Waiting

I've started to realize that waiting is an art, that waiting achieves things.
Waiting can be very, very powerful.
Time is a valuable thing. If you can wait two years, you can sometimes achieve something that you could not achieve today, however hard you worked, however much money you threw up in the air, however many times you banged your head against the wall. . .
--The Courage to Change by Dennis Wholey



Today, I am willing to learn the art of patience.
If I am feeling powerless because I am waiting for something to happen and I am not in control of timing, I will focus on the power available to me by learning to wait.

Freedom

. . . we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
~ Alcoholics Anonymous, pp.83-84


Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession.

Serenity

That word "serenity" looked like an impossible goal when I first saw the prayer. In fact, if serenity meant apathy, bitter resignation, or stolid endurance, then I didn't even want to aim at it. But I found that serenity meant no such thing. . . Serenity is like a gyroscope that lets me keep my balance no matter what turbulence swirls around me. And that is a state of mind worth aiming for. Serenity isn't freedom from the storm; it is peace within the storm.

Good Is Good Enough

May I not set my sights unrealistically high, expect too much.

May I look backwards long enough to see that my self-set, impossible goals were the trappings of my addiction; too often I ended up halfway there, confronted by my own failure.

Those "foiled-again," "I've-failed-again" feelings became monumental excuses to give in to my compulsion, which blanketed my miseries.

May I avoid that sick old pattern.

May I be realistic.  Amen.

Peace On Earth

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, and quietly building new structures.  --John F. Kennedy

At times, I can remind myself I am the only one I can change.

I can use what I have learned in recovery to help me.

The more I do this, the easier it gets, and the more peaceful our lives my life become.

Today let me do one thing to eliminate a conflict.

Control Robs Me of Serenity

God, grant me serenity today, 

along with wisdom and acceptance, 

so I can fulfill your will.

The Ability To Choose

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Some things I can change:
the youthfulness of my spirit,
who my friends are,
my hair color,
my weight,
my adult experiences,
my achievements,
my character,
my reaction to someone else's use of alcohol or other drugs,
whether my eyes will shine,
my job possibilities,
what I will bequeath,
how I feel,
my ability to act on today's opportunities,
how well I will live,
whom I forgive,
how much I love,
the future.

I thank God for my growing ability to choose

Prayer -- 01-22-2008

Sobriety Prayer

If I speak in the tongues of men and even of angels, but have not sobriety, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to more mountains but have not sobriety, I am nothing.
If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not sobriety, I gain nothing.
When I am sober, I am patient and kind.
When I am sober, I am not jealous nor boastful, nor arrogant or rude.
When I am sober, I am not irritable or resentful.
I do not rejoice at wrong as I used to do but rejoice in what is right.
When I am sober, I can bear all things, believe in all things, hope all things, and endure all things.
Sobriety never ends and never fails.
When I was using, I spoke like an arrogant child, thought like a stubborn child, and reasoned like a rebellious child.
When I chose sobriety for my life, I gave up my childish ways.
So faith, hope, love, and sobriety abide, but for me, the most important has to be sobriety, for without it, I cannot have the other three, nor can I ever have the serenity I yearn to possess.

-- #@#@#@# --

Great Spirit, today, let me teach only love and learn only love.

-- #@#@#@# --

I pray that gratitude will bring humility.
I pray that humility will bring to live a better life.

-- #@#@#@# --

A Rose

Each day can be like a rose unfurling according to the plan of a Power greater than myself.
Each stage of the petals' unfolding can bring wonder and delight if I do not interfere or let my expectations override my acceptance -- and this brings serenity.

Disappointments = Expectations

My disappointments are equal to my expectations.