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๐Ÿ˜’ powerlessness ๐Ÿคท

Posted: Sun, May 7, 2023 09:48:35 AM

and the second step seems to me to be one of those **DUH** notions that is so obvious it needs no comment. in fact, the source material manages to get that notion out of the way very quickly and move on. i can say without any qualifiers or modifiers that when i actually worked STEP One for the very first time, i was grateful for something to give me a bit of HOPE, after coming to terms that i lacked any power over addiction. each time i have come to the end of STEP ONE since that day, i feel the same emptiness and hopelessness, just not nearly as intense, as i did that very first time. as good as i am for dwelling in the house of pain and ignoring what is “good” for me, i do not at all cherish the feelings that are part of my transition from STEP ONE to STEP TWO and generally move quickly on to doing the work.
digging a bit deeper into the gift of HOPE that something can have more power than addiction in my life, i can see that my tumultuous journey to uncover my spiritual path was exactly what i needed. whether or not that was gift of the POWER that fuels my recovery or my persistent stubborn self-will, does not matter, i finally arrived at a place where what i felt was more important than what i thought. i still hate the notion of being powerless over anything. i want to live in a fantasy world where i have all sorts of personal power, but in reality all i have is power over how i respond to my feelings, how i spend my day and what i do next. even that personal power is circumscribed and limited by the real world and its chaotic workings. i often have to adapt what i am going to do next to what is occurring around me. some of the frustration i felt with my friend yesterday is that he never seems to accommodate changes in my schedule when i often have to accommodate his. today, in the context of this topic, i see that being powerless over what believes he “has” to do, is just part of living in the real world and something i “need” to accept, if i want to continue my relationship with him. that is just the way things are in the so-called real world. just for today, i will accept that i need to yield to my powerlessness if i want to maintain my serenity and balance, spiritually and emotionally.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

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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 2

2) There is always One who presides over the infliction death. He
who would inflict death in the room of him who so presides over it
may be described as hewing wood instead of a great carpenter. Seldom
is it that he who undertakes the hewing, instead of the great carpenter,
does not cut his own hands!