Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020
Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Memory is the diary we all carry about with us. — Oscar Wilde
Our memories create the substance of our identity. People who lose their memory lose any sense of who they are. Some of us have memories of painful events in our childhood, or of traumas that changed our image of ourselves. Those of us who were abused by parents have to learn in adulthood to fill those gaps by becoming good parents to ourselves. Some of us have become trapped at a younger stage of development by painful memories. Now, it is essential to our healing that we not perpetuate our own abuse.
We have to learn to include ourselves in the human family. No matter what we experienced, no matter what we feel, it is all part of what it means to be human. We can heal our memories, not by changing them, but by making peace with them so we are free to live in the present. A man can imagine the little boy he once was—and imagine taking that youngster on his lap and promising him that he will take care of him and keep him safe.
Today, I will be a good parent to myself and treat myself with love and respect.
Hazelden Foundation
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