glad that the anything that is in front of me is the program of recovery and the Twelve Steps which allow me to walk this road clean and sober today.

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When I came into recovery, I was told "We don't do this forever. We do it one day at a time." When we project into tomorrow worrying about staying clean and sober, we lose out on today.

When I stay in today, I have one day's feelings, one day's thoughts, one day's denials, one day's events and situations.

If I look at the whole picture, I get overwhelmed. Some days it is simply staying in the moment. I had a sponsor who told me for her it was three seconds because she was prone to seizures.

For me it has been doing what ever it takes to stay clean and sober, just for today. I can't, God (group of drunks) can, and just for today I choose to let Him/Her show me the way to sobriety (soundness of mind).

I think I posted this elsewhere but can`t remember where. Posted on another site in 2009

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Snow Flakes,the kind you don't have to shovel. We had snow flurries today.

Many hours were spent as a child cutting out paper snowflakes and pasting them to the windows to decorate for the holidays.

http://www.papersnowflakes.com/instructions

http://www.highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

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This is the time of year when we think back to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men; Gaspar, Balthazar and Herb, went to see the baby Jesus and, according to the Book of Matthew, "presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of wrapping paper.

If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so: "And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it!
That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. "

But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics: 1. They were wise. 2. They were men.

Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion: This is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I know.

One is Rob, who said the only time he ever wraps a gift is "if it's such a poor gift that I don't want to be there when the person opens it."

The other is Gene, who told me he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than 15 seconds per gift. "No one ever had to wonder which presents daddy wrapped at Christmas," Gene said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."

I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a sector of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this sector with a marking pen.)

If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by Scotch tape.

On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.

My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills like having babies that come more naturally to women than to men. That is why today I am presenting:
GIFT-WRAPPING TIPS FOR MEN:

* Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If, when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognizes it, you can claim that it's myrrh.

* The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. They must be smoking crack.

* If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper! Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning:

YOUR WIFE: Why is there a Hefty trash bag under the tree?
YOU: It's a gift! See? It has a bow!

YOUR WIFE (peering into the trash bag): It's a leaf blower.
YOU: Gas-powered! Five horsepower!

YOUR WIFE: I want a divorce.
YOU: I also got you some myrrh.

In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it. The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt.

--Male Author Unknown (more likely, not among the living any longer)

P.S. Santa didn't wrap gifts either in the good old day. He just placed them under the tree. Ah, but that was Christmas Eve. In today's Walmart world, gifts start appearing under the tree as early as Thanksgiving.

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