FIRST WE ACCEPT THAT CHANGE TAKES TIME AND TAKE ACTION –
“But we shouldn’t become discouraged if we find that we aren’t changing as quickly as we would like. We can’t expect to be free of all our defects overnight. (Overeaters Anon., pg. 56)
THEN BRING A FRIEND OR TWO TO HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE –
” … we simply try to live this program in the here and now. We find joy as we start to learn how to live by the principles … needed to carry the message of recovery.” “Spiritually refreshed we are glad to be alive.” (The Basic Text, p. 52)
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) U.S. poet
Get Out the Vote on Broadway (2:35)
Spiritual Freedom in America – Emerson (1:44)
Powerful Healing Gayatri Mantra (3:31)
What have you done to ‘take action’ and live according to your own spiritual ideal, lately?
Changing Everything
By Jane Hirshfield
I was walking again
in the woods,
a yellow light
was sifting all I saw.
Willfully,
with a cold heart,
I took a stick,
lifted it to the opposite side
of the path.
There, I said to myself,
that’s done now.
Brushing one hand against the other,
to clean them
of the tiny fragments of bark.
Currently my faith is being tested once more as my business is slow again. Today, I refused to listen to my negative thoughts, I took some contrary action in that I forced myself to so some of my daily routine (ie. exercise and meditation) despite not wanting to do so. I also let a difficult client rant and rave without provoking a negative reaction on my part. I constantly reminded myself that she was a spiritually sick child of God and I allowed her to be herself without having to sacrifice my own values or to cave-in to her selfish and unrealistic demands.
I’m not altogether convinced we have as much freedom of religion as we would like. Take myself, for example: it is simply not okay to state a religious preference that I do not like – at least not near me. Perhaps the spiritual freedom I require is the spiritual freedom I need to extend to others. If I cannot listen, truly listen, why would anyone else?