Soulshine

“Folks who have no vices have few virtues.” Abraham Lincoln It’s important to own our vices. In recovery, we refer to them as “character defects,” which seems a bit harsh to me. I’m not sure that there’s a nicer word for them. We could refer to them as “vices” or “flaws,” I suppose. But the truth is that they are the imperfections that emerge from our dark side. Every human being has a “light” side and a “dark” side. We are all part Dr. Jekyll and part Mr./Ms. Hyde. And we need to accept this fact. There is no such thing as a perfect person. No one is all light-- and no one is all darkness. What we often don’t understand is that light and darkness need each other. Think about a flashlight. Flashlights are worthless on a bright sunny day. It’s impossible to tell if the flashlight is on or off in the midst of sunlight. A flashlight is dependent upon darkness to make its light seen—and so are we. When we work Step 4 of the 12 Steps, it gives us the opportunity to r...

Higher Love, at times I lose sight of where I end and others begin. I’ve had a tendency to focus my attention on what others like, want and need; and to take-on their issues and problems, instead of attending to my own. Because I haven’t had good boundaries, I’ve often taken-on other people’s likes and dislikes, even though a small voice deep inside told me that something was wrong; that I wasn’t being true to me. I have also taken-on and tried to solve problems that weren’t mine and this has at times caused hard feelings between myself and the true owner of the problems. Help me, Higher Love, to stop losing myself in others. I want to believe that I am truly a Light to the world and that I matter. But I have to be completely me in order to Shine in this world, something I’ve been afraid to be in the past. With your help, Higher Love, I will discover my true self and my inner-light will begin to glow. I will also learn to love and honor myself by setting proper bounda...