Today is September 12, 2006 A Great Day for Recovery!
SELF-LOVE
"To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance." -- Oscar Wilde
Today I am able to say that I love myself. To love myself is to love God and the world in which I live. I cannot befriend, hug, help or create without first having a relationship with myself. Without me, there is no meaning to my life. I am the most important thing in my life. This is not said to be conceited but is an aspect of self-love. It reveals a healthy pride and respect for my life. And it feels good.
For years I thought that to love "self" was wrong and sinful, a misuse of energy and time. What people thought about me was so important; what people said about me was a constant worry. And the more I looked out of myself for meaning, the more lost, isolated and confused I became. Then I heard that God loved me and he wanted me to love me. Today I live and love through me.
O God who created me to love, let me begin with me.
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I AM RESPONSIBLE
For the readiness to take the full consequences of our past acts, and to take responsibility for the well-being of others at the same time, is the very spirit of Step Nine. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 87
In recovery, and through the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, I learn that the very thing I fear is my freedom. It comes from my tendency to recoil from taking responsibility for anything: I deny, I ignore, I blame, I avoid. Then one day, I look, I admit, I accept. The freedom, the healing and the recovery I experience is in the looking, admitting and accepting. I learn to say, "Yes, I am responsible." When I can speak those words with honesty and sincerity, then I am free.
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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
