Recovery Conference 2018

Recovery conference 2018

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I am attending the Episcopal Recovery Conference in Asheville, North Carolina and learning so much more about recovery from addictions. First of all, I realize that the longer I am in recovery, I tend to believe I know and have heard it all. Today I am disabused of this thought process. I actually know very little. That is why so many gatherings like this are important.

One speaker, Chris Budnick, executive director of Healing Transitions in Raleigh, talks about how we think recovery for others should look similar to ours. Not true. Recovery from addiction is not a cookie cutter process. We share with others our experience, strength, and hope, but we must not expect others to have the same experience, strength, and hope. Perhaps we can see this more clearly in reference to our spiritual life. We each have a spiritual connection to God, but it is different for each of us. So also is our response to recovery and how we reach recovery unique.

I learn one more lesson today. We often talk about someone not coming to recovery because they “have not reached their bottom.” That means they haven’t reached a level of pain that will cause them to make a change. The speaker gave examples of others who decided to change because people in recovery kept letting them know there was hope for freedom from addiction. Hope for a new life. Mentors in recovery keep letting them know that those in recovery care about them, have some realization of what they are going through, and keep telling them there is hope. Those caught in addiction may begin to see hope and caring in the person in recovery who seems honestly to care about them.

This is one more way of how those in recovery can carry the message to those who are still suffering by continuing to reach out and give them hope.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Dog with a Bone

Charleston: Changed Again

“I have been changed. I am not the same person I was before. Over time, over many experiences, good and bad, I have grown in understanding, awareness and compassion. I have found a deeper sense of peace. I have come to appreciate the importance of love.” Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook page

I know we are called to articulate our truth as best we can, but then I know we must let it go. I try to turn the situation over, to give up the bone. This is hard because the life approach we have been taught has been like a dog with a bone about issues we are passionate about. Never the less, we still admire people who are like that faithful Border Collie with a bone about issues they believe in. We also know the cost to our own body, and mind, and soul for holding on to that bone. There is often no peace. Love is hard to find. The arteries tighten up. When we lose, we think we must try harder. When we win, we are empowered to keep doing it better.

This is my hope for change. We will no longer see life as win or lose. We have a part. We are to step out of our comfort zone and speak out in love and try to make a difference. More and more we know that for every cross there is a resurrection. God brings about the resurrection, rolls away the stone. Our job is to keep looking and listening for every possible sign of love and the resurrection.

We will have set backs in giving up this control, thinking we are in charge of the resurrection, but stark situations where we see where we are not in charge will bring us back to the truth over and over again. Believing that we have control of situations in our lives and in the world involving others is fake news, a fantasy, but there is this sweet voice that whispers in ours ears that keeps telling us we have such good ideas and we need to be a strong woman or man and get our agenda done.

Trying to be connected to something greater than ourselves teaches us that a strong person may be one who pauses and perhaps prays and listens before she speaks as articulately as she can, does the best she can, and then gives up the results to God, who may have a better view of the situation than she does.

Amazing. Is it possible that there may be a better plan than our own!

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Traveling Inward

Traveling inward

“How quickly the days clatter by as we age, like a train rushing to some unknown station.. Sit back and look to the vision within: the unexplored rooms of your heart, the open ground of your creativity, the hidden dimensions of your faith. Reflect on the reason for your travel and turn time to the will of your spirit. Sit back and look to the vision within, for when you go deeper, you go slower.” Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Emails

John Sanford’s, The Kingdom Within, The Inner Meanings of Jesus’ Sayings is often one of the first books to recommend for people wanting to go on an inner journey. As his title suggests, Sanford tells us that the kingdom of God is really within us. Sanford was a Jungian analyst and an Episcopal priest who was one of the first to apply depth psychology to Jesus’ sayings, relating Christianity to depth psychology, discussing personality types, feminine and masculine aspects of personalities, the struggle between the spiritual and the physical, being aware of our own egocentricities, projections, the struggle to become conscious, our identification with our outer mask, all as each of these experiences relate to the teachings of Jesus.

Sanford talks extensively about the problem of evil and sin in the world, reminding us that Jesus himself had little to say about the sins of the flesh. He was more concerned about the deadlier sins of the spirit brought on by a lack of awareness that causes us to “miss the mark.” Sanford reminds us that often when we feel deep hate in our hearts for our enemies, we are projecting onto them what we really hate in ourselves. This takes some time in inner work, often with a friend to discern, but the spiritual peace is well worth it. It also is a discernment that we will be called to do over and over again.

We have many guides along the way. The final hope is at some time to see the Christ, the God within each other. A therapist can help us see that shadow side of ourselves, and our spiritual director keeps reminding us to look for the God, the Christ in our neighbor. This most often happens when we begin to stay connected to the Christ within ourselves.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com