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Post by caressa on Apr 10, 2005 14:45:25 GMT -5
NAIL IN THE FENCE
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence."
The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.
Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole.
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Post by majestyjo on May 3, 2017 17:04:53 GMT -5
For so much of my life, it was act, react. I didn't seem to know the slogans, like Hesitate and Meditate or Stop before you speak or act out in your disease. It doesn't matter what 12 Step program we belong to, we are suffering from a disease. We react to our alcoholics and addicts in our life. They react to us. It is a vicious circle. You said, you did, you didn't, and the list goes on and on. I knoow if I didn't shut up when I was told, I got slapped. It got to a stage where I started hitting back. I didn't know how to defuse the situation. My tongue was a weapon and tore people apart. In today, I try to help put them back together.
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Post by caressa222 on Nov 30, 2019 7:20:03 GMT -5
Always a good reread.
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