INTEGRITY MONTH: DAY 8: “Because of course she had known she must go. She always did the thing because in obedience lay the integrity that God asked of her. If anyone had asked her what she meant by integrity she would not have been able to tell them, but she had seen it once like a picture in her mind, a root going down into the earth and drinking deeply there. No one was really alive without that root.” ― Elizabeth Goudge
Isn’t this beautiful? I think so. I had this conversation with a friend yesterday. That we are not able to be fully alive or spiritually connected until we recognize our connections with all of life. The universe, the moon, the sun, all the planets and cosmos.
The animal and plant life everywhere on the planet, and each other. This, I believe, is what we are here to do. To work through the ego-separations that divide us and make us feel unique and apart from each other.
Every spiritual tradition I have ever studied has this incredible teaching about our tribe, our belonging, our connection. We cannot connect with a Higher Spirit without understanding that we are, as Ram Das states, “walking each other home.” Going toward that dying time by living and being with each other and learning to love and give and live together.
The idea of hatred and condemnation makes us physically, emotionally and spiritually ill. The ideas of separation and differences do the same. When we can see our unity and brotherhood and the necessity for being in love with each other, we begin to heal.
What is amazing is the microcosm of 12-step recovery. As it says in the BB, “We are people who would not normally mix.” (Paraphrase.) That is because I would not know most of the people I love in recovery any other way. I would not have partied with most of the people I love. We lived in different worlds but come together in recovery. It is a grand mixing machine that brings together with this common goal, to stop dying in addiction.
And we do this deep work together and become so close and bonded, sharing things we did not know we could or ever would share. Having the “language of the heart” that heals and mends our broken spirits. Having these steps where we learn to connect to each other, the universe around us, and the planet and its other inhabitants.
We are dying for this kind of spiritual connection and purpose. And we get it in these steps. We get to be connected, once again, to the source of life and breath and heart. It is the thing we were dying to find. I am so grateful!!!
