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How to Recover, Because Of and In Spite Of

     Why would one want to recover in the first place?  

After all, lack of peace, loneliness, upset and problems

that we can not solve are what life is like, are they not?

Why would you like something different than what you

have?

     But you do want something different than what you

have.  That is why you get upset, lonely, and have

problems.  That is why you have strong emotions and

things just happen.

     But, when you become interested enough in peace,

feeling good when you are alone, learning how to resolve

your own upsets and problems, you are searching for

your own Road to Recovery.

     We begin our search for our Road to Recovery

when things get too difficult.  We want to recover

because our surroundings are becoming too difficult.  

We have to recover in spite of our surroundings.  That

is the paradox.  We need to recover "in spite of" our

surroundings and "because of" our surroundings.

     I went on my own journey to find my peace.  I went

looking to find if God existed, "because of" the difficult

people in my life.  I found that God existed and I found

my own relationship with God, "in spite of" the difficult

people around me.  An incentive is needed for some of us.  

Some opposition is needed for some of us.  When we get

to our goal "in spite of "and "because of" the difficult people,

we can be grateful to these difficult people.  We can be

grateful when we are wise enough to understand that they

helped us get to our goal.  We can also be grateful for the

loving and supporting examples in our lives.

     What if we had just loving and supporting and

understanding people around us?  Would I have gone

on my search for God?  No, because God would have

been there in loving and understanding people.  I would

have had no thirst for God, since God would have been

fully there.  The fish in the sea of God, is not thirsty for

God.  How can they miss God or want God, when that

is all that is around them.

     What we really all need is both loving and supporting

and understanding people AND difficult people.  We need

the examples of what we want and what we do not want.  

Our examples can come in the same people.  People can

be both loving and difficult.  In fact, when we look around

anywhere, we find a sea of loving and difficult people and

often in the same people...

     So, we are already blessed with what we need to

find what we really want to find the most.  What part do

you want to find today?

     Then there is the blessing in disguise, of difficult people

after we are in our relationship with God.  They continue

to give us reasons to find more peace.  They continue to

be our loyal opposition, to our peace.  We would not need

to go deeper into ourselves, but for those that are a

challenge in our lives.  We would not know how we are

doing, except for the challenging ones in our lives.  What

is there not to be grateful for?

Very Respectfully,

Michael