Today's Thought - January

[bluidkiti]

January 15

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hope and freedom and the right to dignity as a man are very personal things for every one of us in recovery. Regardless of our race or creed or ethnic origin, we are alike in that we are walking this healing path out of subjugation to addiction and codependency. Today is the birthday of a heroic man, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who dedicated his life not to his own self-interest, but to peace and the right of all people to be free. He spoke to all people who have struggled under a yoke of pain and trouble.

We must accept disappointments along our path. They are inevitable. We strive hard to achieve a goal, and it may slip from our fingers. We fall in love and lose the one we love. In the midst of disappointment, we may doubt whether we can handle it. But life goes on. We take our setbacks and ask, "What do I need to learn from this?" We don't lose sight of our long-term objective to become the best kind of man we can be and to live in line with our spiritual principles. That is the path to our personal freedom and dignity.

Today, I am grateful that those who have gone before us have shown us the path.

Today's reading is from the book Stepping Stones: More Daily Meditations for Men*