Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (11 page)

Alexandra P.

Let’s take the mistakes of the past, and the road-blocking challenges of the present, and build them into stairs that support our climb into the future.

Mattie J. T. Stepanek

Footnotes for Life

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T
oday signals a change in my life. Today, the tide turns me on a new course, a new way of living. Today, I am released of the burdens and pain and suffering that have kept me contained, living small. Today, I am like the vast open ocean, free to flow expansively, surging with powerful energy. As I ebb with my natural life current, an endless horizon of possibilities comes into view. I float through the cool clear waters, refreshed and renewed with hope. The calm waves soothe my spirit and cleanse the sorrow of the past. Today, I glide with the surf, carried gently to a life far bigger than I ever dreamed.

Shary Hauer

Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of energy and genius to draw upon of which we do not dream.

William James

Footnotes for Life

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M
y three-year-old daughter pulled the blankets up under her chin as I tucked her in for the night. “Mommy, does God have arms?”

“No, God is spirit,” I replied. “He doesn’t have a body like ours.”

“Then how does he give hugs?” she asked.

Reaching down to wrap my arms around her in a tight squeeze, I explained, “Whenever God needs arms, he borrows ours.”

Emily Chase

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Footnotes for Life

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I
have a busy “committee meeting” in my brain on most days. It’s always been there and I have come to accept that it may always be there. However, when I hear too much conversation in my head centered on the idea of “enough-ness,” I know it’s time to get conscious about those messages. My disease is about “not being enough.” It tells me I’m not smart enough, rich enough, pretty enough; the list goes on and on. Once I recognize that line of thinking, I change to a more truthful affirmation–I am enough. I am intelligent enough, I am thin enough, I am simply enough, just the way I am.

Anne Conner

Argue for your limitations and sure enough they’re yours.

Richard Bach

Footnotes for Life

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A
t thirty-one I had a doctorate in psychology and had been drinking heavily on and off for fourteen years. My head was so filled with theories and concepts that I thought myself into one blind alley after another. Finally unable to struggle any longer, I shook with fear as I called a friend in recovery. “Charlie, I think I’m an alcoholic. Will you take me to a meeting?” I could feel a comforting, accepting smile beaming out of the telephone. Through the fog of my terror and shame I heard him say, with nearly infinite warmth, “John, I’ve been waiting a year and a half for you. Of course, I’ll take you. It would be an honor.”

John C.Friel

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi

Footnotes for Life

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W
hen you find yourself trapped, there is only one way out. That way is your trust in a Higher Power. You do not have to wear yourself out until you are near death. Look around. He may reveal himself to you, just as he revealed himself to me, when I became willing to be carried in loving hands.

David Mead

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Henry David Thoreau

Footnotes for Life

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V
ictories often arrive after you have exhausted every ounce of effort and the sweat pours down your face. Sometimes victory is achieved as you stand resolute with feet firmly planted, confronting your enemy face to face.

But there are times when victory is not in the battle at all, but in the understanding that discretion is, indeed, the better part of valor.Whatever shape they come in, celebrate your victories.

Ava Pennington

Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs matchless and pure strength of faith.

Mahatma Gandhi

Footnotes for Life

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I
honor my own experience and personal truth. I know that no one from my past needs to see things the way I do for me to get better or move on. Trying to convince family members of what I have learned through my own journey can be an exercise in futility and delay my progress. Each of us has our own truth that is unique unto itself. We are all at different levels of understanding and acceptance of who and where we are in life. Each member of my family experienced our childhoods in our own way and have a right to our own perceptions. I do not have to get anyone to see it my way in order for me to feel comfortable. My truth is my truth, theirs is theirs.