WEEKLY MEDITATION
The wound is the place where the light enters you.
-Rumi
Our addictions represent an attempt at healing ourselves. Addictions, even when complicated by physiological dependence, are not simply a reaction to the drugs or behaviors that represent them. Our addictions manifest themselves as an attempt to lessen a fundamental longing for connection and relief from the agony of disconnection. If we can acknowledge that our addictions represent a dysfunctional attempt at healing, we must then acknowledge that we have emotional wounds that need to be tended to if we are ever to live comfortably without them. So the process of recovery is a commitment to consciously finishing the job that we unconsciously began through the mechanics of addiction. Emotional wounds are inevitable, they are part of the human experience. But if we don’t learn to understand the nature of our personal story of hurt, even if we are able to break the bonds to certain of our addictions, we will still be directed by our pain in other ways that we may not be conscious of. But if we give our wounds the proper attention, not only can we heal them, but they can actually become the very parts of ourselves through which the most meaning illuminates our lives.
