Daily readings from Al-Anon's Magazine The Forum • Recovery Reflections • Quote/Sayings

Monday 11/28/22

If things go wrong, don't go with them.​​​​​​

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Giving to others
​I have found that during times of great despair, when I feel that all hope is lost, when my faith has left me, that giving my love and compassion to others restores my spirits and provides me with a sense of emotional stability.
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In the past, I often became so entangled in my own problems, so obsessed with my own pain, my own struggles, that I did not stop to look and see how others could benefit from what I had been given throughout my life.

I have been blessed with many gifts.

If I choose to dwell in my pain, if I choose to live in despair, I am not walking the spiritual path my Higher Power has planned for me.

By showing compassion,
Passing on knowledge to others,
And giving of myself,
I am choosing to walk in hope.
I am choosing to embrace faith,
And I am helping others to move forward on their spiritual paths and out of their own despair.

"Dear God, help me to be compassionate to others. Help me to share my experience, strength and hope with those in need."

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Feeding a Mother's Hungry Heart

I came to Al-Anon starving and humbly begging. I was starving emotionally and begging for “food.” I found food in the program—nourishment for my starving soul. I kept coming back and working the program, because I gained emotional nourishment.

What is more humbling than begging for food? Seeing my child starving and begging for food. Seeing my child suffer and not being able to feed his starving heart brought me to my knees.
I nursed my son for the first six months of his life. I was his Higher Power—emotionally, physically, and mentally. He was a happy and healthy infant. His world was a wonderful place and the experience was rewarding for me.

Now I see the same son, age 35, starving for nourishment of his heart and his soul. I feel my humility, and seemingly my powerlessness. I say the Serenity Prayer over and over to myself. It gives me some comfort– sometimes only a crumb– but when I’m starving, a crumb is good.
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I am one beggar telling another beggar where he found food. I give my son a crumb of my bread crust. He likes the taste and it makes him feel temporarily better, but that’s all I can give him. I can tell him, however, where I found the food. It is his decision whether to seek it or not. I pray for my starving child.

By Pamela K., Pennsylvania February, 2013

Reprinted with permission of The Forum
Al-Anon Family Groups Incorporated, Virginia Beach, VA

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