Recovery - what does it mean to recover

Fall is such a beautiful time of year for me.  I love to watch the leaves change color.  I love to see what colors they will change to each year.  I love to see the leaves fall from the tree, showing a time when life was full and vibrant, exciting and new each day (kind of like summer), but now, a time has come when a rest falls over nature.  The trees must have a time, each year, when they rest from the sun and wind and rain and heat of summer to rest in the fall, recovering from all that has happened during the summer.  They are choosing to recover from what they have endured.

To recover is an interesting concept.  It is a verb meaning to get back or regain; to regain the strength, composure, balance or like of oneself; to regain health after one has been sick.  When used with the word “from” the statement is made that one has recovered from a bout with the flu.

When we are sick, we want to be better soon.  The cold or flu, a broken appendage or surgeries are all things we want to get over sooner than later.  No one is looking forward to their next cold but instead prays for the mercy and grace to go on with life without the intrusion of a summer, fall, winter or spring cold.

No one wants to find himself or herself in a place where grief is necessary, but as life goes on and time progresses the occasion occurs and grief is the result.  As we spoke of last time, grief is natural and normal.  It is also the automatic response to any loss, whether real or imagined.  We will talk about the distinctions next time.

Grief is normal and natural.  Grief can also undergo the process of recovery, but recovery is a choice and not an automatic.  You must choose to recover.  Recovery is a verb, and as such requires action from you.  The first action is to choose.  The next action and successive actions require a choice as well – a choice each moment and each day to continue the upward climb of recovery.

This is an introduction to the concept of recovery.  

Next time, we will take further steps in our understanding of recovery.  Questions we can ask at this point may be:

• ·         What can recovery look like?
• ·         How long will I have to choose to recover?
• ·         What if I make the choice to not recover – what is next?
• ·         If I choose to recover – what is next?

Good questions!  Take time now to consider and pray about what I have said thus far.  

More to come next week.  

Have a good week and remember to choose love, with the first recipient of that love to be you.  

Love who you are!  

Choose to love you!