Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024
Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please -- you can never have both.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Denial is sneaky and hard to detect. Like a chameleon, a denied reality tends to change color until it blends right in and seems to fit. Since we don't have to deal with what we don't see, we camouflage some truths that we're afraid will hurt or challenge us.
Some of us deny that anyone else ever lived in a family as dysfunctional as ours, or that our families were dysfunctional at all. Others insist only their siblings were affected, or only themselves. We may tell ourselves we're deliberating when we're really procrastinating. The varieties of self-deception are almost limitless.
Our talent for denial is an important reason for making friends in the program. We need people we can trust enough to tell us the truth -- loving people who will say what needs to be said, even if it's uncomfortable at first to hear.
I recognize my need for honest feedback. I'm less afraid of openness than I used to be.
Hazelden Foundation
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