11/19/2025
No Recovery Dharma tonight, as Lifted is hosting an extended event: The Scorpio New Moon Gathering – Letters to the Shadows.
So, in our practice’s stead, I thought I’d leave you with some words to ponder.
We continue building our heart–mind awareness. As our dear friend Julia Hayes says, the journey of recovery and support is a slow-grow process. After practicing for a short while, our minds may tell us, “You got this!” And maybe they do—for a time. But recovery is rarely a smooth path, which is why we also care for our hearts. Wisdom lives in the intertwining of heart and mind, working together. When we’re in touch with our whole selves, we find the skillfulness to navigate the crashing waves, take responsibility for the harms we cause, respond wisely to the harms we’ve received, and build empathy for all who suffer—both us and them.
Our practice brings together everyone touched by harm: those who cause it, those in their immediate sphere, and anyone who resonates with the need for a recovery community. Our practitioners represent all roles, cravings, and aversions—people who have been labeled (or self-labeled) as addicts, those dealing with substance misuse or compulsive behaviors, family members, and professionals in the mental-health field.
Our practices invite each person to engage with their unique circumstances more skillfully and to recognize our shared human experience. Labels can be helpful for self-understanding, but they’re unnecessary to assign to others. Accountability comes through acknowledging one’s own unskillfulness, not through identifying with a particular label.
And this is why ALL are invited to practice with us. We ALL exhibit periods of unskillfulness, and we ALL benefit from growing in wisdom—which starts in this moment, and the next moment, and the next.
I used to think wisdom was some far-off, elusive thing that maybe I’d reach one day with more age or life experience. That hasn’t been my experience. This practice has.
