Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (8 page)

Jane Middelton-Moz

If one is without kindness, how can one be called a human being?

Sarada Devi

Footnotes for Life

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T
hrough self-expression we find insight and we begin to understand. Through community with others we find understanding and we begin to heal.

Through releasing of the past we find courage to face the future and we begin to forgive.

Alexandra P.

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things.

Amelia Earhart Putnam

Footnotes for Life

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10

W
hen we were using, we had no problem manipulating our schedules to fit in quality time for our addictions.

Filling the bottomless pit of them constituted a full-time job.

Our new way of life can be free of insanity and frenzy; we can be content to slow down and just be.

Candy Killion

It is time to make the time.

Henry Dumas

Footnotes for Life

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P
at had a rough start in the program, relapsing often until he finally “figured it out,” as he says. He was a “wrecker” when he drank. He’d tear things apart, knock down walls, leave a mess everywhere he went. Most of his sober time was spent paying for all the damage he caused while on his drinking sprees.

One night during a blacked-out relapse, a tornado came through a town where he was holed up. Cars were turned over, roofs torn off houses, trees uprooted. In themorningwhen he staggered to the door of the motel and saw the damage, he looked up to the heavens and wailed, “Holy God! How am I going to pay for all this?”

As told to Earnie Larsen

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 9, The Twelve Steps of A.A.

Footnotes for Life

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t’s amazing we ever get so lost and even more amazing we come back from the realms of addictions, but we do. It is no wonder that, with the insanity of this world, we trust so little and fear so much. That’s who I was, one who really trusted very little and feared most of all. During my time in treatment I realized that maybe I wasn’t what I did. That who I had been wasn’t who I had to be. I could choose again. My program teaches me that knowing what I am doing is nowhere nearly as important as just showing up and letting life show me.

Lee R.McCormick

Answer that you are here–that life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Walt Whitman

Footnotes for Life

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o often I have wanted to run away but an invisible hand held me in place. I remained, worked through the issue I wanted to escape and I overcame. In the midst of the struggle, I discovered a wonderful truth: I can’t lose if I don’t give up. Failure is not an option if I don’t quit. I intend to win in life. I have made it this far, and I am going to make it all the way. I believe in me.

Barbara A. Croce

That which we persist in doing becomes easier–not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Footnotes for Life

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W
hen it is hard to breathe, slow down. Think of one breath at a time. Relax and drift inward. Focus on happier times with people you love.

Think of how important your life is to others.

Think of your dreams.

Think of tomorrow, next week, next year.

Inhale slowly. Exhale slowly.

Taste the air as it miraculously fills you.

One breath at a time.

Felice Prager

Imagine that you are a Masterpiece unfolding, every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.

Thomas Crum

Footnotes for Life

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T
alking is a powerful way to share experiences, to create intimacy and build a connection between people. Many of us find it difficult to talk about our feelings, often because we feel so much shame about what we’ve been through. We are afraid to tell other people what we feel, or what we struggle with. We expect to be rejected or condemned or humiliated.

Share your story with someone today. It takes courage, but we are all human beings who desire acceptance and understanding. All you have to lose is shame and fear.

Lisa Jo Barr