Radical Acceptance

Let's see now - I've been practicing the principles of the program on a daily basis for over 29 years.  You would think I would have reached enlightenment by now.  But...  On the other hand, I'm certainly a lot more mellow than I used to be.  As we say, "it's progress, not perfection."  The thing is, one of the principles is that there really are no problems; that everything in our lives is meant for our good.  With gritted teeth, people say, "Grrrr!  Another growing experience!" 

I've alway accepted the truth of this principle, but I still reacted emotionally to almost everything that happened that I didn't like.  I hate to say anything in case I'm wrong but I think I'm actually beginning to see how my attitudes and judgments about any experience I'm having cause any negative emotions I might have.  If I imagine that I have an opposite attitude about an experience than my usual "this is bad" reaction, I can often see where the good is in the experience.  I'm telling you what, it's a very weird feeling!

Daily Work

I heard in a meeting a few months ago - "When I go to sleep at night, everything I've learned in the program falls out of my head and I have to start all over when I wake up!"  I immediately knew that I had the same problem.  I cannot even skip one day of working my program or I immediately find myself dealing with my old self and my old ideas.  This problem is very hard to describe.  But let me take a shot at it.

For example:  my ego is still bigger than I'd like it to be which means that I can still get my feelings hurt by something someone else says or does. Right away my mind starts planning how I can protect myself.  However, my program says that it's pointless to get upset with someone who's trying to grow up just like I am.  When I remember that, I stop being upset.  We're all imperfect and accidentally step on each other's toes.  Sometimes we even do it on purpose with the intent of hurting.  However, when someone does that to me, it's a reflection of their fear and is not necessarily about me.   My job is to watch my own behavior.  I really have nothing to fear from other people.

National Novel Writing Month

November is national novel writing month.  I can't remember where I heard about it but it was at least two years ago.  It's a not-very-serious effort by thousands of people to write a 50,000 (at least) word novel from November 1 through November 30.  That's a little over 1,666 words per day.  No one is working on a great, beautifully written novel; they're just writing a draft of a novel.   There's a website that explains what few little rules there are - nobody else's writing but your own, nothing you've written before (it all has to be written in November although you're allowed to have an outline and have done some research), and do not write the same word over and over 50,000 times. 

The website says that about 40,000 people finished a novel in 2011.  On November 1st there were a bunch of middle school teachers, mechanics, out of work actors, etc. and on December 1st there were a bunch of novelists.  For the rest of their lives they can brag that they've written a novel.  All of the novels are posted on line.

I'm thinking it's a great way to establish a daily writing habit without any pressure except to get the words on paper.  I'm thinking I will sign up.