WEEKLY MEDITATION
And ever has it been that love knows not of its own depth until the hour of separation.
-Kahlil Gibran
Ending addiction or addictive patterns is very difficult. And it is common to return to addiction after a successful period of sobriety. Certainly, in the beginning of recovery there is greater chance of returning to old addictive patterns before healthier ones can be successfully established. It isn’t until we begin to let go of the addictive behavior, in fact, that we begin to learn just how deep our personal need for the addiction truly is. Today’s quotation speaks of the depth of love, but the same principle can easily be applied to addiction. One doesn’t truly begin to understand the depth of one’s own addiction until the time that he is separated from that to which he is addicted. Furthermore, the attachment that we may have to our addiction may act as a synthetic experience of love. For recovery to work, it must create a sense of fulfillment that is at least as effective as that of the addiction. Luckily this needn’t happen all at once, but work must be done, and in earnest. It is ultimately with equal fervor that we must address our recovery if it is to have the ability to keep us from the need to fall back into addictive behaviors. And this must be sustained for as long as we desire to be free of our addictions.
