July 29 in The Little Blue Book ONE DAY at a TIME in AL-ANON
July 29 in The Little Blue Book ONE DAY at a TIME in AL-ANON:
I will begin today to include an Al-Anon Quiet Time in each day, remembering this especially in times of family upheavals and dissension. If I provide the element of quiet in my home, I will at least not be adding to the turmoil.
Quiet can be achieved with complete silence, but if the silence has in it even a trace of anger or hostility, it loses all its power. A grim silence is even more challenging to a combatant than speech. True quiet has the quality of serenity, acceptance, peace.
I must remind myself of this constantly in times of stress.
TODAY’S REMINDER
I can persuade myself to be quiet by realizing that angry words cannot touch me unless I allow them to. Most angry words have no basis in logic or reason anyway, so why need they hurt me? If a wrathful explosion on the alcoholic’s part seems aimed at me, I will understand that it may only express his own guilt. I will not allow this to be shifted to my shoulders.
“In quiet and in silence, the truth is made clear…”