Love is Present...

19 April 2025 Real Deep Recovery

…as we gather the courage to stand up for ourselves or realize we have to let go of a relationship—real love seeks to find authentic life, to uncurl and blossom.~Sharon Salzberg

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

As Easter is upon us, and Passover as well, my dear friend lies in a hospital bed, and we do not know if he will wake. I think of Jesus on the cross, and how he felt. I feel a certain parallel with my friend and his silent suffering.

I was raised a Christian, but I don’t feel I can call myself one today. I identify with Jesus’ teachings, and with the practice of Love. I’ve tried to walk with many religions, and never really felt at home in any of them. The closest I can come is to call myself a Seeker.

What I want to talk about today is the practice of Love. Yesterday I was called to the bedside of this dear friend who may be dying. He has touched so many lives with his Presence, his ability to actively love and listen and help others, that the fact that his life may be failing has called us all together to be present for him and his family. This is what we family of choice do when one of our own is in trouble. We rally. We gather.

This is a phenomenon that communities have done for centuries but in recent times, I think, this practice has thinned as families have been split by industrialization and modernization. It is a blessing of spiritual communities like the 12-step rooms to still gather. We understand the power of Love.

Real Love is an action. It is an energy. It moves and heals and changes things. Though my friend lays in a hospital bed, unmoving, breathing through a machine, Love acted through him to move the entire community. Before I knew he was ill, something was moving in my brain, “Where is my friend? I haven’t heard from him, could something be wrong?” A niggling uneasiness, gnawing at me to take some action, not quite enough to move me beyond a quick text.

But as soon as the word was out, phones began to ring, emotions began to vibrate the energy and people began to move. From a couple messages by folks, by last evening, the waiting room was filled with family and friends. By late night we were talking about that energy and spirit of Presence. We were talking about the necessity to turn over the desire to control the situation and “accept the things we cannot change.” We each shared our spiritual beliefs, our hopes and dreams, our fears and concerns with each other and joined in Love. We let a tear or two flow, wet eyes and sore chests, but full hearts.

“Should we have a meeting?” someone queried. “Yes, let’s!” Books and phones came out of pockets and bags, and we read our favorite things and shared on our experiences and spiritual stories. The room filled further with energy and Light. We joined hands and each prayed at the end, spreading the energy out and sending it forth. Our friend’s Father came into the room after and we prayed the standard, the Our Father. It felt right in time. Another friend arrived and offered another prayer. So much Spirit. Love come alive in each moment.

Why do I share this?

Because so often we fail to see this Love, this energy that is alive and moving among us, in each moment, at all times, in all things. This is the living power, that spiritual thing that we are told we must find or we DIE. It is not above us inaccessible. It is living in the here and now, in each moment, Right Here! It is what we experience when we have the psychic change that we must have in order to remain free of drugs and alcohol and have the total change that is with us the rest of our life.

We do it one moment at a time. We cannot stop for the rest of our lives. But doing it one moment at a time changes us in ways beyond our wildest dreams. We come together in ways that we could have never have achieved on any drunk or trip or high.

Last night sitting with my dear ones, in that room, I saw that whether our friend is healed, he had healed all of us. A miracle occurred, for each of us in our own way.

I’m so grateful I was Present.

Spiritual Recovery is something that is difficult to describe. It must be experienced. It cannot be scheduled or planned. Whatever “God” is, we must open our hearts to willingness to be led to a depth, to “the sunlight of the Spirit.”

I am so grateful for this willingness.