Dear Reader,
I would like to share some thoughts about recovery and a few truths I’ve
discovered along the way.
I begin with a quote often attributed to the Buddha and later echoed by
spiritual thinkers across time:
“You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”
This quote reminds me of a lesser-known insight from Father Ed Dowling,
spiritual advisor to Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous:
“The alcoholic is not a body fighting addiction, but a soul finding its
way back to God.”
As I’ve gained emotional growth in the AA program, I’ve come to believe
that the craving at the heart of alcoholism can only be satisfied by true
spiritual principles—principles of abstinence, fellowship, and service.
As a soul in recovery, in faith, and in fellowship, I’ve come to see that
the body is not who I am. It is where I am. And what I do
here—through hands, voice, action, and even silence—reflects the condition of
the soul that inhabits this body. As Zen Master Dōgen (13th century) wrote:
“The body is not separate from the Way. It is not the vessel of the soul,
but the form through which the soul awakens.”
In early recovery, it was my soul’s desire for a new life that gave my
body the strength to go one day—or even one hour—without a drink. It was that
connection to the Spirit that helped me change the people, places, and patterns
of my life.
I remember the days when my strength failed—when all I had left was
prayer. What surprised me was that it was enough. The soul, leaning on God,
became the carrier of my broken body, not the other way around. As I now
understand:
“We do not carry our souls through life; our souls carry us, even when
the body breaks down.”
As the prophet Isaiah promised:
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength… they shall run,
and not be weary.” — Isaiah 40:31
Later, as I found better health in recovery, I came to see that a
healed body is a gift, but a healed soul is a miracle. There is no
medicine for shame, no surgery for despair. Yet the healing of the soul—through
forgiveness, grace, and spiritual awakening—is the great miracle of recovery.
I’ve known this firsthand.
You might ask: How do you measure a soul when it has no volume or
shape?
I would answer—not by years, scars, or achievements, but by love.
The soul’s purpose is to love: to love God, to love others, and to love
ourselves. Every act of service becomes a way of remembering who we truly are.
“…when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the
service of your God.”
— Mosiah 2:17
And so it is that we remember this final truth:
“God did not make your soul to serve your body. He gave you a body so
your soul could serve the world.”
Closing Thought
The restored gospel teaches something profound:
“The spirit and the body are the soul of man.” — Doctrine and Covenants 88:15
We are not meant to escape the body or resent it. We are meant to sanctify
it—through faith, love, and service—until spirit and body are united in the
light of Christ.
When that happens, we are whole.
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