Taking the time to be
thoughtful about our responses to the situations we
encounter offers us the freedom to make choices that
are right for us. Impulsive behavior can be a thing
of our past, if we so choose.
It seldom was
the best response for our well-being.
Decision-making
is morale boosting. It offers us a chance to
exercise our personal powers, an exercise that is
mandatory for the healthy development of our egos.
We need
to make careful, thoughtful choices because they
will further define our characters.
Each action we
take clearly indicates the persons we are becoming.
When we have
consciously and deliberately chosen that action
because of its rightness for us, we are fully in
command of becoming the persons we choose to be.
Our actions
reveal who we are, to ourselves and others. We need
never convey an inaccurate picture of ourselves. We
need only take the time and risk the courage
necessary to behave exactly as we choose.
We will know a
new freedom when we are in control.
For this is
wisdom; to live, to take what
fate, or the
Gods, may give.
-- Laurence Hope
We can't control the events
of our lives, but we do have mastery over our
attitudes. The chances will be many, today, to react
negatively or positively to circumstances we find
ourselves in.
We can
consider that each circumstance has something
special in it for us.
Positive
expectations regarding the planned as well as
spontaneous activities of the day will influence the
activity's flow, our involvement with it, and our
interactions with the other people involved.
A positive
attitude seems to breed positive experiences.
In other
words, we attract into our lives that which we
expect.
How often do
we get up angry, feeling behind when the day has
only begun, short-tempered with our children, ready
for a tough one at work? And we generally find it.
The Serenity
Prayer offers us all the knowledge, all the wisdom
we'll ever need.
We can accept
what has to be, change what we can, and not get
confused between the two.
We can
inventory our attitude. Are we taking charge of it?
Our attitude is something we can change.
Beginnings
are apt to be
shadowy.
-- Rachel
Carson
When we embark on a new
career, open an unfamiliar door, begin a loving relationship, we can seldom see nor
can we even anticipate where the experience may take
us.
At best we can
see only what this day brings.
We can trust
with certainty that we will be safely led through
the shadows.
To make gains in this
life we must venture forth to new places, contact
new people, chance new experiences.
Even though we may be
fearful of the new, we must go forward.
It's comforting
to remember that we never take any step alone.
It is our
destiny to experience many new beginnings.
And a dimension of
the growth process is to develop trust that each
of these experiences will in time comfort us and
offer us the knowledge our inner self awaits.
Without the new
beginnings we are unable to fulfill the purpose
for which we've been created.
No new beginning is
more than we can handle.
Every
new beginning is needed by our developing selves,
and we are ready for whatever comes.
