"Help me" and "Thank you"

Today I am grateful for recovery wisdom and honesty shared by others. I am also grateful for sunshine and a family bike ride yesterday.

The quote in my gratitude journal yesterday just happened to be from my favorite writer-Anne Lamott. Here it is:

Here are the two best prayers I know: "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

There are many ways you can consider these prayers. For me, both prayers are about getting out of myself, right-sizing my ego. Asking for help means I recognize that I can't do it all alone, nor do I need to. It means that I might even realize that my way is not the best way, or even the right way.

Saying thank you reminds me that I can't take all the credit, that others helped me in big ways or small. Thanking others or my Higher Power sends me the message of worthiness as well. I am worthy of the help others have to offer. They are worthy of my help too. We are all flawed and worthy at the same time.

The copyright in my gratitude journal is 2005, so Lamott said these words years ago. She went on to write a book about them more recently (2012) called Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. Read my post about the book from January 7, 2013 here. I continued to blog about the ideas in the book for the next five days.

Help me keep an open mind and heart today, so I recognize when others need my help and when I need to ask for their help. Thank you for giving me this day. I will try to make the most of it, one moment, one hour at a time.

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