Resource Hope for the Flowers

[Kamaainakupua]

This is my first thread here at SaSu, and started out of another thread here in the Recovery forum. The thread title is a book written in 1972 by Trina Paulus, about caterpillars struggling to find meaning and direction. I'm hoping to turn this thread into a list of literary resources for positive motivation, whatever that means to each member. Obviously, some discussion of content is required, but this website has great directions on how to hide spoilers (as demonstrated above).
When I was in my pre-teen and teen years, I was definitely a wallflower, and it took me a long time to let go of the wall.
This website, and the supportive people who share their experiences here, represent to me "hope for the flowers", whether that means the hope of a seat on the bus, or the hope of a ride away from the bus stop.
I have survived enough attempts to catch the bus to know that my experiences can help others who either never had hope, or have lost their hope.
As Forrest Gump said about shit, "It happens", but when it happens to you, it doesn't have to make your whole day, or life, stink. We have recipes here to turn shit into fertilizer: hope for the flowers.
All flowers deserve hope, and I appreciate all of you who water the flowers, drive the bus, or just spread fertilizer here.
P.S. We also have access to the Secret of the Sun!

Spoiler: Traditional Methods

11. Sun Light - It's been found that sun light is very important for production of vitamin D. Often the vitamin D found in cereals isn't the best form, as it's only D2. D3 is made by the sun. You can also certainly supplement D3 too. D3 is actually part hormone part vitamin, so it's very powerful. Morning sunlight is the best as it won't damage your skin as much.

 

[Kamaainakupua]

One of my co-workers gave me this when I was working as a nursing assistant at an Alzheimer's hospice center. This is my

Spoiler: Favorite Cover

I love this book and have bought and given away dozens of copies. It is a simple story, written almost in a D¡ck and Jane style, with just a sentence or two on each page. The story begins with this line:

"Once there was a boy... who listened to an old man."

... and then slowly shows how the old man teaches the little boy how to give himself the Percious Present.

"It is the best present a person can receive because anyone who receives such a gift is happy forever."

The book itself is only 82 pages, but condenses down to 2 pages (one sheet, back & front). Here are some bits of wisdom from the story:

Spoiler: Secrets

"The Precious Present Has Nothing To Do With Wishing...
When You Have The Precious Present You Will Be Perfectly Content To Be Where You Are...
The Richness Of The Precious Present Comes From Its Own Source...
The Precious Present Is Not Something That Someone Gives To You...
It Is Something You Give To Yourself..."

The story ends with the little boy, having grown and learned the true secret of the present, telling a little girl the same things he had been told, thus passing along the secret to...

The Precious Present​

 

[Kamaainakupua]

Many people here have asked me, "How have you survived all those things, carried this pain for as long as you have?"
The answer is a combination of many things, but first and foremost it was reaching out to people who were willing to help. I was given many tools to help in my recovery, by people who knew the same pain I felt. These are not all books, but they provided me with hope for my flowers, so I leave them here to possibly help others.

Spoiler: Creed for Those Who Have Suffered (TW: God Stuff)

A Creed For Those Who Have Suffered

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey...

I asked for health, that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things...

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise...

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God...

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...

I got nothing I asked for - but everything I had hoped for;
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among men, most richly blessed!

(This creed hung on a wall in a waiting room of
the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine,
400 East 34th Street, NYC, USA,
and is attributed to an unknown Confederate soldier).​

Spoiler: Rules For Being Human

The Rules for Being Human
1. You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.
2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".
4. A lesson is repeated until learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better than "here".
When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here".
7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie inside of you.
The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.
Chérie Carter Scott

This next one is for Josey, who saved my lfe and and gave me purpose.

Spoiler: Happy Homework (TW: God Stuff)

Happy Homework​

Read these statements every day, until they become part of your thinking. DO NOT MEMORIZE THEM. Think straight and you will feel great.
1. I am a unique and precious human being, always doing the best I can, always growing in wisdom and love.
2. I am in charge of my own life.
3. My number one responsibility is my own growth and well-being. The better I am to me, the better I will be to others.
4. I refuse to be put down by the attitudes and opinions of others.
5. I make my own decisions and assume responsibility of any mistakes. However, I refuse to feel shame or guilt about them.
6. I am not my actions. I am the actor. My actions may be good or bad. That does not make ME good or bad. (God is the Judge.)
7. I am not free as to the things that will happen to me. But I am 100% free as to the attitude I have towards these things. My personal well-being depends on my attitudes.
8. I do not have to prove myself to anyone. I need only to express myself as honestly and effectively as I am capable.
9. I am free of animosity or resentment.
10. My emotional well-being is dependent primarily on how I love me.
11. I am kind and gentle towards me.
12. I live a day at a time, doing first things first.
13. I am patient and serene for I have the rest of my life in which to grow.
14. Every experience I have in life (even the unpleasant ones) contributes to my learning and growth.
15. No one in the whole wide world is more important than I as a person.
16. My mistakes and non-successes do not make me less of a person. They only prove that I am imperfect, that is human, and there's nothing wrong with being human.
17. Once I have reconciled to God, and my neighbor, then I am totally free of guilt feelings or remorse.

PLACE THIS IN YOUR LIFE SO THAT YOU WILL NOT FORGET TO DO YOUR HAPPY HOMEWORK.​

This one is actually a book, but I have put here only the famous part that ended up as posters in classrooms around the world.

Spoiler: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.

Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put things back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you
are - when you go out into the world, it is best
to hold hands and stick together.​

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