“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are” Anais Nin

Recovery is a word we often associate with healing. This can be from a physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse, trauma or, as in the 12 step-programmes, addiction. We also need time to recover from a relationship break up (more about that in another post!).

Don’t you just love it when you get a new level of understanding on something? I know I do! I had an epiphany the other day reading my daily devotional books around the word ‘recovery’. Another dimension to this word was revealed to me that is so fitting. In fact, it may be more so than the previous, commonly understood meaning. That meaning is to re-cover.

Now I don’t mean to recover, as in recovering a couch or a text book. What I mean is to reclaim something that is lost. Oxford Languages, Google’s version of the Oxford dictionary, states two definitions of the word “recovery”, one is: “return to a normal state of health, mind or strength”. The other is: “find or regain possession of something lost or stolen”. As a child of an alcoholic much of my child-like playfulness and carefreeness was lost or stolen because I had to take responsibility for things beyond my capabilities as a child.

This delicious idea of “reclaiming” something lost builds on another recent understanding that came to me whilst walking in my local park. I was asking the Universe for wisdom about a situation when I realised that what I was seeking was already inside myself, I just needed to recover it from underneath all the stuff that’d been dumped on top of it! We already have in us everything we need, as there is a Divine part within us all, that pure essence, part of us that was there before we were born and carries on after death. We can recover this true part of ourselves, this state of pure essence or Love by taking away everything that it isn’t. This includes beliefs we hold about ourselves that are not in alignment with Source, our Higher Power or God (or whatever you call it), and all things that get in the way of us living a healthy, fulfilled and purposeful life, the one we were born to live.

Rumour has it that Michelangelo, the famous Italian sculptor and painter of the Sistine Chapel, said this about creating the brilliant statue of the biblical character, David, from a block of stone, “just take away everything that doesn’t look like David”. Oftentimes, instead of searching for answers outside of ourselves we need to remove the things that aren’t truth within ourselves, remove everything that isn’t Love, everything that gets in the way of us living our best lives. We have all, at some point in our lives, believed lies about ourselves put on us by others who were acting out of their own pain and limitations, stuff that is not the truth.

The wisdom we seek is inside ourselves – buried deep perhaps, but there. Getting out in nature, observing how it yields to its own rhythm, unhurried, (and unperturbed by Covid I might add), is one way of ‘recovering’ what has been lost by whatever has happened to us. So is telling ourselves the truth and acting out of Love.

(c) Karen Lighthouse 2022

Namaste.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Words by Karen Lighthouse.

I also offer –

• One-on-one counselling/coaching via Zoom
• Mental health education
• Group facilitation
• Oracle card readings

email me at: karenlighthouse59@gmail.com