Pitcher Pond, Northport, Maine 2014

One of the wonderful things about fellowship is the insight that can arise from sharing questions with each other.

I sent out a question this morning and my friend, Sandi R, responded with something so beautiful… it stopped me in my tracks.

My question was about remembering my essential goodness and how that reconciles with working the 12 Steps.

This all began a few days ago, when my friend, Sally C, told me of a query her women’s group had pondered. “What would my life be like if I never lost touch with my essential goodness?”

The idea is that I have an essential goodness….but that, at any time, my human conditioning (e.g., automatic negative thoughts, self-criticism, feelings of defectiveness, deficiency, not being enough, etc…) can kick in and I forget my essential goodness.

What situations arise in life that hijack my sense of goodness and sense of being enough? How does that make me feel in my heart and body? How does it change my behavior and interactions with others? What can I trust about myself? What can I trust about myself in all circumstances?

Great questions. Powerful questions.

Then this morning, I began re-reading One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps. Author/teacher Kevin Griffin says, “While many people tend to think of spirituality as looking up, toward the heights of perfection or saintliness, the Steps remind us that we must first look down, into the darkness of our souls, and see and accept our shadow before we attain an honest and authentic spiritual life. Until we explore the difficult side of our nature, our spiritual work will always lack depth and integrity. Our hearts and minds are complex and mysterious; they can only be known through the heroic work that begins with surrender.”

Perhaps this is like yoga. Reaching up and rooting down at the same time.

Sandi synthesized this for me perfectly. She said, “It is only by accepting our dark shadows that we can move on to allow our spiritual growth as well as allowing our essential goodness to emerge as our dominating self. When we are battling our dark shadow, we are blocking our essential goodness. Acceptance and surrender are our only solutions!”

Wow!!

Thank you, friends.

Love & Light,

Valerie