WHAT I LEARNED: 1. After I became the North Florida Area Literature Coordinator in 2015, I was “bequeathed” a lot of CAL & some were discontinued pieces.  Whoo-hoo!  So I’m slowly making my way through them & decided to start by reading the entire “Forum Favorites” series from most recent to oldest.  (See my previous entry for Volume 4 (item #B-9D).)  This Volume 3 (item # B-9C) came out in 1991 & includes editorials (or “inspirational articles” as Lois Wilson called them) published between 1974 & 1984.

2. Because all the articles were selected by 3 past editors of The Forum magazine during that time, it reads quite a bit more formal than Volume 4 – which featured submissions by individual members of their all-time favorites.  Plus, Volume 3 doesn’t have any cute hand-drawn pictures in it which I just assumed it would since Volume 4 did, but I digress…  If you are able to borrow a copy of this discontinued book through your local District LDC or Archives chairperson, it is worth seeking out.  Even though the dates of the articles are becoming older every year, they do not feel dated.  It seems the editors had the foresight to know what would be timeless & that alone was worthy of being considered a “favorite.”

3. I had many favorite quotes from this book, but these are my top 4:

From page 42: “The constant practice of Al-Anon principles enables us to hear brilliant insights in the words of the uneducated, to find love in criticism, to be helped by those we’re helping & taught by those we’re teaching.  We can learn to see beauty in the most dismal surroundings, in the wrinkles on an aged face, in the mold on an old brick.  A positive attitude is a great blessing.”

From pages 82-83: “A Tibetan writer, Djwhal Kahul, has said that everything is spiritual which tends toward understanding, toward kindness, toward that which is productive of beauty & leads man on to a fuller expression of his divine potential.  Each advance we make in personal insight & awareness of others is spiritual growth.  We can leave the thickets of distrust & discouragement & climb up where we have new worlds at our feet & far horizons before us.”

From page 106: “Detachment is not the absence of love, but the absence of anxiety in love.”

From page 140: “I must stop pushing the river & just let it flow.”