Posts Tagged: Hazelden Publishing
“HEARING THE MUSIC BEYOND THE RECORDING”
Here is a wonderful thought from one of my Hazelden Publishing 12-step recovery readings:
“Monday, November 25
All music is what awakes from you when you are
reminded by the instruments.
—Walt Whitman
A small group of friends sat in a room around a record player. It was a heavy
old thing, with parts that had to be operated by hand and only one speaker –
nothing like a modern stereo at all, but more like an antique phonograph. The
record – a recording of their favorite music – was old, too, and scratched, its
grooves worn smooth as a stone in some places. The tone arm skipped and
scratched, and the sound was tinny, hard on the ears.
Most of the friends squirmed in their seats as they listened, and several
grumbled that it was impossible to hear the music with such inferior equipment.
But one of the group sat listening, her eyes closed, swaying to the music and
humming softly to herself.
“How can you enjoy this?” the others asked.
“Ah,” she said with a mysterious smile. “I am listening beyond
the recording to the music I know is there!”
Can I find the music that’s playing for me today?”
(From Today’s Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©1985, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.)
Am I—are we—listening to the music I know is there?
As I write this journal entry, my wife is asleep. Sitting here, listening to the rhythm of her breathing, do I hear the blessed hymn of her rest? What a wonderful symphony Sharon is, even when she is asleep!
Will I hear the music that I know is there today when I attend scholarly lectures at the annual Society of Biblical Literature meeting? Scholarly presentations are merely the notes on the page. They are not the music. But the music is there.
And then, there is my own music. Do I really listen to the music of my own life: the dramatically dark movements and the passages that are filled with light and joy? Does God enjoy listening to the symphony that is me?
Today, I will listen to the music that is beyond the recording.
“Living in the Now”
Saturday, August 3, 2019
A good reading from Hazelden Publishing:
“Saturday, August 3
To live a spiritual life we must first find the
courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and to change it by gentle and
persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen
Knowing our loneliness and admitting it to us is the beginning of a spiritual
path for many men. Today we are on a spiritual journey. We already have the
means to translate the pain of our loneliness into a deeper spiritual
dimension. Most men in this program came in deeply aware of their feelings of
isolation. Now, with the companionship of our Higher Power, we can spend time
alone and use it for spiritual growth. As we develop a relationship with
ourselves and deepen our knowledge of our Higher Power, our loneliness
transforms into solitude.
In this quiet moment today, we can be more accepting of ourselves than we were
in the past. We admit loneliness has caused us pain, but now we can see that it
also can lead us to our deeper self where we find serene solitude. This change
is a movement into the spiritual world.
Thanks to God for the solitude I have found in my life.” (From Touchstones: A Book of Daily
Meditations for Men ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.)
To say that I am in way over my head in teaching various courses at the university would be an understatement. Perhaps, though, that enables me to be more sympathetic with my fellow-students of the Word. Maybe we are all in over our heads in life and in our pursuit of the God who has pursued us.
No unchecked regrets today! I went down to the breakfast area for my second cup of coffee this morning, and a young couple with a small child and a baby were having breakfast. I was filled with regret that I did not treat my wife and the kids better.
But God reminded me that I can never go back. There are no re-dos for anything that is worthwhile. There is only this day, and its chances to be patient, kind, and compassionate to others—and even to myself. Regret focuses me on the unalterable past, and keeps me from the awareness of the present chances to love. Real love is always a present-tense verb.
“You Can do Something!”
A friend of mine was telling me the other day that he hates the saying, “You can be anything you want to be.” We usually say this to children or young people. My friend thinks that this is a lie. I agree. Where we’re born, whether we’re male or female, born into wealth or poverty, the color of our skin—these things and thousands of others tend to limit our options.
But there is another lie that is equally pernicious: the lie that you can’t do anything worthwhile. In one of my 12-step readings today, I read the following:
“Being the victim is, or was, uncomfortably familiar to many of us. Perhaps some of us are only now realizing we have choices, that we need not let life happen to us. Becoming responsible to ourselves, choosing behavior, beliefs, friends, activities, that please us, though unfamiliar at first, soon exhilarates us. The more choices we make, the more alive we feel. The more alive we feel, the healthier our choices.” (From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey)
And in my 3-minute retreat this morning, I read these words:
“Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:15, English Standard Bible)
The key for all of us is to turn from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it.
Yesterday was an incredibly good day for me. Why? Because, I turned away from evil—not the evil in the world; only my own evil. I did some good things. I sought after and pursued peace, at least for the most part.
There is no reason that I can’t do the same today. No, I can’t “be anything I want.” But I can do something good. And if I do some good things, I will also be something good.
And if I seek and pursue peace, then peace might just find and overtake me.
“Guilt Prolongs the Problem”
Here is a meditation for addicts that I read just this morning. This is a Hazelden reading from a book by Melody Beattie that everyone in the world should take buy and read until it has disintegrated. We should also put a lot of her good suggestions into daily practice until they becomes part of who we are. Here is today’s reading from her book on Hazelden’s “Thought for the Day” (https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/thought-for-the-day, accessed 02-08-2019).
“Friday, February 8
Letting
Go of Guilt
Feeling good about ourselves is a choice. So is feeling guilty. When guilt is
legitimate, it acts as a warning light, signaling that we’re off course. Then
its purpose is finished.
Wallowing in guilt allows others to control us. It makes us feel not good enough. It prevents us from setting boundaries and taking other healthy action to care for ourselves.
We may have learned to habitually feel guilty as an instinctive reaction to life. Now we know that we don’t have to feel guilty. Even if we’ve done something that violates a value, extended guilt does not solve the problem; it prolongs the problem. So make an amend. Change a behavior. Then let guilt go.
Today, God, help me to become entirely ready to let go of guilt. Please take it from me, and replace it with self-love.”
(From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.)
I was especially struck by her statements that “. . . extended guilt does not solve the problem; it prolongs the problem. So make an amend. Change a behavior. Then let guilt go.”
When I choose to prolong guilt, rather than choosing to make an amend to someone and to change my behavior, I am simply adding one more wrong thing to feel guilty about—my guilt. Guilt itself becomes one more wrong behavior whenever I do not address honesty the wrong behavior that gave rise to the guilt. Prolonging guilt is merely a way for me to avoid the hard work of trusting God, asking for forgiveness, and doing the next right thing. Real guilt is good. Prolonged guilt is not.
“ON DRIVING MY OWN CAR”
I often read some snippets from 12-step recovery books. They are published by Hazelden to help addicts like me. These excerpts are also published to get people to buy Hazelden books. If you’ve got some extra coins lying about, these books would be well worth the price, even if you’re not an addict.
One excerpt that I read this morning made me laugh. It also made me think.
“It’s hard to keep from trying to control the lives of others, especially in a family. We can learn from the man whose friend drove twenty miles to and from work on the freeway every day. ‘How can you do it?’ he asked. ‘I’ve tried, and I can’t go a mile in such traffic without screaming at the crazy drivers who cut in, go too slow, change lanes. Nobody listens. I’d lose my mind if I had to do it your way.’ His friend replied, ‘Your trouble is trying to drive every car around you. I relax and drive only one car – my own.’” (Today’s Gift, December 18, 2018)
Driving one car is difficult enough. Driving more than one? Way too much! And yet, how often I try to drive other people’s cars! To stay with the literal aspect of the metaphor for a moment, my wife is an excellent driver, much better than I am. However, when I’m riding shotgun, she has to frequently remind me that she is driving and I am not. Driving a car from the passenger’s side is not easy.
The Apostle Paul warns the believers in Rome not to try to run other people’s lives. “Don’t judge your brothers and sisters!” he warns them in chapter 14. In Romans 14:13, Paul says, “If you are going to judge at all, judge this: Judge yourself! Don’t cause your brother or sister to stumble!
There are certainly times when we have to intervene in other people’s lives, but we rarely have the courage to do that. More often, we want to intervene when it is really none of our business.
The meditation from Today’s Gift ends by asking a wonderful question: “What acts of others can I ignore today?”
Choosing to ignore how other people are doing may be a sign that we are properly concerned with what we are doing ourselves. I need to drive my own car.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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