From Courage to Change of March 7;
In Al-Anon I discovered that I needed to make changes in myself. After a lifetime of living with a disease of attitudes — alcoholism — I didn’t think very highly of myself, so I didn’t have much faith that anything good could come out of my efforts.
I learned better by watching my son’s silkworms. Silkworms are fat and greedy creatures, but out of their own substance, they create something beautiful. They have no choice in the matter. They were born to express this beauty.
I, too, can transform something negative into something positive; by changing my self-defeating attitudes, I become a more beautiful human being. I was born with this beauty inside me, and if I will only allow myself, I can express it freely. Al-Anon helps me learn to put love first in my life. And gratitude, a cornerstone of my Al-Anon recovery, brings hidden loveliness clearly into view.
Today’s Reminder
Today I can spin a little silk and let it grace everything I touch. I don’t have to look back to past ugliness except to learn from it, to enhance the present, and to release whatever beauty is trapped behind old secrets and self-defeating attitudes. One day at a time I can delight in the splendid person I am becoming.
“Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness . . . until it flowers again from within . . . ” ~ Galway Kinnell
END OF QUOTE—————————————
Saint Francis and the Sow
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
I extracted this poem from Galway Kinnell’s website today, March 7th, 2018. [http://galwaykinnell.com/books/poetry/body-rags/poem-1/] I am moved by this thought of being retaught one’s loveliness. I love that the goal of this process will allow an entity to prosper under its own self-blessing. I remember in the early days of my own time in rehab I had to become my own best friend. In my isolated self this was not possible. Until I had a network of loving souls investing in wounded heart, my life seemed to be a tragic betrayal. I was retaught. I am grateful for those who patiently held mirrors to the inner strength and beauty of my own life long enough for me to agree. Thank-you.
Daily Reprieve 
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