Tag / Miracles Of Recovery

by Vincent Lee Jones

Happiness Is Birthed in Gratitude

“Grateful people are happy people and those who aren’t, aren’t.” I first heard that many years ago in a 12 Step fellowship meeting. When I wore a younger man’s clothes I believed, incorrectly, that I would be happy when I achieved some arbitrary milestone: get out of my childhood home, get a job, get a better job, get a steady girlfriend, get married, get some money in the bank, get a new car, etc.Looking back, a significant part of my early life was pretty much about”getting” with little giving. Now, I got all those things, and much more, but I wasn’t happy. Sure, there were happy times, moments hilarious, but I had a hole inside of me that was never truly filled, a longing in my heart for something I could not identify, and gratitude was not even on my radar.

At 30 years of age I was bankrupt in every area of my life and sought solace in blinding intoxication. Soon I found myself at a Spiritual jumping off point,and by Grace I found a fellowship of people who understood my dilemma and offered a way out. They taught me that to get, I had to give first. To be respected, first I had to show respect to others, especially those I didn’t agree with or like personally. Love, first I had to be loving toward others,and learn to appreciate, be grateful for the things in my life today as well as the things that had been removed, for all are lessons in living. As I began walking this path, following directions, the place I had tried to fill with”stuff” began to fill, with gratitude. I was told as well these new principles in living needed to be refreshed daily, and if I did, a day at a time, my life would grow and change in truly miraculous ways.

That was many years ago, and I can say today without equivocation, they were right.Has it been easy, no. Has it been worth it, oh God yes, and today I truly understand that happiness is birthed in gratitude.

Miracles Of Recovery 

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

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by Vincent Lee Jones

The Truth About Fear

From Fear all forms of Spiritual disease and unease are birthed, and Fear is a bluffer. Look back on your life,think of all the things you were frightened of that turned out to be phantoms once walked through, and even if it was something difficult, it rarely was as bad as imagined. We are bombarded with fear daily. Most of the advertising we are subjected to is fear based. Hurry to this or that sale or you will be a loser and miss out on the buy of the year. If you have thinning hair, and want to be a real man, buy this product or have that procedure. Better buy gold or silver now, before it skyrockets in price and the economy collapses, the list is nearly endless. Add to this the daily drumbeat of negativity in news reports and it becomes abundantly clear that we live in a world where the one true Adversary, Fear, clearly holds sway.

And Fear is a liar. Do bad things happen? Of course. There will be: economic downturns, people we love and care about will die, wars and rumors of wars will abound, interpersonal conflicts (over, if we are honest, things usually quickly forgotten), floods, famines, droughts, and yes, balding all happen. Such is the world, but every day, billions of people do the right thing, help others,support the downtrodden, care for those sick and suffering and they are invisible, their stories rarely reported. People just like you.

Living On The Spiritual Basis we learn to look beyond the headlines, the ads and people who feed our fears.There are many unassailable truths, and this is one: no one gets out alive. Tobe free, we must hold in our heart the truth about death and not let our fear of it dominate us. This temporary fleshy conveyance will one day return from whence it came, we however will continue, for we are in truth Spiritual beings experiencing the human condition, not human beings searching for the Miraculous; for our True Self, the I Am, is part and parcel of the Great Eternal Creative Life Force at the heart of all creation, currently traveling in this flesh, but is not constrained or defined by it any more than we derive any real significance from the type of car we drive.

So take reasonable precautions in life for this is only rational, plan for rainy days for the rain comes for all but we must never lose sight of our true eternal nature for in so doing, we triumph over the fear driven life.

Miracles Of Recovery 

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

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by Vincent Lee Jones

Growth Requires Taking Risks

Living on the Spiritual Basis is often about stepping out in faith and taking risks. Leaving the job or career where we are “comfortable” but uninspired or just plain bored. Asking someone out on a date, risking rejection. Agreeing to go on a date, risking rejection. Leaving a relationship that is “comfortable” when we know it is time to go in our heart of hearts. Giving the keys to the car for the first time to that newly minted teenage driver. There are many more, some, like trying a new restaurant or hair color, having decidedly less lasting impact than some of the above, but taking risks is part of life. Without taking risks,nothing changes, growth is stifled. Einstein went against the orthodoxy of the time and changed the world of physics forever. Edison and Bell failed more times than they succeeded, yet they are hailed as two of the greatest genius inventors of all time. They all shared one thing in common: they stepped out in faith,risked, believing there existed a new way or approach, a different way of looking at things, leading to material and intellectual progress, in fact,changing the world forever.

We must stay open to the winds of change in our lives. There is a voice in all of us, the voice of the Miraculous, that sings to us, encourages us, fuels our dreams and aspirations. Most unfortunately will opt for the safe, the comfortable, and fail to heed its call, choosing to watch the play rather than participate in it. So, just for today, take a risk, order something different from the menu or try a new restaurant, take the longer scenic route home, sing out loud in the car or dance around the house, unmindful of who may be watching. When we do these small things daily, we begin to demonstrate over fear, and once released from the bondage of fear our lives improve in ways undreamed of, our thinking expands with new insights and who knows, you just may change the world.

Miracles Of Recovery 

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin,Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab,#Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

by Vincent Lee Jones

A Touchstone Of Growth: Failure

Failure is inevitable. Everyone fails. Often. Consider the observations of a few highly successful people about the importance of failure in our growth: “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be” – John Wooden, “We are all failures – at least the best of us are.” – J.M. Barrie, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford, “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” – C.S. Lewis, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill, and “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” – J.K. Rowling

A spiritual advisor said to me long ago “Everyone takes a turn in the barrel.” When I look back on my life through the new pair of glasses living on the Spiritual Basis has provided, the times when I struggled the most were those when I took failure personally and lost sight of the truth, that in my life, my failures have invariably led me to my greatest awakenings, and my self-inflicted pain was the result of losing focus on this truth: behind every dark cloud the sun still shines and without the rain there would be no flowers.

Miracles Of Recovery

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin,Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab,#Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

by Vincent Lee Jones

The Conquering Horse

The Conquering Horse

The fourth horse is the White Horse, the Conquering Horse. Our words have power. Too heal, to harm, to start a conflict or stop one, to spread love or condemn. Our words and actions mark us and lay the foundation for our future, a future of either freedom or bondage. Living on the Spiritual Basis we now know we can no longer hide behind generalities. When we marginalize or condemn anyone, for any reason, we pay the price. To ride the White Horse to freedom from Fear requires more courage than we are capable of on our own, but with the Miraculous all things are possible. So we abandon ourselves to God, asking Him to remove the lingering prejudices, sacred cows and fears holding us back, grabbing the mane of the Conquering Horse as it speeds by, jumping on, holding on with all our might. If our fears try to rein him in or guide him in any way he will toss us off for His vision is clear, His sights set, His destination no less than the heart of God, and nothing will stop or alter His course, for it is none other than God himself who sent him to us and He will provide the abiding strength and trust necessary for us, though trembling, to hold on and ride to freedom.

Take heart, we have all ridden the White Horse and been tossed off, for Fear is a persistent and convincing adversary. When your White Horse returns, and he always will for he exists only to carry you to freedom, jump back on and hold on with all the conviction at your disposal at this time and if we again find ourselves standing by the side of the road of Freedom from the Bondage of Self, we say a prayer of thanks for the distance travelled to date and rejoice while dusting ourselves off for the sound we hear, is the sound of approaching hoof beats.

Miracles Of Recovery

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

by Vincent Lee Jones

Riding The Black Horse

Riding The Black Horse

The Black Horse represents a complete reliance on our “human” intelligence. Consider how many worships at the altar of intellect. To be fair, they don’t see it as worship, but is there really a whit of difference in commitment or passion between the minister preaching from the pulpit or the self-assured professor, scientist or politician speaking with fevered conviction, condemning anyone who disagrees with them? Consider the science textbooks of just the last 40 years, regardless of discipline, that have had to be rewritten due to new discoveries, old theories making way for new. History is very illustrative on this point, for every generation believes they have all the answers. To wit:

A few hundred years ago if you argued the Earth was not the center of the universe as Galileo did, you could be jailed, even put to death. In the late 1800’s most in the scientific community believed man would never fly, for if he were meant to fly, he would have wings, so the “forces” of flight by any means would “naturally” prove fatal they believed. At the turn of the last century the head of the US Patent Office suggested it be closed, since everything worthwhile and of importance had been invented. As late as the 1950’s many of the most prominent scientific minds believed man would never survive a trip into space since they were certain passing through the Van Allen radiation belt was not survivable. Since the 1970’s everything science thought it knew about dinosaurs has been turned on its head, while revelations in Quantum Mechanics in the last thirty years has shaken physics, the basic laws of everything, at its foundation generating more questions than answers.

Is it not the height of hubris to think that “now” (or more accurately “this time”) we have all the answers in any area of study or science, let alone Spiritually? We ride the Black Horse when we close our minds to growth and greater inspiration and begin collecting and carefully herding sacred cows, shutting ourselves off from the fresh winds that drive our higher selves, stagnation in demonstration, dismissing any contrary thought or belief out of hand because just like Galileo‘s jailers, the issue, the science is settled and there is nothing left to learn or discover.

Miracles Of Recovery

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

by Vincent Lee Jones

Riding The Red Horse

We ride the Red Horse when our emotions and feelings dominate us, overriding everything else. When we act out without thinking it through, without considering the possible consequences or ramifications of what our words or actions in enflamed haste may bring. The Law of Unintended Consequences on full display. The heated snap decision to leave a job or abandon a relationship we soon come to regret. How many lives have been lost or ruined when an individual or nation acted on overheated emotions, rhetoric or inflamed feelings? How many fights, confrontations and wars could have been avoided if cooler heads had prevailed? How many friendships and relationships have been irretrievably harmed by something said or done in the heat of the moment?

To be clear: We are emotional beings. Without emotion, this world would be a very drab place indeed, bereft of music or art, possibly even love. It is when we are controlled, dominated by our emotional nature that we ride the Red Horse, and as anyone who has taken this ride can attest: havoc, turmoil and pain are the result.

Miracles Of Recovery

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin,Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab,#Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

by Vincent Lee Jones

Riding The Pale Horse

The four biblical horsemen in The Book Of Revelation are tied to the end times but I will leave that discussion for another day. That said there is still much we can learn spiritually from these examples. Consider the first three horsemen from an individual spiritual perspective: The Pale Horse represents the physical body and its destruction through all forms of addiction, the negative as well as the seemingly positive. The Red Horse brings destruction by our emotions and feelings and The Black Horse destruction through intellect.

To ride the Pale Horse means we are controlled, driven by physical wants and desires, addictions if you will. Drugs, alcohol, gambling are obvious, but what of the individual who is addicted to exercise, work or sex? The gym, running, biking or the office can become an escape from the world just as powerful as any intoxicant and equally spiritually destructive when taken to extreme. The difference being someone using intoxicants has a difficult time “fitting” into polite society while the workaholic is often praised for their accomplishments, even as other areas of their life are sacrificed in the name of success or “providing” for the family. The same family they are never present for, the estranged children seeking acknowledgment, often by acting out negatively, the neglected spouse who ultimately files for divorce, resulting in the workaholics’ lament: don’t they see I am doing it all for them?

Physical activity and exercise in moderation is always a good idea, but when it crosses over into narcissism, it becomes as sure a block to spiritual growth as any drink or drug. Sex is part of our nature, so it cannot be bad, yet the stories of lives, careers and families ruined from unchecked sexual desire are legion. The problem begins when sex becomes the singular focus, living only for sensual escape, having lost sight of the true purpose: that of two people sharing the most intimate of experiences, the touching of two souls in embrace, a shared act of love. To be clear: hard work, exercise, the occasional cocktail or glass of wine or enjoying sex with a partner are not the problem, we ride the Pale Horse when these pursuits become dominate in our lives, when we lose all sense of proportion and become lost in the bondage of self, closed off from our true Spiritual Nature.

Miracles Of Recovery 

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin,Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab,#Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

by Vincent Lee Jones

Heathens In Our Head

Miracles Of Recovery


© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved
Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin,Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab,#Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids  

by Vincent Lee Jones

Persevere


“Pain is the only instrument sharp enough to cut away the excess of self.” Pain is what motivates us. Mother Teresa was motivated by the pain of those suffering around her. Martin Luther King Jr. was motivated by the pain he saw in the inequality of life based on skin color. The great spiritual teachers, Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Muhammad and others moved to act, often at the risk of their own lives, becoming selfless to address the spiritual, emotional and physical pain they witnessed in the world.

One of the central qualities they all shared: perseverance, they never stopped. Regardless of circumstance, fear or seeming failure, they persevered. So, just for today, when the voice of the true adversary, Fear, begins to whisper in our ear, cajoling us to reflect morbidly to stifle our growth as children of the Miraculous: we will take one more step, say one more prayer, help one more person and never stop, for we now know in our heart of hearts we are not alone, are growing day by day, sometimes quickly sometimes slowly, into amazing instruments of peace in demonstration, serenity in action.

Miracles Of Recovery

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved