A Recovery Tale

Once, there was a Being, our Friend, shining brightly. It frolicked and played, reveled and mourned. It lived – pulsing light from its Inner Source.

Somehow, someway, sometime, our Friend, became disguised, distorted and full of despair.

How? Our Friend found a fountain burbling and others playing in the cascades and pools. As our Friend stepped into the fountain, it morphed so instead of the water others played in, our Friend was caked in oil, thick, shiny and slick.

Our Friend felt betrayed. Others could play. Why not them?

But the work of the oil was not complete. It was insidious and crept into our Friend’s thoughts. Self replicating its grime, so our Friend was soiled on the inside as well as the outside.

The only solution our Friend saw was to feed the inner fountain with more and more and more of the oil.

Playing in the fountain was no longer fun. Others had water, company and pleasure from it. Our Friend had an inner need to return again and again trying vainly to get water but only finding more and more oil.

The day came when the layers of oil were so thick our Friend no longer saw their innate Inner Light. All our Friend saw was the oil which made them think the oil was the beginning and end of their existence.

No matter what solution our Friend tried, nothing worked. Staying away from the fountain proved impossible because of the demands of the inner fountain, polluting their mind.

Our Friend felt only despair.

Over the years, our Friend heard whispering of others like themselves. Others who found oil instead of water. others who were compelled to douse themselves in oil even when it only led to sorrow.

Yet our Friend was afraid. Life covered in oil was all they knew. They thought and felt that they were the oil. They had forgotten their Inner Light; they didn’t know of the inner fountain that poisoned them from the inside.

One day, our Friend felt such desperation and sadness, they sought out others like themselves. Our Friend found rooms upon rooms upon rooms full of others with the same inner fountain which worked tirelessly to lead them back to the oil and more despair.

Some in the rooms still suffered but kept coming back because they had hope. Why did they have hope? Because some in the rooms shone again with their natural Inner Light.
Our Friend gathered to hear how they could again see their Inner Light – if it even existed. For our Friend had so long been camouflaged by the oil that they didn’t know themselves.

So our Friend, too, kept coming back. They were offered tools – soap and brushes to clear away the grime. Our Friend was taught by those whose Inner Light shone how to use the tools, step by step. So our Friend began to soap and scrub, soap and scrub.

But how to wash the oil away?

Our Friend was introduced to a concept that was foreign and perplexing – something greater than themselves must be found to rinse away the oil.

So our Friend sought.

And simply by seeking, our Friend found the power great than themselves. This Source overflowed with healing, purifying water. Our Friend, full of relief (and some fear), jumped into the Source.

The Source swept away a lifetime of oil. A lifetime of slick oil that our Friend had never, on their own power, found freedom from. Because all our Friend could do was push the oil around, slick and stubborn, clinging and poisonous. Plus, our Friend’s inner fountain of oil continually cried for more of the toxic oil.

So it was indeed a miracle for our Friend to find others like themselves in the rooms. And through the others, our Friend learned to soap and scrub, using steps and tools. Then our Friend found their personal Source to rinse it all away and allow them freedom, one day at a time.

This is not the end of the story because our Friend still holds the inner fountain that yearns eternally for more oil. So, our Friend takes care to always, one day at a time, use the tools and steps to loosen the inner oil and rinse it away through connection to their Source.

And so, you may now find our Friend in the rooms, happy, joyous and free. Our Friend’s innate Inner Light now shines brightly for others still suffering from the illusion that they are broken beyond healing.  Our Friend helps them to learn to use the tools and steps; helps them to find their personal Source; helps them to find their own recovery and freedom. Recovery multiplies, one light at a time, free and illuminated with hope and joy.