After Bill found the ratty old black and white magpie feather on the walk at Harmony Foundation, he found at least one feather a day for nearly 90 days.
After he got out of Harmony, Sandy joined him in this discovery. We found hummingbird feathers, red-tail hawk feathers, flicker, blue bird, robin, sparrow, finch and even turkey vulture feathers. They seemed to be everywhere. Then at the end of 90 days we found a dead bird. It was the Universe saying, “ OK, you have enough feathers to make your own bird, now look up, go out from here and be the gift, help others and open the doors to understanding for them.”
It was a sign: That everything is OK. Not going to be OK. It is OK. This seemed to be the meaning. It’s everywhere, all the time. We just never saw it. We were amazed at the arduousness of our pilgrimage. We just couldn’t believe we made it to the Twelve Steps alive. We had begun to see that most people do not make it; the waking up process can be fatal, but that’s what it took for us and we are grateful.
The clarity of the perfect structure of the feather extended in all directions. The beauty of grasses and snowflakes leapt into focus and led to true compassion and understanding of the people around us. To be able to see ourselves in everything without fear takes practice and constant vigilance. We cannot let up and we have to practice the spiritual principles everyday; this is the gift. This is why people in recovery go to meetings, events and make phone calls to stay connected. Plugging into our community is the solution as well as the diversion. We start to think that “All these folks are sick and are driving us crazy.” We know; so what! We observe the human condition and with the 36 Spiritual Principles of the Steps, Traditions and Concepts, we still learn to fly above it.
Read “Dig Deep in One Place” and discover how simple the journey can be. You can do it NOW!