I will accept responsibility for my actions, but not for the outcome of a situation; that is all that's requested of me. It is one of the assignments of life, and homework is forthcoming.
—from Each Day a New Beginning
FEBRUARY 7
God's guidance
The Holy Spirit is always present.
We can always count on the Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts and actions. However, we must be vigilant about asking for this guidance. We need to remember that the ego wants to be our director too. How do we know which “voice” we are listening to? The answer is always the same. If the act we are about to take or the words we are about to say are not purely loving, we aren't attuned to the Holy Spirit. It's just that simple.
Each day we are bombarded by opportunities to interact with other people who help us get in touch with our spiritual needs. Even the most difficult relationships offer us opportunities to grow and heal. Every person around us helps us return “home” to the realm of the Holy Spirit. In that realm, there is only love, nothing more. Our companions here, now, are the links to the realm of love.
I can have constant contact with the Holy Spirit if I am aware of the ego's attempts to control me.
—from Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course
FEBRUARY 8
Letting go
Letting go of old hurts makes room for new joys.
—Sefra Kobrin Pitzele
Dwelling on the painful past gets tiresome eventually, but some of us hang on to it longer than others do. However, seeing women move from the bondage of the past to the freedom of living in the present gives us hope. Once we let go of the pain, we discover far more joy in even ordinary experiences. That's the real surprise.
We have heard sponsors say that when old doors close, new doors open. Letting go of old hurts in order to appreciate new joys falls into the same category. Why not fill our voids with joys rather than recollections of pain?
None of us know how long a life we'll be blessed with. Accepting how tentative life is helps us decide to seek more joy and less pain. The decision is only the first step, however. Taking control of how we think is the necessary action.
I will experience more joy if I give less thought to old hurts today. The decision is mine, and I can make it and remake it if necessary.
—from A Woman's Spirit
FEBRUARY 9
Attention to others
The basis of happiness is the love of something outside self.
—William George Jordon
Self-centeredness destroys the very self it purports to nurture. When our vision of an experience stops at the tips of our noses, we fail to notice the colorful passing panorama that promises the enlightenment for which we've been created. It's only through our interested involvement with others that we'll discover what we need to know. Perpetual introspection deprives us of the worldly information that nourishes each searching soul.
We lead muddled, directionless lives when we fail to listen to the clues for finding happiness being uttered by those we choose to ignore.
Just as we must water and thin our raspberries if they're to multiply, so must we cultivate the seeds of friendship if we're to know happiness. And attuning ourselves to the sounds of another's heart offers us a clearer perspective on our own.
—from Worthy of Love
FEBRUARY 10
Fear vs love
What is not love is always fear.
We don't always interpret fear quickly. That's because it wears many faces. Violent rage seldom looks like fear to us. Neither does a bully's humiliation of a school chum. Tearful pleading may be recognized as fear, but only because it doesn't threaten us. Is every act that is not love fear? We may have to remind ourselves often that it is.
Daily we'll observe many instances of fear. The action called for from us is compassion. In the expression of it, we'll reap its benefit. In the same way that fear fosters more fear if not met with love, compassion also multiplies. Being a purveyor of the latter helps to heal all who enter our realm today.
Perhaps we think we can always recognize love, but is that true? Let's expand our horizons. Love may be silence. It may be laughter or tears. It may be unexpected agreement from an adversary. Love will never be hostile, but it may be subtle.
I will look for signs of love today. I will express them whether I see them or not.
—from Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course
FEBRUARY 11
Boundaries
Our happiness doesn't depend on a loved one's sobriety.
What we do with our lives is not dependent on what others do with theirs. That's hard for us to believe, but we see how program friends have gone on with their dreams even though the drinker still drinks or the addict still snorts cocaine.
We come into the program expecting to learn how to help our loved ones stop using. That's our primary goal. What a jolt to discover that it hasn't happened for some who share our circle. And they come to meetings anyway. More than that, they seem to be leading happy lives. At first we wonder how.
We are guaranteed happiness too. We are enmeshed with our loved ones only because we have never understood separateness. Our boundaries have been blurred. But the guidance of sponsors and the wisdom we'll gain from the meetings will show us how to disengage from others. Our first step toward the happiness we're promised is to give up our attempts to control anyone but ourselves.
I have my own dreams, my own goals. To fulfill them, I must turn my attention away from others and on to me. I can't make anyone else's life my dream.
—from A Life of My Own
FEBRUARY 12
Joy
You start preparing when you're thirty for the person you'll be at eighty.
—Janice Clark
We can't get away from ourselves, at least not entirely. Who we were at ten and twenty and forty and fifty remains as threads in our tapestries. Many of us shudder because some details of our personal panorama weren't so very pretty. But that's the way life is. We are what we are. And yet, we have examples of favorable changes, too. How we were never kept us from becoming who we wanted to be. This truth continues to reign in our lives.
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