Taking it slowly

Let’s not make haste and demand perfection at once— this would only blind us. If we are impatient, we cannot work a daily program. But by exercising patience, we learn to recognize daily opportunities for growth.

It is worth waiting for, striving for, and working to develop a relationship with our Higher Power. It cannot be done overnight. Let’s not go too fast, but count each day as a new opportunity.

Am I learning to take it slowly?

Higher Power, I pray that I may meet each day with patience and grow closer to you.

I will take it easy today by…

from the book Day by Day, Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts

Gratitude

"Another exercise that I 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."
Bill W., March 1962
1988 AA Grapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 271 

Thought to Consider . . .

I have learned what a heart full of gratitude feels like. 

Anger

Happy Birthday A.A.!!!Imparted June 10, 1935!

Then the miracle happened - to me! It isn't always so sudden with everyone, but I ran into a personal crisis which filled me with a raging and righteous anger. And as I fumed helplessly and planned to get good and drunk and show them, my eye caught a sentence to the book lying open on my bed. 'We cannot live with anger.' The walls crumpled - and the light streamed in. I wasn't trapped. I wasn't helpless. I was free, and I didn't have to drink to 'show them.' This wasn't 'religion' - this was freedom! Freedom from anger and fear, freedom to know happiness and love."
1976 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 228

Staying in the Present Moment

Often, one of our biggest questions is “What’s going to happen?” We may ask this about our relationships, our career, our recovery, our life. It is easy to tangle ourselves up in worrisome thoughts.

Worrying about what’s going to happen blocks us from functioning effectively today. It keeps us from doing our best now. It blocks us from learning and mastering today’s lessons. Staying in the now, doing our best, and participating fully today are all we need to do to assure ourselves that what’s going to happen tomorrow will be for the best.

Broken Dreams