Sharing with others daily words, thoughts and meditations that bring myself hope and renewal during my own daily battles and frustrations with COPD/Asthma.  Sharing, because as we all know – without that horizon of hope, our daily renewal of faith and fight can dim in a hurry.

Take, read, meditate and hopefully find some of the same hope in your day as I have within mine…..

The Word – “Somehow, being along with the Great Spirit doesn’t seem as embarrassing as facing up to another person.  Until we sit down and talk aloud about what we have so long hidden, our willingness to clean house is still largely theoretical.”  (Twelve-Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 60)

The Thought – It will seem odd to many that ‘The Word’ today came from the 12-step and 12-traditions geared toward those with addictions, yet to some it will make perfect sense.

As one who not only fights, sometimes daily, battles with a chronic illness or disability, I also continue a daily walk of staying clean and sober that has been going on for 26 years.

Part of the addiction recovery program deals with what they call ‘cleaning house’ with our emotions or clearing out with a good conscious the baggage that we may have from an addiction.  Much the same could be said for those with a chronic illness or disability – especially those who have a whole lot of pride, while keeping hope that some that may be closest to us will find the want to care and walk with us.

Not only should we be comfortable with the ‘Great Spirit’, but we should work on getting comfortable with our family members, our good friends, our co-workers and our spiritual leaders when discussing our chronic illness or disability and how it affects our lives physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Those are the moments when we will find the rocks of people to lean on when needed.

‘Cleaning House’ sometimes mean taking the emotional weight off our lives from those who just do not seem to care or are willing to work with us on our walk with a chronic illness or disability, no matter how much we may want them to – something especially true for family members or good friends.

‘Cleaning House’ means taking that step back and maybe just walking away from those emotional weights that do nothing but add to our already high level of stress and mental anguish from the heart-break they give us for not wanting to listen, help or walk with us when needed.

Until we ‘clean house’ of those emotionally weights from our walk of life, we will have struggles in reaching complete peace with the ‘Great Spirits’ and struggles in climbing those short hills that lay between our self and the four fundamentals of happiness of hope, faith, love and grace.

The Meditation/Prayer – Oh ‘Great Spirts’, we daily humble ourselves with your presence and say loudly, thank you, for the wonders of the world around us as we walk this life we are traveling.  ‘Great Spirits’ we also humbly ask for your guidance and words of wisdom in helping us find the strength needed to ‘Clean House’ of those emotional weights which hold us back from the true potential we have, even with our chronic illness or disability.  Our daily time to unload with you, ‘Great Spirits’, is when we truly find out if we are reaching those targets of happiness that come from the four fundamentals of life filled with happiness and comfort – hope, faith, love and grace.

And we all say Hallelujah, Amen.

(Copyright@2017, CrossDove Writer – This writing may not be reused in any manner without written permission.)

(More ‘Living 4 Today’ writings can be found at either wheezingaway.com or on Facebook at COPD Travels.)