Life is fragile, handle with prayer.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace --
that where there is hatred, I may bring love --
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness --
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony --
that where there is error, I may bring truth --
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith --
that where there is despair, I may bring hope --
that where there are shadows, I may bring light --
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted --
to understand, than to be understood -- to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 99

A Thanksgiving Thought ... Gratitude

One exercise I try to practice is to try for a full inventory of my blessings and then for a right acceptance of the many gifts that are mine -- both temporal and spiritual.

Here I try to achieve a state of joyful gratitude.

When such a brand of gratitude is repeatedly affirmed and pondered, it can finally displace the natural tendency to congratulate myself on whatever progress I may have been enabled to make in some areas of living.

I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits.

When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know.
-- As Bill Sees It, p. 37


I have learned how a heart full of gratitude feels.
Forgiveness unlocks the door and sets us free.

The world is full of beauty when your heart is full of love...

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.

Cling to that as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find.

The quickest way to receive love is to give love.

Forgiveness

One forgives to the degree that one loves. -- La Rochefaucould

This is what forgiveness is:

(1) loving ourselves enough to stand up for ourselves,

(2) loving others enough to point out their behavior, and

(3) letting go.

Spirit of the Universe, help me lovingly forgive those who have hurt me.

Merry-go-round

I began to feel like a clown juggling too many balls.

Each ball represented a problem I was keeping up in the air.

My arms were weary and I knew I couldn't keep on much longer,but I was not about to give up.

My pride and ego wouldn't let me.

Bosses, judges, co-workers, lawyers, car notes, bar tabs, loan sharks, utility payments, landlords, my girlfriend, people I had double-crossed -- I looked to all these as the source of my problems, while overlooking the most basic problem:
my drinking and myself.

I'd known for a long time that I desperately wanted off this merry-go-round,
but I had no idea how to do it.
-- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 506



Swallowing my pride will not get me drunk.

What People Are Thinking ....

To become less concerned with what people might be thinking, and less upset by negative things others may say:

1. Never guess what others might be thinking.



2. Value Yourself



3. Live your own life



4. Make your own choices.



5. Value your own opinions.



6. Choose to associate mostly with positive people who support you.

Facts of Life ... B-)

Cats chase birds. It's what cats do.
Guys want to get laid. It's what guys do.
Bakers sell pastries. It's what bakers do.
Banks loan money. It's what banks do.
Developers build housing. It's what developers do.

And cats will keep chasing birds,
guys will take all they can get,
bakers will sell all they can,
bankers will push as much money out the door as they can,
and developers will take all the money they can get and build all the housing they can.

In the old days, it was up to the birds,
the women and the banks to say no.
But women don't get diamonds and jewelry for saying no.
Banks don't make profits by hoarding excess cash.

One day, dawn breaks.
The girl gets pregnant,
the housing market gets overbuilt, and
banks get stuck with huge nonperforming loans.

The devil has taken tomorrow,
tomorrow has become today, and
now there's hell to pay.

So whom do you want to blame?
The cat?
Hormones?
Pastries?
Banks?
Developers?

No, bunkie.
We meet the enemy every day.
He's in our mirror, and the joy ride is over.

And so we cry out to the government to save us from ourselves.
Better we should apply to the devil.
The terms are better.

B-)