I was raised Catholic. My early childhood teachings from the Catholic faith laid out, in no uncertain terms, the final resting place of your soul. This entirely depended on the idea that you had been a good little Catholic all your life. There was Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. As a child, the only reasonable option, of course, was Heaven. I never, ever, felt good enough to get there, so maybe Purgatory? This is where souls go who are neither good enough for Heaven nor bad enough for Hell, this was limbo. To my young mind, this was worse than Hell!

In recovery, there is also a state of limbo. You are not living in the world of active addiction but you are also not firmly planted in the world of recovery. So what world are you living in? How do you navigate this state of limbo? What are your decisions based upon? Who is in your tribe? Living in a gray area is dangerous for recovering addicts and alcoholics. I don’t believe we have the luxury of straddling both worlds. That is not to say we cannot participate in life with folks who don’t have the addict gene, we just need to make sure our strongest foundation is recovery. Our soul needs to be protected from the demons of addiction.

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