Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Seize the opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.
--Bulgarian proverb

Through laziness or inattention, we often miss opportunities to grow. Maybe we don't play our hunches or listen to our intuition. Maybe we see an opportunity but fail to act because we're not sure it's what we ought to do. An opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream has appeared, but we don't trust our good fortune. A chance has come to use our talent to help someone, but we don't know how the person will handle it, so we do nothing.

And we rationalize. We decide it's a frivolous impulse, a whim that's not worth our attention. We decide it couldn't be our Inner Guide.

God seldom takes us by the scruff of the neck and pulls us to our next destination. God provides the opportunities; it's up to us to seize them. God talks to us; it's up to us to listen.

Today I'll be on the lookout or God's opportunities.
From: In God's Care by Karen Casey


Things aren't going so well with my family. Try as I might, I can't help them. Everything I try pretty much fails. I put them on my income taxes, following Linda's advice which I knew was wrong, but I justified it by telling myself that I could help them with my refund. Well, I didn't get a refund. The IRS kept the whole thing. Had I known that they were going to get stimulus money I never would have done it but I filed before any of us knew of that money. Then when I got my stimulus money I thought, "Aha, here's my opportunity!" I got less than half. I did buy Mom some much needed new outfits, including underwear. I also spent some on my brother before I put any on my new glasses. But it's not the same. Now I've got a caseworker on my tail ready to file some kind of charges.

I've been feeling resentful and angry at my lot in life now I wonder if I'm being shown one of God's life lessons. Do I have to like it? No. The point is that I need to learn from this and grow.