Meditation reading for Friday May 10, 2024
MAINTAINING OPTIMISM —
As a great virtue, hope is ranked with faith and love. But those of us caught in the thicket of alcoholism and other addictions had much experience with hopes that turned out to be merely cruel illusions. In recovery, however, hope has a sound purpose. It is really a form of optimism, an underlying belief that things will work out in spite of the obstacles and problems we face. This helps provide the strength and energy we need to succeed in the face of opposition and setbacks.
We also owe much of our recovery to the capacity for hope that was in our friends and family members. Henrietta D, wife of AA member Number three, told an interviewer that she had never lost hope that her husband would eventually recover. She an answer to her hope and prayers when Bill W. and Dr. Bob arrived at her husband's bedside in Akron's City Hospital, and he never drank again.
Hope is the optimism that keeps us moving toward our highest good. Let's keep it alive.
I'll face my day with the underlying belief that things will work out in the long run. I'll refuse to be overwhelmed by temporary setbacks.