Being the REAL Me Is a Blast! Thanks Be to God for Recovery!



Recovery gives us the tools to be our TRUE selves. And I feel myself transitioning from who the world (mostly my mother) wanted me to be into being the REAL me. And it’s a GREAT feeling!

I’m on vacation and decided to go to Disneyland by myself. I’ve done so in the past, but never felt comfortable. I didn’t want to be alone and often felt insecure when I went alone in the past. In fact, I wouldn’t get on any of the rides by myself. I felt like a geek or a loser, since everyone else there seemed to be with family or friends.

Well, that all changed yesterday— and the real change was inside of me. I felt free to be me, and I felt good being me. I felt happy in my own skin. I ate and drank what I wanted, I bought some great Disney kids clothes for my 18 month old nephew, and I decided to get a Fast Pass for the Guradians of the Galaxy ride. Yes! I decided to ride by myself and it was a blast!

In fact, I felt so good being me I decided to stay and ride the evening Halloween version of Guardians  of the Galaxy. I had to wait in line for 70 minutes— without my cell phone to preoccupy my time and to help me avoid myself. The battery had run down too low, so I turned it off. And you know what I did? I talked with the people waiting around me! It was awesome just being me!

This is what Recovery can do for us— all of us. We just have to be willing to work our programs (CODA, Al-Anon, A.A., N.A, G.A, etc), keep surrendering to our Higher Power’s plan for us and practice liking and then loving ourselves.

Yesterday was a big break-through for me. Keep working the Program and the big break-through will happen for you too!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Become the Person You Want to Spend Your Life With Everyday

Image
I really don’t have to say much about the above quote. It says it all and it’s so true. We are too often taught faulty ways of thinking as children. So many of us get the wrong message at very young ages: Love is about finding the right person to love you. Looking back I realize I wasted many years trying to find that “right” person— the one who could love me into loving myself— instead of trying to BE that “right” person myself. It never occurred to me that I needed to love myself, nurture myself and accept myself enough to become the right person— the person I really needed most in my life. After all, what is my life without me? Now I know that I’m what’s been missing from my own life for years. My life is empty without me and without my spiritual Higher Power. This is true for all of us.  Once We find ourselves, become the “right” person God intended us to be, and become the person we want to spend the rest of our lives with, then we attract others into our lives who can co
Read more

Playing Favorites Destroys Families

Image
Most every family suffers from favoritism. In other words, it’s easy for mom or dad to have a favorite child and to be partial to that child at the expense of their other children. Probably the best way to illustrate the damage that occurs through parental favoritism is the story of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat , which is based in the Bible. Jacob (or Israel ) has several sons, but his favorite is his youngest, Joseph. Jacob isn’t shy about acknowledging that Joseph is his favorite and he has no problems lavishing love, compliments and gifts on Joseph-- alone. Unfortunately, Jacob seems to be oblivious to the devastating effect that his behavior has on his other children. The older sons all end up feeling like they are worthless in the eyes of Jacob. They also feel cheated by him and so they grow envious and jealous of Joseph. Any time a parent plays favorites the other children in the family will feel like they are some how lesser-than. They’ll feel defective, de
Read more

The Prayer of a Codependent Maniac

Image
Dear Lord, it seems I’m always one thought away from being a codependent maniac! Negative thinking has ruled by mind and my behavior for so long that it’s effortless. I have been the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Funny thing is, at the same time, I have been desperately searching for the person who could be the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ve searched everywhere for that special person who could love me unconditionally, fix all that’s wrong with me, and set me free from all of my misery. Yet I’ve failed to find that person, even though we cross paths everyday. Until this very moment, I never realized, Lord, that the person I’ve been searching for is me. I have to be the best thing that has ever happened to me. No one else can be. Once I become the best thing that’s ever happened to me, my happiness will be complete. Then and only then will I happen upon a special person who can compliment my happiness, but who can never be my happiness. Help me Lord to
Read more

If The Eyes Had No Tears, The Soul Would Have No Rainbow

Image
I'm sitting in a Panera Bread in Los Angeles, eating my cinnamon scone and preparing to cut my trip here short. I'll have to return home tomorrow and then fly to Omaha, Nebraska for a funeral. A young father in his 30s died there last Friday, leaving behind a wife and three small children. There are always questions in these types of situations: Why? Why someone so young? Why someone who had a wife and kids? The "why" questions can be endless, and there's never a quantifiable answer.  I don't believe in "it was just his time" or that God called him home. There's too much cruelty to these pat answers and they make God seem like a beast. What purpose could there be behind such imagined acts of God? I see no redeeming purpose to seizing a young man from his young family. I do believe that life happens. When someone dies and there is no acceptable answer to "why," I believe it's simply the human condition. It's the way
Read more