Today's Hope - September 6
Life is good
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 4,036
Today's Hope - September 6
"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." - John Milton
Al-Anon - Today's Sharing
Al-Anon - Today's Sharing
Life is good
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 4,036
Daily Reflection, from the link above:
..we do not always like what is good for us in this world. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us can look back and recall how we fought a particular change. How certain we were that we wouldn't survive the upheaval! Perhaps we lost a love or were forced to leave a home or a job. Retrospect allows us to see the good of the change, and we can see the necessary part each change has played in our development as recovering people. We've had to change to cover the distances we've traveled. And we'll have to continue changing.
The program and its structure, and our faith in that structure, can ease the harsh consequences of change. Our higher power wants only the best for us, of that we can be sure. However, the best may not always "fit" when first we try it. Patience, trust, and prayer are a winning combination when the time comes for us to accept a change. We'll know when it's coming. Our present circumstances will begin to pinch.
Change means growth. It's a time for celebration, not dread. It means I am ready to move ahead--that I have "passed" the current test.
..we do not always like what is good for us in this world. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Most of us can look back and recall how we fought a particular change. How certain we were that we wouldn't survive the upheaval! Perhaps we lost a love or were forced to leave a home or a job. Retrospect allows us to see the good of the change, and we can see the necessary part each change has played in our development as recovering people. We've had to change to cover the distances we've traveled. And we'll have to continue changing.
The program and its structure, and our faith in that structure, can ease the harsh consequences of change. Our higher power wants only the best for us, of that we can be sure. However, the best may not always "fit" when first we try it. Patience, trust, and prayer are a winning combination when the time comes for us to accept a change. We'll know when it's coming. Our present circumstances will begin to pinch.
Change means growth. It's a time for celebration, not dread. It means I am ready to move ahead--that I have "passed" the current test.
Life is good
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 4,036
Daily Sharing from The Forum (Al-Anon pocket-size magazine)
No Longer In Anger
Truth was hard to come by in my family. Growing up with a disabled and moody dad with chronic pain and lots of health problems was not the easiest experience for a young kid. What made it worse was that we never talked about it or admitted that it was frustrating and upsetting to live with those challenges. As a family, we pretended he was okay and did our best to seem as normal as possible to the outside world. I thought as long as no one came inside to see the wheelchair, wooden leg, crutches, and medical supplies or notice the ambulances coming late at night, no one would know that my family wasn’t quite normal.
After my dad died and I was a teenager living with an alcoholic stepfather, I didn’t think much had changed. By then, I was so numb to my feelings about my family that it didn’t occur to me to be embarrassed about him passing out every night. As usual, the family’s priority was to act as if everything was okay, so we swept his drinking under the same rug we had swept my dad’s problems. I was left feeling that no one cared what I felt or thought anyway.
When I came to Al-Anon in my mid-30s, I had a serious need to hear some truth, and I found plenty of it. People in meetings talked straight about being neglected and mistreated. They revealed their deepest secrets and talked openly about how poorly they had handled the problems caused by the alcoholics in their lives. People cried, and they laughed. Part of me felt like I had landed in heaven, and another part was terrified at the prospect of getting honest myself. One of the greatest gifts I have received from Al-Anon is learning to speak my truth—not in anger, like I did as a teen, but clearly, without apology, and without shame or guilt. In the loving presence of other members committed to honesty, I can do what my family could not—acknowledge the real story of who I am, what I am coping with, and how I am doing it. It may not be perfect, but it’s real. Today, thanks to Al-Anon, I can handle that.
By Dylan M., New York, August 2019
No Longer In Anger
Truth was hard to come by in my family. Growing up with a disabled and moody dad with chronic pain and lots of health problems was not the easiest experience for a young kid. What made it worse was that we never talked about it or admitted that it was frustrating and upsetting to live with those challenges. As a family, we pretended he was okay and did our best to seem as normal as possible to the outside world. I thought as long as no one came inside to see the wheelchair, wooden leg, crutches, and medical supplies or notice the ambulances coming late at night, no one would know that my family wasn’t quite normal.
After my dad died and I was a teenager living with an alcoholic stepfather, I didn’t think much had changed. By then, I was so numb to my feelings about my family that it didn’t occur to me to be embarrassed about him passing out every night. As usual, the family’s priority was to act as if everything was okay, so we swept his drinking under the same rug we had swept my dad’s problems. I was left feeling that no one cared what I felt or thought anyway.
When I came to Al-Anon in my mid-30s, I had a serious need to hear some truth, and I found plenty of it. People in meetings talked straight about being neglected and mistreated. They revealed their deepest secrets and talked openly about how poorly they had handled the problems caused by the alcoholics in their lives. People cried, and they laughed. Part of me felt like I had landed in heaven, and another part was terrified at the prospect of getting honest myself. One of the greatest gifts I have received from Al-Anon is learning to speak my truth—not in anger, like I did as a teen, but clearly, without apology, and without shame or guilt. In the loving presence of other members committed to honesty, I can do what my family could not—acknowledge the real story of who I am, what I am coping with, and how I am doing it. It may not be perfect, but it’s real. Today, thanks to Al-Anon, I can handle that.
By Dylan M., New York, August 2019
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