A Sense of Promise

There Are No Guarantees

I awake almost every morning with a sense of promise, shrouded in a field of gratitude.

The reality is that much of the day may well be challenging, but even with the challenges comes opportunity.

Whereas most of the things I’d like to change are outside of my control, the things I have most likelihood to change are sound within me.

Among these things is the devotion to living well.

By this I don’t mean simply enjoying all of life’s little pleasures (which are there, if I look for them).

Instead, I mean the devotion to listening, to breathing through my desire to react negatively when provoked, and my commitment to being helpful where I can.

Oftentimes this is an act of humility. Throughout my life, I have always tended to lean too hard on my own assumptions about things, feeling a sense of indignity and resentment when other people didn’t see things my way. I don’t like to be “wrong,” and I get overwhelmed and exhausted when there’s too much contradiction.

My current practice, which has been helping me over the past few months, has been to instead allow for the alternative opinion to exist, to focus on my own work instead of my argumentative self, and to appeal to the One for a greater wisdom than myself or the other person.

This wisdom cannot be seen or known — at least not in the moment.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes go to bed depressed, depleted from the challenges of the day.

But, thanks to my sober lifestyle and my medication, each night I get a good sleep complete with deep dreaming.

And when I wake, I feel a sense of gratitude and closure, ready to begin again.

I hope this may be of some use to you this morning.

Appreciatively, 

Aaron