Putting Down Roots

Recovery is not a thing ~ an item that can be picked up from a store or found hanging from a tree. Recovery is a process. There is no finite time when illness or misfortune ends and recovery begins, and further, when life returns to what is considered normal.

There are, in my opinion, two opposing factors involved. The once valid and valuable spiritual beliefs which became channeled and squashed into a myriad of dogmas, creeds and higher powers. And then there came realism ~ secularism. Solid fact. Researched data. Provable points. Again all squashed and channeled, but this time into rules, regulations and the attendant higher powers of authority figures.

Recovery occurs along a hidden seam between these two disparate factors. Solid recovery spreads out like far reaching roots of a tree, knitting both  areas of life firmly together. Recovery, outside of the directives and counsel of health care professionals is the sometimes rather bulky baggage that an individual can choose to carry, unpack and absorb into their life. Emotional, physical and mental discomfort and pains can become teachers of strength and tolerance or heavy chains to bind and drag through life.

Recovery involves laughter and tears in balance. Tears to relieve grief, sadness, anger, remorse........ Laughter to lighten and brighten with dark humour and just plain silliness. 

Recovery is a process, not an event.

“The learning process continues until the day you die.”

~ Kirk Douglas