March 25, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Friday, March 25, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God.
 
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We are taught that earth is here and heaven is “up there,” and so we divide our world. There’s a time and a place for everything — each in its own compartment. God’s in His Heaven and all’s right with the world!

But experience contradicts this simple view. As we grow and explore the world we can’t make such clear distinctions anymore. We come to see that the world is a place where the divine may be present or absent, depending on our perception and even our mood. In the depths of our addiction we may find an emptiness and a darkness that deny the presence of any meaning at all.

In recovery, as we reach out, the world takes on a different color and feeling. As we gain confidence and dare to be happy, we find a new sense of power and love. And when joy comes to us, we share the poet’s vision of a world in which many simple things are, indeed, “afire with God.”

As I gain hope and faith, the world turns into a place of splendor and praise.

Hazelden Foundation

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