Stand and Deliver

 "Rest is not a matter of doing absolutely nothing.  Rest is repair."  Daniel Josselyn

Because those of us who show up get answers I'm amused to report that this was my daily reflection for today which I read while hobbled by a spasm in my hip.  I tend toward doing something as a solution for everything and sometimes I have to remember that doing nothing is doing something.  This is rarely clear to me.  I want to fix something.  It's not intuitive that sometimes not doing anything is the best solution.

Bill W on fear: "Therefore the problem of resolving fear has two aspects.  We shall have to try for all the freedom from fear that is possible for us to attain.  Then we shall need to find both the courage and grace to deal constructively with whatever fears remain.  (And he segues into one of his biggest sources of fear - failing at life.)  I'd never settle for any second-rate staus.  I felt I simply had to dominate in everything I chose to do: work or play.  I came to value everything in terms of victory or defeat - all or nothing.  The only satisfaction I knew was to win."  And the implication as I understand this is that whenever he didn't win he felt less than and fear crept into the picture.  My takeaway from these comments is that through constructive actions and spiritual growth we'll be able to vanquish many of our fears and those that are intractable will be our teachers.  Who grows when they're getting their own way?  One of my personal and oft repeated touchstones it that there aren't good things or bad things but rather pleasant things and painful things.  I can't see into the future to figure out which is which.

The man who wept in front of me at the meeting this week has really stayed in my heart.  That scene, that episode, that incident will remain with me always.