March 27
Keeping the Ideal
After enough disappointments, lowering our expectations can feel sensible. Perhaps patience is too much to ask of someone with our temperament. Perhaps complete honesty belongs to people with simpler lives. We settle on a version of ourselves that seems manageable and begin treating any larger possibility as an invitation to feel guilty. We have stopped scolding ourselves, but we may also have stopped looking up.
A spiritual ideal can remain worthy even when we fall short of it. Kindness does not become foolish because we were unkind before breakfast. It still helps us recognize what the next conversation might need. We can ask God to keep our aspirations alive without turning every failure into an accusation. The distance between who we are and what we value leaves room for growth. We do not have to close that distance by pretending the value no longer matters.
Which ideal have I dismissed because I have not lived up to it?
Patience still matters after an impatient morning.
For the A.A. nerds: As Bill Sees It, No. 15, “Eternal Values.”