Snips

I know you're tired. I know you feel overwhelmed. You may feel as though
this crisis, this problem, this hard time will last forever. It won't.
You don't just think it has been hard; it has been hard. Your beliefs and your faith have been tried in fire. You have believed, then doubted, then worked at believing some more. You have had to have faith even when you could not see or imagine what you were asked to believe. Others around you may have tried to convince you not to believe in what you were hoping you could believe.
Yet, it has been good. Part of you, the deepest part that knows truth, has sensed this all along, even when your head told you that things were out of whack and crazy; that there was no plan or purpose, that God had forgotten you.
So much has happened, and each incident - the most painful, the most
troubling, and the most surprising - has a connection. You are beginning to
see and sense that.
You never dreamt things would happen this way, did you? But they did. Now you are learning the secret - they were meant to happen this way, and this way is good, better than what you expected.
You didn't believe it would take this long, either - did you? But it did. You have learned patience.
You never thought you could have it, but now you know you do.
You have been led. Many were the moments when you thought you were forgotten, when you were convinced you had been abandoned. Now you know you have been guided.
Now things are coming into place. You are almost at the end of this phase, this difficult portion of the journey. The lesson is almost complete. You know - the lesson you fought, resisted, and insisted you could not learn. Yes, that one. You have almost mastered it.
You have been changed from the inside out. You have been moved to a different level, a higher level, a better level.
Steady your shoulders. Breathe deeply. Move forward in confidence and peace. The time is coming to relish and enjoy all, which you have fought for. That time is drawing near, finally.
Your struggle has not been in vain. For every struggle on this journey, there is a climax, a resolution. Peace, joy, abundant blessings, and reward are yours here on earth. Enjoy.
There will be more mountains, but now you know how to climb them. And you have learned the secret of what is at the top.
Today, I will accept where I am and continue forward. If I am in the midst of a learning experience, I will allow myself to continue on with the faith that the day of mastery and reward will come. Help me, God; understand that despite my best efforts to live in peaceful serenity, there are times of mountain climbing. Help me stop creating chaos and crisis, and help me meet the challenges that will move me upward and forward.
Melody Beattie ©

"The key to intimacy is the commitment to honesty and to the radical forgiveness necessary in order for honesty to be safe."
Marianne Williamson

AA Thought for the Day / AA experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them... We have to talk to somebody about them. / 12 & 12, p. 55

Don't wait for someone to give you permission to succeed and achieve. Get yourself busy and do it. Don't wait for someone to tell you how to do it. Take it upon yourself to figure it out. Don't wait for just the right situation. Don't count on being lucky. Do what it takes to make your own good fortune. Learn from others. Seek the advice, input and feedback of those whose opinions you respect. But don't depend on anyone or anything to do it for you. Make the best of fortunate situations, but don't depend on luck or chance.
Depend on those things over which you have the most direct control -- your own thoughts and actions, your ability to make the choices which will lead to precisely where you have decided to go.
Your destiny is in your hands. Think like it and act like it with each passing moment. Take hold of that destiny and make it the best it can possibly be.
Ralph S. Marston


"I do only want to advise you to keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer."
Rainer Maria Rilke

Attempting to place the problem outside of me and blame others is futile. When I bring the responsibility back with me, things are easier to manage because I am starting to take authority over the situation.
John Morton

"All this talk and turmoil and noise and movement and desire is outside of the veil; within the veil is silence and calm and rest."
Bayazid al-Bistami

You progress not through improving what has been done, but reaching toward what has yet to be done."
Kahlil Gibran

"I am glad that so much movement happens in this stillness."
Richard Land