LOVE AND TOLERANCE

This is what I read today in Daily Reflections...

Love and tolerance of others is our code.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg.84

I have found that I have to forgive others in all situations to maintain any real spiritual progress. The vital importance of forgiving may not be obvious to me at first sight, but my studies tell me that every good spiritual teacher has insisted strongly upon it.
I must forgive injuries, not just in words, but in my heart. I do this not for the other persons' sake, but for my own sake. Resentment, anger or a desire to see someone punished, are things that rot my soul. Such things fasten my troubles to me with chains. They tie me to other troubles that have nothing to do with my original problem.

How true is this reading for me? I can remember back when Angel was first born, her father and I struggled so much and eventually broke up. I had so liitle respect for him and the choices he would make, I used to get SO angry with him (for being late to pick up his daughter for a visit, for drinking, for dating yet another woman) and my sponsor would simply say "Pray for him!"... What d'ya mean PRAY FOR HIM? I want to rip his head off and feed it to him with an apple in the mouth!!! I just did not GET IT. How times have changed for me, and truth be told, I never would have believed that I would ever get to the point of being grateful to have met this man. Indeed, if we had not been together, I never would have had my Angel in my life!

I had a friend not so long ago who was so full of anger and resentment that it actually scared me at times. WHY? I think because I recognized in her, how toxic that anger was, it actually helped me to want to let go of my anger. I would listen to the rants "so and so did this and whathisname did that and girl is a tramp" and on and on... AND yes, on more than one occasion I would find myself as a target of all this hate. When we had a falling out and she no longer wanted to be my friend (about the time I rediscovered the program), it broke my heart. She was not always a supportive and loving friend, but still, who would be my friend if she wasn't?

I feel so much better today about my life, and about me. I still don't have a lot of friends, but the people who are in my life today are true friends. They love and support me unconditionally, they are healthy people leading healthy lives. I am making better choices for me and it seems to be attracting better people to me - how does that work? I never would have believed that I could be so accepting of others, even the ones who still rant and rave and spew hatred, I realize that God puts people in our path for a reason. Sometimes that reason might be to hold a mirror up to me to show me what I need to look at in myself. Today I can truly pray for those who have hurt me and I can pray for the willingness to forgive. I am so glad that when I do feel anger or resentment today I can look at myself to find out why I have such a strong reaction to people.

When I began my day today I felt good, followed my daily routine of coffee, blog-stalking, more coffee, more blog stalking! I wasn't seeing too many new posts and was starting to feel just a touch of resentment- don't these people realize that in my very unbusy life, I NEED my fix of new blogs to read? Then I started to read such beautiful and uplifting posts and *POOF*, resentment was gone, then I realized I had not yet eaten or read my Daily Reflections book. So I grabbed something to feed me with and opened up the book and the rest, as they say, is history!

Today I am going to do my best to live without the chains of anger and resentment. I think I'll have a great day, and how about YOU...