So you breathe . . .
. . . you breathe because breathing
is the one thing
no one can stop you from doing
You breathe because
your breath is your proof
It’s the one thing that says,
“You’re still alive. Now go”
Your breath is your proof
This means you haven’t stopped
This means you have life in you
So breathe
no matter what is said or done— just breathe
because your breath is the one thing
no one can steal
I received a call on a Monday night from a nurse about my Mother. I was at work at the time. I was on an overtime shift. I was tired in every sense of the word. My mind was tired. My body was tired and so was my soul. I had life things going on. I had responsibilities that needed my attention and list of bills that needed to be paid. Work was busy and life was busy. Everything was busy at the time.
Continue readingI was at the tail end of a crazy night.
All of the powder was nearly gone and my usual running partner was missing for some reason. This had altered my usual routine. Instead of commiserating with my partner, I found myself home alone with a substantially large amount of cocaine that was either shoved up my nose or cooked and smoked in a glass-tube pipe. This was early summer, 1989.
June if I’m not mistaken.
There are two branches of government here. The first branch is anxiety and the second is Panic. The two interact.
They create a sensory overload and mental chaos. The chest tightens, and it’s hard to breathe.
The heart races like a thousand angry horses, charging fast, and you can’t escape. You can’t get away.
Suddenly, it’s like the whole goddamned world is closing in on you, which becomes more frightening because you are vulnerable; you scream or you cry, and more than anything, you just want to jump out of your own skin. More than anything, you want everything to stop so you can calm down. The only problem is the harder you try to recover, the worse the symptoms become.
The hardest thing was to sit in a classroom and see everyone with their eyes on their paper, pencil swirling around from the tops of their hands as the other students wrote their answers—but me, even the so-called simple problems were far from simple.
Nothing was simple to me. I could never grasp the lessons. I had no understanding of what I was doing. I needed help but I never knew how to ask.
Besides, kids that needed help were seen as “Kids that needed help.” And me, I didn’t want to be that kid. I never wanted to be that kid. I never wanted to be pointed out because I was “Special,” or taken to a different classroom and segregated because I had a learning disability.
I have been walking around the city for decades now. I see different people from different places doing different things. I see the changes we’ve made as a society and the changes I’ve made within me. I see the Kamikaze taxis weave down the avenues and watch the mindless tourists along 42nd. St with their eyes wide open, looking up, and totally amazed by the tall building and the lights from Times Square.
Continue readingThe depth of my commitment equals the level of my success. I know I have said this before. And I say this again because it is true. Success and achievement are always equal to our level of dedication. There is no compromise or easy way out.
If you want something then you have to go all the way. There is no halfway or half throttle. There is only forward. No reverse.
Continue readingThere was a time that seems so long ago.We were young and we used to do things outside. We were free to live and free to be kids. More importantly, we were free to explore. We were free to play, which above all was our best freedom ever.
Continue readingThere has to be a way to overcome.
There has to be a way to get away from the thought process.
There has to be a way to feel better.
There just has to be a way but you just can’t find it—
and since you can’t find it, you can’t believe it.
Right?
There I was
. . .
lost in a field of tall grass
I was out of my head
and drifted in a field that stretched
beyond anything I could ever imagine
So with nowhere else to go,
I sat for a while
and slipped into the warm cocoon
of an afternoon rush
