You are here for a purpose.

There is not a duplicate of you in the whole wide world;

there never has been, there never will be.

You were brought here now to fill a certain need.

Take time to think that over.
 
 

-- Lou Austin
 

 


 

No other person is exactly like you or me.

No one can do exactly what we can, or touch another person in exactly the way we can.

Out of all the people who could have been created, we were chosen to be a part of this time and place. 

We are needed to fulfill a plan, in our families as well as in our relationships.

Knowing we have unique abilities, we will spend less time feeling jealous of what others can do.

Through our dreams and yearnings, God shows us who we can be.

It is up to us to have the courage to follow that dream with action.

 

 

 

 

 


   

 

We have a tradition in my family:
 
we wash our own laundry;
 
we raise our own children;
 
and we clean up our own dirt.
 


-- Alice Silverman
 
 

 

 

One life is all we have, and it's enough. One life contains plenty of joy, sorrow, exaltation, despair, astonishment, and cruelty.

 Why then do we borrow trouble?

Every time we take responsibility for someone else's deeds, whether they're failures or successes, we're borrowing trouble -- just as we rob ourselves when we refuse to take responsibility for our own.

 Somehow we learn to give away our powers of independent choice.

 Somewhere we learned to say, "You make me miserable," and "Look what you made me do."

But we can unlearn these twisted borrowings; we can learn to stand straight, be ourselves, and own our own lives.

 The power to be happy or miserable lies within us.

When we give away our power to choose, we should be very sure we know what we're getting in return.

__________

© 1991 Hazelden Foundation from the books Today's Gift and The Promise of a New Day

 

11/07/2004
 

 
 

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Water Nymph image by Jean-Paul Avisse Copyright © Prestige Art Galleries.

Ice Guardian image Copyright © Cris Ortega

(  Permission to use the copyrighted images of Jean-Paul Avisse is licensed from Prestige Art Galleries, Inc. )