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"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way" ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.



Letting Go ~ Gentle Thoughts from Joan ~ A PSST Mom
Posted by:Sally--Sunday, April 03, 2011

Letting Go ~ Gentle Thoughts from Joan

As I heard all of us at the PSST Meeting on Saturday, with our various struggles, my mind kept going back to this piece from Melody Beattie. While this focuses on ‘letting go’ and rebuilding our own lives, I think it can also apply to our interactions with – and about - our children. We struggle to deal with our addicts and with our families, to communicate with the various caregivers who surround them, including the court and the probation officers, to learn about the disease and about the ways to address the disease and to cope with the effects. If we can try to do all of that, ‘in gentleness and peace’ it has to be better for each of us.


I do not know how to ‘go easy’ but I know in my heart that trying to do so – and succeeding in doing so on occasion - will make my life and the lives of those around me better in the long run.

Actually you and Rocco seem to be ‘going easy’ at least much of the time. I aspire to that, and I thank you for sharing all that you do with all of us. You can feel free to share any of this with PSST.

Joan

Language of Letting Go - April 1

You are reading from the book "The Language of Letting Go"

Going Easy

Go easy. You may have to push forward, but you don't have to push so hard. Go in gentleness - go in peace.

Do not be in so much of a hurry. At no day, no hour, no time are you required to do more than you can do in peace.

Frantic behaviors and urgency are not the foundation for our new way of life.

Do not be in too much of a hurry to begin. Begin, but do not force the beginning if it is not time. Beginnings will arrive soon enough.

Enjoy and relish middles, the heart of the matter.

Do not be in too much of a hurry to finish. You may be almost done, but enjoy the final moments. Give yourself fully to those moments so that you may give and get all there is.

Let the pace flow naturally. Move forward. Start. Keep moving forward. Do it gently, though. Do it in peace. Cherish each moment.

Today, God, help me focus on a peaceful pace rather than a harried one. I will keep moving forward gently, not frantically. Help me let go of my need to be anxious, upset, and harried. Help me replace it with a need to be a peace and in harmony.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.

1 comment:

Rocco said...

Joan - What a great reading. Thanks for sharing. 'Going Easy" results from being able to Let Go, to Refocus or to Detach from our addicts. Whichever you choose to call it, it is never easy to do. Never-the-less it is the best way. To love and to let go. When you reach the "Going Easy" phase you are in a good place. Like other actions in our own recovery we will slip and forget to do this and that's okay. Continue to work your way back for yourself and your loved ones. Thanks for being part of PSST. - Rocco

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