Wisdom For Today - June

[bluidkiti]

June 13

Wisdom for Today
Learning to share what is really going on in our lives is not always easy. Sometimes it difficult for us to even know what is going on with us. We have kept ourselves and our lives hidden from others. Opening our thinking, feelings, and beliefs about how we see the world can be threatening for many of us. Yet it is in the risk of revealing ourselves to others that we find healing. To discuss our resentment, fears, grief and loss, guilt and shame with others helps us to sort through the layers of pain we all carry inside. In opening up we find that we are not alone. We find healthier ways to let go of the burdens that have weighed us down for so long.
Is this an easy process - no! But it is simple, we simply need to open our mouth and begin to discuss with another in the program what is troubling us. Sometimes, even when we do not know what is bugging us, as we begin to talk with another, we soon sort through whatever it is and gain clarity. In recovery we learn that we need to tell on our disease and on our selves. In the honesty of sharing what troubles us, we find that the load we carry is no longer heavy. We find that new answers are gained. Over time it is this act of sharing that brings us out of isolation and into a new light of community with others. This is how we move from living a life of self-centered fear to a life of ‘WE.” Am “I” moving from isolation to a sense of fellowship?
Meditations for the Heart
I can remember thinking that I was such a loser, that I was no good and worthless. As I began to open up and share my experiences with addiction, I began to see just how silly I sounded. Friends in the program would help me open new doors and turn on new lights so that I could see just how unfairly I was judging myself. No one was harder on me that I was on myself. I began to see that others perceived me very differently than I perceived myself. Simple questions like, “Did you stay clean and sober today?” began to challenge my thinking and beliefs and feelings in such a way as to help me see that at least for today I was not a loser. Friends would point out to me the good that they saw in me. I began to regain a sense of self-esteem. I began to separate the things I did from who I was. I soon realized just how much addiction had controlled my actions and behavior, as well as, my beliefs, thinking and emotions. I could see that what I had done was not what I would have done had I not been in the bondage that addiction creates. Am I gaining a better understanding of who I am?
Petitions to my Higher Power
God,
This program acts like a mirror for me and helps me to see myself more clearly. Thank you for all the people you have placed in my life to listen to me as I sort through all the misperceptions, dishonesty, and insanity that addiction has brought into my life. Give me courage to speak openly as I sort through all the layers of garbage I have accumulated along the way.
Amen