Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (45 page)

O
CTOBER
26

S
ometimes indulging yourself is the best answer to feeling wonderful. Cook something that is simply delicious that takes a lot of effort! Something you would make for company.

Today you are making it just for yourself, so don’t rush through the process.

Then when it’s done, set the table beautifully. Use candles. Use your best dishes. And one beautiful rose in a bud vase. You are celebrating yourself. Enjoy!

Felice Prager

Without haste, but without rest.

Goethe

Footnotes for Life

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CTOBER
27

L
iving a life of honesty is a commitment to forthright thinking and behavior–a willingness to be fully responsible. Honesty enables me to live with an open heart and to avoid the self-loathing, guilt and shame that accompany deception and manipulation. Perhaps most significantly, it is an outward display of self-acceptance and a statement to the world that I am worthy of respect.

Jeff McFarland

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

William Shakespeare

Footnotes for Life

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CTOBER
28

D
iamonds are nothing special, really. They started out as simple chunks of coal. They just got a lot of preferential treatment–and not the kind they would have chosen. They became diamonds because they were put under enough heat and pressure to crystallize. No pressure, no diamonds. We are diamonds in the making. Let us persist under pressure.

Barbara A. Croce

Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.

Malcolm S. Forbes

Footnotes for Life

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CTOBER
29

T
oday I will learn to see soul in the simple things of life. It is oftentimes the things that I take for granted that are truly responsible for the deep underpinnings of my sense of well-being and personal happiness. When I let myself have and enjoy events of life, I will see soul radiate from the simple and the little things.

Life is a tapestry woven of small threads. I appreciate what I take for granted.

Tian Dayton

When you see ordinary situations with extraordinary insight, it is like discovering a jewel in rubbish.

Chögyan Trungpa

Footnotes for Life

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CTOBER
30

G
rowing up in an alcoholic home, crisis was common and made life confusing. Feelings of anxiety and fear were my constant companions. Crisis is no longer a condition I live with. I do whatever I can to ensure my serenity and my peace of mind. I allow enough time for myself to do what I need. I eliminate clutter from my life and shun discord and over-complication. I think before I act, I’m kind to myself and I avoid situations filled with pandemonium and turmoil. Slow down and let serenity flow into your life.

Rokelle Lerner

A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.

Katharine Butler Hathaway

Footnotes for Life

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CTOBER
31

I
t is difficult to pretend to be happy when I am not. The hurt and anger lingers as I try to recover from the pain of loss. As I try to drink my hurt away, I reach for the wine bottle from the cabinet in my kitchen. Just as I move my hand away from the top shelf, my Bible topples down and lands on my kitchen table. A reminder, what would be more refreshing, a temporary cure or lasting tranquility and inner peace. I have replaced my drinking hour with my thinking hour. I devote some time each morning for inspirational reading and thought as I learn to take one day at a time.

Theresa Meehan

Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

James Buckham

Footnotes for Life

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OVEMBER
1

N
ewly sober, Grace quickly returned to a high-risk environmentworking as a flight attendant. One day she was hit with an overwhelming desire for a drink. She tried to just “think through” or “forget about” it, but it was too powerful and she headed for the airport bar. Deep down inside she really wanted to stay sober and in a moment of sanity she picked up the airport page and said “Will friends of Bill W. . . .,” she paused quickly looking for an empty gate, “. . . please come to Gate 12?” Within minutes strangers from all over the world joined Grace for a little meeting. Grace did not drink that day. Help is there for all who ask. It never fails.

Jim C., Jr., Scottsdale, Arizona

Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.

Liz Smith

Footnotes for Life

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OVEMBER
2