The Gentle Art of Blessing PART 3 In Memory of Miracle

[Anna]

This is a very special thread dedicated to our lovely Trish/Miracle. She is no longer with us, but this thread will always carry on her memory and her love.


Here is a link to Part 2:

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...iracle-21.html

[Rusty Zipper]

thanks anna... and you bet we will carry on...

xxoo & blessings... pattee

[Rusty Zipper]

We work on feelings. On beliefs. On behaviors. Letting go of the old,
acquiring the new. We work and work and work. We practice. We struggle
through. We go from one extreme to the other, and sometime s back through the course again. We make a little progress, go backward, and then go forward again.

It may all seem disconnected. It may not sound like a harmonious, beautiful
piece of music - just isolated notes. Then one day, so me thing happens. We
become ready to play with both hands, to put the music together.

What we have been working toward, note by note, becomes a song. That song is a whole life, a complete life, and a life in harmony.

The music will co me together in our life if we keep practicing the parts.

Today, I will practice my recovery behaviors through the individual parts of
my life. I trust that, one day, things will co me together in a full,
complete song.


................................................ Blessings

[Ann]

What we have been working toward, note by note, becomes a song. That song is a whole life, a complete life, and a life in harmony.

The music will come together in our life if we keep practicing the parts.

Those are lovely thoughts, Pattee. Let the music play.

[indigo]

Originally Posted by Ann

Those are lovely thoughts, Pattee. Let the music play.

Amen

[Rusty Zipper]

THE 4 AGREEMENTS

1. BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORDS:
speak with integrity..say only what you mean..
avoid using the words to speak against yourself or to gossip about another..
use the power of your words in the direction of truth and love.

2. DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY:
nothing others do is because of you..
what others say or do is a projection of their reality and their dreams not
yours..
when you are immune to the opinions and actions of others
you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS:
find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want..
communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid
misunderstandings, sadness, and drama..
with just this one agreement you can transform your life.

4.ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST:
your best is going to change from mo me nt to mo me nt..
it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to when you are sick..
under any circumstances simply do your best and
you will avoid self judgment, self abuse and regret.

.................................................. ............... Blessings

Don Miguel Ruiz

[Rusty Zipper]

May a rainbow gladden your eyes
May soft winds freshen your spirit;
May sunshine brighten your heart;
May the burdens of the day rest
lightly upon you;
And may God enfold you
in the mantle of his love.


.................................................. .................... Blessings

[indigo]

Beautiful.

[Rusty Zipper]

Almighty God, let not your gifts lead us to sin. Let not the goblet of sparkling wine induce us to misdeeds.

While we enjoy our feast, let us also in charity remember all those who suffer want and hunger.

May not the pleasure of the body stifle the inspirations of thy Holy Spirit, O Lord.



.................................................. .................................. Easter Blessings



Prayer Source: Easter Book, The by Francis X. Weiser, S.J., Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1954

[Rusty Zipper]

Happiness has much to recommend it,
A choice, though hard, that often satisfies.
Passing joys, pursued, bid fair to end it,
Perhaps because their truths turn into lies.
Yet one may choose a life of faith and love,
Even dogged by doubt and ripe with lust,
Ample as a river on the move
Singing down the balustrades of dust.
To love is to step forward into light,
Embracing what would else return to night,
Redeemed, redeeming by this act of trust.



.................................................. ........ Blessings



Nicholas Gordon

[Ann]

Happy Easter Pattee, and thank you for brightening my day with your blessing.

[Rusty Zipper]

Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.

Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.

Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you."


.................................................. ................ Blessings



~Pueblo Blessing ~

[Rusty Zipper]

1. Since consciousness cannot imagine its own demise, we live in eternity even as we recognize that time bears us swiftly towards death.
2. This moment-to-moment sense of endless possibility is the basis for hope.

3. From time to time, of course, the fabric of hope is torn and we see the blackness beyond. But in time the rent is repaired, and we return, however shaken, to a life of purpose and meaning in which the future, whether before or after death, retains its eternal promise.

4. Hope is not faith but the breath that propels faith up through the larynx to where it may be shaped by the tongue.

5. There are many faiths--in social progress, for example, or in the power of reason or prayer or love, or in the extension of one's existence through tomorrow or beyond death--but one common source, which is hope.

6. Certainty is the end of hope, both in the sense of goal and, paradoxically, in the sense of demise. For if one were certain that all that lay between one and death were unbearable pain, and that death were an absolute end, there would be nothing to hope for, and one would no longer wish to live. Similarly, if one were certain of one's own personal salvation, one would no longer hope to be saved, any more than one who was tall would hope to be tall, or one who had three children would hope to have three children.

7. A faith, then, that retains its connection to the hope that produced it must also embrace doubt, acknowledging that it is not certain, that it is faith and not knowledge. Otherwise it will be cut off from its source of energy and become rigid and lifeless.

8. Since hope comes from a contradictory vision common to all, all cannot help but hope, though to a greater or lesser degree. In fact, if one were honest one could deny neither hope nor despair, and would have to live accordingly.

9. Faith therefore should be seen not as wishful thinking but as wishful living, something all humans do, though the content of their faith may vary.


.................................................. ......................................... Blessings


Nicholas Gordon

[Ann]

9. Faith therefore should be seen not as wishful thinking but as wishful living, something all humans do, though the content of their faith may vary.

I am so inspired this morning, Pattee, for no particular reason except that I awoke knowing that life is a wonderful adventure and that the only limit that can be placed on my dreams is the limit that I choose to give them.

Your reading is a reminder to me that living my life in faith removes all limits and opens the door to all possibilities.

Thank you for peeking into the window of my soul and posting this.

Hugs

[Rusty Zipper]

sweet ann

Thank you for peeking into the window of my soul and posting this.

... ha!, i guess i'm a peeping pattee... lol

in a good way... yw ann

[Rusty Zipper]

i read something by a spiritual teacher that said whatever you are angry at...

is what you are worshipping as an idol!..

It is your "god" it has control over you...

woe!, does this make sence to me... at least for today...


.................................................. . Blessings

[Ann]

Your post today takes me back to my childhood, Pattee, when my mother taught me that the best way to remove the anger was with compassion and forgiveness. If someone took something from her, her reaction was often "Poor soul must need it more than I do."

I thought my mother was nuts. I thought she was stupid and setting herself up to be vulnerable. I thought she just didn't "get it".

She was wise, she "got it" and today I am grateful for the lesson she taught me. My mother had (without any program or substance) something I have sought all my life and finally found...serenity and peace.

Just needed to share that and my gratitude for this lesson, today.

Hugs

[indigo]

Ann I think we had the same mother.

hugs Annie

[Ann]

And she gave us both the same name

Hug to my Sister

[Rusty Zipper]

Hug to my Sister

... nice, real nice...

indy, your name is ann?

were you one of the ann's on trish's IM?... she had three anns on it...

i'm confused... ha!... imangine that... lol