Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (7 page)

Dorri Olds

Live not one’s life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Footnotes for Life

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I
was astounded to find myself powerless over my feelings. When I first got sober and started feeling feelings that had been numbed for years, I thought there must be a way to control these feelings away.

My sponsor explained that, along with being powerless over alcohol, people, places and things, I was powerless over my emotions. My life would be unmanageable if I thought I was in charge. After attempts to stuff my feelings using food or avoid them by shopping, I began to be conscious of my powerlessness. Surrendering to powerlessness became my best choice. This let me feel my feelings, process them and live life more fully.

Pamela Knigh

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

Danny Kaye

Footnotes for Life

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I
walk softly with my spirit today. I am uplifted by the thought that I am not alone, nor ever was. I am waiting in pleasant anticipation for spirit to work its quiet magic inmy day. There is nothing that I can think, feel or do, that cannot be made lighter and truer by inviting spirit into it. I rest in the joyous awareness that spirit is with me; has never left me. If I feel an absence of spirit I will remember that it is not spirit that moves away from me, but me that moves away from spirit.

Tian Dayton

If you can’t have faith in what is held up to you for faith, you must find things to believe in yourself, for a life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live.

Alec Bourne

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M
y mom often summarized her philosophy in succinct phrases. One of her favorites was:

The most precious gifts should not be kept or hidden.

They should be given freely with no strings; a smile, a kiss and love.

Amelia Rose Bederka
as told to Steve Bederka-Toth

Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.

Mother Teresa

Footnotes for Life

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T
he road to recovery should be renamed the joy of discovery. Each day I uncover a part of me that was lost and hidden from view. I love the transformation as I look forward to my future and the person that I am becoming.

Let me accept today’s challenges with gratitude knowing that I will be given the inner strength needed to go on with my life. Not everyone is so fortunate to be given a second chance to start over. Let me see the opportunity in my hardships rather than despair, as the guiding force for goodness leads me there.

Theresa Meehan

Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.

Chinese Proverb

Footnotes for Life

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R
ecovering from my mother’s death wasn’t easy for me. Because she was elderly, it was generally accepted that her death should be expected but I still missed her. One day while going through her things I found a small journal; inside she had written, “Such a pretty book for pretty thoughts.” Apparently she died shortly after, because the following pages were blank. I began on the next page and wrotemy memories of her: funny things she said and did and about the life of love she lived. She continues to live through my words not only for myself but also for those that read about her in years to come.

Carol Van Dyke Brown

The written word may be our greatest invention. It allows us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn.

Abraham Lincoln

Footnotes for Life

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I
had never felt better in my life when during my annual health check-up my doctor delivered stunning news. I had last stage liver disease. In one brief moment everything had changed. In talking with my wife later, I heard myself saying, “Remember that exercise, the one that asked you to consider what regrets you might have if you had only twenty-four hours to live? Well, I can’t think of any. All of the people I love know I love them and I know they love and honor me. There’s no unfinished business. I feel grateful.” Tears of joy began to run down my cheeks. Who would have thought that my journey in recovery would pay off with such dividends?

Ted Klontz

Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.

Betty Ford

Footnotes for Life

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I
worked on a horse ranch for Anna and Pete every summer until I left home at eighteen. My memories are full of afternoons flying through tall grass holding onto the reins while Fleet Foot, the horse I cared for, did his job cutting cattle. I never told Anna or Pete about the horrors that were going on in my childhood home, but I shared my deepest secrets with Fleet Foot. Those days at the “Flying W” were few but the work I did there was more than cutting cattle and mending fences; the lasting work was the mending of my spirit and the knowledge that we all deserve to be treated with kindness and compassion.