WEEKLY MEDITATION
There are two ways to live your life. One, as if nothing is a miracle…the other, as though everything is a miracle.
-Albert Einstein
Recovering from addictive patterns does not require a miracle. Although addictions represent very rigid emotional and biological patterns, and although this rigidity may be very difficult to penetrate or alter, it is always possible to do so. If we can find a way to simultaneously challenge our addictive patterns while learning about the purpose that they have developed to fulfill, we can successfully address them and even make them unnecessary. But just because recovery is not miraculous does not mean that it is simply an equation to figure out, either. The substances and behaviors that traditionally have the potential to create addictive patterns often present an experience of transcendence to the person experiencing them. It may be the experience of transcending emotional discomfort, pain, foundational feelings of anxiety or numbness—but always they help us to avoid a mundane materialist existence. So while recovery is not a miracle, that does not mean that we shouldn’t recognize the miraculous nature of life that is available to us if we can overcome the rigid bonds of our addictions.
