Observations of Life Inside a Parallel Domicile Adjacent to Rock Bottom

Observations of Life Inside a Parallel Domicile Adjacent to Rock Bottom

1. Having a bad run of luck, fate, finances, health, depression etc doesn't mean you can't have a perfectly good day in an almost perfectly good mood

2. The people who help you when you are down and out are usually the people who can't afford to yet help support you anyway

3. Poor people share, rich people... not so much

4. Sometimes change that appears to be irreversibly destructive can be a blessing in disguise (Note: I have heard this nugget of optimism for years, though I always suspected it to be a foul rumour of little truth and great malice, but despite my hostility to it I now have the possession of some suggestive evidence in favor of  this hypothesis. Prior to this experience however I might have clawed someone's eyes out for suggesting such a foolish-sounding thing while  I wallowed in a rut of ill-fate, stress and deprivation. But now I declare there may be useful truth to this riddle.)

5. Blood family are not always the family members who will be around to catch you when you fall but family forged from choice and affinity tend to be there with fortitude everytime

6. When you are at rock bottom never turn down weed. 
Never ever ever ever refuse weed whilst enduring crisis at Rock Bottom

7. Find something to laugh about everyday. Even if you have to spend all your patience and a goodlyl amount of effort look for the funny things in life. A good laugh is worth as much as an earth-shattering orgasm and maybe more...

8. Just because bad shit is happening in your life it does not mean that you are a bad person who should feel bad forevermore: fight hard against any instinct to condemn yourself: you have to stay out of the rut of self-condemnation because a) it's wasteful of your precious store of energy b)entirely un-useful c) it will only perpetuate ripples of emotion that are full of self-recrimination, paranoia, and these are dangerous flirtations.

9. Like the first day of kindergarten you can make true friends at Rock Bottom. But at the same time remember that not everyone who helps you is your friend; not everyone who shits on you is your enemy; and if you are warm and happy in the shit keep your mouth shut and roll with it.

10. Do whatever you have to do, be it in the most selfish, self-protective manner but take care of your mind, energy-store, keep yourself as calm and comfortable as possible while in crisis. Don't let others force you into positions of further suffering or feelings of guilt, shame, or humiliation for practicing self-preservation/self-survival. Take care of yourself with every bit of love and devotion as a mother caring for a child: be your own love and your own lover. Protect YOU.

by Clarina Hernandez