Bees. Recovery. (cont.)

Reading the recent post on honeybees made me think back to how I started out with LifeRing many years ago. There were no face-to-face meetings in my area (yet) and no online meetings at the time, so I joined one of the email groups, LSRmail, and then later, LSRsafe. This was an ideal way for me to get started. I was able to connect with other sober people through writing, which was very therapeutic. And, since I was so ashamed of becoming addicted to alcohol, it was a safe way for me to find my voice early in recovery, at a time when I may not have wanted to share all that much about myself in a face-to-face meeting. 

Back to the honeybees. At one point, I began to sign my name along with the following excerpt from a poem by Antonia Machado:

“Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt – marvelous error!-
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.”

This gave me great comfort in the early days of recovery. Still does. Hope it does for you as well.