DAILY GRATITUDE - AN ACTION WORD

[MajestyJo]

[MajestyJo]

[MajestyJo]

[MajestyJo]

Jealousy and envy – Wanting what others have, feeling we don’t have enough or deserve more, wishing we had what others do instead of them. This applies to material possessions like houses, cars, money and such. It also applies to non-material things like relationships, a nice family, children, parents, friends and partners, and fulfilling work relationships. We can envy others their looks and physical appearance, their talents and physical abilities or attributes such as thinness, tallness, sports ability or musical talent. - Realistic Recovery

So many of us have different talents, and God each gave us special gifts. So many times we just our accomplishments as being less than someone else and yet don't realize that that other person couldn't do what you do.

As the old saying goes, "It is always greener on the other side of the fence." We just others as being less than,often to make ourselves feel better, or we put ourselves down, not respecting our own talents and the gifts that we have to offer.

I had a friend who use to say, "I can't do what you do. I can't talk and say things like you do." I use to say to her, "All that means is I have a big mouth and once in a while I can be creative and my humour slips in, even if it sarky at times. I couldn't do what you do. You are so caring and giving. You are very good on a one on one basis, and you help and work in places I can never do. Don't judge you by me, and visa versa. We each have our own God given talents.

We each have a gift to carry. For the most part, my journey is longer because I was in denial about belong here and I used for a good many years. We each had to go through what we went through to get to where we are in today. We each have a story to tell. There is someone out there who need to hear your story.

Jealousy and envy are such petty things. I use to laugh because I would have a difficult time with women in the program. I wasn't looking for a man in my life and they seemed to appear any way. I wasn't out to take there men, and they judged me on their own insecurities. Most of my relationship didn't last because I wasn't willing to give up my sense of self to play the role to make a relationship work. I like being my own person. I took exception to someone who got comfortable in my space without making space for themselves.

I am so grateful for my Higher Power and the gifts that He has given me, and although I am not as accepting of some of them, I am grateful that he thought me worthy of the knowledge He bestowed on me.

[MajestyJo]

This is from a few days ago, and it has been a big problem for me too. Not so much jealousy and envy on my part, but it being projected onto me.

It was funny, because I always thought I was ugly all of my life. My sponsor said, "Go home and look at yourself in the mirror and take a good look at yourself, you are a very attractive woman." So I called her bluff. I said, "Well I guess I am not too bad looking." She said, "Look at all the male friends you have in the program." I said, 'So what, I allow them to be themselves. Most of them call me mother, and they are friends they aren't attracted to me." She said, "B*ll Sh*te! Do you really think they hand around you because you are 'ugly' and it is your pleasant personality they want to be around?" I said, "i don't care, I don't want a boyfriend. I'm no interested in a boyfriend." She said,"That is why they come looking at you, everyone else is chasing them!" LOL After our little conversation, I did happen to notice when I stranger look at me twice when I was walking down the street. I started taking a little more care about how I dressed. I had a think about blue jeans, turtle necks, jackets, boots and a hat. I coloured my hair blonde and started to wear a little more make up and put on the earrings. Today, I seldom put on the make up and my hair is it's natural gray/white curls. I do notice when guys start to whistle or hum in the elevator or as they walk by. It gives me an attitude of gratitude that they still do this for someone who is 69 (now 72). It doesn't always happen, but on those days, that I care about how I look, it generally happens. Most times I can't be bothered, seldom wear earrings and make up. It is just too much bother. That could also be part of the depression I have been fighting.

These were in fact written in 2011 on another site.

Especially glad that I still get attention, it may be ego, so be it. Not going to accept any invitations, and even if it is an insult, it makes me feel good. I am grateful that when someone sees a woman who is pleasant not a used up old woman, because of her addiction.

[gussieblessedby3]

I am thankful that again my husband's slip up on Friday didn't take him completely down and that he was able to pull out of it. I am thankful for my 3 beautiful children and all the joy they bring me. I am thankful for this site that I can have a place to post things that are about working on my program and keeping the focus on living a healthy, loving, and peaceful life. I am thankful for my God who gives me peace in all things even when there are storms all around me he is the rock that I stand on and that nothing can bring it down even though there are many things in this world that try they will always be defeated by my God. He is all powerful and he is my rock!

[MajestyJo]

Thanks for sharing. Sending prayers to you and yours.

God is there for sure. He sends us Guardian Angels, Earth Angels, and good orderly direction to see us through all things. I like to say, "God is near, look for Him." If you stop looking each day, you might come up against something that keeps us stuck and we forget that He is only an arm's length away. So is that drink, so it is up to us as to which we choose. He makes Himself known in many forms, it is up to me to recognize His Handy Work and give thanks.

[MajestyJo]

Was thinking I should change the head from Daily to "Whenever JoAnne thinks of it."

[MajestyJo]

Have been sharing with my spiritual adviser about animals, birds and nature and how they have a tale to tell.

She went with her husband to where he flies small planes and she decided to walk in for the exercise and the view. She listed several items she saw along the way, but one that has stuck in my mind, and fits here because she chose to take action and walk.

The Blackbird was one she said, and this is what I found on it.

http://funkman.org/animal/bird/blackbird.html

She didn't saw which kind of bird, she just said, she saw a black bird.

It could have been a crow, and probably was.

http://www.spiritanimal.info/crow-spirit-animal/

It could have been a Raven.

http://www.shamanicjourney.com/artic...per-of-secrets

From my regular site:

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/raven-symbolism.html

When I used Jamie Sams Animal Medicine Cards, the Crow came up as my guardian of my south on the Medicine Wheel. It is one of my Totem Animals and means Law. All my life was laws and I was so glad to hear that spiritual law transcends physical law.

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/crow-symbolism.html

[MajestyJo]

Many people debate, many people say the program didn't work for them.

This is a short version of how it worked for me.

For me, this is a "we' program, we can do what I can't do alone, be it my Higher Power, my sponsor, my group, my friends and family.

The I a you say is honest. Recovery has to begin with me. It isn't what others did to me, it is about what I allowed others to do to me. It is about my choices and my decisions that brought me to the place that I am in today. It is my feelings and actions that I am responsible for. It is letting go of what is not mine, so much false guilt, hope and responsibility that i carried for so many years. So many secrets that I wasn't to tell, and most of them were not mine.

It is one day at a time program. It is about me and my recovery. It is about my disease. It is about finding my Higher Power and what He/She means to me. It is about my decision, am I willing to work the program, am I willing to turn my will and life into my God's care, am I willing to work the Steps. Am I willing to take my inventory and not everyone else's. Am I willing to share with my God, myself to find true self-honesty and to another human being. Am I willing to change to defects and shortcoming that have blocked me from my God. Am I willing to make amends, am I willing to follow through on them, and I willing to let them go if they will hurt someone else. Am I willing to work a daily inventory and look at my life and how I live in it today. Do I make that daily contact with my God. Am I willing to build a relationship with Him. Am I willing to align my will with His. Am I willing to work with others. Am I willing to get out of self, and the great I am, to help someone who comes behind me like the people before me took the time to help me on my journey.

Peace on your journey. May you ever walk in peace and with a heart of gratitude for what you have been given.

Something I posted in 2011

Love the fact that the story never grows old, at least not for me.

[MajestyJo]

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Grateful addicts don't drink and drug and drinking and drugging addicts aren't grateful.

My gratitude is not the word but my desire to say the word. My desire to say the word is a corner stone of my recovery.

It is always nice to hear and/or see someone affirm something you believe very strongly about. My sponsor told me in early recovery, a grateful addict will never have a reason to pick up.

Gratitude in my attitude, give me the willingness to work the program and help others. My sponsor also said, "If you put one hand in the hand of a newcomer and the other hand in the hand of your Higher Power, you have no hands left to pick up.

It is always good to be reminded. It is so important to me to give thanks to my God for His many gifts and pay them forward.

I really like the concept, I desire to know my God's will. I am grateful to Him for His many blessings. I am grateful for the lesson learned. I thank Him for each day of recovery. I thank Him for the opportunity to have another day, clean and sober.

Posted in 2012

It is amazing how I can go back and look at an old post I made and think, "I can't believe I wrote that." Sometimes it appears to be an old memory or something I just learned yesterday. It shows me how true it is, that my life is so very much, one day at a time, and for that I am very grateful.

[MajestyJo]

Many years ago, I was told that it was my primary purpose to carry a message of recovery. To share my experience, strength, and hope with others, and tell what you had found along your life's journey.

Needless to say, my journey wasn't exactly smooth, as I qualified for just about every room of recovery, that man could think of. I was told to make people think. Make them wonder if just maybe, they have what I have too, including fibromyalgia and something I am still investigating, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Haven't really brought this up with my new family doctor, so many other things seemed to be on the plate that were more important. To me, it is just another label like all the other, and the 12 Steps are applicable.

I know that most people don't want to hear what I have to say and I think a lot of people want to discount it, but it has proved true for me, and what I have heard, I have put into action in my life.

As my son told me, "If I had your pain, I would kill myself, I have enough trouble dealing with my own." I am alive today, thanks to the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Along with AA, has been the healing that I received through the Holistic Center and the prayers of the people in my life.

Prayer is an action Step. Without it, there would be no me.

Thank you all for taking action and sending your prayers.

[willbe275]

Thank you Majastyjo for sharing that, it is so good to
belong to the no matter what club, and what does
that mean? No matter what I don't pick up. Things do
happen in life. I learned through God's grace and the
rooms of A.A. that I can go through anything without
using alcohol or drugs, what has worked for me these past 26
years of sobriety is, I don't drink, make meeting and talk about how I
feel, doing the step work with a sponsor and working with others
to achieve sobriety one day at a time.

W.O.W.101

[MajestyJo]

Thank you for sharing. The program works if we work for it. Just occupying a chair, only taking the part we like and ignoring the parts that are alien to our beliefs and goes against our comfort zone, makes the program unacceptable; therefore, it doesn't work for some people.

I too need to go to meetings, get a sponsor and do as it was suggested to get clean and sober and STAY clean and sober.

I am so grateful for the people who went before me and showed me the way. I was one of the fortunate ones who had a lot of long-timers put in my path with 20-60 years of sobriety.

[MajestyJo]

The world's a whole
lot nicer place
Because of
people like you...
Who give real
joy and pleasure
By the nice things
that they do.

Thanks So Much!