My grandson got a couple of vaccine shots this week. Yup, shots. There’s plenty of actual science to back it up, so, yeah, he got some vaccines. Anyhow, as you might imagine, he was not happy about it. They put some bandaids over the pokes to “make it better”. That’s where we pick up our story.

The poke spots were sore, but in his mind having the bandaid made it better. For days he would not let anyone touch the bandaids. If you tried to take them off he immediately went into tears and fears. Those bandaids were doing a job and he wanted them there. Eventually, they fell off. They had to flap and dangle, but they got to the point where they fell off on their own. Each time he would come and show us that he was “all better”.

In our recovery we often have things in place that help us get better. They might help, they might not, but to us they are the thing that is making it all better. We dutifully go through routines so that we don’t relapse. That’s good. It really is a good thing. But if we let those things overtake the rest of our life they can turn into a crutch. We need to keep focus and perspective. And sometimes we need to take off a bandaid in order to…

—Rise Up!!