Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (48 page)

N
OVEMBER
16

W
hen you believe you’ve committed an offense, do not berate yourself or your mistake will be compounded. Instead, offer prompt amends, correct your awareness for the future and move the experience into your past. Remember, even at our very best we will never surpass being human. Accept the fact that recovery does not prevent you frommakingmistakes, itmerely provides the tools you’ll need to fix the things that need mending.

Lisa Logan

He who keeps his face towards the sun, will find that the shadows fall behind him.

Native American Saying

Footnotes for Life

N
OVEMBER
17

I
am sorting out my relationships with a new awareness, with a new vision of what I desire in an intimate relationship and I am slowly making the changes necessary to get what I want. In my alcoholic home, intimacy was confused with smothering or caretaking. In my adult life, I have isolated myself for periods of time to avoid it. My notions about what it means to be close to another human being are being redefined. I’m beginning to understand that I don’t have to be responsible for someone to show my love for them, nor do I have to give up my identity in order to achieve intimacy. Allowing the ones I love to be human means I can search for happiness not perfection.

Rokelle Lerner

Love demands infinitely less than friendship.

George Jean Nathan

Footnotes for Life

N
OVEMBER
18

I
t is heroic to feed a starving village and noble to give water to a thirsty man who is about to perish. Yet, when someone is obnoxious, irritating and generally unpleasant we stay away. Their chosen demeanor isolates them, deepening the loneliness that reinforces their unpleasant personality. Such a person is starving and thirsting for love, dying for the very commodity we withhold. To reach past the thorns and touch such a soul is an act of true compassion. This is what changes the world.

Renee Hixson

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

Howard Zinn

Footnotes for Life

N
OVEMBER
19

I
will pay attention to the contents of my thoughts. Even when I do not give voice to them, others feel them as nonverbal messages. What I think is more powerful than I care to admit. The thoughts I think exist in living tissue and move through and beyond me. They become a part of the creative substance of life. They take a shape, they have an impact. I see myself as a traveler moving through the world knowing I am not here forever. I am here to experience where I am. I will observe my thoughts and my actions and see how they affect my life.

Tian Dayton

We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and as mute as stories, our very passivity would be an act.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Footnotes for Life

N
OVEMBER
20

E
mergency room personnel transported the dirty outsider to the sterile world of the cardiac care unit. Thick, scaly, ruddy skin told a story of an abusive lifestyle, punctuated by addictive behavior to food, alcohol and drugs. As his nurse began to bathe him she prayed for the soul of a little boy grown up, rejected by life and striving for acceptance in a hostile world. She finished with warmed lotion and baby powder, such a contrast on the huge, rugged surface. As he rolled over onto his back, tears fell from beautiful brown eyes and a quivering voice whispered, “Thank you.” In this hurting world, with its concern about the appropriateness of touch, dare to touch the untouchable.

Naomi Rhode

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

John Ruskin

Footnotes for Life

N
OVEMBER
21

W
hen we are truly ready to surrender–after weeks or months or years of pining halfheartedly for that something greater than ourselves, that intangible power that has always seemed just beyond reach–we find the faith to fall into the arms of hope and love that have been there all the while.

Candy Killion

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Footnotes for Life

N
OVEMBER
22

E
very so often, the enormity and complexity of my work gives me the impression that there is little I can really do to help people. I become frustrated and overwhelmed with the problems of others. And with this powerlessness, I may become controlling. As a helper, I am a catalyst. It isn’t my job to provide others with “the answers,” rather I can be a powerful change agent, providing others with opportunities to discover their own solutions. I believe in the inherent beauty and strength in all human beings, and I will not assume that I know what’s best for everyone. Instead I will model decisiveness, strength, security and inner peace that will reverberate to those around me.

Rokelle Lerner

The first step towards the solution of any problem is optimism.

John Baines

Footnotes for Life