Spiritual Awakenings

Healing...is not a science but the intuitive art of wooing nature.

W. H. Auden, “The Art of Nature”

Tossed about in the chaos of a world defined by the pandemic, it is tempting to look for certainty. I love love love that the 12-steps do not insist on such paltry comfort. Instead, the culmination of our work lands here, on Step 12: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and practice these principles in all our affairs.”

This is it? This is what spiritual alertness means? We carry a message of hope to others that is filled with experience, strength and hope - for that is what our journey has gifted us. We practice these principles in all our affairs - which I find comforting in the age of COVID-19.

I do not have to be happy or feel blessed or know much of anything to do this work of messaging hope and practicing principles. I need not wait for perfection, or even much self-improvement; the principles we are learning to practice are often about the very things I need improving. I am only asked to practice. Practice. More practice.

And so I find that healing is not what I expected or even hoped for.

What have you expected of healing? Have your expectations complicated your work or supported it?