Count Your Blessings

A well-known speaker started off his seminar holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?” Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.”

He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, “Who still wants it…?” Still the hands were up in the air. “Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We may feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.

You are special-Don’t EVER forget it.” If you do not pass this on, you may never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the hope that it may bring. Count your blessings, not your problems.

via FB: Stacey Mae

Wisdom for my son

via Pinterest

The scheme of our lives

Something to think about:

It is sometimes easy to get overwhelmed by our duties, forgetting that our interests fit the scheme of our lives. They are inspired by our lives, and flow from them. Our interests round us out; they beckon us to become our better selves.

Our duties have their places as well. In our careers, with our families and friends, we have responsibilities. People need to be a

Letting down our guard

Something to think about…

Letting down our guard, releasing the tension that keeps us taut, often invites our tears, tears that soften us, melt our resistance, reveal our vulnerability, which reminds us that we are only human.  So often we need reminding that we are only human.

Perfectionism may be our bane, as it is for so many of us.  We’ve learned to push, push harder, and even harder yet, not only ourselves but those around us.  We must be better, we think, and we tighten our hold on life.  We must try to loosen our grip.  The magic is that when we loosen our grip on this day, this activity, this person, we get carried gently along and find that which we struggled to control happening smoothly and naturally.  Life is a series of ironies.

We should not hide from our tears.  We can trust their need to be present.  Perhaps they need to be present for someone else, as well as ourselves.  Tears encourage compassion; maybe our assignment in life, today, is to help someone else experience compassion.

My tears will heal.  And the wounded are everywhere.

“Let your tears come.  Let them water your soul.”
~ Eileen Mayhew

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

Defining our experiences

“Problems have only the size and the power that you give them.”

We will not be free from all difficulties today, or during any period of our lives.  But we have the personal power to eliminate the threat, the sting of any challenge.  But it’s our vision of circumstances that gives them their interpretation.

At this moment, we are defining our experience.  We are labeling events good or bad, valuable or meaningless.  And our growth, particularly this day, is greatly influenced by the value judgments we attach to our experiences.

As we grow stronger emotionally and spiritually, we learn that all difficulties are truly opportunities for exceptional growth and increased awareness of the truth of existence.  All experiences can be taken in stride if we are trustful of their intended blessing.

We are sharing this life, every moment of it, with a power greater than ourselves.  We need not worry about any circumstance.  Always we are watched over.  We never need struggle alone.

We can let go of our problems.  It’s ourselves and the attitude we have cultivated that make any situation a problem.  We can turn it loose and therein discover the solution.

“I will not make mountains out of the molehills of my life.”

Source:  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

Personal Tapestry

Every event of our lives is contributing a rich thread to our personal tapestry. Each of us is weaving one unique to ourselves, but all of our tapestries are complementary. We need others’ rich designs in order to create our own.

We seldom have the foresight to understand the worth, the ultimate value of a particular circumstance at its beginning. But, hindsight offers us clarity. It’s good to reflect on the many circumstances that failed to thrill us; in all cases, we can now see why we needed them. As our trust in God and the goodness of all experiences grow, we’ll more quickly respond with gladness when situations are fresh. No experience is meant for harm. We are coming to understand that, even though on occasion we forget.

Practicing gratitude will help us more fully appreciate what has been offered us. Being grateful influences our attitude; it softens our harsh exterior and takes the threat out of most new situations.

If I greet the day glad to be alive, I will be gladdened by all the experiences in store for me. Each is making a necessary contribution to my wholeness.

Source: Each Day A New Beginning | A Hazelden Book

What I Wish I Had Known

Honesty

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
~ Thomas Jefferson

Words of wisdom

via Pinterest

The Four Agreements

via FB / Mojo Magic

Silence

Silence is a great source of strength.
~ Lao Tzu

Advice from a sea turtle

Advice from a sea turtle:
Swim with the current.
Be a good navigator.
Be well traveled.
Think long term.
Age gracefully.
Spend time at the beach.
Source: Pinterest

The choice is ever present to relish the moment

Each passing minute is all that we are certain of having.  The choice is ever present to relish the moment, reaping fully whatever its benefits, knowing that we are being given just what we need each day of our lives.  We must not pass up what is offered today.

Time accompanies us like a friend, though often a friend denied or ignored.  We can’t recapture what was offered yesterday.  It’s gone.  All that stands before us is here, now.

We can nurture the moment and know that the pain and pleasures offered us with each moment are our friends, the teachers our inner selves await.  And we can be mindful that this time, this combination of events and people, won’t come again.  They are the gift of the present.  We can be grateful.

We miss the opportunities the day offers because we don’t recognize the experiences as the lesson designed for the next stage of our development.  The moment’s offerings are just, necessary, and friendly to our spiritual growth.

I will take today in my arms and love it.  I will love all it offers.  It is a friend bearing gifts galore.

Source:  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

Today’s experiences will move me a step closer to happiness

We are generally so certain that we know what’s best for ourselves. And we are just as often certain that what we think is best will guarantee happiness. Perhaps we should reflect on all the times in the past when our wishes didn’t come true — fortunately.

Did any one of us expect to be doing, today, what we are each doing? We may have expected children, a particular kind of home, a certain career, but did we really anticipate all that life has wrought? The happiness we experience today probably doesn’t visit us in the way we anticipated a few years back. But, it is measured out according to our needs. The choice to be happy with what is, is ours to make, every moment.

I can take life as it is, and trust that it is just right, just what it needs to be. The big picture guarantees me lasting happiness. Today’s experiences will move me a step closer.

Source (modified): Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

We each are traveling our own very special path in this life

We each are traveling our own very special path in this life.  At times our paths run parallel to each other.  On occasion, they may intersect.  But, we do all have a common destination: knowledge of life’s meaning.  And we’ll arrive at knowledge when we’ve arrived at the mountain’s summit, separately and yet together.

We do not go straight up the side of the mountain on this trip.  We circle it slowly, carefully, sometimes losing our footing, sometimes backtracking because we’ve reached an impasse.  Many times, we have stumbled, but as we grow in understanding, as we rely more and more on our inner strength, available for the taking, we become more sure-footed.

We have never needed to take any step alone on this trip.  Our troubles in the past were complicated because we did not know this; but now we do.  Our lifeline is to our higher power.  If we hang on to it, every step of the way we will feel secure.  The ground will be stable under us.

I am on a path to full understanding.  I am learning to trust the lifeline offered by God and my friends.  As I learn, my footing is less tentative, and it supports me more securely.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

Positive attitudes lighten whatever burden we may be learning from

Gratitude for what’s been offered us in our lives softens the harsh attitudes we occasionally harbor.  Life presents us with an assortment of blessings; some bring us immediate joy; some invite tears; others foster fear.  What we need help in understanding is that all experiences are meant for our good, all bless us in some manner.  If we are able to see the big picture, we’d greet all situations, large and small, with a thankful heart.

It’s so very easy to wish away our lives, never finding satisfaction with our families, our jobs, our friends.  The more we find fault with life, the more fault we are guaranteed to find.  Negative attitudes attract negative experiences, while positive attitudes lighten whatever burden we may be learning from.

The years pass so quickly.  Our chances to enjoy life pass quickly, too.  We can grab what comes our way and be grateful.  We are never certain that this experience offered now might not be our last.

Each morning I awake is blessing number one.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

It’s the deep waters of life that teach us to be better swimmers

Variety in experiences is necessary for our continued growth.  We mistakenly think that the “untroubled” life would be forever welcome.  It’s the deep waves of life that teach us to be better swimmers.

We don’t know how to appreciate the calm without the occasional storm that pushes us to new limits of ourselves.  The calm following the storm offers us the time we need to become comfortable with our new growth.  We are ever changing, refining our values, stepping gingerly into uncharted territories.  We are forever in partnership in these new territories, let us not forget.

We long for challenge even in the midst of the calm that blesses us.  Our inner selves understand the journey, a journey destined to carry us to new horizons; a journey that promises many stormy seasons.  For to reach our destination, we must be willing to weather the storms.  They are challenges, handpicked for us, designed to help us become all that we need to be in this earthly life.

Source:  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

We need to know that we matter in this life

We need to know that we matter in this life.  We need evidence that others are aware of our presence.  And thus, we can be certain that others need the same attention from us.  When we give it, we get it.  So the giving of attention to another searching soul meets our own need for attention as well.

Respectful recognition of another’s presence blesses that person, ourselves, and God.  And we help one another grow, in important ways, each time we pay the compliment of acknowledgment.

We’re not sure, on occasion, just what we have to offer our friends, families, co-workers.  Why we are in certain circumstances may have us baffled, but it’s quite probably that the people we associate with regularly need something we can give them; the reverse is just as likely.  So we can begin with close attention to people in our path.  It takes careful listening and close observation to sense the message another soul may be sending to our own.

I will be conscious of the people around me.  I shall acknowledge them and be thankful for all they are offering me.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

We are a composite of our actions, attitudes, choices, and decisions

There is no provision for blaming others in our lives.  Who we are is a composite of the actions, attitudes, choices, and decisions we’ve made up to now.  For many of us, predicaments may have resulted from our decisions to not act when the opportunity arose.  But these were decisions, no less, and we must take responsibility for making them.

We need not feel utterly powerless and helpless about the events of our lives.  True, we cannot control others, and we cannot curb the momentum of a situation, but we can choose our own responses to both; these choices will heighten our sense of self and well-being and may well positively influence the quality of the day.

I will accept responsibility for my actions, but not for the outcome of a situation; that is all that’s requested of me.  It is one of the assignments of life, and homework is forthcoming.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

We have many lessons to learn

What bothered us most a year ago?  A month ago?  Even a week ago?  It’s probable that whatever it was, we were obsessed with it, certain that our futures were ruined, that there was no reasonable solution.  It’s also probable that we feared we simply couldn’t survive the complexity of the situation.  But we did.  And we always will be able to survive any and all difficulties.  We are never, absolutely never, given more than we can handle.  In fact, we are given exactly what we need at any given time.

We have many lessons so learn.  Fortunately, we have tools, like these daily meditations, to guide us through the lessons.  We need mainly to remember what we are powerless over, that there is a power greater than ourselves, and that life will become simple; we’ll need no extra homework when we’ve turned it over to the care of God.

Whatever my problem today, I will let God have it.  A solution is in the making.  I’ll see it just as quickly as I can let go of the problem.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

God is present within and about us all the time

God’s presence is within us, now and always, even though we feel alone, alienated, scared, and forgotten much of the time.  We often overlook God’s presence because we don’t recognize it.  Our talents, our desires, and our pursuits are the evidence — all the evidence we’ll ever need once we understand it — that God is present within and about us all the time.

The creative potential goes unrealized among so many of us, perhaps because we have a rigid definition of what creativity is.  We are creative.  We are all, each of us, creative.  We must be, because God’s presence is here now.  When we choose to let it guide us, we’ll be able to offer our own unique gifts to the world of friends of around us.  Encouraging creativity, our own and someone else’s, may mean breaking old habits.  It surely does mean stepping out of our own way.  It also means giving ourselves fully to the experience of the moment and trusting that God’s presence will prompt the deliverance of our special gift.

In the moment lives God within us.  In the moment, I am creative, blessed with gifts like no other.  I will stay in the moment and offer them, guided by the God within.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

All of life’s elements are moving toward a state of total and perfect harmony

Harmony exists everywhere, as an entity of itself.  Our personal attitudes bring the disharmony to a situation.  An attitude of love can bless all situations and all people.

The converse is likewise true.  We all desire harmony in our relationships.  And we will find it every time we bring an attitude of honest gratitude into a situation.

How we feel today about this person or that situation reflects the strength of our relationship with God.  When we experience life in the company of our higher power, we will let life flow.  We will observe harmony, then, even in the midst of difference.

All of life’s elements are moving toward a state of total and perfect harmony.  We need not fear.  We can trust the company of our higher power and know that every situation, no matter how adverse its appearance, is contributing to a harmonious outcome if we’d but lend a trusting attitude.

Harmony is everywhere.  I will celebrate it.  I will trust the present.  I will trust the future.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

A steady flame can rekindle one that’s flickering

Our spiritual nature must be nurtured.  Prayer and meditation lovingly kindle the flame that guides us from within.  Because we’re human, we often let the flame flicker and perhaps go out, and then we sense the dreaded aloneness.  Fortunately, some time away, perhaps even a few moments in quiet communion with God, rekindles the flame.

For most of us, the flame burned low, or not at all, for many years.  The flickering we may feel today or tomorrow, or felt yesterday, will not last, so we may put away our fears.  We can listen to the voice of our higher power in others.  We can listen, too, as we carry the message.  Prayer surrounds us every moment.  We can fuel our inner flame with the messages received from others.  We can let our spirit spring forth, let it warm our hearts and the hearts of others.

We each have a friend whose flame may be flickering today.  I will help that friend, and thus myself.  A steady flame can rekindle one that’s flickering.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

Conscious involvement in our own lives

Choosing to participate actively in our own lives ushers in joy, and sometimes fear.  We are energized by our conscious involvement; making thoughtful choices regarding our development heightens our sense of well-being.  But, occasionally we may fear potential failure.  About as frequently, we may fear probably success.

Not every day do we want the responsibility for our lives, but we have it.  On occasion, we only want the loving arms of a caretaker.  The beauty of our lives at this time is that we do have a caretaker at our beck and call, a caretaker who has demonstrated repeatedly a concern for our safety, a caretaker who will help us shoulder every responsibility we face.

Once we have chosen to act responsibly, we ask for the guidance to live to the best of our abilities, and we will be helped to accomplish the tasks right for us in this stage of our lives.

All I have to do is make the right choices.  I will always know which they are, when I ask for guidance.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations

Mastery over our attitudes

We can’t control the events of our lives, but we do have mastery over our attitudes.  The chances will be many, today, to react negatively or positively to circumstances we find ourselves in.  We can consider that each circumstance has something special in it for us.

Positive expectations regarding the planned as well as the spontaneous activities of the day will influence the activity’s flow, our involvement with it, and our interactions with the other people involved.  A positive attitude seems to breed positive experiences.  In other words, we attract into our lives that which we expect.  How often do we get up angry, feeling behind when the day has only begun, short-tempered with our children, “ready” for a tough one at work?  And we generally find it.

The Serenity Prayer offers us all the knowledge, all the wisdom we’ll ever need.  We can accept what has to be, change what we can, and not get confused between the two.  We can inventory our attitude.  Are we taking charge of it?  Our attitude is something we can change.

I won’t get trapped today by a negative attitude.  I will accept the challenge of turning my day around.

Source (modified):  Each Day a New Beginning | Hazelden Meditations