photo credit: Blake Lasater
I know numerous people who are living with addictions. Having been there myself with a variety of substances, I empathize and wish I could reach out and pull them from the quicksand. But no one can do that for anyone else. My beloved Kevin died from advanced alcoholism nine months ago today, and my dear friend Jane recently got home from two months in the hospital, and is working to recover from liver failure. Everyone perceives themselves differently, and these two people have helped me see these differences, and face my attitudes toward them and others who are struggling. Before knowing Kevin, my thinking toward addicts was probably more self-righteous than compassionate. Watching Jane struggle toward sobriety and healing is inspiring, yet frightening. Today I can’t help but feel gratitude to Kevin for passing quickly. What took him 40 years to cultivate was never admitted out loud, just as he never told me how horrible he felt all the time. The true compassion I have felt toward him since his death has changed my life. As a wise man once said, “We can’t change the past, but what we do in the present can rectify the past and change the future.” I will remember this when regrets try to push their way into my thoughts. And I’ll love more actively, right out loud.“Nothing around you but is part of you. Look on it lovingly, and see the light of Heaven in it. So will you come to understand all that is given you. In kind forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once thought sinful now will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven. How beautiful it is to walk, clean and redeemed and happy, through a world in bitter need of the redemption that your innocence bestows upon it! What can you value more than this? For here is your salvation and your freedom. And it must be complete if you would recognize it.“ A Course in Miracles - T-23.in.6:1-8
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