With all that is going on in the world, ___Things can feel very direr, and it feels like the whole world has hit rock bottom! So what is rock bottom? What comes to mind? My recall is one of being a kid learning how to swim, and trusting myself to jumps of the wharf where the water looks very deep. Those first times feel so iffy when you hit the bottom with your feet, sometimes finding pointy rocks__but those first few times___? There are rocks and sand or mud, but with those first times__perhaps there are other hidden things that you can only imagine___ you learn to not overthink these possibilities because “everyone else is doing it”. Sometimes there is that fish brushes your leg that scares you when it swims out of your way. You are the intruder! When I think of what rock bottom is like___ I think it is very much like jumping off that wharf! I identify with the childhood fear “I won’t make it back to the top!” But then you do each time and life is “ok” again!
Now, A bit of Joyce Hifler, Chapter 6, “Pathways”. “You know, when we hit rock bottom there’s a chance for us___because everything from that point is up!”
“People are really relieved to see something that is generally happy and good. We see so much that is not, hear so much that is beyond our wildest imagination, that when we have an opportunity to see something pleasant it is like a balm to the spirit. Peaceful things begin at home, within us. We could have good things all around us and if we were not aware of them they would do us no good. We can only grow and profit peacefully by what we see inwardly. The sunlight, the raindrops, someone’s smile, children’s laughter, the joy of simply living can provide a beginning towards something generally happy and good, something to relieve our anxiety.”
“You know, when we hit rock bottom there’s a chance for us___because everything from that point is up__and sometimes it is hard to see up until we clear down___we can’t really believe there is another way but down___we dwell on it so much that it seems to rout out anything promising. When we start acting as though we have lost our best friend, we usually have___and that best friend is the better side of us that stands pat when we need it most___while the other side is a complainer that just knows it is defeated even before it begins…and it drags down anything that remotely constructive___until it reaches its limit, and then we can look up and start in that direction.”
Usually, I run into trouble when ideas don’t come to me about what I can do. Some times its simply I have not stopped to simply ask myself, “Ok! What else can I do if I can’t do that?” Sometimes, it is simply starting to do something that breaks the spell. Once I do that initial thing other things seem possible and doable.
My theory is that because the mind can call things up in a flash, and when it does it calls up all the emotions about something that, is what takes us there! Into the quicksand where we are stuck. The only thing that works for me is to change the subject on myself and no matter how tough it feels do that one little thing to get me moving. Once it’s done! I will be ok. I think too we need to give ourselves slack! You can only do so much in a day and it does not have to be everything! Things will avalanche if you start moving one rock at a time!
Pejj Nunes 7/10/2020
Anisette Studios & Shibui Fine Arts 