April 13, 2016 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

The Serenity Prayer
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

The world is a wheel always turning. Those who are high go down low, and those who've been low go up higher.
 -- Anzia Yezierska


Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. And letting go of the way things are, anticipating instead what they might become, frees us to live each moment more fully.

Time marches on, and our destiny marches with it. There is purpose in how our lives unfold; the ups and downs serve our growth. We must neither resent the doldrums nor savor too long the elation. Giving too much attention to either state interferes with our awareness of the present. And the present has come to teach us.

We must move with time. We must focus our attention on the moment and accept whatever feelings each experience elicits. Emotional maturity is accepting our feelings and letting them go and facing instead the next moment with fresh receptivity. Our lessons are many, and they accompany the lows as well as the highs. We can be grateful for both.

The program has taught us freedom from lingering lows. It has given us the tools to move confidently forward, trusting that all is well. Nothing lasts forever, and within each struggle is the opportunity for real growth.

The highs will pass away, just as will the lows. They visit us purposefully. I will give them their freedom and find mine as well.
You are reading from the book:
Each Day a New Beginning by Karen Casey. © 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation

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