 I want to begin the reflection on addiction by understanding from the standpoint of the 12-step recovery program for addiction what the turning point is in the life of the addict. And the turning point is the point at which they hit bottom. And the hit bottom is for them a crisis in which they're able to see for themselves the bankruptcy of their strategies that they don't really have a problem that they can handle it but they get out of it it isn't and they just see that's completely false. And they're able to see for themselves that this addictive use of the substance they're addicted to is destroying them. And they can also see that they're powerless to stop. So the crisis is for them kind of an existential crisis. That is if this is up to them they're finished. They're finished. So if they don't resort back to denial they're only faced with despair if it's up to them. Unless there's another way. Unless there's another way. And the other way is that maybe it isn't ultimately up to them at all. That maybe there's a power greater than themself that can achieve in them the freedom from the addiction that they by them by their own powers are powerless to achieve. That's the other way. And so the very beginning then is a kind of a faith. And really the faith is freedom from the addiction of the perception of oneself is absolutely isolated all on one's own having to make it on one's own terms. And this faith kind of begins to break open that addiction to this radically different way of experiencing themself. That I'm in a relationship with the mystery greater than myself. That the mystery greater than myself is in a relationship with me. And my hope lies in that relationship. And this relationship with the mystery greater than myself in order to be in order for it to be actualized. I have to hand my life over to the care of that I can't have a both ways. I can't say theoretically there is this presence but I'm still going to try to make it. I have to hand my life over to the care of the higher power who can achieve in me what I can't achieve. And so this starts them on this path they concretize that through a fearless inventory through the making of amends is concretized in the faith community of recovery that they bear witness that this is real. They move through it. It gravitates toward the 11 step of increasing conscious contact with God. And in that process the person says to their higher powers they go through this painful messy process. They say to their higher power. I don't know who you are. But I do know who you are. You're the one who saved my life. And I don't know who I am. I do know you're the one I've saved. And so there's this intimate radicalization of how one experiences one's life and brings one to this new state of consciousness for which one is immensely grateful and wants to pass it on to others. So we might say that's the first level of what we could think of as the spirituality of freedom from addiction.