Quiet Time

  The other day my wife asked me to talk with someone on the phone and I signaled that I would do so but needed a few minutes of lead time.  I took that time to clear my head of its regular thoughts (cooking dinner, balancing the checkbook, which movie to watch, etc.) so that I could listen better.  I wanted to listen more clearly to them, God and my own intuition so that I could then respond to their needs, not something else.  I find that I need periods of quiet time during the day in order to function well.  “It [inner silence] is to establish an inner peace, an inner harmony, which will allow us authentically to contribute to the establishment of an outer peace and an outer harmony in the world at large.” (Daniel A. Seeger)

Honesty

  As a child I noticed that many of the adults around me (primarily teachers and parents at that point) preferred appearances to reality.  They wanted things to look good and tended to look past things they did not want to see.  I realize now that my observation was overly simplistic, but I have certainly used it to my advantage.  I have seen the same tendency many times since then, with a variety of justifications or rationalizations.  My concern, for me, is that the approach is not honest.  When I began recovery I realized that I was striving to present myself as the perfect recovering person, not admitting the truth of who I was.  I did that well, learning the right things to say and do!  I then realized I was hurting myself and began trying to be honest, difficult but worth it.  I still have to watch myself on that one!