"DON'T LOOK BACK"

"DON'T LOOK BACK"

"Don't look back,
because in order to look back
you have to stop moving forward."

(From: "Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality",
Edited by Raymond Arroyo, p. 29)

This little snippet from one of my favorite books reminds me of several truisms that I keep close to my mind. They are things I heard in early sobriety, took to heart, and decided to make a part of me. I still try to live by them as best I can.

The first: In sobriety - in life, if you are not moving forward, then you are moving backward. There is no such thing as standing still. It is an illusion. If you think you are standing still, you are actually going backward.

I think this is, in part, why I have been involved in "pushing my envelope" this year; joining the Catholic church, learning to ride a scooter, becoming a hospital volunteer. It's all about changing - moving forward.

I had to be very proactive when I got sober in order to not get drunk "again". After I achieved a measure of sobriety, I needed to feel more at peace with myself rather than considering myself an enemy, needed to get along better with you, and needed to live life a little less like a battleground. Again, I had to move ahead. I did this by attending new meetings, making new friends, going to social events when I really just wanted to isolate, speaking when I really didn't want to speak, sponsoring, trying all kinds of new things.

Second: This little quote reminds me to live in the present moment. If I'm looking back, I can't be moving forward without tripping and falling. I need to live in the present moment. If I'm in the past, I run the risk of being pulled back into guilt, shame, negativity, regret, you get my drift. If I'm in the future, then I'm where I lived my life till I found sobriety - in a fantasy life that had no reality and led me into denial and hopelessness.

So....I'll do my best to stay in the
"precious present".
(wow - two more "p" words!)

Prayer Girl