Today’s reading is from the Co-NNections Recovery Stories archives. We are always looking for new submissions. You can contribute to the Fellowship and your own recovery by sharing a part of your CoDA journey through Weekly Reading. Click Here to find out more!

A Story to Tell

Everyone here has a story to tell.
a private account of the childhood from hell
some ripped with emotion, some hard like a shell
but each of us here has a story to tell
Everyone here has a secret inside,
that feeds isolation and robs us of pride.

But secrets, once spoken, brought out in the light
our secrets, when shared, help us here to unite
It's the secret unspoken, it's the story untold
that will kill the body, by consuming its soul
The thing's not so big: it's the shadow that's tall
no real form,
no real substance,
a shadow
that's all.

But when that dark shadow looms over my head
it's so hard to see. All the light appears dead
Alone I am blind and immobile with dread
But when I can speak of the darkness I hide
when I open up, I let light inside.
When I trust in people who've been there before,
they shine the light in when I open the door
And in that shared light, the shadows grow small
And things aren't so big as I feared after all

We all have our shadows. We all have our light
By sharing we balance the dark and the bright
Alone with one's shadow one may not survive
and I mourn for the people I've known who have died
in that self-abandonment of suicide

I too know the anguish, the steel, and the fear
and it's only through God and the program I'm here
The lifeline is there. but we each have to take it
Only reaching outside of ourselves can we make it
But there are those still too angry or scared to reach out
Alone in the dark, they can't find their way out

So with hope and compassion I choose to believe
if I carry the message someone may receive
and reach for that lifeline
and hang on like hell,
because
Everyone
has a story to tell.

Allison F.
(2000)

Everybody in CoDA has a story to tell. Sharing yours may help thousands of codependents still suffering. We are always accepting submissions. Please contribute your experience, strength and hope by emailing your story to wr@coda.org.