“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

In an old movie called “They Live” the protagonist is living among aliens, but doesn’t know it. Then he comes across a pair of glasses, and is able to differentiate human beings from the aliens living among them. Recognize that how you viewed yourself and the world was through the prism of substance use. We may have seen ourselves as hopeless and lacking value. We may have viewed people as threats to us and our lifestyle. When we enter recovery, we give we can continue to view ourselves and others in a negative way, but it also represents an opportunity to challenge our views of self and others. We may come to realize that those I saw as threats were actually placed in my path to help me. Today, I will take on the challenge to view myself as a good person, worthy of love and respect. I will not be jaded to the people in the world around me, but seek opportunities to find the compassion and beauty in the world around me.