“A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller.” – Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter and graphics artist (1879-1940) Have we sometimes noticed that a single day can seem to stretch into eternity? Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, that it feels like it races by and we hadn’t even had time to notice? In either case, maybe we are missing precious opportunities to make significant strides toward important goals or to create new ones that we can begin to work on. Many times what happens is that things we think we might want to become involved in we automatically reject because they’ll take too much time. We don’t think we can indulge ourselves in so much time, not with just having overcome our addiction and so much catching up to do. We want some quick results, something tangible and immediate that we can point to as evidence of our continuing commitment to sobriety. We want this not only for ourselves, but also to demonstrate to our loved ones, family members, friends and co-workers that we have, indeed, turned the corner and are headed in the right direction on the path of recovery. All they want to know is that we’re doing well, that we’re not about to fall into relapse, and that things can hopefully get back to normal. As if normal is anything we have a concrete idea of anymore, right? For us, this is an entirely new way of living, even if we’ve been through relapse and rehab one or several times. There is always something new that we learn during the treatment process, most of all, about ourselves and our capabilities. And the truth is that we come upon these eye-opening discoveries little by little and day by day. It may seem like we’ve been at a task or project or working on a particular goal or one of the Twelve Steps for quite some time and all of a sudden we have a breakthrough. The minutes and hours of effort have accumulated and we come away with a revelation, enlightenment, of sorts, in the form of knowledge, skill and a renewed appreciation of our capabilities and even latent talents. All this happens over the course of a day, since we only live in the present. It may take us some time to become accustomed to recognizing such accomplishments when they occur. After all, this isn’t something we’re used to being able to see, so it will come as something of a surprise – a delightful one, at that. How do we prepare ourselves to be ready and willing to greet these opportunities and recognize them for what they are? The most important thing is to be open to the possibility of change, in fact, to welcome it. When we open up our mind and heart to being receptive to becoming this new person, embarking upon this exciting and challenging journey of recovery, all things are possible. Rather than limiting ourselves, let the light in. Broaden our horizons. Dare to dream. Resolve to be diligent, thorough, engaging our creativity and knowledge, enlisting the help of others and sharing our accumulated knowledge with others who are also on the recovery journey with us.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 02:13:26 +0000
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