Spiritual Recovery is returning to wholeness, or better said, returning to Holiness.
We are always yearning to fill ourselves...enrich ourselves...better ourselves. Some of us are satisfied with what we have, so we spend our time trying to maintain that which at one time filled us or made us happy.
It's important that we each continue to strive to be a better person, better partner, parent, son, daughter, employee/employer...these things are certainly part of the whole piece of living a good life.
But it's only part of it. And what becomes painful or disconnecting is that we forgot or might not never have been taught that there is another piece which will balance all of this out, so that when we do get hit with those storms (these can look like challenges, personal relationship issues, etc.) and sometimes hurricanes (losses, be it physical loss of a loved one, an illness or loss of confidences in yourself, etc.) that cross our path in life, we do have a safe haven to go to, a place that will anchor us. Oh, we might be thrown about, but the damage is minimal because we have an established safe place to go to.
That safe haven is within us. It's our connection with the God of our understanding.
Just as it's important to continue to be a better friend, partner, person, etc., it's even more important to continue to improve our conscious contact with that God of our understanding.
Those storms in life that happen can be seen as a process that helps us see differently, helps us change our perspective, and gives us a new outlook on life after things have settled. We are more grateful for the things we have, or those who are in our lives, etc. It's sort of a natural purification process. Sometime we will get stuck there longer than we like, but even if we have that smallest, tiniest connection (and we all do, or we wouldn't be human) to Spirit, we can have a shift that changes our perspective.
So Spiritual Recovery is a process of moving through the feelings and emotions that overwhelm us. As we are going through these trying and yes, sometimes even joyful times of life, we begin to realize that even though we might not understand why this is happening, we know there is more to it that we can see. This is called Trust. From that small seed of Trust sprouts a very tiny shoot of Forgiveness (if needed): forgiving others; yourself; or even God at times. A certain amount of Acceptance now seeps in and now from that shoot comes a leaf...a new way of seeing things differently.
In Spiritual Recovery, you are introduced or re-equipped with the tools you need to continue to nurture and strengthen your newfound perspective. This newfound perspective will bring a peace into your life and, if you continue to work on it regularly with your new tools, it will also bring intelligence, joy, creativity, love and of course Trust, Forgiveness and Acceptance.
So please come in and participate in one of the ½ retreats that are happening this month, May and in August around the NY area.
Over the next few weeks in April, my Ah-Man Blog will touch on some of the questions that have come up in the past at the ½-day retreats.
I thank you each of you for being the person you are and allowing me to be of some service in your life.
Sending Peace and Love,
Michael
