I was listening to a young man give a lead the other day and he used this term. Crazy that we have all done this, some for a lifetime, not realizing there’s nothing there. Nothing for anyone in the black hole of drug addiction. It’s a trap, much like a a real black hole, designed to suck you in. Like a room at Hotel California. You can check in but never leave. 

I know, I spent almost twenty years there. It’s also kind of like a mirage in that you think your life is going somewhere and that your relationship’s with others are well. Not so, It’s all simply suffering because in the end, what do you have… nothing!

When we say the serenity prayer we usually say the abridged version. There is the line later in the full prayer that tells us that suffering is a pathway to peace. Alcoholics and addicts do suffer so whether we know it now or not, for after a while it always catches up to us. As strange as it seems, its like that level of suffering is what is required to find the life beyond .. Only through that level of suffering can that peace that passes all understanding be revealed.