My decisions today will be for this day only. I can change my mind tomorrow.
—from A Life of My Own
JANUARY 9
Responsible Action
Example is the lesson that all men can read.
—Gilbert West
Patterning our lives after others is familiar. Maybe as kids we emulated “toughies” or the teacher's pet. As we grew, the criteria changed, but we sought role models, nonetheless. The career we chose and the family relationships we developed may have been inspired by the example of another. Today may be no different. Seeing our friends and acquaintances pursue paths unlike our own gives us ideas to explore. How lucky we are that teaching is never done and learning is merely a decision.
The only thing that has actually changed is our age. The opportunities for growth continue to flow. Our purpose for being here remains the same. Our responsibility to ourselves never abates. It's comforting to count on these things. It makes our choices simpler.
There's always the right step to take, the right response to make, the right attitude to foster. But if ever we're in doubt, the impulse to forgive and to love will never be wrong.
My action today may be an important example for a friend. I pray to choose my steps and words wisely.
—from Keepers of the Wisdom
JANUARY 10
Expressing Love
Miracles result from a shift in our perceptions.
Every expression is either one of love or a cry for healing and help. Remembering this simplifies how we experience life. The most difficult of circumstances reveals a far simpler lesson than we might imagine when it is perceived through loving eyes and a forgiving heart.
But what of the abuse, physical or emotional, we may have suffered at the hands of parents or spouses? Can those experiences be forgotten, forgiven, or simply explained away? A Course in Miracles® teaches us that every unloving action is always a cry for healing and help. Regardless of its intensity, an act that hurts us is a cry for help that has grown out of fear.
Embracing this truth doesn't come easily at first. Maybe we can accept it in a few situations. A friend's put-down or the bus driver's rude remark can be overlooked. But the more serious circumstances require our willingness to suspend all judgment and offer only forgiveness instead. With time and practice this will become easier.
I will quietly think through an action before I take it today. I will ask myself, Is this action loving?
—from Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course
JANUARY 11
Loving Acceptance
The love, the acceptance of other persons makes me into the unique person I am meant to be.
—Peter G. Van Breemen, S.J.
Our destinies are fulfilled through our loving involvement with the men, women, and children sharing our experience. It is not by accident but by design that we've been drawn together to share goals, the workplace, or a home. We contribute to each other's search for understanding, and the spiritual quest that's at our center finds its resting place in one another's hearts.
The letter, the smile, or phone call we offer a fellow traveler today will bless our own faltering steps throughout the long hours ahead. Each time we focus our attention on the struggle or joy of someone else, our personal well-being is enhanced. If we give away our love, we'll doubt less that we, too, are loved.
—from Worthy of Love
JANUARY 12
Choices
Choices are not irrevocable. . . . They can be remade.
—Julie Riebe
Knowing that we can make choices about every circumstance in our lives fills us with awe at the breadth of our personal power. For decades, perhaps, we felt we had none. Life was bleak and we were at its mercy. How thrilled we are to understand, finally, where our power begins.
We are learning so much from this program. At times we wonder how we survived for so long on so little understanding. Our condition felt hopeless, and because we took no responsibility for changing our circumstances, nothing changed.
That's true no more. Every day we intentionally make choices about what's happening in our lives. Some choices, like changing a job or confronting a friend, are big. Others, like deciding whether to exercise today or tomorrow, are small. Large or small, our choices allow us to decide who we are, and none of our choices are without significance. That's exciting!
I will choose carefully today. If a change of mind is in my best interest, then I can change my mind.
—from A Woman's Spirit
JANUARY 13
Loving Others
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Into his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
—Emily Dickinson
The gift of attention to each other is “passing on” the love of God. In order to feel love, we have to give it away. We will know love when we give love.
Our attachment to the world, the sense of belonging most of us longed for the many years prior to recovery, awaits us, is showered upon us even as we reach out to someone else. We are no longer alone, scared, alienated when we let others know they are not alone. We can heal one another. The program opens the way for our healing.
Each day, each one of us can ease the pain of a friend, a co-worker, a child. The beauty of the program, the beauty of God's plan for us all, is that our own pain is relieved in the process of easing the pain of another. Love is the balm. Loving others makes our lives purposeful.
No day is lived in vain, if I but cherish someone else's presence.
—from Each Day a New Beginning
JANUARY 14
Let Go
Letting go is a decision.
The obsession to pressure other people to see things our way keeps us agitated. In contrast, the wisdom to understand that every person's view has validity, at least for that person, is a gift we receive from working the Twelve Steps. Our daily assignment, then, is to be patient and listen so that we may learn this lesson from women and men who have walked this path already, women and men who have come to understand