All I Have to Do Is Be Me

Today I can risk being myself. I don’t have to live up to anyone’s image. All I have to do is be me. ~ Family Groups, Al-Anon. Courage to Change—One Day at a Time in Al‑Anon II. Al-Anon Family Groups. Kindle Edition.

Funny that it never occurred to us before, but our entire identity was wrapped in our need to be right, to be in control. Can we really part with that need? ~ Casey, Karen. Daily Meditations for Practicing The Course. Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Can you risk being yourself?
Are you trying to be what’s expected?
Are the expectations yours?
Your parents’…parents gone these last thirty years?
Are you wrapped up in the need to be right?
to be in control? Can you set aside

that need to be right, to be in control?
Can you accept the fact
that all you gave to be is to be you?
Take the risk. Accept the truth,
repeat after me,
“All I have to do is be me!”

Being Unsettled the Source of Help

This old age ought not to creep on a human mind. In nature every moment is new; the past is always swallowed and forgotten; the coming only is sacred. Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit. No love can be bound by oath or covenant to secure it against a higher love. No truth so sublime but it may be trivial to-morrow in the light of new thoughts. People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series

Every moment is new,
even as we grow old,
but the myriad new moments
keep life fresh when retirement
and slowing down may mean
the four walls are usually the same ones.
The bonus offered by the new, the different,
brings new possibilities like
dealing with problems, adjusting as needed
finding the thoughts differ and no longer
necessarily send me to the refrigerator,
but I can learn to change, to head to
my Higher Power instead of old survival tactics.
Only as long as we are unsettled
is there any hope for finding positive solutions,
moving toward hope and Recovery!

Their Purpose Served

I say thank you and goodbye to each pound I lose because they served their purpose but they are no longer needed. I don’t need to use food to find happiness or for punishment, that was the old me. ~ Lori B

Food had its purpose.
For some of us it served us well,
providing a source of comfort,
a means of escape. Some stress
we ate to escape could be in our lives today.
But whether we used food for comfort
or to punish ourselves, we’ve learned a better way.
Today we can say goodbye to pounds
we never had to add or to surrender
and live in gratitude for all we have
as well as what we can release.
May your Thanksgiving find your heart
abounding in gratitude!

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Happiness Is a Twin

All who joy would win Must share it. Happiness was born a twin. ~ Lord Byron

Step Twelve is all about giving away
the Recovery you find. “Having had
a spiritual awakening
as the result of these Steps,
we tried to carry this message
to compulsive overeaters
and to practice these principles
in all our affairs.”
The story of Bill W worried about paying
his hotel bill, scared of picking up a drink…
or a hundred drinks…
and finding instead Dr. Bob
to tell of finding Recovery…and lifelong joy!
We who would win must find lifelong joy…
by bringing it to others
for happiness was born a twin!

Our Deepest Fear

 Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? ~ Marianne Williamson

What do you do when it falls into place,
when the wild hare idea comes into your mind.
persistent, insistent, declining all efforts
to ignore it? What do you do when it’s scary good?
How do we hold to the comfort
of low expectations, of plowing through embarrassment
and self depredation? Have we developed the confidence
in a Power Greater than us to the point we can accept
our efforts being turned into gold?
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who am I not to be?

Wiser Today

A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. ~ Alexander Pope

Growing up. Growing wiser.
Maturing to add perspective
to analysis of a problem.
Shifting our understanding
of  resources so that we rely
more on a Power greater than ourselves
than our own quiver of tools…
A man should never be ashamed
to own that he has been in the wrong,
which is but saying in other words
that he is wiser today
than he was yesterday.

Concern for Self

I ask a lot of people who come into the program, selfish, self-centered, and messed up with these character defects, “How concerned have you been for your own life for the last couple of years?” We need to learn the wisdom of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”(Matthew 22:39) If you’re not concerned about your own life, you can’t be concerned about your neighbor simply because concern is not there. ~ McQ, Joe. The Steps We Took (p. 87). August House. Kindle Edition.

It’s not wrong to take care of yourself!
We need to love ourselves,
but that’s a far cry from arrogance.
It’s also distinct from Narcissism,
the pursuit of gratification
from vanity or egotistic admiration
of one’s idealized self image and attributes.
If you know a narcissist well,
you want to run from that model.
But Jesus assumed in the two highest commandments
that we love ourselves.
It’s the love inherent in the wisdom,
“God made me and he don’t make no junk.”
It’s the love intrinsic in believing
we were made by God and God is love!
Believing that is a perquisite for
accepting our mission.

The Help of Friends

It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us. ~ Epicurus

Do you have folks available?
Do you call on them much? At all?
Does it matter?
I just filled out a survey which asked
whether I have enough people to help me:
people who would do things
like giving me a ride somewhere,
helping me around the house,
helping me with a project,
lend me money, or
help solve a problem I’m having.
My answer was emphatically yes.
Did I ask for help lately?
A few times, tiny minor things,
like putting a bandaid somewhere I couldn’t.
But the fact I could answer emphatically yes
made it fine.
It is not so much our friends’ help
that helps us
as the confident knowledge
that they will help us!

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Set Your Hopes on Grace

In these times of quiet meditation, try more and more to set your hopes on the grace of God. Know that whatever the future may hold, it will hold more and more of good. ~ Anonymous. Twenty Four Hours A Day: Meditations (p. 167). Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Set your hopes upon grace!
On what are we hoping?
Grace as used in scripture
refers primarily to enabling power
and spiritual healing
offered through mercy and love.
God is the embodiment of grace,
the essence of grace…
or perhaps it feels more appropriate
to say grace is the essence of God.
It doesn’t matter the order.
“Is” in the description
acts as an equal sign.
God = grace, grace = God.
The future is secure either way.

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A Splendid Torch

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. ~  George Bernard Shaw

Let me not settle for being a candle in the dark.
Once I felt the need to hide, wanted obscurity…
Don’t look at me!! God, make me disappear
or at least blend into the twilight!
Now, though, through the transformation
inherent in the Steps and Traditions
I’m claiming my life, surrendered to God,
but with confidence in the two of us
to face the world. No brief candle sufficient,
I’m ready to be a bright torch, a splendid torch, instead.
And I’m ready to burn brightly to guide those joining me
and help them accept the honor of carrying it
to light the path for those who follow them.

Image Copyright : Isaias Ibanez

Speak to the Mountains

Remember, even if you don’t see how things could ever work out, God does. You’ve got to speak to those mountains in your life and declare favor over those situations. Instead of talking to God about how big your problems are, talk to your problems about how big your God is! As you speak to your mountains, they will be moved, and you will move forward into the victory God has prepared for you! ~ Joel Osteen

God knows. God sees how things can work out,
all the ways, and especially the best way, God’s way!
When you are troubled by mountains in your life…
mountainous problems…believe and act on the belief
they are yours, yours and God’s to conquer.
speak to your mountains, they will be moved,
and you will move forward
into the victory God has prepared for you!

Choose Happiness

I have chosen to be happy, it’s good for my health. ~ Voltaire

There’s a Rotary song with which
I grew up trying to play, trying hard
to make my short fingers reach the keys.
Smile and the world smiles with you
Sing a song;
Don’t be weary just be cheery
all day long.
Whenever your trials, your troubles and your cares
Seem to be more than you can really bear
Smile and the world smiles with you
Sing a song.Daddy led singing and sang at the cheery tempo
trusting me to stumble through
and finish almost when he did.
I would practice, try harder and harder
and, for four years in high school
trying my best, I never finished happy!
Fifty plus years later I know relaxing,
doing the best I could, would have been better.
I have learned, like Voltaire,
I must choose to be happy, it’s good for my health!

The Lesser Evil?

Of two evils, choose neither. ~ Charles Spurgeon

The issue of choosing between
a greater and a lesser evil
has been considered at least since
some seven hundred years
before the first year of the “Current Era”
based on the plot of Homer’s Odyssey.
Current usage of the lesser of two evils
seems to occur speaking of election candidates.
How do we live using Spurgeon’s admonition?
Perhaps seeing two evil choices
we look to greater wisdom and discernment than ours
and follow the guidance of our Higher Power!

Container for Healing Woork

The relationships we create during recovery are the container in which we do our healing work. ~ Covington, Stephanie S. A Woman’s Way through the Twelve Steps (p. 203). Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Have you closer friends
than the ones you’ve met
in the rooms of Recovery?
I have other friends
but none so vibrant.
It’s like the Big Book description:
Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly
like people in a sinking ship… there are hundreds.
High and low, rich and poor,
these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Among them you will make lifelong friends.
You will be bound to them with new
and wonderful ties,
for you will escape disaster together
and you will commence
shoulder to shoulder
your common journey.*Truly these rooms are like none other
and that fellowship shares the truth.
The rooms, the physical ones
as well as the Fellowship we carry in our hearts
is a warm and loving container
for all of us.

* A.A. World Services Inc. Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition . A.A. World Services, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

All about Me?

It occurs to me that my extreme sensitivity is a form of conceit—I think I am the focus of everyone’s actions. Am I so important that everything that goes on around me must have something to do with me? ~ Family Groups, Al-Anon. Courage to Change—One Day at a Time in Al‑Anon II. Al-Anon Family Groups. Kindle Edition.

I read at least fifteen years ago
When Anger Hurts that always
people are thinking about themselves,
not about you. It’s true, they’re involved
in themselves. We gain perspective,
understanding, when we step back,
content to be a minor character,
part of the scenery when someone else
entertains the conceit of extreme sensitivity
of believing themselves the main character/
when obviously you are!

A Soul Tuneup

Alas! all music jars when the soul’s out of tune. ~ Miguel de Cervantes

Is your soul jarred by what you’re hearing?
Is the political discord stripping you of joy?
Are you unhappy with anybody, angry, disappointed?
You’re not going to change them if you try to.
You change them only with kindness, consideration, love!
Is your soul out of tune? Listen to the Great Tuning Fork
and make it right!
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul
It is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul*

*Audrey Assad

Morning and Evening

Pray in the morning asking God go keep you abstinent,  then pray in the evening thanking God for keeping you abstinent. ~ Repeated by Lesa C at a meeting.

Bookends.
Bookends go on either side
of a row of books
on the bookshelf, right?*
Start a challenging time
and bookend it,
recruiting support from God,
from a buddy or a group.
Then, sailing on the wind of that support
bookend it by reporting your success
and expressing your gratitude!

*Susan Pierce Thompson

Limiting God

The trouble with most people is that they want to know the way and the channels beforehand. They want to tell Supreme Intelligence just how their prayers should be answered. They do not trust the wisdom and ingenuity of God. They pray, giving Infinite Intelligence definite directions how to work, thereby limiting the Holy One of Israel. ~ Scovel-Shinn, Florence. The Power of the Spoken Word. Start Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.

Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way. If his arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great. Everybody, including himself, would be pleased. Life would be wonderful. ~ A.A. World Services Inc. Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition. A.A. World Services, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

You see, God, I’ve got this all planned out!
First you get Johnny to be involved,
to get the right people together,
then get Suzy to get them all inspired,
and you’ll see, God, it will all come together
and work just fine. It will turn out just right!
They do not trust the wisdom
and ingenuity of God. They pray,
giving Infinite Intelligence
definite directions how to work,
thereby limiting the Holy One of Israel.
God, teach me to pray, not to mouth words
but to seek your instructions and gladly
to do it Your way!

Image copyright : Igor Zakharevic

A New End

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.” As We Understood . . . ~ Family Groups, Al-Anon. Courage to Change—One Day at a Time in Al‑Anon II . Al-Anon Family Groups. Kindle Edition.

Starting again can become a habit.
We get disgusted, go ahead and be decadent,
moving further from the goal…for what?
to reward us for the glitch or to punish us
by getting it further from our grasp?
We certainly stoke the problem,
the pain in our brain
the guilt burning in our soul!
We need to change our routine,
our reaction. We’re approaching wrong.
We can’t go back and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now
and make a brand new end.
Make a real change!
Reboot!! Rezoom!

BRIGHT LINERS EMPORIUM

Enemy Thoughts

 “Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies.” First of all, you must be wiser than your enemy thoughts, the army of the aliens. You must answer every negative thought with a word of authority. The army of the aliens will chant: “Business is dull and money is scarce.” Immediately you reply, “My supply comes from God and now appears like mushrooms overnight.” ~ Scovel-Shinn, Florence. The Power of the Spoken Word. Start Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.

Enemy thoughts?
Like “Hey, Stupid!
How can you procrastinate
this long before starting?
Were the stupid games
more important than this?The guilt trip, the self-flagellation
really feels like an army of aliens!
It need not be…or feel like it!
I must remember my supply
comes from God and now appears
like mushrooms overnight.”
God, give me peace…
let me remember,
“My supply comes from God
and now appears like mushrooms overnight.”
And no more able to cause turmoil
than mushrooms appearing overnight.