Go Out on a Limb
Today I am grateful for a celebration of our son Sam and his senior teammates at a pleasant football banquet last night. Sam's high school football career has closed out, but the impact it has on him will remain. Thank you to all who contribute to this solid and meaningful football program!
Words to consider today:
There are many ways to go out on a limb. Some are more advisable than others. It was advised, through pain and alcoholism, that I go out on a limb with my perception of self and surrounding world. My thinking process was naturally rooted in negativity and self-pity in my youth and early adulthood. If I wanted to change and recover, this thinking process would be the starting point and the ongoing work.
We alcoholics sometimes joke that we don't have a drinking problem, we have a thinking problem. It's really not funny though. It's deadly serious.
Practicing gratitude is an act of going out on a limb. It comes more naturally, after years of practice and building different connections in my brain. It has bore wonderful fruit in my life and in my writing.
Yet, I can still slip into my former default of what is wrong (with me, with the world), what needs to be done, what could have gone better, what I am lacking. I miss the fruit of the day. The present moment and the gifts within. The present of being quiet and grounded.
I was a runner my whole life and was 39 when I went out on a limb to run a marathon. And then 16 more. I went out on a limb and submitted my poetry and other writing for years before it came to fruition with my first published pieces in my mid-forties. More have followed.
For each of us, it is an act of faith and trust in ourselves, those who care about us, in our own concept of Higher Power, to go out on a limb each day and do our best to contribute positively and love fully.
The first steps out on a limb may be cautious, but when we start reaping the rewards, we find more freedom and growth out there, away from doubt, fear, and complacency.
Words to consider today:
"Why not go out on a limb?
Isn't that where the fruit is?"
(Frank Scully)
There are many ways to go out on a limb. Some are more advisable than others. It was advised, through pain and alcoholism, that I go out on a limb with my perception of self and surrounding world. My thinking process was naturally rooted in negativity and self-pity in my youth and early adulthood. If I wanted to change and recover, this thinking process would be the starting point and the ongoing work.
We alcoholics sometimes joke that we don't have a drinking problem, we have a thinking problem. It's really not funny though. It's deadly serious.
Practicing gratitude is an act of going out on a limb. It comes more naturally, after years of practice and building different connections in my brain. It has bore wonderful fruit in my life and in my writing.
Yet, I can still slip into my former default of what is wrong (with me, with the world), what needs to be done, what could have gone better, what I am lacking. I miss the fruit of the day. The present moment and the gifts within. The present of being quiet and grounded.
I was a runner my whole life and was 39 when I went out on a limb to run a marathon. And then 16 more. I went out on a limb and submitted my poetry and other writing for years before it came to fruition with my first published pieces in my mid-forties. More have followed.
For each of us, it is an act of faith and trust in ourselves, those who care about us, in our own concept of Higher Power, to go out on a limb each day and do our best to contribute positively and love fully.
The first steps out on a limb may be cautious, but when we start reaping the rewards, we find more freedom and growth out there, away from doubt, fear, and complacency.
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