Count your blessings - not your troubles. - Dale Carnegie 
Love is not getting, but giving. It is sacrifice. And sacrifice is glorious! —Joanna Field How easily we mistake attention for love. Even more easily, we trick ourselves into thinking our ability to control someone signifies love - especially theirs for us. But love is something far different from either attention or control. Far different. Love frees others from our grasp--and lets them return on their own. Love is placing another's personal needs above our own, without regret. Love is selfless, yet it exhilarates the self. Giving love softens our edges, completes us, and connects us to the people with whom we are fulfilling our destinies. Wanting love is a normal human desire, not one we should deny. And we shall receive love, the less our emphasis is on getting it, the more on giving it. We invite love when we freely and honestly give it. Another invitation for love comes from loving ourselves; self-hatred, which trapped many of us for years, hampers us no longer. Love inspires--ourselves and those we give it to. It brightens our way, lessens our burdens, makes possible our rightful unfolding. I won't look for love today. I will just give it. It will bless me tenfold. |
A Mother's Journey to Recovery
My oldest son caught the brunt of the family anger, confusion, irritability and everything else that happens in an alcoholic home. He caught it from both me—his mother—and his father. Today he is a very angry, confused active alcoholic and drug addict. But there is an upside to this situation. Through the Al-Anon program, I have been able to make amends to him and accept him just as he is. I sometimes have to set boundaries and distance myself from his unacceptable behaviors, but I can do it with love. I feel like I’ve learned the true meaning of unconditional love, and I get to experience a great personal freedom in practicing it. My son and I have endured a lot together through the years. Even though our lives have taken different paths, what I have learned in Al-Anon has given us a very special mother-and-son relationship, a relationship for which I am very grateful.
By Phyllis S., Oregon October, 2018 Reprinted with permission of The Forum Al-Anon Family Groups Incorporated, Virginia Beach, VA 
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Today's Hope is a Recovery themed site with a focus on Friends and Families of Alcoholics and problem drinkers. We are not affiliated with any 12 Step program. The daily sharings contain a reading from
Al-Anon's Conference Approved publication The Forum, an inspirational quote/saying and a recovery based reading/meditation. The intent of Today's Hope is to share experience, strength and hope. Please take what you like and leave the rest. |