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Say Yes to Life!!!

Old 06-18-2005, 10:45 AM
  # 21 (permalink)  
Miss Behavin'
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Today is June 18, 2005
A Great Day for Recovery!
ACCEPTANCE
"Less is more."
--Mies van der Rohe
As a gambler, I always wanted more. I wanted to win more, get more, have more, spend more - always my energy was in getting "the more". But this constant and demanding lifestyle only gave me less. I could never stop to smell the roses. Activity robbed me of satisfaction. I was running through my life and missing it.

Then somebody told me to stop and rest awhile. Don't chase life; enjoy it. The gambling had become a compulsive and obsessive disease that was ruining my life. I was losing. I was not only losing money - but family, intimacy, life. I was so busy trying to win that I missed the pain and loneliness of my daily losses.

Today I choose not to do this. I accept that the "less" in my life is giving me more. I take responsibility for me, and I share freely with other recovering gamblers.

God, teach me to see Your power and beauty in what I can give up.
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Old 06-19-2005, 08:09 AM
  # 22 (permalink)  
Miss Behavin'
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Today is June 19, 2005
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PREJUDICE
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are only rearranging their prejudices."
--William James
An aspect of prejudice in my life is my refusal to listen. I tend to stay with my own thinking and I "shut off" people or ideas I do not want to hear. The problem with this attitude is that it does not lead to discussion, growth or change.

Spirituality is having the capacity to hear what others are saying, even people you may not like or respect, and also being prepared to live with and alongside confusion and "difference". Truth is a many-sided diamond, and it cannot be comprehended from one viewpoint. I need to remove my prejudices if I am ever to move towards an understanding of God's truth.

I need to learn in my heart that there is that "image" of God in every person I meet.
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Old 06-21-2005, 07:43 AM
  # 23 (permalink)  
Miss Behavin'
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Today is June 21, 2005
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LIES
"The cruelest lies are often told in silence."
--Robert Louis Stevenson
In treatment I said that I did not "tell" many lies - and although this was not true (hence a lie), it missed the fact that most of my lies were "lies of silence". It was what I did not say that produced the confusion; the pretended self-confidence that hid the paid and shame; the half --spoken truth that harbored the disease.

Communication is the key to any spiritual relationship and a sick silence creates the ultimate blasphemy. God created you and me to relate. In the interchange of our ideas is the miracle born. A sick, angry and ego-centered silence is our shouted "no" to God.

O Lord of the paradox, let me see how the lie of silence can be used to destroy my world.
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Old 06-22-2005, 05:39 AM
  # 24 (permalink)  
Miss Behavin'
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Today is June 22, 2005
A Great Day for Recovery!
INDIVIDUALITY
"You'll never really know what I mean and I'll never really know exactly what you mean."
--Mike Nichols
There is a certain loneliness in life with which we must all live; perhaps this is the price of individuality. I am not always sure that I know what I am feeling or thinking and so I know I cannot be absolutely sure of what you are feeling or thinking. Today when I say "I know how you feel", it is with this reservation.

Another problem I face daily is finding words to express what I feel -- language seems so inadequate. Words, although bridges to meaning, are often barriers to understanding. What I mean by what I say is often misunderstood.

This awareness provides me with the stimulus to be more precise, explicit and creative in my methods of communication and understanding. Today I consider more seriously what the other person is trying to say, rather than just listening to the words. Because I am sensitive to my difficulties in being understood, I am becoming patient with my neighbor.

Teach us never to become victims of our language.
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