Sunlit Roads Woven within the Dark Places ...

We Are Blind, the Sky Is Not
Originally uploaded by Ben Heine

One of the lines in a problem-solving practice developed by our teacher Jason is this: "There are sunlit roads woven within the dark places." Followed by: "Both are needed."

The sharing of 2 people in my AA women's meeting tonight illuminated these statements.

One woman had left the rooms for a year. She picked up after being laid off. A DUI followed by an overdose attempt and a subsequent psychiatric hospitalization brought her to a place of calm and peace for a week now that she had not known before.

Another woman just found out that a family friend died of alcoholic-related complications. The friend's passing brought her into connection with the father and a sister with whom she had lost contact. The news brought her into a deep realization of how lucky she is to be alive, to not have been the one taken by the bottle.

The path of self destruction is dimly lit, sometimes pitch black. Some people, like the first woman who shared, are able to get "plugged in" and the bulb shines brighter. Others, like the 2nd woman's friend, will see a different kind of light on another plane, perhaps getting the opportunity to see the "life in review" slideshow and take notes for the next trip back to earth.

I, for one, am glad to have found the light switch in my darkest hours. Not once, not twice, but at least 3 times. Dropped the bottle. Then the girl. Then my pride.

I would not have been able to see the light that was present in the distance without the contrast of the black all around me. I really get this today. I also understand that when the view is barely visible, it has to do with my forgetting that God is right here with me. Every time I have lost my way and believed that God is "out there" and I'm "way over here", that there are miles of separation between us, I have God in my blindspot. Sometimes God is totally out of the picture.

To me, God's presence is each sunlit road that Jason speaks of. It is God's beacon of luminescence, like that on a lighthouse, that calls to us when we forget, when we believe we're alone and small and separate. Some of us, sometimes, can only take in the beckoning of God's light when we're cowered in our own murky shadows.