Todays Gift

[evile]

Today's thought from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:



I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.





"Oh, how I wish my dad would get sober." "Oh, how I want my friend to get help with her eating problem." "Oh, how I wish I could make my mom understand."



When we become obsessed with how we want others to change, we put our own happiness on hold. As we wait, hoping and scheming about how to get others to see their many problems, we are neglecting ourselves. It's almost as if we think it's not fair for us to be happy when others are miserable. But when we detach with love, we still care, we still pray and wish for the best, but we know that other people's problems belong to them, not to us.



Today let me accept the fact that if I detach with love, no one will die from it. I'll just be more healthy and happy.

You are reading from the book:

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast. © 1990 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the permission of Hazelden.

Comments

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

It seems to me, from my unenlightened and deeply flawed worldview, at least, that some people's definition of 'compassion' looks an awful lot like 'enabling'...I still haven't figured out how to be OK and stay present with someone who is busily self-destructing, harming self and others along the way.