Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (23 page)

Laura Hayes Lagana

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

Mother Teresa

Footnotes for Life

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I
was the daughter with “so much potential” as my mother used to say. I used the potential to hide my drug habit, living a lie, dreading the day anyone discovered my awful secret. That was over seven years ago. My family’s love and encouragement never wavered and today I am fully enmeshed in my family. I belong. I have a wonderful job, and I’m active in my church and community. My relationship with my fourteen-year-old son is incredible. I am there to guide him, love him and to be a light in his world. So, once again my mom was right . . . I do have potential. And every day in my recovery, I live it.

TraceyW. Lee

If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.

Catherine Aird

Footnotes for Life

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T
he words “Here I go again” indicate tears are on the way when I talk about something near and dear to my heart; like helping a youth from a broken home. For years I didn’t express deep-seated emotional thoughts to avoid the pain and embarrassment of losing control, of crying. Finally I realized the benefit of expressing my true feelings. I changed.

Now I cry from strength and courage, not from weakness and fright. Now I express my deep thoughts. If I cry, others hopefully will see the value in my tears. Just maybe they will see the value in their tears also.

George H.Moffett

The more often a man feels without acting, the less he’ll be able to act. And in the long run, the less he’ll be able to feel.

C.S. Lewis

Footnotes for Life

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W
hen Faith announced, “I have chosen the song for the father and daughter dance at my wedding,” Mina was shocked. Faith’s father was disabled and dependent on his scooter, but Faith was insistent they would have this dance. The night of the wedding the band began to play Faith’s song as Mina prayed for a miracle. Faith hugged her dad and grasped the handles of his scooter. They slowly circled the floor; mindless of the teary-eyed crowd. A determined Faith fulfilled her dream and Mina learned a valuable lesson. Nothing is impossible if one is committed to her dream.

Myrna Beth Lambert

Any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad.

Anne Geddes

Footnotes for Life

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28

M
y life is a symphony that I create. I can make it beautiful and soothing to the ear or strident and cacophonous. Focusing on losses and disappointments brings discordant notes into play. My soul cramps and I can no longer find the air to breathe a clear note through my instrument. When I instead turn to regard the good with a thankful heart, tragedy transforms into glory, disappointment becomes opportunity, and discord melts into harmony. The music of my life encourages listening hearts to rest and heal, even while bringing restoration to me.

Rhonda Brunea

You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.

Itzhak Perlman

Footnotes for Life

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T
oday is today. Today is not yesterday, crushing you with the mistakes you have made. Today is not tomorrow, which is always out of your grasp. But you can take hold of today.

You can face it. You can deal with it. You can rejoice in the gift that it is.

Unwrap this present with the awe of a five-year-old on Christmas morning. Pull off the bow, rip the wrapping paper and give thanks to him who provided you this gift today.

Sharon Siepel

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.

Phillips Brooks

Footnotes for Life

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I
f someone had told me ten years ago that I would be living my dream, writing and painting every day, happily married and fulfilled, I would have thought they were crazy, but here I am. Sometimes life gets very hard and somewhere along the line you hit rock bottom. All you can do is stand there and look up to where the light is, wishing there were some way out. I’m living proof that life gets better and there were many times when I thought it never, never would, but tiny successes turn into larger ones.

Anne Tiller Slates

You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

Footnotes for Life

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T
he world seems impatient with time. Children can’t wait to grow up. Grownups wish time had not passed so quickly. Older ones wish for “the good old days.” In all of this process, no one seems to enjoy the present stage of life. Instead of living one day at a time many live in guilt from yesterday or dread of tomorrow.