By the time we got to this program, most of us had accumulated a checkered past, much of which we wanted to deny or forget. And the weight of our past can stand in the way of the many possibilities in the present.
Our past need not determine what we set out to do today. However, we must be realistic: We can't change a behavior pattern overnight. But we can begin the process. We can decide on a reasonable, manageable objective for this 24-hour period. Enough days committed to the completion of enough small objectives will bring us to the attainment of any goal, large or small.
I can finish any task I set my sights on, when I take it one day at a time. Today is before me. I can move forward in a small way.
—from Each Day a New Beginning
MARCH 7
Productivity
Something needs to be done in the course of a day.
—Edith Shannon
Where did we learn to be productive? Perhaps from parents who expected chores to be done. Or maybe from the popular refrain heard in every classroom by every child: “Get busy!” The stories we read as children usually lauded the fruits of being industrious. The message was everywhere. And nothing has changed.
Being productive isn't a failing. In fact, without committing to productivity we'd never have attained any goal we set for ourselves. Our past accomplishments wouldn't have materialized. But a lesson we deserve to learn—and it's never too late—is that we can define “getting something done” as loosely and as imaginatively as we wish. This is surely one of the rewards of old age.
Feeling as though we have made a difference is what we really yearn for. How we make that difference is as varied and optional as our minds can fathom.
Something as simple as smiling at a stranger is getting something done. I can brighten someone's world so easily today.
—from Keepers of the Wisdom
MARCH 8
Letting go of problems
All problems can be handled by changing our minds about them.
For most of us it's a radical opinion, at least initially, to believe that our problems can be relinquished at will. After all, they seem so integral to all the experiences we're having. Indeed they are; however, our experiences mirror our thoughts about ourselves and the people we're with. Problems thus lie with our perceptions.
Being told that we can change our lives by changing our minds seems simplistic. The events that involve us appear far too complicated for such an easy solution. But until we earnestly try to change our minds, we'll not understand the power we garner at the blink of an eye. The Holy Spirit is just as accessible as the ego. If we want to see something, in fact anything, differently, all we need to do is ask the Holy Spirit for a better vision of the circumstance. One will come to us.
Today I choose to change my mind about problems.
—from Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course
MARCH 9
Freedom to love
Ideally, both members of a couple in love free each other to new and different worlds.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh
We cannot possess another's spirit, even though we may desire to do so while struggling to feel love. We must not block one another's invitations for adventure even though we fear being left behind. We won't find the happiness we long for if we've tied another to ourselves by strings of shame, guilt, or pity.
Being free to love, or not, is the only path to real love. A trapped butterfly soon loses its splendor, and life; likewise, a trapped lover quietly awaits the relationship's death.
Traveling separate, yet parallel, paths keeps a relationship vital. Bringing fresh ideas, favored hopes, and fruitful experiences to each other's attention is the enhancement a relationship must have to stay strong.
Let's not corner our patterns but instead trust that real love is the promised gift of being free.
—from Worthy of Love
MARCH 10
This too shall pass
Everything passes, and as I flow with this river of highs and lows, I become calm. I trust my experience and the life force guiding me.
—Ruthie Albert
Everything passes. There is perhaps no greater comfort when we're caught in the throes of trauma than the knowledge that this too shall pass. We lived many years without this knowledge as we struggled to change the unchangeable. Unfortunately, the only thing that changed was our level of frustration: it got higher. Now we know that we can patiently wait for a situation to pass. Nothing lasts forever.
The good times pass too, of course. We hope to hold on to them, but the same principle applies. The minutes tick by, carrying us to new experiences. What we need to learn will become known to us through both the good times and the struggles. They all will pass, having prepared us for the highs and lows that wait to serve us.
I am at peace with the knowledge that everything passes. My needs will be met today.
—from A Woman's Spirit
MARCH 11
Encouragement
Pity is the deadliest feeling that can be offered to a woman.
—Vicki Baum
We must move forward with confidence, trusting that the strength we need will be given us, having faith in our visions to guide us. Problems need not daunt us. Rather, they can spur us on to more creative activity. They challenge our capabilities. They insist that we not stand still.
Pity from others fosters inaction, and passivity invites death of the soul. Instead, our will to live is quickened through others' encouragement. All else dampens the will. Pity feeds the self-pity that rings the death knell.
We can give strokes wherever we are today and know that we are helping someone live. And each time we reach out to encourage another, we are breathing new life into ourselves, new life that holds at bay the self-pity that may appear at any moment.
We can serve one another best, never by commiserating with sadnesses, but by celebrating life's challenges. They offer the opportunities necessary to our continued growth.
Someone needs a word of encouragement from me. I will brighten her vision of the future.
—from Each Day a New Beginning
MARCH