A MOMENT FOR YOU

What’s one small step you can take today?

No perfect answers. Just a little room to reflect.

“But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun.” That line from As Bill Sees It, page 10, is today’s reading in Daily Reflections, “Stepping Into the Sunlight.”

Good news for a Monday: you do not need a mountaintop, a free afternoon, or a perfect attitude. You need a little room. Let’s make some!

Find the time you already spend

The writer in today’s Daily Reflections says it plainly: “Sometimes I think I don’t have time for prayer and meditation, forgetting I always found the time to drink. It is possible to make time for anything I want to do if I want it badly enough.”

Think about that. Most of us found the time and energy for the old habit every single day. The same determination, pointed the other way, can build something good.

The same reading keeps the bar low and suggests devoting “a small amount of time” to it. Small is fine. Five minutes counts.

Reflection is not a luxury

Today’s Your Daily Reprieve shares Sue Monk Kidd: “Reflection is in many ways a lost art.” She admits why we skip it: “What if we face ourselves and find we don’t like the person we meet?”

That fear is real. Here is the strengths-first answer: when you look inward in recovery, you meet someone who got sober, kept going, and is still learning. That is a person worth a few quiet minutes.

Rudolfo Anaya, also in today’s Reprieve, gives permission: “There is a time for sitting back and getting in touch with yourself.” Winston Churchill adds, “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.” Look back with gratitude, then step forward.

A friend, not a boss

Today’s Twenty-Four Hours a Day invites a warmer view of prayer: “Think of God as a Great Friend and try to realize the wonder of that friendship.” Its prayer is simple: “I pray that I may think of God as my Friend.”

Today’s Dynamic Catholic reflection says almost the same thing in St. Teresa of Avila’s words: “Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

You would not skip a visit with a good friend because you were too busy. You would not worry about saying the right words, either. In today’s Daily Reflections, the writer says, “If I have trouble praying, I just repeat the Lord’s Prayer because it really covers everything. Then I think of what I can be grateful for and say a word of thanks.”

Let the light change the outlook

The same Twenty-Four Hours a Day reading gives a before-and-after: “I have learned to be less negative and more positive.” The writer once expected the worst from people and now says, “There is much love and truth and honesty in the world.”

That is the sunlight at work. Scripture says it this way: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105 (ESV)

In Success-Full, page 27, I wrote, “Follow the three rules of positivity: Always be positive, Always be positive, and Always be positive!” Quiet time is where that habit gets planted. For more on this, see Attitude, Attitude, Attitude.

Make plans, not results

Today’s Just for Today, “The Best-Laid Plans,” says, “What we make in recovery are plans, not results.” Its closing line is “I will make plans, but I will not plan the result.”

That is freeing. Plan your five minutes. Show up. Then let the results be what they are, and trust, as the reading says, “in the loving care of the God of our understanding.” Our job is the action. For help fitting it all in, see Time Management: The Key to a Balanced Life in Recovery.

Five ways to make room for the light

  1. Pick a spot and a time. Same chair, same hour, five minutes. Attach it to something you already do, like the first coffee.
  2. Read one short page. One reading, one line that sticks. Write that line on a card and carry it.
  3. Say one honest thank-you. Name one thing you are grateful for before you say anything else.
  4. Swap one negative for one positive. Catch one gloomy thought and finish it with a “so far” or a “but I can.” For a daily habit, try A Positive, One Day at a Time.
  5. Make plans, then release the result. Decide one action for the day and leave the outcome alone.

Don’t say one day I will… Make today day one!

Step out into the sun

Daily Ponderables closes today with a “Theme of the Day,” “Making Room for the Light.” Its point is a good one: sometimes growth begins “with a few quiet moments and a willingness to let the light in.”

Nothing much can grow in the dark. A few quiet minutes can change a whole day. Life is GOOOOOOOD!!!

Here’s my question for you: What is one small thing you will move out of the way today to make room for the light?

Go, Go, Go… Dan 🙂

Books quoted in this post:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A note on anonymity: Although I quote literature connected with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous here, nothing in this post should be taken to imply my membership in any specific mutual support group, in keeping with Tradition Eleven.

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Reflection note: I wrote this from my own daily readings. Quotes belong to their original authors and sources (Daily Reflections, November 9, “Stepping Into the Sunlight,” quoting As Bill Sees It, p. 10, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, via Daily Ponderables; Twenty-Four Hours a Day, November 9, Hazelden, via Daily Ponderables; Just for Today, November 9, “The Best-Laid Plans,” Narcotics Anonymous World Services, via Daily Ponderables; Theme of the Day, “Making Room for the Light,” Daily Ponderables, November 9; Sue Monk Kidd, Winston Churchill, and Rudolfo Anaya via Your Daily Reprieve, November 9; St. Teresa of Avila, The Wisdom of the Saints, via the Dynamic Catholic Daily Reflection, November 9; Psalm 119:105, English Standard Version; Success-Full). I used AI to help organize it and reviewed it before posting.

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