Step 178 - I will remember those who have given to me today. Entry for Step 177 - I will learn to be honest today.

Greetings All –

Step 178 - I will remember those who have given to me today.

THIS IS A SPECIAL DAY OF ACKNOWLEDGING THE PRESENCE of genuine relationships in your life. It is a special day of acknowledging the gifts that have been given to you. It is a day meant for gratitude.

UPON THE HOUR, THEN, REPEAT THIS STATEMENT and take a moment to recall those who have given to you. Try to think very carefully of the individuals who have given benefit to you, both by demonstrating their Wisdom and their error. Think of those who have illustrated the way to go and the way not to go. As you inquire further into this in your two longer practice periods today, try to think more carefully and allow any individual who comes to mind to be the subject of your investigation. This is an active practice time in your meditation periods.

IN YOUR LONGER PRACTICE PERIODS, repeat the statement at the beginning of practice and allow individuals to come to you. Learn to recognize their contribution to the reclamation of Knowledge. Learn to recognize their contribution to your physical and emotional well being. Learn to recognize how they have served you. In this way, your entire concept of giving and receiving and of service in the world may be expanded and developed. This will give you a true vision of the world so that you may learn to be compassionate with yourself and with others.

THIS, THEN, IS A DAY OF AFFIRMATION and a day of gratitude. Allow your practices to be meaningful and effective so that you may receive their reward.

PRACTICE 178: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

This Step says:  “It is a day meant for gratitude.” The importance of gratitude will be revealed in the Steps.

Yesterday:  Step 177 - I will learn to be honest today.

Time to be honestly embarrassed now, 2:16 A.M. EDT. Today's text was familiar, because I used it as my lesson today. With the Step 177 title yesterday, I pasted the text for Step 178. Reading it now, it seemed to be the Step I'd done today. You may have caught that, or not. If you didn't, you can do 177 today, as you've done 178. This mix-up of order is not critical to advancement. In the modern world of fatigued living,
mistakes will be made. My apologies. For anyone reading this later, the correction was made to Step 177. Blogger is correctable.  NNC

From the Journal:

6:50 A.M. Monday, January 10, 2000

TAI CHI – A.M./P.M. The old way – a return needed. Prodigal again. The spirit connection is scary – even though sought. I shall practice.

7:02 p.m. The stock market flies, and I go nowhere – nothing invested – K say not to worry. A good day @ work – the team is back to a degree. My life here is not about earning money. I should just put the money in the best available funds and forget. I went opposite my conclusion last year. I needed to be more aggressive; I got more conservative based on fear. This is honest. S2K is: “I will learn to be honest today.”

This is one of the strongest ideas I’ve encountered thus far in the Steps. To be honest – it is a “requirement to feel what you know.” I do feel/sense truths beyond my body/with my body.

I can feel the whole truth that put me in this chair, following S2K, and recording it in green ink in a lab note book. It has come to this and will continue on with this sense.

11:35 p.m. to be. Not the original plan. My personal side gets de-railed easily. Flights reserved to & from Texas. It will be costly – but so what – they are my kids and nothing else really counts – at least that’s how I feel with two drinks/fatigue.

As I am doing Steps for the first time, it has not become my life. There are many things going on, like trying to play the stock market for a future retirement income, as well as heed the dangers in the world. The dot.com boom is nearly at its peak, so my conservative action has left me flat, relatively speaking, though at this time, a decent interest rate was paid on money-market funds and bonds. I am sorting through issues of other sorts, as any student is likely to do. Steps is, by this time, becoming a greater part of my life. So I wrote:  S2K is: “I will learn to be honest today.” This is one of the strongest ideas I’ve encountered thus far in the Steps.    

Let us continue.

NNC