Willingness

September is National Recovery Month.  We share this reflection from Veronica Colon, who serves as Project HOME’s Addictions Specialist for several of our residences.  She shared this at one of our Tuesday Morning Inspirational Meetings.

People often ask me why I do this work.  I am unsure whether or not I am supposed to wear my brokenness on my sleeve, my past pains on my face, my past failures in my talk or my current hurts in my everyday tasks. It’s as if I had to prove myself to help others while the people who hurt them are able to do so without any walls or boundaries.

I have come to realize the importance of willingness. When I first began at Project HOME, I connected with a phenomenal woman who after long talks and tears gave me a special card that read “Love Opens Doors.”

Too many times we create walls that keep out not only the bad people but also the good.  Because of all the disappointments and pains we experienced, we push the good people away, we don’t let them in, and we continue to self-destruct because sometimes that is the only thing we knew how to do best.

Many years ago when I wanted to change my life, I began to write down the many goals I set out for myself.   Some of them I felt I could never accomplish.  Reflecting back, I ask myself, “What stopped me?”  It was me – I was not willing to grow.

Today I am willing to laugh at myself and accept my mistakes as learning tools

Today I am willing to smile at the simplest forms of life like a flower growing from the crack of concrete.

Today I am willing to be brave to say “Good Morning” to every stranger I see in passing.

Each day we have to be willing: To move forward in life. To accept the good and learn from the bad.   Willingness is not about letting someone in, it’s about giving ourselves a fair chance.  So I dare you to reflect on who you are today and the steps that you are willing to take. Write them down and place them in a place you can see each day to remind yourself of the need to be willing.