from Touchstones
Sometimes I go about pitying myself, and all the time I am being carried on great winds across the sky. — Ojibwe saying
“Ah, poor me,” we sometimes say, “I have to work so hard!” “I have so much stress!” “If only my problem with money would get better, then I could be content!” “I just don’t understand women!” “Why can’t my family have fewer troubles?” This attitude of self-pity is as ancient as humanity. This Ojibwe saying recognizes our blindness to the spiritual path. Every man has problems and challenges, and life often is not fair. Self-pity becomes a stumbling block when we get so narrowly focused on our problems. We forget we are a part of a whole throng of fellow pilgrims on this path. It helps to notice others beside ourselves who are seeking courage to live their lives.
Sometimes we reawaken our awareness of our Higher Power by seeing that we are “carried on great winds across the sky.” We have many blessings; we are not alone. Often within problems we discover our greatest blessings.
God, help me find the spiritual path in the choices I make today. Help me turn away from self-pity.
From Answers in the Heart
Those who love not their fellow-beings live unfruitful lives, and prepare for their old age a miserable grave. — Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sometimes by looking at older people, we get an inkling of how they lived their lives. They may be serene and humorous, surrounded by friends and loved ones. They may be grim and dry, isolated and afraid. By their fruits shall we know them.
If we continue to live deeply in our addiction, our lives will shrink into narrowness and suffocation. There is nothing so constricting as living a life of sex addiction, with its powerlessness, its hopelessness, and its secrecy.
Our programs compel us to take Steps — Steps to increase our spiritual relationship with ourselves, with others, with our Higher Power. We learn to give and take, to offer help to others, and to accept love and friendship in our turn. We come to know a simple truth: we are all wayfarers on a journey whose strongest challenge is the help we can give to others on the journey.
We don’t need to run toward a miserable grave. We can walk with dignity along the path of life.
We need to take steps to join in the give-and-take of life.
Daily Meditation Books
Answers in the Heart - daily meditations for people recovering from sex addiction
Touchstones - daily meditations for recovering men
Comments