XYZ TOPIC DISCUSSION

[majestyjo]

You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.

November 15

Zeal is the faculty igniting the other mind powers into the full flame of activity.
--Sylvia Stitt Edwards

When enthusiasm is absent in our lives, no activity appears inviting. In fact, most situations foster fear. With fear, we're ever so familiar. The program we're committed to relieves us of all fear, when we work it. And it offers us the enthusiasm that will guarantee positive outcomes for our efforts, when we look to our higher power for the right attitude.

An open, trusting, sincere relationship with our higher power equals enthusiasm about life. But that relationship takes work on our part. When we've done our homework we discover that no lesson will baffle us. Prayer and meditation make all things understandable and guarantee that we will "pass the course" on life.

I will begin this day, and every day, looking to God for the gift of zeal to live fully every moment, to give fully what I have to give, and to glory fully in all that I receive. My attitude of gratitude will increase my happiness many fold. I will look to this day with zeal.

If I wait to find a "Z" topic later, it may take a while, so posting this in today.  This is a one day at a time program.  I have to take what is given to me in today.  My God supplies my needs.  I am so grateful that He provides for me and guides me in my recovery.  As I like to say, "If you are not enjoying recovery, what are you doing wrong?"

[caressa222]

Z is for Zion. Another word for my God, it doesn't matter what you call Him/Her, know that He/She will answer. When I look at these mountains, I am reminded of His Power and will give Him/Her the glory and gratitude for being clean and sober in today. Some may question why I say Her, but I think of my God's TLC, it has been my experience that for the most part, it came from a woman. Who ever heard of a man asking for direction? My God is as He reveals Himself in today.

[caressa222]

X is for Xenophobia. Fear of strangers and aliens. We alcoholics and addicts suffer from great paranoia. Often fearful of our own shadows and our magic magnifying mind can make mountains out of molehills.

Isolation is part of our disease. We need to turn our fears over to our Higher Power and ask that they be removed. When we put our faith in Him, we no longer have to act out in our dis-ease.

[majestyjo]

Z is for Zip. Long-timers say if your are new to the program, you should zip your lip. You don't know anything about recovery, so you should shut up and listen. Listen to learn, Learn to listen. They often tell it as it is, and for the most part, we don't want to listen. If we shut out them, then we shut out other things that we don't want to hear. Your best thinking and actions got you to the doors of recovery. You had no other place to go. So listen to what we have to tell you. We have found a better way to live.

[majestyjo]

X is for X-ray. Look within, don't just make the surface attractive. Our emotions can make themselves known physically.
We need to peel away the layers to get to our core. It has our truth. As we peel away the layer, we find new awakenings and experiences that we can apply the program to, and if need be we can let them go or we can nurture them and help them grow. That X spot with, helps us connect to our Higher Power.

[caressa222]

~ MORNING LIGHT ~ (Meditations to Begin Your Day) ~

Though it sounds absurd, it is true to say that I felt younger at sixty than I had felt at twenty.

~ Ellen Glasgow ~

The aging process has been described as a “slippery slope,” “all downhill from here,” and “the beginning of the end.” But such phrases are not necessarily negative. Imagine that the slippery slope represents an ascent rather than a descent. Climbing to the top of a vista enables a much clearer view. So perhaps aging can be seen as a time to rise up and see all that is around you.

“It’s all downhill from here” can represent a time of smooth sailing—one that is free from the anxiety, in-experience, and confusion of youth, when you experience life with less angst and greater gusto. “It’s the beginning of the end” can offer a time for new opportunities and challenges. As one decade of your life draws to a close, a new decade opens up before you.

There are those who, as they age, seem to fade away and others who seem to have more spring in their step and a brighter twinkle in their eyes. You are, as another phrase conveys, “Only as old—or as young—as you feel.”

I will not act my age or behave in ways that others think I should. I will embrace my years with a positive outlook.

[caressa222]

This caught my eye as i have always been taken for 5-10 years younger than I am. Many say i am young in Spirit. I like to think so. Because of this program, I feel like I was reborn and given a second chance at life. When you consider I am coming up on 27 years of recovery, and they say, we stop growing emotionally when we had our first traumatic event. Does that mean having birth mark removed at 12 months, being bad;u burnt and hospitalized. Seeing my brother killed when he was 2 and I was 3 years old. Then there is the time our house was struck by lightning when I was 5. Or does it start when I stone my first drink at 10 years old. I stole the wine left over from communion is a goblet that had about 2" inches in it. It hit bottom and I want more. I looked for that feeling all of my life.

So I guess i am somewhere between 26 and 36.