Being the Light: A Journey Through Darkness to Recovery
I recently traveled to Vancouver for the 90th anniversary celebration of Alcoholics Anonymous—an amazing and humbling experience. My friend and I stayed about a mile and a half from the convention center, thinking it would be an easy walk. We didn't know that our GPS would take us directly down Hastings Street—Vancouver's notorious epicenter of the opioid crisis. It’s a four-block stretch where the government has established safe injection sites and overdose prevention services. We saw many addicts, some standing upright one moment and passing out the next.
At first, I was scared. The energy was heavy, growing denser and darker with each step. The scene made me physically ill as my body responded to the overwhelming spiritual and emotional weight of what we witnessed. We quickly called an Uber, both of us quiet and stunned. But every trip to and from the conference that weekend took us through that same street.
What a profound metaphor of driving through darkness to reach the light of recovery.
After one of our trips, we spoke with a neighbor tending her garden. When we expressed concern about the people living on the streets, she said, "They are very kind people. This is how they want to live." Her words shifted my perspective and challenged me to question whether or not I could witness such suffering without judgment.
In that moment, I heard the deeper call: Just be the light.
I know that the key to being present is to slow down, breathe, and anchor myself. In this situation, I didn't need to try to fix or answer anything—just stay attached to my breath and set an intention to keep a high vibration. I imagined myself as a lighthouse. Just as a lighthouse stands firm amidst stormy seas, shining its beam without trying to stop the waves or fix the darkness, my breath allows me to remain steady and project my inner light.
This experience connected me deeply to AA's origins, when two men, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, lost in their own darkness, had a conversation rooted in desperation but sparked by hope. Through their willingness to meet the pain and spiritual bankruptcy of addiction, they found light and created a path for millions.
As my friend and I witnessed, up close, the raw heart of addiction, we understood we were being called to carry light—to embody the spirit of that first conversation, to be love and presence for those still suffering.
This is the essence of recovery and spiritual awakening: meeting the world not with fear, but with the healing presence of oneness. It's not about fixing or judging, but about holding space from a place of love, allowing our vibration to reach out into the world through conscious breathwork and presence.
Perhaps one small ray of our light reached someone that day. Perhaps that's why we were meant to walk that path. The darkness wasn't there to hurt us; it was there to teach us what it truly means to be human, to be connected, and to shine our light without judgment, just love.
“For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.” –Amanda Gorman