David Lee

Meditation for the Day

Fear is the curse of the world. Many are our fears. Fear is everywhere. I must fight fear as I would a plague. I must turn it out of my life. There is no room for fear in the heart in which God dwells. Fear cannot exist where true love is or where faith abides. So I must have no fear. Fear is evil, but “perfect love casteth out all fear.” Fear destroys hope and hope is necessary for all of humanity.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have no fear. I pray that I may cast all fear out of my life.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

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Be Who You Are

When I meet people or get in a new relationship, I start putting all these repressive restrictions on myself. I can’t have my feelings. Can’t have my wants and needs. Can’t have my history. Can’t do the things I want, feel the feelings I’m feeling, or say what I need to say. I turn into this repressed, perfectionistic robot, instead of being who I am: Me.
—Anonymous

Sometimes, our instinctive reaction to being in a new situation is: Don’t be yourself.

Who else can we be? Who else would you want to be? We don’t need to be anyone else.

The greatest gift we can bring to any relationship wherever we go is being who we are.

We may think others won’t like us. We may be afraid that if we just relax and be ourselves, the other person will go away or shame us. We may worry about what the other person will think.

But, when we relax and accept ourselves, people often feel much better being around us than when we are rigid and repressed. We’re fun to be around.

If others don’t appreciate us, do we really want to be around them? Do we need to let the opinions of others control our behavior and us?

Giving ourselves permission to be who we are can have a healing influence on our relationships. The tone relaxes. We relax. The other person relaxes. Then everybody feels a little less shame, because they have learned the truth. Who we are is all we can be, all were meant to be, and it’s enough. It’s fine.

Our opinion of ourselves is truly all that matters. And we can give ourselves all the approval we want and need.

Today, I will relax and be who I am in my relationships. I will do this not in a demeaning or inappropriate way, but in a way that shows I accept myself and value who I am. Help me, God, let go of my fears about being myself.

From Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

Meditation for the Day

The elimination of selfishness is the key to happiness and can only be accomplished with God’s help. We start out with a spark of the Divine Spirit but a large amount of selfishness. As we grow and come in contact with other people, we can take one of two paths. We can become more and more selfish and practically extinguish the Divine Spark within us, or we can become more unselfish and develop our spirituality until it becomes the most important thing in our lives.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may grow more and more unselfish, honest, pure, and loving. I pray that I may take the right path every day.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

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Higher Power as a Source

I’ve learned I can take care of myself, and what I can’t do, God will do for me.
—Al-Anon member

God, a Higher Power as we understand Him, is our source of guidance and positive change. This doesn’t mean we’re not responsible for ourselves. We are. But we aren’t in this alone.

Recovery is not a do-it-yourself project. We don’t have to become overly concerned about changing ourselves. We can do our part, relax, and trust that the changes we’ll experience will be right for us.

Recovery means we don’t have to look to other people as our source to meet our needs. They can help us, but they are not the source.

As we learn to trust the recovery process, we start to understand that a relationship with our Higher Power is no substitute for relationships with people. We don’t need to hide behind religious beliefs or use our relationship with a Higher Power as an excuse to stop taking responsibility for ourselves and taking care of ourselves in relationships. But we can tap into and trust a Power greater than ourselves for the energy, wisdom, and guidance to do that.

Today, I will look to my Higher Power as a source for all my needs, including the changes I want to make in my recovery.

From Language of Letting Go by Melodie Beattie

It was one week ago tonight that I entered posts on Facebook before beginning what I commonly refer to as a hiatus from social media. Like all the times I’ve done this before, I find myself reaching for my phone to check out all the latest posts, only to remember that I’ve deleted both the Facebook and Instagram apps.

So what have I don’t with all that time, you might ask. To be perfectly honest, some of it has been wasted. Then there are other times when I’ve dug in to my schoolwork and am proud to say for the most part, I’ve kept up-to-date with most all of it. I also have found more time to look for teaching resources for a science and social studies curriculum that I’ve not taught before.

One of the things I know I need to focus on is work around the house. I’ve as of yet to really put a concerted effort towards getting things cleaned and organized and know this is something I need to work on in the near future.

My job as a free-lance photographer has occupied some of my extra hours of time. This past Saturday, I spent much of the day taking pictures at three different venues for this Monday’s publication. I am at somewhat of a disadvantage in keeping up with the happenings in and around town, as I used FB events to monitor local events.

I have been writing a bit more in my journal and that’s a good thing. I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the readership of this blog, but I know I have to continue to do some sort of posts each day and see if I can develop an audience. I also plan on looking at various writers on WordPress to see if I can find blogs that I’m truly interested in. I’ve found several thus far and have also noticed that some of them have started following my blog as well.

When I started to write this particular entry, I entitled it “Two Weeks In” and then realized it had only been one week of my time away. So I guess in many ways I do truly miss it and what was one week away certainly seemed more like two.

David Lee

Your Card for the Day

BUILDING BLOCKS

BUILDING BLOCKS

Essential meanings: Strong foundations; a beautiful work in progress.

Protection message: Now is the time to address the cracks in the foundations of your life. Perhaps your values have changed, and it is time to strengthen your convictions and let go of the things that no longer serve the vision you have for your life. Or perhaps you chose to ignore the signs that a situation or agreement you have entered into is not right for you. Remove the rotten pieces, and reinforce your grounding in moral strength and integrity. Now is the time for rigorous honesty, for you are called to renovate! You will be so happy when you do. Spirit has a spectacular blueprint for your life far beyond your imagination. Don’t be afraid to replace what’s not solid.

Meditation for the Day

I will try to grow in this new life. I will think of spiritual things often and unconsciously I will grow. The nearer I get to the new life, the more I will see my unfitness. My sense of failure is a sure sign that I am growing in the new life. It is only struggle that hurts. In sloth – physical, mental, or spiritual – there is no sense of failure or discomfort. With struggle and effort, I am conscious not of strength but of weakness until I am really living the new life. But in the struggle, I can always rely on the power of God to help me.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may see signs of my growth in the new life. I pray that I may always keep trying to grow.

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

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Accepting Ourselves

While driving one day, a woman’s attention focused on the license plate of the car ahead. The license read: B WHO UR. How can I? she thought. I don’t know who I am!

Some of us may have felt confused when people encouraged us to be ourselves. How could we know ourselves, or be who we are, when, for years, many of us submerged ourselves in the needs of others?

We do have a self. We’re discovering more about ourselves daily. We’re learning we’re deserving of love.

We’re learning to accept ourselves, as we are for the present moment – to accept our feelings, thoughts, flaws, wants, needs, and desires. If our thoughts or feelings are confused, we accept that too.

To be who we are means we accept our past – our history – exactly as is.

To be ourselves means we are entitled to our opinions and beliefs – for the present moment and subject to change. We accept our limitations and our strengths.

To be who we are means we accept our physical selves, as well as our mental, emotional, and spiritual selves, for now. Being who we are in recovery means we take that acceptance one step further. We can appreciate our history and ourselves.

Being whom we are, loving and accepting ourselves, is not a limiting attitude. Accepting and loving ourselves is how we enable growth and change.

Today, I will be who I am. If I’m not yet certain who I am, I will affirm that I have a right to that exciting discovery.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie