May 18

”Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.” Irving Berlin

It is still hard for me to admit just how small the realm of things I can influence actually is. I still have too much of the tendency to want to control things that are beyond me. And really, when I stop to look at my life, there is more than enough to occupy my attention and energy if I stay focused on me and what I am able to do. My biggest challenge is still in letting things happen as they are meant to happen. There are often times when I can influence or force something to take place, but rarely do I get the results that I imagine. Letting circumstances follow their natural course and schedule takes a lot of patience, and a continual turning over of my will and life to my Higher Power. Many of my most prized tools in recovery, repeating the Serenity Prayer, the 12 Steps and Traditions, deep breathing, prayer and meditation – all these are ways of slowing me down. It’s important for me to incorporate these breaks into my day. It gives me the opportunity to refocus my attention and ground myself in the present. I don’t always have to be on the go, to be doing something to prove my existence. I need moments to simply be. To listen to my breathing, feel the beating of my heart, to smell the air…to simply exist in the here and now. I am me and being alive is wonderful.

Affirmation Today I take the time to simply be me, to reflect on where I am and my surroundings.