Dear Universe, for the needs of this day, help me to see that you have already given to the capacity of my awareness.
In active addiction, whether to chemicals, or codependency, food or sex, exercise or gambling, there is never enough. I mean NEVER enough. The drug of choice is ALWAYS more.
A drunk walks up to a beach bar and sees a sign: “$20.00!! All You Can Drink”. The drunk says, “I’ll have $40.00 worth please”. If you are an addict, either active, or in recovery, you can relate, I guarantee it.
Children who grow up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional or toxic family system, very likely do not have all their needs met. The scenarios are endless, but commonly we hear about lack of resources for food and decent clothing, or the flip side, lots of money and things, but no warmth, guidance or love. Variations and combinations of these two themes are fertile ground for insecurities and fear, desire to hoard things, or cling to people. Lack of trust, in people, places and things, including God, or the Universe is the familiar soundtrack to millions of lives.
Popular culture reinforces, and consumerism rejoices in this rampant feeling of lack. If you are still watching t.v. or reading billboards or magazines, you are reminded at every turn of your incompleteness, the aches and pains you may have or get, insurance you need to buy or food you should be eating. The message is loud and clear: “You are not good enough, and you don’t have enough.”
However, if a person is lucky enough to discover and embrace a life of recovery, everything about this feeling of lack gets a 180 redirect. As the newcomer begins to ‘come to’ and then ‘come to believe’, the paradoxical messages of a spiritual way of life start pouring in. Then new messages are:
· from weakness comes strength
· we forgive to be forgiven
· we give it away to keep it
· we suffer to get well
· we surrender to win
· we die to live
· from darkness comes light
· from dependence we found independence.
In early recovery, with an increasing spiritual awareness and action in the program, it does really become clear that these spiritual laws are governing. Almost everyone who works with newcomers delights in the abundance of “little coincidences” and outright “big miracles” that suddenly begin manifesting for the person in early recovery. The biggest promise in all of the 12 steps, is right in Step 12. It promises that as the result of working these steps, you will have a spiritual awakening. That is a big promise that I have seen come true for 1000’s of people, including myself.
There is a story in the Hebrew Scriptures about a group of people traversing a desert. They had left everything behind to find a better way of life. They had no food, and the desert was barren. Just before starvation set in, right out of the sky fell some type of miraculous food product that was delightful to eat. It covered the ground in abundance! They ate and ate, and then gathered up as much as they could to eat for the next day. Their spiritual leader encouraged them not to do so, but they attempted to stockpile and the substance instantly went rancid. The next day it was fresh again from the sky. Christian Scriptures say, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’, Narcotics Anonymous says, ‘Just for today’, Alcoholics Anonymous says, “One day at a time.
This shift in consciousness and the manifestation of abundance will not come as a result of an intellectual awakening. Reading, thinking and talking about letting go is not action. The miracle happens with the actual leap of faith into an unknown. It is a different leap for everyone; maybe it is quitting a job to pursue an artistic passion, dissolving a dead relationship, or leaving all your possessions and family in Canada behind, sailing down the Pacific coast to pursue your dreams in the mountain highlands of Panama.
Dear Universe, for the needs of this day, help me to see that you have already given to the capacity of my awareness.
Visit SerenityVista.com for more information on rehab for the soul in Panama. We treat alcoholism, nicotine addiction, gambling, codependency and other forms of addiction that take away your peace of mind.
