Every Stone Fits!

“Each person’s life is like the pattern of a mosaic.” That line comes from today’s Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and I haven’t been able to shake it.

Picture an old cobblestone street. No two stones are the same. Some are smooth, some are chipped, and a few look like they don’t belong at all. Step back, though, and the whole street holds together. People walk on it every day.

Most of us in recovery spend years staring at our worst stones. Today’s readings invite us to step back and see the pattern instead.

Every stone has a place

Here is the full thought from today’s Twenty-Four Hours a Day: “Each thing that happened to you is like one tiny stone in the mosaic, and each tiny stone fits into the perfected pattern of the mosaic of your life, which has been designed by God.”

Just before that, the reading says, “As you look back over your life, it is not too difficult to believe that what you went through was for a purpose, to prepare you for some valuable work in life.”

That doesn’t mean the hard things were good. It means they don’t have to be wasted. The pain we once tried to hide can become the very thing that helps us understand someone else.

Scripture puts it this way: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (ESV)

Accept the person God made

Today’s Daily Reflections, “Self-Acceptance,” opens with words from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 105: “We know that God lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us, here and hereafter.”

Then the writer prays for something many of us find surprisingly hard: “I pray for the willingness to remember that I am a child of God, a divine soul in human form, and that my most basic and urgent life-task is to accept, know, love and nurture myself.”

And this line stopped me cold: “I pray for the willingness to let go of my arrogant self-criticism, and to praise God by humbly accepting and caring for myself.”

Arrogant self-criticism. We usually think of beating ourselves up as humble. It isn’t. It’s me deciding I know better than God about who I am.

In Success-Full, page 11, I wrote, “I truly believe in “self-improvement” over “self-help.”” Self-improvement starts from what is right with you and builds from there. You can’t build on a foundation you keep tearing down. For more on this, see I Am What I Am! and That is not who I am….

A Simple Way to Clear the Thought

When I catch those negative thoughts, I use a simple exercise I have practiced for years. I wrote about it back in 2012 in NOW. I put my hand in front of my eyes, wave it quickly from eye to eye, and say, “Clear.” Then I change the thought to something positive.

It may look a little unusual, and that’s okay. You can try it too, right where you are. Wave your hand, say CLEAR!, and then choose a better thought to put in its place.

Humility is not a doormat

Today’s A Day at a Time in Your Daily Reprieve asks, “What, exactly, is humility?” Its answer is refreshing: “The basic ingredient of all humility is simply a desire to seek and do God’s will.” It even says humility is not “letting people walk all over me.” The reading boils it down to one line: “Humility is awareness of God.”

When I’m aware of God, I don’t need to puff myself up or tear myself down. I can just be me, doing the next right thing.

Thomas Merton, in today’s Daily Ponderables, wrote, “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves.” What if we offered ourselves that same grace?

Storms are part of the pattern

Today’s Your Daily Reprieve opens with Louisa May Alcott: “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship.” It also carries this from M. Scott Peck: “It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.”

That fits what I wrote in Recovery Thinking, page 12: “So stress and challenges are our friends.” Problems are stones too. We don’t have to like them to let them shape us. If you’re in rough water right now, Weathering the storm is a good companion read.

Robert Cody, in today’s Keep It Simple, says it plainly: “Have the courage to live; anyone can die.”

Five ways to trust the pattern today

1. Name one hard stone. Think of one painful chapter. Ask, “How has this helped me understand or help someone else?”
2. Catch the inner critic. When you hear “I’m such an idiot,” swap it for something true and kind, like “I made a mistake, and I’m learning.”
3. Take care of the temple. Accepting yourself includes caring for yourself: a real meal, a walk, sleep, and a phone call to someone who gets it.
4. Pray the short prayer. Twenty-Four Hours a Day offers it: “I pray that I may not need to see the whole design of my life. I pray that I may trust the Designer.”
5. Start from now. Today’s Courage to Change shares this line from As We Understood: “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.”

You don’t have to see the whole design

Today’s Dynamic Catholic reflection shares a line from Ronald Rolheiser’s Prayer: Our Deepest Longing: “The voice of God is the one that most challenges and stretches us, even as it is the only voice that ultimately soothes and comforts us.” Self-acceptance works the same way. It stretches us, and then it brings peace.

Daily Ponderables names today’s theme “Learning to Live at Peace with Ourselves” and adds, “Finding peace doesn’t mean we have everything figured out. It means we are learning to live differently, one day at a time.”

Today is also Veterans Day. To every veteran reading this, thank you for your service. Welcome home.

You are not a pile of broken pieces. You are a mosaic still being set, one stone at a time. Life is GOOOOOOOD!!!

Here’s my question for you: Which “bad” stone in your life might God already be using for good?

Go, Go, Go… Dan 🙂

Books quoted in this post:

• Twenty-Four Hours a Day: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0894860127?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• Daily Reflections: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0916856372?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0916856291?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• A Day at a Time: Daily Reflections for Recovering People: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568380364?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• Courage to Change: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0910034796?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• Keep It Simple: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0894866257?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• ESV Holy Bible: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433503832?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• Success-Full, Living Life with Purpose: Recovery Mode: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL5BQR7J?tag=happyrecove0e-20
• Recovery Thinking, 90-Days to Change Your Life!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1467965359?tag=happyrecove0e-20

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

—

Reflection note: I wrote this from my own daily readings. Quotes belong to their original authors and sources (Twenty-Four Hours a Day, November 11, Hazelden, via Daily Ponderables and Your Daily Reprieve; Daily Reflections, November 11, “Self-Acceptance,” quoting Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 105, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, via Daily Ponderables; A Day at a Time, November 11, via Your Daily Reprieve; Thomas Merton via Daily Ponderables; Louisa May Alcott and M. Scott Peck via Your Daily Reprieve, November 11; Robert Cody via Keep It Simple, Hazelden, via Daily Ponderables; Courage to Change, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, quoting As We Understood, via Daily Ponderables; Ronald Rolheiser, Prayer: Our Deepest Longing, via the Dynamic Catholic Daily Reflection, November 11; Theme of the Day, “Learning to Live at Peace with Ourselves,” Daily Ponderables, November 11; Romans 8:28, English Standard Version; Success-Full; Recovery Thinking). I used AI to help organize it and reviewed it before posting.