Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world. ~ Mary WollstonecraftDo you feel obliged to struggle with the world? Why would someone need to grapple with our planet? to wrestle all we know? Or is the need to redefine our juxtaposition with attitudes and needs we attribute to our kind?
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. (Alcoholics Anonymous Step 12)The chapter is, "How It Works" and as far as spreading the message Step Twelve is essentially our commission. In Christianity, the Great Commission is the instruction of the resurrected Christ to his disciples to spread his teachings to all the nations. Our Twelfth Step work may be the good commission, for the process leads toward finding not only physical Recovery but Spiritual as well, and surely there's a parallel between the commissions, and we need to bring the spiritual awakening so surely we are commissioned.
Helping someone else at the very time we feel unbalanced mysteriously guides us back to our own center. It’s almost as though our Higher Power is reaching us through the words we share with someone who is struggling. The result is clarity for both of us. ~ Casey, Karen. A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance (Hazelden Meditations Book 1) . Hazelden Publishing. Kindle EditionAs I teach you what I've heard, what I understood at some time in Recovery, I'm hearing me say what I need to hear. And God leads me to say these things I know/knew and believe/believed, so that both of us hear exactly what we need! Thanks, God!
Teachers may come our way, but they will not rescue. They will teach. People who care will come, but they will not rescue. They will care. Help will come, but help is not rescuing. We are our own rescuers. ~ Beattie, Melody. The Language of Letting Go: Hazelden Meditation Series (p. 329). Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.I'm older than most people I know. Before. I could look to parents, teachers, employers, supervisors... hoping they would rescue me. Now I more often look to my children. I know I more often need knowledge, suggestions, ideas, a listening ear. I don't need to be rescued. I may turn down advice. If it's not the course I want to take, I'll ignore it most likely. I am my own rescuer, but God will lead me when I allow it. He's there when I finally give up accepting the right answers I ignored!
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. ~Hebrews 2:11 (NIV) We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain’s table. Unlike the feelings of the ship’s passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.~Alcoholics Anonymous, Page 17Powerful cement, brothers bound, family forged, made holy — outside in, inside out — holiness from horrible, friends and family from fiends and foes. Peril perishes, a coterie congeals. Unashamed of ghastly pasts we revel in wretchedness remembered, made powerful cement. Hallelujah for the disease, the dis-ease, that propelled me to your loving arms and my fellows hurled here, too.
Helping someone else at the very time we feel unbalanced mysteriously guides us back to our own center. It’s almost as though our Higher Power is reaching us through the words we share with someone who is struggling. The result is clarity for both of us. ~ Casey, Karen. A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance (Hazelden Meditations Book 1) . Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.As I teach you what I've heard, what I understood at some time in Recovery, I'm hearing me say what I need to hear. And God leads me to say these things I know/knew and believe/believed, so that both of us hear exactly what we need! Thanks, God!
Buddha trod the path of self-indulgence when he lived as Gautama, a prince in a luxurious castle. Then he renounced his royal riches and became an ascetic, spending years fasting and mortifying his flesh. Finally a woman took pity on Gautama and gave him a bowl of rice. The moment he accepted, he became the enlightened Buddha. He discovered what he called “the middle path.” He ceased to focus on the body and became absorbed in the spirit. Waging war on your body only glorifies it. “Do not fight yourself” (T-30.I.1:7). Beating yourself up physically or emotionally saps love from the world. Treating yourself gently, gracefully, and respectfully brings more light to humanity. ~ Cohen, Alan. A Course in Miracles Made Easy (p. 75). Hay House. Kindle Edition.Buddha ceased to focus on the body and became absorbed in the spirit. Waging war on your body only glorifies it. “Do not fight yourself” Don't sap love from the world by guilt, but bring light to the world... and yourself in it by treating yourself gently, gracefully, and respectfully bringing more light to humanity.
Negative energy can have a powerful pull on us, especially if we’re struggling to maintain positive energy and balance. It may seem that others who exude negative energy would like to pull us into the darkness with them. We do not have to go. Without judgment, we can decide it’s okay to walk away, okay to protect ourselves. ~ Beattie, Melody. The Language of Letting Go: Hazelden Meditation Series (p. 114). Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.Do you know folks who exude negative energy? Do you live in a stranglehold of lethargy? Who would cultivate negativity? Those who disdain productivity? Are you struggling to maintain a stability? Do you prefer a household filled with civility? Can you see it as a possibility? If you can, you can change it to a probability and transform the household into one of compatibility.
