Saturday, October 6, 2012

Oct. 6, 2012 - Today's Gift from Hazelden


Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012
Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced. 
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Maybe our debt is spiraling so out of control we can't face it. We can't tolerate sitting at the table one more time trying to manipulate figures to meet the month's expenses. If we're responsible for creating the debt, we may be in denial or have a lot of shame. If our spouse is responsible, we may be so confused we give up, not knowing whether he or she will come home from the casino with a fistful of cash or another grand or two in the hole. We're tired of creating solutions to get through the debt. We give up. We bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich. If we pull our heads up, we're afraid we'll have a nervous breakdown.

The ostrich stage is a normal human reaction to overwhelming circumstances. We can only take so much. But in the ostrich stage, we make ourselves especially vulnerable. We may return responsibility for paying bills to our gambling spouse. We may agree to sign credit card applications in our name. We accumulate hundreds of dollars worth of overdraft fees.

If we've reached the ostrich stage, we seek outside support from someone we can trust to handle our finances – to shed light on what we cannot seem to see.

Today instead of staying in the ostrich stage, I will seek help.

From the book:

Letting Go of Debt © 2000 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.

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