Forgiving Ourselves

A crucial step in the recovery from addiction is to make a list of people we have harmed and be willing to make amends to them all. In doing so we begin the process of clearing away the wreckage of our past, so that once the mental and emo...tional refuse of our addiction is swept aside, we may begin a new form of existence.

For some, however the person who is most overlooked, or to which an amend is never realized, is the soul that dwells within us. But if we cannot forgive ourselves our own transgressions then we can never be truly free of our past. When we are in the grip of self-pity there is no other prison more grim than our own heart, and no jailer as cruel as our self.

In recovery we must learn that the finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong with and to oneself.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross said once that “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within”

So shine tonight, not for others….but for yourself!!