HOPE MONTH: DAY 20:
“Yesterday is but a dream,
Tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.” ― Kālidāsa
So, we learn to live life without drugs and alcohol here. Is that it? Not in my book. We learn to live life in ways that eliminate the shame and rage we got here with.
THAT is a whole different set of promises. And, it takes many years of working through the layers of shame and rage to get to the place where we get to see the patterns of thinking and belief that allowed us to stay in rage and shame for so long.
What we believe about life is the problem. What we believe about ourselves and our part in living life is the problem.
So, the hope, extended by those who are walking this path, is that we, too can recover from the insanity of believing we know anything.
Because, all we know is how to live with great shame and rage, and to kill ourselves in small increments behind self-destructive behaviors. Oh!
So, we learn to look at things with new eyes. To see deeply into truth and examine what we thought we knew. Okay.
THAT is how we can learn to live today well. Anything else is a story we make up to justify our disregard of the truth. And there are some amazing stories!
Having worked with an average of 3,000 to 7,000 addicts a year coming into early recovery, it is amazing to hear what they believe the problems are. Such creative energy could be harnessed, certainly, in far more productive and constructive ways. But, no, it is the fault of a Universe of things that drugs and alcohol have ceased working for these folks.
So, we extend hope to these addicts. Hope that they can learn to live, one day at a time, in a different kind of life. A life where we let go of those tools that keep us in denial and living the lie.
But it takes time and work to get through the maze of dishonesty we perpetrate on ourselves to remain in the lie. Some folks never get there. You can hear it in meetings as they continue to blame others for the rage and shame they experience long into abstinence.
That is NOT what I speak of when I speak of hope. I speak to the freedom we get when we truly embrace the truth about who we are and what we think is going on with this life. Not everyone can or does this. It is what I call recovery.
I hope for all of us, that kind of freedom. Not just from being loaded, but from the disease of the ego that keeps us miserable long after the drugs and alcohol are removed. They are not, and never were, the problem. They symbolize a way of believing that is horribly broken and deadly. May your sanity be restored to seeing THAT truth and THAT way of being in this life. It is truly beautiful to have this freedom.
Dolphin Hug 