Every event is an opportunity for healing and forgiving.
The Course tells us that we are here, in this realm, to heal. The people we encounter, the experiences we love and abhor, the dreams that scare or tantalize us—these are not coincidental. We have sought them for the growth we deserve and desire. Along the journey we'll meet “ourselves” repeatedly and every encounter offers us the chance for self-awareness and self-forgiveness.
Some of us will take far longer to heal than others. Our willingness to acknowledge that our reactions to others are mere reflections of ourselves quickens the journey. Our resistance does quite the opposite. How we hate to admit that what bothers us in another reflects our own shortcomings.
Forgiving others mysteriously lessens our own self-condemnation. In time, we realize this is the paramount lesson in our entire journey.
Today promises me experiences to practice forgiveness. Each time I do, I'll heal a little bit more.
—from Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course
MARCH 13
God's will
We can know the difference between God's will and our will.
The Third Step suggests that we turn our will over to God. That's a stumbling block for many of us. We don't know how to do it, and it's not easy for our friends in the program to explain the process. With patience, though, we come to realize it's more a feeling than anything else.
Pushing our will on someone else results in conflict and tension. We can learn to recognize negative feelings as signs that we're not doing God's will. Becoming willing to pause long enough to ask ourselves what God would want us to do in a specific situation, and then doing it, assures us that God's will, not our will, is in charge. We'll then feel peace.
Recovery is showing us the difference between peace and tension, God's will and our will. Willingness to try a better way to live with others guarantees that we'll recognize God's will every moment, if that's our desire.
I want to feel peaceful today. Asking for knowledge of God's will and then following it will make me peaceful.
—from A Life of My Own
MARCH 14
Purpose
People do need to have a purpose, some direction in life, both before and after retirement.
—Louise Jerome
Getting up every morning is far more exciting when we can anticipate being engaged with people or activities that interest us. Mattering to the world around us is important. Even when we aren't consciously aware of it, we matter to everyone we come into contact with. This has always been true and nothing has changed.
While still occupied in a profession or as a homemaker we didn't often doubt that we had a purpose. We had a place to be every day and tasks to be completed. We might not have considered that what we did made much of a contribution to the greater world, but we knew it counted, nonetheless. It's not as easy to believe this now. Maybe that's because we aren't currently involved in any specific activities that touch other people. But few days pass that we don't have contact with at least one other person. Quite possibly, that's the only purpose we have right now: being present to that one individual, whoever he or she might be.
Our purpose need not be grand to be important. God has need of each one of us. We are still needed, absolutely. All we have to do is “report for duty.” We do that by awaking each morning.
I look to today with anticipation. God has a job for me and I'm ready.
—from Keepers of the Wisdom
MARCH 15
Love
Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
—Kahlil Gibran
Love doesn't demand; love compromises. It doesn't possess; it frees. Love doesn't gloat; it praises. Love makes friends of strangers. It softens our rough edges and strengthens our assets. Knowing we're loved inspires us and invites forth our best effort. Offering our love humbles us and cultivates an inner joy.
Never, in the name of love, should we direct another person's life, but instead let's celebrate the choices made by someone dear, even when they run counter to our own desires. We are each blessed with a destiny, unique and necessary to the others in our lives.
We must be allowed to travel our paths to fulfillment. Let's free one another and know real love.
—from Worthy of Love
MARCH 16
Changing
We're all recovering, all the time, from something; we're growing out of the old and into the new.
—Jan Lloyd
We are in a constant state of change. With each passing moment we are gathering new insights, collecting new experiences, defining new perspectives. Even when it feels as if our friends are passing us by, we can take comfort in knowing that we are not standing still.
The rate of growth is different for each of us. It depends on how quickly we assimilate the growth experiences and specific information our Higher Power wills for us. The more we struggle against the closing of a familiar passageway and the opening of a new door, the more our pace is hindered. We can quicken the pace by trusting that we are always given exactly what our Higher Power has in mind for our next stage of living.
Each day's experiences are part of the trip that God has planned for us. We will never be in danger as long as we trust the spiritual guidance that speaks to us in the quiet places of our minds.
I am in safe hands. I can leave the old behind and trust the growth experiences I will receive today.
—from A Woman's Spirit
MARCH 17
Courage
It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Most of us are on a long uphill climb at this moment. It is a climb we are making together, and yet a climb we can't do for each other. I can reach out my hand to you, and you can grasp my hand in return. But my steps are my own, just as you, too, can only take one step at a time.
For brief periods we skip, even run, along the uphill path. The rocks and the occasional boulder momentarily trip us up. We need patience and trust that the summit is still achievable. We can help one another have patience. We can remind one another to trust.
We look back at the periods that devastated us so long ago. And now we are here. We have climbed this far. We are stronger, saner, more secure. Each step makes easier the next step—each step puts us on more solid ground.