Keep On Keeping On

In dealing with recovery from addiction there is often the tendency to focus on relapse as a failure or setback in the recovery process.  Addicts and family members alike are often devastated by relapse interpreting it as a breakdown of a “recovery program”. Yet I have come to believe that relapse is not part of recovery at all - but rather a re-expression or reoccurrence of the disease of addiction

 But regardless of one’s view of the progression of the disease of addiction or the recovery from it, the simple fact is that we are not judged by the number of times we fail but rather by the number of times we succeed.  And in the end the number of times we succeed is in direct proposition to the number of times we fail and keep trying.

 In the words of the Buddha, “If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking.” 

So keep on keeping on.