How To Live in the Light

There is a simple truth that is hiding in plain sight in our culture, though it is a common reality for those in recovery:

Typically, the only thing that can change our minds is the experience of hitting bottom. Spiritually speaking, descent precedes ascent. Breakdown sets the scene for breakthrough.

I’ve been told by some that this is very pessimistic. Others see it as realistic. Some in the recovery world view this perspective as deeply grounding. Perhaps it is all of these. Yet many still ask how, then, to proceed.

For me, it begins with a frame of mind - i.e., the vantage point from which we hold perspective. Mindset is one of the most reliable predictors of our experience.

While it hurts my heart that the carnage of a bottom injures many, radical acceptance is the only starting point. If we need a more optimistic view of destruction, the Tibetans believe that renewal begins with decay, not with rebirth - for it is the fecundity of death that provides the fertility from which renewal springs.

Here, then, are my own personal touchstones in this time of so many human and cultural challenges:

The Dark Ages metaphor is powerful. No matter what, we can seek to keep the lights of awareness, knowledge, and wisdom burning brightly in small enclaves.
The often-told story of the boy rescuing one starfish at a time is also quite potent. While our individual lack of access or power may not allow us to affect the whole, we can do things that make all the difference in single lives or settings.
No matter what, we must practice our own shadow work - to try, as best we are able, not to be part of the problem and, hopefully, to be part of a solution. As the Al-Anon program teaches: we did not cause the problem, nor are we likely to be able to solve it, but without our own awareness, we will contribute to the problem in unfortunate ways.
Regardless of outer circumstances, we must get on with the business of living the life we are able to live—with as much contribution, fulfillment, and enjoyment as possible.
Always remember: we have this one life with which to demonstrate what matters most.

Seeing True in Reality and In Practice™

Things may prove that we are in a new Dark Ages, yet that does not mean our lives must be in the dark. The question is always what we bring into the light, or where we bring the light.

Life gives us moments, and for those moments we live.

The experience is sufficient unto itself.