One Day at a Time

So, the old phrase, "I'm taking it one day at a time," is commonly used by recovering addicts. Partly, this has to be done out of necessity due to the overwhelming amount of work needed to change one's life after hitting rock bottom. Imagine, a woman who's fallen into drug use, become homeless, lost her job, lost her friends, doesn't have a license, has bad credit (etc.) who decides to get sober and turn her life around. She has to "take it one day at a time" to simply stay sane and not fall into a pit of hopelessness at the seemingly enormous load of obstacles in her path to success.

The other reason to "take it one day at a time," is to avoid the ensnarement of pride. "Oh, think how awesome it will feel in 40 days if I pray the rosary every day!" That thought spells immediate set up for failure and disappointment. Not that I think it's impossible for me to do that everyday but I know I won't. If there's one thing I know about myself, is that (despite my predilection towards addiction), I have a hard time mustering up the discipline to do anything once a day every day (yes, true to British form, I have horrible teeth). So, I tell myself to be thankful for the presence of enthusiasm to do something good when it strikes. When I want to exercise, I'm happy that that particular desire arises at that moment (and I go and do it). Similarly, with the desire to pray or read the bible. As good as it would feel to do either of these things everyday, I know that I'm a long way off from that. It takes a tremendous amount of spiritual discipline to do that, and right now I'm just trying to be patient and thankful for the point of the journey that I am at.