I have been clean for:
I Stand With Ukraine

Welcome

Journal

Some memes

Feel Free to steal and repost these memes!

Surrender meme Work the steps meme

๐Ÿคฏ examining and ๐Ÿค”

Posted: Fri, Aug 14, 2020 07:32:57 AM

reexamining my old ideas, is once again one of those tasks that i NEVER thought i would have to do. in active addiction, i saw that as futile, especially the ideas i had about who and what i was. after forty years on the planet, i would tell myself, there was really nothing left to learn about me. oddly enough, after twenty years clean, this is exactly what i am uncovering on my FOURTH STEP, the ideas that were planted in my head, that have defined me since i was a child. as angry and resentful as i may be, towards the source of those ideas and the lies i based on those ideas to tell myself, the fact of the matter is, they are no longer serving me well and i am ready to discard them and rebuild my identity.
i am certain that it is the act of actually making my amends to myself that has triggered this whole cascade of becoming something more than what i once told myself i could be. i was “too broken” to love myself or anyone else, was one of the biggest “truths” i developed over my active addiction. sitting here this morning, i see that as a diversion from the real issue, my FEAR of being hurt, after all, if i could not form loving relationships, i could not get hurt and the blame was shifted to something other than me, an inherent flaw, rather than a conscious cratering to FEAR. once i got clean and uncovered the fact that i could love and form loving relationships, the lie changed into, well i only have so much capacity to love and someone will have to go, to make room for someone new. this limited the number of relationships in my life, and was still pandering to my FEAR of being hurt.
bit by bit, that too, got chipped away and i found myself dealing with a world that had infinite possibilities. my FEAR of being hurt, probably is just as intense as it was, way back when. what has changed however, is i have accepted that as a consequence of allowing other human beings, with all their frailties, into my life. sure i could be a rock, an island isolated in a sea of distance and apathy, but that is not the sort of life i DESIRE today. as i uncover the source of the so-called truths on which i base my identity upon, i get FREEDOM from the bondage of my past. breaking those ties that have bound me all these years is a scary proposition, as i cannot see who i will be on the other side. a bit of FAITH, is what is called for here, and today i can be free of those limitations and walk with my head high into the light of becoming the person i never believed i could be, just for today.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

๐Ÿ˜• an acknowledgment ๐Ÿ˜Ÿ
350 words ➥ Friday, August 14, 2026 by donnot
๐Ÿณ by surrendering, i ๐Ÿณ
387 words ➥ Thursday, August 14, 2025 by donnot
๐Ÿ’ฃ i make an effort ๐Ÿ’ก
459 words ➥ Wednesday, August 14, 2024 by donnot
๐Ÿณ surrendering ๐Ÿณ
452 words ➥ Monday, August 14, 2023 by donnot
๐Ÿงจ I WILL NO ๐Ÿคณ
451 words ➥ Sunday, August 14, 2022 by donnot
๐Ÿคจ the core of ๐Ÿฅด
321 words ➥ Saturday, August 14, 2021 by donnot
โ† my self-imposed limitations โ†œ
433 words ➥ Wednesday, August 14, 2019 by donnot
๐ŸŽฉ the ideas ๐ŸŽฉ
571 words ➥ Tuesday, August 14, 2018 by donnot
๐Ÿ™ƒ a lifelong victim ๐Ÿ˜€
729 words ➥ Monday, August 14, 2017 by donnot
๐Ÿฆ the ability to be ๐Ÿง
771 words ➥ Sunday, August 14, 2016 by donnot
โˆš letting go โˆš
352 words ➥ Friday, August 14, 2015 by donnot
โ‡” i am free to laugh, to cry, and, โ‡”
609 words ➥ Thursday, August 14, 2014 by donnot
โˆฉ limitations on my ability to be true to myself, โˆฉ
508 words ➥ Wednesday, August 14, 2013 by donnot
โ™ฆ i will let go of my self-imposed limitations โ™ฆ
599 words ➥ Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by donnot
& I AM free to discard the ideas that inhibit my growth &
628 words ➥ Sunday, August 14, 2011 by donnot
โ‡‘ i DO NOT have to settle for the limitations of the past โ‡“
570 words ➥ Saturday, August 14, 2010 by donnot
โˆƒ in the fellowship, i have been given a process โˆƒ
610 words ➥ Friday, August 14, 2009 by donnot
ฮ” i do not have to be the life-long victim ฮ”
662 words ➥ Tuesday, August 14, 2007 by donnot
ฮฑ destroying my self-imposed limits ฮฉ
379 words ➥ Sunday, August 14, 2005 by donnot

Tao Te Ching

☯ The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao ☯

The Tao Teh King, or The Tao and Its Characteristics
by Lao-Tse
Translated by James Legge

Book 1

1) Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be
benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt
with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent; they
deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.