Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time.
Heaven is being perfect.
from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach
I used to think I was a perfectionist, Larry confessed. I was con-stantly finding flaws and errors that other people overlooked. If there were many aspects of a job that were well done and one that wasnt, I would point out that one. But now I realize I was an imperfec-tionist. If I was a perfectionist, I would have found perfection everywhere I looked; instead, I saw only imperfection.
Whatever we focus on, we will find more of. The world we live in is the one we choose by virtue of the vision we use. Are you a perfectionist or an imperfectionist?
Jack and his wife Elaine were waiting in a lineup of cars on the Cross Bronx Expressway, sandwiched in an alternate merge at a construction zone. This is hell! Jack complained inwardly. Were creeping along at a snails pace.
Then Elaine pointed out, Isnt this wonderful!
Whats so wonderful about this? asked Jack.
Its really inspiring to see how people are cooperating here. One car goes ahead from this lane, and then one from the other lane. It shows me that people know how to work together when there is a challenge.
We can discover good in any situation if we choose it.
Help me find You in the events of daily life.
I am committed to beauty, and
I find it every where I look
A Deep Breath of Life , Alan Cohen
Heaven is being perfect.
from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach
I used to think I was a perfectionist, Larry confessed. I was con-stantly finding flaws and errors that other people overlooked. If there were many aspects of a job that were well done and one that wasnt, I would point out that one. But now I realize I was an imperfec-tionist. If I was a perfectionist, I would have found perfection everywhere I looked; instead, I saw only imperfection.
Whatever we focus on, we will find more of. The world we live in is the one we choose by virtue of the vision we use. Are you a perfectionist or an imperfectionist?
Jack and his wife Elaine were waiting in a lineup of cars on the Cross Bronx Expressway, sandwiched in an alternate merge at a construction zone. This is hell! Jack complained inwardly. Were creeping along at a snails pace.
Then Elaine pointed out, Isnt this wonderful!
Whats so wonderful about this? asked Jack.
Its really inspiring to see how people are cooperating here. One car goes ahead from this lane, and then one from the other lane. It shows me that people know how to work together when there is a challenge.
We can discover good in any situation if we choose it.
Help me find You in the events of daily life.
I am committed to beauty, and
I find it every where I look
A Deep Breath of Life , Alan Cohen
LOL, when I first got sober, through my own procrastination, I would be running late going to work. If someone was going the speed limit in front of me, I would get furious, blaming that stranger for making me wait. Today, acceptance of the things I cannot change goes a long way!
I agree with you Okiyoe1.
People can learn to work together for a better good. I also love the traffic scene scenario. I couldn't help but chuckle because it sounded so much like my husband and I... He is the most gentle, down to earth person most of the time, but you get him behind the wheel of a car and hello, road rage central! Everyone to him on the highway is an idiot who should have their liscence revoked...lol
It makes me crazy, because for some reason, traffic, traffic jams, traffic construction doesn't bother me a bit. I just look out the window and enjoy the scenery, or I look back into the back seat where my 3 year old son and 8 month old son are passengers... and we sing a song, or recite a nursery rhyme to pass the time... I love being on the road and love travelling.... It actually relaxes me!!!
You definitely have to look on the bright side of things at least once in a while or we'd have a world on the verge of a nervous break-down! If we don't already....
Anyway, thanks for the post.
We need more optimism in this world!
Jennifer
Why is it negativity to pass along what experience has taught me? In early sobriety I became quite an inspiration junkie, but eventually I had to admit that my pursuit of the euphoric spiritual "high" was just as selfish as my one-time piggish consumption of alcohol.
The consequences were more subtle, of course, but like the proverbial Chinese meal, an hour later I was always hungry again. I think this is because it had never occurred to me that the root cause of my sense of alienation or apartness from both God and my innermost self wasn't the result of a deficiency in my beliefs or affirmations nor in my method of prayer, nor where or under whose guidance I was trying to do all that.
So it was quite an eye-opener as I worked the 8th and 9th steps to discover that it was in fact grounded in my utter inability to form partnership relations with other people.
As long as I perceived myself and others in some sort of a vertical or hierarchical pecking order, the inspirational experience that I sought in books, etc. was not only shallow and fleeting, but soon lost in the humdrum of daily life-- which, of course, was exactly where it had been hiding right under my nose all along.
The easiest way I can show others what the sober eye sees in the world around me now is with pictures, and that's why I've posted a bunch of my photos in my DS profile:
http://www.dailystrength.org/people/296033/photos-videos
Billy
My problem with inspirations and affirmations has always been that they disappear from my mind like a fart in a hurricane the minute something goes wrong in my life. But one book that has stood the test of time is the Tao Te Ching, and this is one of my favorite verses in it:
Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.
Excellent Nemo, you truly outdid yourself.
Yea-I get it. This inspirational stuff is not nuthin without the real deal in life :)