Nancy Burke
The body is a universe in itself and must be held as sacred as any thing in creation. It is dangerous to forget the body is sacramental.
May Sarton
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 14
In days past, it seemed that everything she touched died. But she tended a little herb garden. At least there she could make things live . . except for the lemon balm. Year after year, it grew well for a while and then died. It was a little thing, only one plant out of many, but it had become symbolic of all her failures. She finally gave up. Years later, she watched curiously as a tiny plant that was obviously not a weed emerged from the soil. When the leaves grew large enough, she pinched them gently and sniffed. It was a baby lemon balm! Sometimes seeds hibernate. Be patient. They are only waiting for the right time to emerge.
Rhonda Brunea
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 15
Iwas thirty-eight years old before I understood that no matter what I did or said, my mother and father could not parent any better than they had. It was beyond their ability and more important, was nothing personal. One of the most precious gifts of my recovery was accepting that my mom and dad just didn’t possess boundless love, endless nurturing, playfulness, tenderness or fun to give. I was lucky enough and had the courage to find a way to let go of my idealized vision of what my parents’ love should look like. Before they passed away, the expressions of love that had started out as unilateral behaviors on my part became mutual.
Ted Klontz
It is a wise father who knows his own child.
William Shakespeare
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 16
Before recovery I didn’t understand choices; I didn’t realize I actually had them. I spent my life reacting to situations I believed were out of my control.
Now my life is based on choices; I choose how I think, and my thoughts create my reality. I choose how to respond, or not to respond. I move forward, learn to live with my choice, or change my direction.
Deb Sellars Karpek
Right now you are one choice away from a new beginning.
Oprah Winfrey
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 17
My dad once said, “Everybody has a string pulled a little too tight.” He drew a circle and from the center he drew rays to represent taut strings. One line he labeled VANITY, another GREED; the next, LUST, etc.
I guess Dad was trying to say that nobody is perfect and that, on some level, each of us has a weakness that makes us a bit “nutty.” But we learn and we grow. And if, in the challenges of each day, we persevere and hold firm to our beliefs and our goals, we will flourish.
Kay Conner Pliszka
Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
Unknown
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 18
You never truly stop being beautiful. Your age creates a glow of wisdom and confidence that silvers your hair and puts a step of grace into your walk.
You shine as your true self, the one that took the years to perfect.
Nadia Ali
The truly important things in life–love, beauty, and one’s own uniqueness–are constantly being overlooked.
Pablo Casals
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 19
In times of great trial, we often find ourselves not knowing what to do, or which way to turn. In the midst of confusion, it’s easy to block out the needs of those around us, choosing to inwardly focus on our own misery. However, reaching out to others helps us regain balance in our lives. In redirecting our energy toward easing another’s burdens, our own burdens not only become lighter, but we find reasons to rejoice . . . newly blessed by all we’ve been given. In walking a mile in the other man’s shoes, we have an opportunity to gain new appreciation for the perfect fit of our own.
Michelle Close-Mills
We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.
Blaise Pascal
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 20
The fragility or strength of the motivating force behind your will determines the success of dreams and the distance they travel. As we live our lives we run into successes or failures; our choosing makes the difference in the two.
Ideas originate in the hallowed hallways of the mind, from feelings and beliefs, and are spurred on into the heart where they meet up with will and determination, or die from apprehension. It is when the soul grabs hold of dreams and refuses to release them until they see fruition, that a person truly knows the joy that imaginings can bring.
Betty King
What I can imagine, I can see. What I can see, I can grab hold of, what I can grab hold of is mine.
Betty King
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 21
Recovery takes time. If I am impatient with my healing I cheat myself of the necessary time it takes to go through my own grief. To pretend that I have never experienced real despair is to sabotage myself, to become complicit in emotional dishonesty. I know I have the strength I need to get through my pain and part of my strength is not ignoring my emotions. I entrust myself to God with a sure knowledge that my healing is now taking place.
Rokelle Lerner
Health is not a condition of matter, but of mind.
Mary Baker Eddy
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 22
In our culture, we emphasize the body, exalt the intellect and worship talent. Yet, the flesh is just the package, the wrapping paper for the true prize–our spirit. Life leaves the bows and ribbons a bit frayed and the brightly colored paper fades with time, but through difficulties our spirit grows. The spirit shapes our true destiny. It is the spirit that makes each one of us intrinsically priceless and eternally precious.
Renee Hixson
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
Kahlil Gibran
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 23
Iknow that I can do anything I need to do with God’s help. When I feel alone or shaken up, I can ask for help within myself and know that it is there. Each of us has to learn our own lessons, that is what we are here to do.We can’t learn anyone else’s lessons for them and learning our own is difficult enough. To plow through my own psyche and face the insecurity and wounds that are there is all that I can handle. To try to live other people’s lives for them is to separate myself from God because my first access to God is through and within me.
Tian Dayton
One on God’s side is a majority.
Wendell Phillips
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 24
It feels wonderful to love someone else and to have someone love you, but there’s nothing more wonderful than loving who you are. Allow yourself to see your inner beauty, your strengths and how much you have to offer this world. You are special and unique; you brighten the lives of others. Take the energy and passion you put into loving others, and direct it to loving who you are.
Cori Sachais Swidorsky
I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 25
Ihave a little booklet my grandfather wrote. He speaks to me through words on a yellowed page and I hear the voice of a man I have never met. Sometimes I think he left the stories especially for me, although for him I was only a prediction. I come from a long line of storytellers–their wares passed from one generation to the next in the fashion of heirlooms. Like any inheritance the value lies with the recipient. I hold the stories passed to me close to my heart. My mother used to tell me that I was the promise her father made–the baby sent to her
after his passing. At fifty years old I still love that story.
Elva Stoelers
Your scars are evidence that you have healed.
Dr. Julia Boyd
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 26
Sometimes indulging yourself is the best answer to feeling wonderful. Cook something that is simply delicious that takes a lot of effort! Something you would make for company.
Today you are making it just for yourself, so don’t rush through the process.
Then when it’s done, set the table beautifully. Use candles. Use your best dishes. And one beautiful rose in a bud vase. You are celebrating yourself. Enjoy!
Felice Prager
Without haste, but without rest.
Goethe
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 27
Living a life of honesty is a commitment to forthright thinking and behavior–a willingness to be fully responsible. Honesty enables me to live with an open heart and to avoid the self-loathing, guilt and shame that accompany deception and manipulation. Perhaps most significantly, it is an outward display of self-acceptance and a statement to the world that I am worthy of respect.
Jeff McFarland
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
William Shakespeare
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 28
Diamonds are nothing special, really. They started out as simple chunks of coal. They just got a lot of preferential treatment–and not the kind they would have chosen. They became diamonds because they were put under enough heat and pressure to crystallize. No pressure, no diamonds. We are diamonds in the making. Let us persist under pressure.
Barbara A. Croce
Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.
Malcolm S. Forbes
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 29
Today I will learn to see soul in the simple things of life. It is oftentimes the things that I take for granted that are truly responsible for the deep underpinnings of my sense of well-being and personal happiness. When I let myself have and enjoy events of life, I will see soul radiate from the simple and the little things.
Life is a tapestry woven of small threads. I appreciate what I take for granted.
Tian Dayton
When you see ordinary situations with extraordinary insight, it is like discovering a jewel in rubbish.
Chögyan Trungpa
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 30
Growing up in an alcoholic home, crisis was common and made life confusing. Feelings of anxiety and fear were my constant companions. Crisis is no longer a condition I live with. I do whatever I can to ensure my serenity and my peace of mind. I allow enough time for myself to do what I need. I eliminate clutter from my life and shun discord and over-complication. I think before I act, I’m kind to myself and I avoid situations filled with pandemonium and turmoil. Slow down and let serenity flow into your life.
Rokelle Lerner
A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.
Katharine Butler Hathaway
Footnotes for Life
OCTOBER 31
It is difficult to pretend to be happy when I am not. The hurt and anger lingers as I try to recover from the pain of loss. As I try to drink my hurt away, I reach for the wine bottle from the cabinet in my kitchen. Just as I move my hand away from the top shelf, my Bible topples down and lands on my kitchen table. A reminder, what would be more refreshing, a temporary cure or lasting tranquility and inner peace. I have replaced my drinking hour with my thinking hour. I devote some time each morning for inspirational reading and thought as I learn to take one day at a time.
Theresa Meehan
Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
James Buckham
Footnotes for Life
NOVEMBER 1
Newly sober, Grace quickly returned to a high-risk environmentworking as a flight attendant. One day she was hit with an overwhelming desire for a drink. She tried to just “think through” or “forget about” it, but it was too powerful and she headed for the airport bar. Deep down inside she really wanted to stay sober and in a moment of sanity she picked up the airport page and said “Will friends of Bill W. . . .,” she paused quickly looking for an empty gate, “. . . please come to Gate 12?” Within minutes strangers from all over the world joined Grace for a little meeting. Grace did not drink that day. Help is there for all who ask. It never fails.
Jim C., Jr., Scottsdale, Arizona
Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.
Liz Smith
Footnotes for Life
NOVEMBER 2
When I enter into a relationship with the idea that another person can make me happy and content, I become concerned over what I might or might not get back. If I relieve others from the responsibility for making me happy, I can enjoy intimate relationships based upon mutual caring, not on need. I deserve a relationship, not to make me happy, but to share the richness of who I am with others.
Rokelle Lerner
Always do what you say you are going to do. It is the glue and fiber that binds successful relationships.
Jeffrey A. Timmons
Footnotes for Life
NOVEMBER 3
Life is a glorious mystery. After we have understood one thing, we are presented with a fresh problem. We are not perfect. We are not God. We will never understand completely. Some years ago this used to anger and irritate me. I wanted to know everything. I wanted to have the answer to all life’s problems. I wanted the “power” that comes with perfection. I hated being vulnerable, weak and confused! I hated being human! Yes, that was my problem. I hated being a human being. Today I am enjoying the adventure of life, and I kneel in awe at its mingled complexity. Today life is a paradox that I can live with.
Father Leo Booth
The future is hidden even from the men who made it.
Anatole France
Footnotes for Life
NOVEMBER 4
When faced with tossing a few bucks into the jar of an unfortunate soul I wonder if by doing so I’m supporting a person’s addiction or falling victim to a scam. I usually decide that for the price of a scratch ticket, I’d rather give a person the benefit of the doubt. With thousands swallowed up by substance abuse, alcoholism, unemployment and homelessness each day, it could easily be me or someone I love walking in those worn shoes. The next time you ask yourself why God has given so much to so few, and so little to so many, consider this: perhaps God has given enough and the problem is that people have forgotten how to share his generous gifts.
Steven Manchester
More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them.
Unknown
Footnotes for Life
NOVEMBER 5
Arainy day can get me feeling down. The gray skies, the dull colors, the dripping rain. I see and hear this and my spirit sags. Occasionally, responding this way sets me on a downward spiral of feeling even worse, because I expect myself to be cheery and positive. The self judge comes alive with, “Why am I letting a little rain get me down?” My body can be very sensitive to changes in the environment and knowing that can help me ease up on judging myself. I can’t always be upbeat and happy in the same way that it can’t always be sunny and bright, however I can always allow myself to be with every mood I feel.
Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) Page 14