Blog entry for:
Thu, Apr 3, 2008 09:19:21 AM
↔ though i work the same steps as other members in the program, …
posted: Thu, Apr 3, 2008 09:19:21 AM
i experience the spiritual awakening resulting from them in my own way. the shape that spiritual awakening takes in my life will varies, depending on who i am. so what did i here this morning? well i could go two different directions. the part of me i call my disease, can go with the i am so unique direction. after all if my spiritual awakening is different than everyone else’s, than i must be unique, and is i am unique, no one can possibly understand me, and if no one can possibly understand me, no one can possible help and support me, and then i am on my own, id i am on my own, then i guess i may have the strength to stay clean without the program, and if i can do that, then i can use like a normal person -- and BOOM there i am!
sounds more than a bit ridiculous, but it is what the literature says, when lifted out of context and taken to some hyperbolic plane. what i actually heard this morning that i am like the members i share the program with in many respects, BUT just as my disease is manifested in various ways, so is my spiritual path. i share the disease of addiction with all members of the fellowship, my experiences will probably not match exactly with anyone else, which is a good thing, as i would hate to be a cookie-cutter Stepford person. just as the symptoms of my disease vary, so will the symptoms of my spiritual recovery. i am after all an individual, and how i see and fell the world will be different than anyone else’s. that i can accept, and what i also need to accept is that even though i do not share the exact same manifestation of the symptoms of addiction with anyone else, it does not disqualify me or make me different from the other members around the world who have found recovery. my path to recovery was unique in its details, but not in its end result, so it only makes sense that the manifestations of my spiritual recovery will be uniquely mine, sharing common elements with the rest of this worldwide fellowship.
so before i go walk my canine friend, just this thought i can be a unique individual, but i am not all that different, and the similarities are what will keep me here, in recovery, for yet one more day.
sounds more than a bit ridiculous, but it is what the literature says, when lifted out of context and taken to some hyperbolic plane. what i actually heard this morning that i am like the members i share the program with in many respects, BUT just as my disease is manifested in various ways, so is my spiritual path. i share the disease of addiction with all members of the fellowship, my experiences will probably not match exactly with anyone else, which is a good thing, as i would hate to be a cookie-cutter Stepford person. just as the symptoms of my disease vary, so will the symptoms of my spiritual recovery. i am after all an individual, and how i see and fell the world will be different than anyone else’s. that i can accept, and what i also need to accept is that even though i do not share the exact same manifestation of the symptoms of addiction with anyone else, it does not disqualify me or make me different from the other members around the world who have found recovery. my path to recovery was unique in its details, but not in its end result, so it only makes sense that the manifestations of my spiritual recovery will be uniquely mine, sharing common elements with the rest of this worldwide fellowship.
so before i go walk my canine friend, just this thought i can be a unique individual, but i am not all that different, and the similarities are what will keep me here, in recovery, for yet one more day.
∞ DT ∞
The views expressed on this page are solely the opinion of the author.
While the author is a member of a 12 Step recovery fellowship, these writings are not intended to endorse or express the published wisdom of any fellowship.
These writings are not meant to be socially or politically correct, and if you take issue with any opinions expressed, please seek the guidance of someone wiser than me.
While the author is a member of a 12 Step recovery fellowship, these writings are not intended to endorse or express the published wisdom of any fellowship.
These writings are not meant to be socially or politically correct, and if you take issue with any opinions expressed, please seek the guidance of someone wiser than me.
Another Look!
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∗ regardless of its particular shape ∗ 558 words ➥ Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by: donnot
µ i have been awakened to an understanding µ 644 words ➥ Wednesday, April 3, 2013 by: donnot
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» for me alone » 532 words ➥ Friday, April 3, 2015 by: donnot
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☯ The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao ☯
by Lao-Tse
Translated by James Legge
Book 2
2) It is only by this moderation that there is effected an early return
(to man's normal state). That early return is what I call the repeated
accumulation of the attributes (of the Tao). With that repeated accumulation
of those attributes, there comes the subjugation (of every obstacle
to such return). Of this subjugation we know not what shall be the
limit; and when one knows not what the limit shall be, he may be the
ruler of a state.