Do you want to live or do you want to die? Have you set unreasonable expectations on yourself The choice is yours you know. No one can make that choice for you short of a straight jacket and even with that kind of force a person can literally die of grief an self loathing.

When I came into the rooms of recovery you could crush me with a word. I was fragile and wasn’t sure if I wanted to live because I didn’t know if there was any way to get well, to recover or to regain my sanity. All I knew as I was in a meeting and I didn’t get there by my own power. It took God’s gentle but firm hand to keep me coming around the rooms until I was able to see for myself the benefits of living. I had been so clouded by the bottle, the dope and the needle and the damage done that I could not see anything but a dark whole.

“To be?” You have got to be kidding, but today here I sit at my keyboard clean, sober and living successfully with my mental illness. Today I want to live more than ever.

I have arthritis, my brain doesn’t think right, I get bad migraines allot, I have hip and sever back problems, I’m painfully ill several times a year and I live with diabetes. But the truth is I have more serenity and joy in my life than I have ever had. Why?, because today I have self worth. My life is manageable. I am clean and sober. The medication I take for several of my infirmities works most of the time. Old and dear friendships that could have been lost for ever have been restored. I have a beautiful family and the spirit of the living God indwells within my heart. And most of all, I know I don’t have to do life perfectly.

There is a great commercial on TV right now where there is this body builder advertising one of those muscle machines that ends up in everyone’s garage sale. The guy is buffed. He makes a statement that goes something like this: “Others may lose their weight by eating sandwiches but I don’t see them taking their shirt off on television.”

OK, so he has Bo-Flexed his way on to TV. Is he doing this for his health or for self gratification and pride? Though there is not wrong with weight training with rubber bands I would suggest that Jared and his sandwiches are a bit more particle for most of us. Do both of these guys want to live a healthy and well rounded life? Heck I don’t know, but someone in those commercials was fat, self condemning and self loathing. That same someone is now fulfilled and has a healthy way of looking at things. A particle way of living.

So tell me, when your B0-Flex is sitting out in the rain long after the garage sale is over and you have failed miserably at your expectations will you still be filled with a positive outlook on living or will you desire “Not to be”? For me, I would rather be practical and work a program that last and is simple at the same time.

As for me folks it’s a no brainier. “To Be”

Blessings and Progress to All,

Monty

Today I will not put unreasonable expectations on myself. I will recognize that I don’t have to become perfect in order to enjoy life. Today I will slow down and stop trying so hard to fix myself on my own power with the weight of the world on my shoulders. Today I will take the time to make a healthy sandwich, sit and enjoy the beauty of others and take a short walk. Today I will apply the AA adage “Easy Does It”