Greatest Hits

 "What we usually ask of God is that two plus two not equal four."  Anonymous

I turn again and again to my Personal Unofficial A.A. Slogans - they sustain and nurture me and keep me out of an astounding amount of trouble when I remember to follow them.

Nobody wants to hear my opinion on anything.  Even when they ask for my opinion they don't want to hear my opinion, really.  I can barely locate my car keys and wallet most of the time so why do I think I can direct your life?

Wear the world like a loose garment.  Relax.  All is well all is well all is well.  We're in this world but we're not of this world.  We're spiritual beings having a human experience so mistakes and conflict are inevitable.

No one is thinking about me and - for sure - no one is doing anything to me.  That guy in the car ahead of me isn't trying to worm his way in front of me, Little Stevie Seaweed, Esquire.  He's just going to work and my car is in his way.  Stop taking everything personally.  Most of the time I let the guy in and I'll tell you it's a hell of a lot less stressful although it does shave like eight seconds off my ETA.

Say as little as possible.  Just try not to talk.  Silence rarely gets me in trouble but my mouth is a problem.  "If people think you're stupid then you can open your mouth and remove all doubt."  The best sponsor advice I ever got was "Just try not to talk today."  I can only imagine how much of an ass I was being to prompt this suggestion.

Love people for who they are and not who you want them to be.  Everybody's fine.  Everybody's OK.  There aren't very many truly bad people out there - most of us are good, decent people trying out best while struggling to overcome some flaws.  Don't concentrate on these flaws in other people - concentrate on your patience and acceptance.  Do I think I never try other people's patience?  Do I think if I self-righteously criticize someone else's shortcomings that this will be helpful to them?  Don't I think I have no flaws?  (Ed. Note: Well, I do think I have no flaws and I'm pretty sure I'm right which is probably a flaw that I need to look into.)

I absolutely cannot change the past.  I have very little ability to control the future.  Clean up my past the best I can and do the loose garment thing with the future.  There's a big difference between planning and control.  Most of the time when someone tells me what to do I do the opposite thing.

Follow spiritual principles and what is a spiritual principle?  Be nice.  Just be nice.  Or, don't be an asshole.  We all witness interactions during the day where we think "wow, that was nice what that guy did" or "wow, what an asshole."  I try to leave everybody I meet feeling better about themselves.

Quit preaching about your own spiritual principles.  No one is listening.