Year One

I was still standing
on a northern corner

Moonlit winter clouds the color of the desparation of wolves

Proof
of Your existence?  There is nothing but.

-Franz Wright, Walking to Martha's Vineyard

Today I had the opportunity to share my story of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction with some boys from Lad Lake, a nearby treatment faciltiy for boys dealing with a wide variety of issues.  Some of them are also dealing with problems related to drug and alochol use and abuse.  As I told the boys "what it was like, what happened and what it's like now" I was overwhelmed with gratitude - for this life God has given me, for the gift of marriage and for the grace of priesthood.  I realize, in all humilty, that without recovery, my life woudl be radically different, and not at all for the better. 
Wright acknowledges being in recovery himself. His poem above, "Year One" speaks of that sense of awe and humiliy and gratitude.
Have you had those moments when there is "nothing but" proof of the existence of our loving God?  Those are sacred moments, sometims bought with our own pain and struggle and then transformed into love and beauty and fire with God's grace.