December 14

A life well lived

A life well lived seems like it would be mostly about what you’ve already done. Yet it actually can be about what you do now.

Now is your chance to make what you have, whatever it may be, into something good. Now is your opportunity to make what happened to you in the past into something good.

Your life up to this point has been the way it has been. There’s nothing you can do to change the way your past has unfolded.

Yet there’s no limit to what you can do when it comes to how your past affects your current and future life. From your past you can always carry forward inspiration, wisdom, knowledge, skill and much more.

What your past ultimately means, and how it influences you going forward, those things are up to you. Though the facts of your past are set in stone, the future they point to is yours to decide.

Do you want to have a life well lived? Right now is when you can make that happen, no matter what has happened before.

— Ralph Marston

December 15

Sweet spot

Seek the sweet spot that’s more than nothing and less than everything. Not too much, not too little, that’s the place to be.

The extremes, in thoughts, in actions, in possessions, in feelings and opinions, can be glamorous and dramatic. Perhaps you could visit them occasionally but they’re not good places to set up residence.

What’s useful in moderation becomes exhausting and unsustainable when taken to extreme. In the things you do, settle yourself in the beneficial place between never and always.

Be enthusiastic, but make sure you stop well short of being overwhelmed with obsession. Be prudent, but not so much that you fail to ever do anything.

Set yourself up as a benevolent moderator of your own life. Recognize when your actions, words, or opinions stray too far out of range, and pull yourself back.

Inhabit that sweet spot where you can actually get good work done and get along with those around you. There’s plenty of room to be passionate without going over the edge.

— Ralph Marston

December 16

Start with integrity

Whatever you gain is only a gain when it is done with integrity. Otherwise it is at best a meaningless token, and possibly a whole lot worse.

Integrity enables everything it touches to grow in meaning and value. Every accomplishment of any significance comes about because the people involved are able to trust each other.

Living with integrity is difficult. Living without integrity is a bottomless pit of darkness and despair.

Start with integrity, continue with integrity, finish with integrity. With integrity your life improves, you forge your goals and dreams into reality.

You know all this because you’ve experienced if firsthand throughout your whole life. Yet the world constantly tempts you to act against your wisdom, so let this be a reminder not to do so.

Countless and widely varied paths lead to success and fulfillment. One essential value they all have in common is integrity, so you know what to do.

— Ralph Marston

December 17

Put the past in the past

When life brings it, experience it and then let it go. Make room for the next experience.

Don’t let the bad stuff linger. Don’t let the good stuff make you complacent.

Live the moment. Then live more in the next moment.

When you’re frustrated give yourself the chance to get beyond the frustration. When you’re joyful give yourself the opportunity to discover new joys.

How can you make whatever has happened into a good thing? Save the best from it and then put the rest of it in the past.

Time moves forward and your best bet is to move with it. Let go of what has been and enable yourself the make the most of what will be.

— Ralph Marston

December 18

Stronger inside

No one will question you, no one will stop you when you seek to be stronger inside. And the stronger you are inside, the more successfully you can deal with every aspect of your life.

You need not ask anyone else’s permission to become stronger inside. You can nurture your inner strength wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

Love yourself, love others, be thankful, and you grow stronger inside. Open yourself to new thoughts, ideas, experiences, and grow stronger inside.

Engage with life, laugh, embrace responsibility, indulge your curiosity. As you do all this, your inner strength grows.

There is great treasure to be found within you. As you grow stronger you uncover more of that treasure, causing it to resonate throughout your life.

What thought, what attitude, what feeling right now would increase your inner strength? Take every opportunity to give yourself, your life, your world the benefit of becoming ever stronger inside.

— Ralph Marston

December 19

Look forward

In order to look forward, you must have something to look forward to. It can be simple and silly or serious and profound, but mainly it must be enticing.

To get through any obstacle you have to have a good enough reason to do so. Be sure that reason is more powerful than the challenges and distractions that come your way each day.

What have you always wanted to do, or what particular kind of value have you been wanting to create? Get yourself on the path of getting it done.

When you’re looking forward, you’re not as troubled by the problems. When you’re looking forward, you’ll find a way to successfully work through each difficulty that arises.

Look beyond whatever might stop you by keeping your focus on something that inspires and excites you. The more it means to you, the higher your levels of motivation and energy.

You’re at your best when moving forward. So give yourself a specific, compelling destination and get going.

— Ralph Marston

December 20

Talk yourself back into it

Is there something you want to experience or need to accomplish that you’ve talked yourself out of doing? Maybe you can talk yourself back into it.

Is it really so bad as you imagined it? Or have your thoughts just made it seem that way?

Think what could happen if you took an initial step. Imagine the result if that gave you the courage and enthusiasm to take another step, and another.

Soon you could be well on your way. Soon you could have it done.

Don’t leave yourself wondering what might have been and regretting what could have been. Get out there, even though the cold wind is blowing, experience the full beauty of the world and of your life in it.

Talk yourself back into those valuable opportunities you’ve been avoiding. Discover again and again how much good you can do.

— Ralph Marston

December 21

Structures of reality

Your life is not some nebulous, abstract concept. It is the actual, physical embodiment of truth, of reality.

You have great latitude and ability to form your life in the ways you choose. Yet in order to do so, you must conform to the immutable boundaries of the reality in which you exist.

You dream, you imagine, you conceptualize, you test limits and explore alien territory. And although the possibilities are limitless, they are nonetheless governed, supported, and indeed made possible by an unchanging objective truth.

You can soar high into the sky and even beyond it through the vastness of the universe. Yet it is the solid, unyielding ground beneath your feet that enables the sky, and your experience of it, and you, to exist.

It is easy to despise and to curse the stark, uncompromising structures of reality through which you must constantly navigate. But without those structures nothing would have value, nothing would have meaning, nothing would be possible.

Far better to accept and even to celebrate what is true, what is real, even with all its inherent challenges and boundaries. For within those boundaries, in meeting those challenges, you can reach levels of joy and fulfillment that have no limit.

— Ralph Marston

December 22

Continue living well

You are confident in who you are, in the good you’re doing. With that confidence, step by step, you’re able to make real progress.

You don’t need the praise of others and you’re not discouraged by being ignored or maligned. With confidence, with purpose, you keep on going.

That going is not always easy, yet neither is it impossible. With one sincere effort and then the next, you make your way forward.

You enjoy the successes and grow in strength, in wisdom, in fortitude from the mistakes and defeats. You’ve learned long ago to be thankful for every experience.

For you, living well is not a matter of how you appear to others. It is being faithful to the truth that you know is within you.

Every day, in every circumstance, with every person you encounter, you discover new opportunities to strengthen that faith, to live that truth. This is your time, here is your place to continue living well.

— Ralph Marston

December 23

Follow what is good

No matter how many times a falsehood is repeated, it is still false. No matter how often the truth is denied, it is still true.

Just because something is trendy and popular does not make it good, or right, or beneficial. Make your choices based on what you’ve experienced to be true, not on what the crowd is chanting.

Being praised for doing something foolish does not make it any less foolish. Being scolded for doing the right thing does not make it wrong.

You are strong enough to see and follow what is good, and to avoid what is not. Use that strength to benefit not only yourself, but even those who oppose you.

There is much good you can do in your life, great value you can add to the world. Don’t let the frivolous, empty fashions of the moment discourage you or impede your work.

Summon your courage and live your life according to the highest vision you hold. Those values that have withstood the test of time will empower you to do the same.

— Ralph Marston

December 24

Draw closer

Draw closer to those people you care so much about. Draw closer to the sacred moment that is now.

Draw closer to the love that powers your life. Draw closer to the goodness, the joy, and to the possibilities for expanding them.

Draw closer to the stillness where you can feel and think and be. Draw closer to the energy and enthusiasm of acting to make a difference.

Draw closer to be beauty that lives in every detail of your world. Draw closer to your own potential for love, generosity, gratitude and fulfillment.

Draw closer to the wisdom that grows from every experience. Draw closer to the truth toward which that wisdom always points.

Draw closer to all the good you’ve known and all the goodness you can now enable. Draw closer to your life, to all life, and to the best it can be.

— Ralph Marston

Have a fantastic Christmas Eve,
And a very Merry Christmas to you and your family
My family in recovery.

Happy Christmas Eve my dear friends, God bless you
and have a very Merry Christmas with love.

Merry Christmas willbe!! :42:

December 25

Surrender to joy

Surrender to love, surrender to joy. Allow new miracles to spring from the miracle that is your life.

Allow peace to be the home where your heart lives. Choose love to be your guide.

Free that love from the constraints of your ego. Magnify joy by sharing it abundantly.

Let sincerity be your plan. Let generosity be your perspective.

Lose yourself in the simple, unique beauty of each moment. Make that beauty a part of who you are and what you do.

See the potential for joy that exists all around you. And enable that joy to come fully to life.

— Ralph Marston