FEBRUARY 26
Close your eyes and savor the quiet. Hear the birds chirping, the airplane soaring overhead, the neighborhood moving through its daily rhythm. Listen until the lullaby soothes your spirit and a sense of peace surrounds you. Feel the quiet calmand open the locked window in your heart. You wait, unsure, then your mind quickens when deep, buried hurts stumble out. You’re facing the horror again, not wanting to look away anymore. Somehow you survived the abuse all those years ago. The scars are real and will always remain, but today, you realize they don’t define you. You’re still shaky, but now you feel something like hope. You finally understand it wasn’t your fault.
Joanna Booher
Stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.
Hans Selye
Footnotes for Life
FEBRUARY 27
In the midst of a terrible winter storm Tom lay blacked-out on his back in an alley, unaware that drugs and alcohol were about to claim him. Slowly a strange sensation pulled him back. Short, abrasive strokes across his face. His eyes snapped open to find himself nose-to-nose with a pitiful but very large cat. Life soon bottomed-out for Tom but concern for his furry angel gave him the will to hold on. Years later, cradling the old cat, he spoke softly, “You don’t have to stay on my account, I’m gonna be okay,” and the golden eyes closed for the last time. Companionship and support comes in all shapes and sizes.
John Crusey
No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities–always see them, for they’re always there.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
Footnotes for Life
FEBRUARY 28
What a powerful thing choice is. We can choose to lead and set examples of strength and perseverance, courage and love, or we can give in to our addiction, accept defeat and wallow in a self-pity that will never let go.
We can choose to support those who are strong and in turn lean on them so we no longer have to walk alone. Reflect on your journey and where your path leads. The most difficult choices often lead to the greatest rewards.
Raquel Strand
Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 1
Iwill not hold onto the memories or the hurtful past, though they are a part of me. I choose to allow them to strengthen me as I move forward. I chose this destiny. I chose this journey. I will begin with my first step, putting one foot steadily in front of the other. Then another. Then another.
Alexandra P.
Let’s take the mistakes of the past, and the road-blocking challenges of the present, and build them into stairs that support our climb into the future.
Mattie J. T. Stepanek
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 2
Today signals a change in my life. Today, the tide turns me on a new course, a new way of living. Today, I am released of the burdens and pain and suffering that have kept me contained, living small. Today, I am like the vast open ocean, free to flow expansively, surging with powerful energy. As I ebb with my natural life current, an endless horizon of possibilities comes into view. I float through the cool clear waters, refreshed and renewed with hope. The calm waves soothe my spirit and cleanse the sorrow of the past. Today, I glide with the surf, carried gently to a life far bigger than I ever dreamed.
Shary Hauer
Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of energy and genius to draw upon of which we do not dream.
William James
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 3
My three-year-old daughter pulled the blankets up under her chin as I tucked her in for the night. “Mommy, does God have arms?”
“No, God is spirit,” I replied. “He doesn’t have a body like ours.”
“Then how does he give hugs?” she asked.
Reaching down to wrap my arms around her in a tight squeeze, I explained, “Whenever God needs arms, he borrows ours.”
Emily Chase
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 4
Ihave a busy “committee meeting” in my brain on most days. It’s always been there and I have come to accept that it may always be there. However, when I hear too much conversation in my head centered on the idea of “enough-ness,” I know it’s time to get conscious about those messages. My disease is about “not being enough.” It tells me I’m not smart enough, rich enough, pretty enough; the list goes on and on. Once I recognize that line of thinking, I change to a more truthful affirmation–I am enough. I am intelligent enough, I am thin enough, I am simply enough, just the way I am.
Anne Conner
Argue for your limitations and sure enough they’re yours.
Richard Bach
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 5
At thirty-one I had a doctorate in psychology and had been drinking heavily on and off for fourteen years. My head was so filled with theories and concepts that I thought myself into one blind alley after another. Finally unable to struggle any longer, I shook with fear as I called a friend in recovery. “Charlie, I think I’m an alcoholic. Will you take me to a meeting?” I could feel a comforting, accepting smile beaming out of the telephone. Through the fog of my terror and shame I heard him say, with nearly infinite warmth, “John, I’ve been waiting a year and a half for you. Of course, I’ll take you. It would be an honor.”
John C.Friel
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 6
When you find yourself trapped, there is only one way out. That way is your trust in a Higher Power. You do not have to wear yourself out until you are near death. Look around. He may reveal himself to you, just as he revealed himself to me, when I became willing to be carried in loving hands.
David Mead
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
Henry David Thoreau
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 7
Victories often arrive after you have exhausted every ounce of effort and the sweat pours down your face. Sometimes victory is achieved as you stand resolute with feet firmly planted, confronting your enemy face to face.
But there are times when victory is not in the battle at all, but in the understanding that discretion is, indeed, the better part of valor.Whatever shape they come in, celebrate your victories.
Ava Pennington
Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs matchless and pure strength of faith.
Mahatma Gandhi
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 8
Ihonor my own experience and personal truth. I know that no one from my past needs to see things the way I do for me to get better or move on. Trying to convince family members of what I have learned through my own journey can be an exercise in futility and delay my progress. Each of us has our own truth that is unique unto itself. We are all at different levels of understanding and acceptance of who and where we are in life. Each member of my family experienced our childhoods in our own way and have a right to our own perceptions. I do not have to get anyone to see it my way in order for me to feel comfortable. My truth is my truth, theirs is theirs.
Tian Dayton
If you add to the truth, you subtract from it.
The Talmud
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 9
Failure. It’s one of the most beautiful things in the world. Failure is exciting because it means I’m reaching past what I’ve always done. It means I’m willing to try new things. It keeps my
mind young and energized because the focus isn’t on the failure but on the one step closer to a goal to be reached. Goals are reached one failed step at a time.
Glenda Schoonmaker
If you always do what you’ve always done, then you will always get what you’ve always gotten.
Unknown
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 10
These days my attention is not on fixing others, but on creating a sense of well-being within myself. As I discover new ways of improving the quality of my life I can be sure that I reflect well-being to others. If I am critical of myself, I am quick to condemn and judge others. If my life is full of contradictions, resentments and insecurities, I might be sabotaging the growth of those who come to me seeking help. I must remember that as a helper, I can only be a catalyst for change. In the end, each individual must decide whether or not to embark on a different journey.
Rokelle Lerner
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
Albert von Szent-Györgyi
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 11
Ienjoyed fulfilling work as a sign language interpreter until a brain injury left me struggling to re-learn simple tasks. One Sunday, the chair where the interpreter sat for our church service was empty. My heart argued with my bruised brain as I saw the deaf people’s disappointment. I knew I had to try. I tookmy place, looked out into the large congregation and began to panic. But as I looked into the eyes of the deaf congregants my hands took flight. Expressed with the voice in my hands, the words landed lovingly in the hearts and minds of my deaf friends through expectant eyes. In the service of others, I had found and reclaimed my self.
Jenna Cassell
The highest of distinctions is service to others.
King George VI
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 12
Pain of human experiences is universal and a safe setting and a language through which to talk about one’s experiences allow people to begin to speak their truth, to own their reality. Ultimately they can put the past behind them, let go of painful familiar scripts and be accountable for their own choices. No one deserves to live a life of fear, pain and shame.
Claudia Black
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglas
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 13
Just for today, I release all worries.
Just for today, I release all anger.
Just for today, I shall earn my living with integrity.
Just for today, I will be kind to every living thing.
Just for today, I give thanks for all my many blessings.
Reiki Principle
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 14
The gems of real value in our lives are the people who at one time or another have loved us unconditionally. These spiritual guides change from time to time, but what they have in common is their acceptance of us just the way we are. We can keep that love with us today in accepting ourselves as treasured gems. We need to accept ourselves as part of the wealth of the Universe, for without us it would be devoid of the beauty of the human spirit. That beauty is the kind of wealth that provides true happiness. Love is a richness that cannot be devalued.
Yvonne Kaye
If your riches are gems, why don’t you take them with you to the other world?
Benjamin Franklin
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 15
It is important that we laugh, sing, dance and love. Never stand on the sidelines and be left wondering “what if.” Step forward and give life all you have to give. Open doors for others as doors have opened for you. Face the challenges with hope. Meet obstacles with a smile. You never know who may be watching, so be a good example and mentor. Cherish the moments and look to God for answers.
Diane Thompson
God bears with imperfect beings even when they resist His goodness.
Francois de Fenelon
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 16
It is one of themost difficult things you can do. And yet, it is very simple, easy and effortless. It is one of the most powerful things you can do. And yet, when you do it you give up the need and the desire for power. What is it? It is letting go of your own ego. When you can bring yourself to get beyond your own ego, you raise yourself to a whole new level of awareness, experience and effectiveness. When you can think, live and act unconstrained by the limitations of your ego, the possibilities are truly endless. Your worries, your fears, your doubts, anxieties, disappointments and hesitation to move forward are all sustained by your ego. Imagine the power of leaving all those limitations behind.
Brahma Kumaris
World Spiritual University
Flexibility means being able to make problems into teachers.
Brahma Kumaris
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 17
My past is no longer here. My present is today. My future is waiting and I will start planning now. I will treat myself with love, make each day a positive one and not allow self-pity to control me.
It is survival of the fittest and I challenge myself to focus not on what others do for me but what I can do with my disorder to help other people.
Stacey Chillemi
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
Abraham Lincoln
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 18
Vague feelings of discontent or twinges of restlessness are discomforts we have difficulty identifying and they can be disconcerting. Often we are able to handle the obvious problem areas in our recovery but struggle with the subtle pitfalls. Without realizing it, we can choose the wrong things to fill the empty void created by our boredom. It might be as simple as choosing a handful of cookies when a walk would be a better choice. Part of recovery is making wise choices.
Joyce McDonald Hoskins
Expectations are the thief of God’s blessings.
Constance K. Hardy
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 19
You are enough, you have enough. Everything you need is within you. Maybe for others I believed that, but not myself. I’ve always felt lacking and wanting. I needed more, something was missing. Should I change jobs? Go back to school? Move? Move on? That “not enough” feeling was always there.
Suddenly, today I understood that “not enough” meant love. That “more” meant love. That thing “missing” was love. Self-love. As I embrace that idea, I recognize and appreciate that I do have enough and I am enough. What a gift to give oneself!
Deb Sellars Karpek
If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything.
Mrs. Ernest Hemingway
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 20
As a teenager I chased after better living through chemicals believing that if you had my troubles, you too would drink and drug. Now that I’ve learned that most of my troubles came from the drinking and drugging, when I come to a fork in the road I know how to make a sober choice and reap the significant rewards. I remember many nights sitting on a bar stool yakking away about being an artist. Now that I’m in recovery I know how to show up for life and work hard. I am successful. I run my own business. I set goals. I achieve them. I’m not all talk. That’s what self-esteem is made of!
Dorri Olds
Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.
Van Wyck Brooks
Footnotes for Life
MARCH 21
Ispent many years unsuccessfully struggling to change the size and shape of my body. Therein lay the spark for change, the point of departure. The
new idea, the only fad I hadn’t tried, was to love and accept my body unconditionally at the size and shape I was. This newfound acceptance was the revolutionary act that led me to unprecedented freedom from obsession and dangerous behaviors. My bottom line is I no longer harm myself with food or exercise and I no longer use food or exercise to try to change the size or shape of my body. I’ve finally come to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing wrong with me. Nothing needs to be changed.
Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) Page 4