January 2

”One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.” John Burroughs

There are days when even though most things have gone well, just a few episodes can seem to ruin a perfectly good day. It seems that communication is still a challenging area of my recovery. Sometimes I wonder if I have simply just missed the boat, that I wasn’t paying enough attention to those around me, and that’s why all of a sudden the ground seems to fall out from under me. Recovery has taught me to be humble. It’s in these moments that I need to fight hard not to put myself on the defensive and become argumentative. Instead I need to be willing to take the first step and admit my faults and work to make things better. Trying to prove who was right or wrong doesn’t help me make my relationships better. The small things are important, and these are the things that I missed first when I was in my active addiction. I was too preoccupied to notice all the small nuances in life as I was too self-absorbed. So I as much as it can be painful to have to deal with days like this, it is certainly better than the alternative.

Affirmation Little things that go wrong are still important and need to be resolved. I will not ignore the small hurts that need to be fixed today.

October 31 (94)

”When I hear somebody sigh ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” Sydney J. Harris

It’s sometimes hard to see beyond my own problems. They seem to be sit in front of me, blocking my view of everything else. It often takes me going to a meeting and hearing the sharing of others' stories to put my own troubles into perspective. Sometimes it takes me being able to see others' struggles and challenges, hearing and watching them cope, to help me see a way past where I find myself in my own life. Left to my own devices I always tend to make my problems larger than they are. When all I stare at is the issue at hand, it makes it hard to find any kind of solution. I am thankful that I can rely on others to help break me out of that trance. Life has its challenges, but I am learning to live by the Serenity Prayer, to put things into a more realistic perspective. I am letting go of those things and people that I cannot change. Most of my solutions now involve looking at what I can change, what I can do personally in any given situation. It comes from an acceptance of letting the will of my Higher Power precede my own.

Affirmation I will try to focus today on the solutions rather than the problems. Listening to how others cope with their struggles can inspire my own problem-solving.

October 14

”If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes.” Senegalese proverb

I heard something on the radio recently that gave me pause. The message was that God wants us to confront our problems, as the speaker put it, to be a giant-killer, as in relation to the story of David and Goliath. It was a message that I needed to hear, a reminder that one of the big concerns in my life was not going to change if I continued to do nothing about it. Tomorrow would come, and it would still be there, just as much as it is today. So I made a commitment to take action, to make a phone call that I had been procrastinating about for a few days. It has not yet solved the problem, but I am now moving towards a solution rather than turning away from it. I still don’t know what the end result will be, and that is where my faith in my Higher Power has to take over. Tomorrow will be here whether or not I do anything about it. My choice today is to look at what action I can take, what problems I need to face to start making a difference in my life. May God grant me the courage to change what I can.

Affirmation I will be a giant-killer today. I shall run towards my problems and face them.