Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (22 page)

Tian Dayton

Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Footnotes for Life

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18

L
ife is full of choices that we make with great and little thought. Whatever the case, you should look back on the moment without regret. Regret is empty and futile and brings with it stagnation. Instead look forward with wishes. Wishes of another opportunity to make another choice with the memory of the lesson learned from that outcome.

Michelle Gipson

I have no regrets, only many, many wishes!

Michelle Gipson

Footnotes for Life

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19

I
run the risk of getting burned out when I give wholly to others that which I need myself. When I see to it that my own needs are met, I am not tempted to fill my unmet needs in ways that harm others and myself. I seek nurturing support from my friends and my Higher Power and take time to relax and unwind. I understand that if I fail to support myself I become exhausted, lethargic and angry, helping no one at all. Attending to my own needs before I help someone else is an act of love.

Rokelle Lerner

Hope is faith in the me yet to be.

Treatment Counselor

Footnotes for Life

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20

W
e never knew each other, let alone had a relationship as sisters. She was the first daughter of my dad, but we had different mothers. Our father had fallen in love with one of his students, a girl fifteen years his junior. He left his wife and young daughter and married the student, who became my mother. We had lived separate lives, become women, wives and mothers, coming together as our father lay dying. I was impressed with her courage and her talents and I admired her forgiving spirit toward a father who had abandoned her. We heal because of the pain we share and in doing so, refuse to repeat the mistakes of our parents.

Miriam Hill

You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.

Indira Gandhi

Footnotes for Life

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21

L
ife is like soup. The same ingredients will taste differently tomorrow than today and the process is quite different experienced alone, or with another.

Two people can use the same recipe; yet end up with a different flavor and every person will have a unique experience of the same ingredients.

You don’t have to know what is in it to like it and of course, there is no one right way to do it.

Creating it with love makes all the difference.

Jeffrey R.Anderson

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Footnotes for Life

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22

S
omeone once asked me how to pray. I think prayer is a bit like sex. It’s what happens between consenting people. So here’s how it works for me. I talk. God listens. So you might ask “How do you know God listens?” That’s the tricky part. One time, I turned a picture on its side and decided that if God’s answer to my plea was “yes” then in the morning, the picture would be straight. Well that didn’t work. But strangely enough, God’s answer was yes. Twenty-four hours later, I met the man I would marry. At our wedding,my best friend gave us a plaque “God gives the best to those who leave the choice to him.”

Mary Lee Moynan

When you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

Victor Hugo

Footnotes for Life

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23

M
y friend was showing me his early spring vegetable garden and he said, “And here is where the kale is coming up.” I looked down and all I saw was dry dirt. “You mean, where the kale will soon come up?” “No, look,” he said, “It’s up already.” I squatted down to look more closely and still only saw small stones and dusty soil. “Look,” he said, “Right here.” And there they were, as clear as bright green seedlings against dark, sandy soil. Suddenly, I could see fifty of them all in a row where I had seen nothing moments before. Sometimes, we need another pair of eyes to help us see what’s right in front of us.

Anne Conner

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

Melody Beattie

Footnotes for Life

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H
is brief but tormented young life was punctuated by recurring visits to the ER for treatment of unexplained, questionable injuries too numerous to count. The responsible adults who were supposed to be providing love couldn’t control their own anger, impulses and frustrations. He shouldn’t have been allowed to slip through the cracks, but in this imperfect world, he did. The battered, wounded youngster experienced moments of comfort and safety as he passed into the next life surrounded by the love that he so desperately needed and deserved in this life. Be a source of love and comfort to someone every day.