Be still and know that I am God.

So proclaimed the psalmist, an imperative directed toward centuries of warring factions, both within and without. What is there about the human spirit, so easily impaled upon conflict, so easily seduced by Evil’s allurements that appear all powerful, the ultimate in satisfaction?

In our time, another unbridled war escalates in Ukraine with the murderous Russian offensive, twelve days old. Terror breeds more terror. Madness sours perspective. Blood stains once-manicured streets. Flurries of “We’ve got to do something!” fill the media like Icelandic blizzards crippling its cities.

Yet, another Voice compels our full attention. Be still. Substantial life-change is at stake and we know it. Naked, trembling, we stretch into our psyches and release our own trigger fingers, yield our recalcitrant wills, unravel murderous distortions, and unclench fists. In the process, we come to Know that I am God.

Indeed, this is a solitary war, even more critical than Ukraine’s, the sweaty business of engagement and retreat, of binding up wounds and receiving new ones, of regrouping until learning to walk anew, upright in spirit.

The spirituality of the Twelve-step Recovery puts out psychic fires around the world. Its practice continues helping me.