Food for Thought~daily Meditations 11-12

[Pony]

Today's Thought
SUNDAY , NOVEMBER 12, 2006
You are reading from the book Food for Thought.

Don't Anticipate
We wear ourselves out unnecessarily when we spend our energy anticipating the future rather than living in the present. To anticipate bad things is obviously detrimental to our serenity. It is also needless, since most of the things we worry about never happen. Even if some of them do occur, it is easier by far to deal with real disasters than with imagined ones.
Anticipating future satisfactions can also be detrimental to our serenity. If we are living for an event or condition, which is yet to come, we are not completely alive to what is here now. We may build up some future pleasure in our minds to such an unrealistic pitch that the actual event is bound to be disappointing.
Accepting the here and now is what ensures our sanity and our serenity. Reality is never more than we can manage, with the help of our Higher Power. It is our anticipation of the future, which is unreal and dangerous.
May I live today and leave the future to You.


©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.

[TheGirlInside]

Ooh, boy,

This is one of my worst character defects. I was ALWAYS thinking, "when (fill in the blank) happens, THEN I'll be happy." On those days when I have some mental clarity, I just say it to myself as a joke, knowing how ridiculous it really is.

If you haven't seen the movie "Click," I highly recommend it. It does a good job (although sometimes in a lowbrow sort of way) of making the above point.