On Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being
loving all that is mine
I am learning to accept a mind that sometimes race, the very low lows of the valleys of my mood, the moments of high, that when come I don’t waste and the feelings and the thoughts, often left misunderstood I am learning to love the curve of my hips and the jolly round roundness of [...]
getting there
“We don’t have any room for you at our Chinatown facility. You’ll have to go to Alhambra,” the social worker in the nice crisp suit told me. “I don’t want to go there. A friend of mine has been to the Chinatown facility. She recommended it. She said I’d get better there. That’s why I [...]
finding Cece
[...] Cece’s been missing for 72 hours until they finally find her. Not dead, but not quite herself either. She is disheveled. Tired. Collapsed in on herself. It’s as if someone had crumpled her into a ball and they were just now trying to smooth her all out again. Michael lifts her chin and gazes [...]
prompts
I attended a writer’s retreat/workshop at the amazing Esalen Institute in Big Sur this past weekend, hosted by the Sun Magazine, thanks to a generous scholarship provided by the magazine. What an amazing gift they gave to me and my writing. I wanted to share some of my writing pieces done during the workshops and [...]
made of glass
“I didn’t want to confront you because I was afraid your fragile and emotional state couldn’t take it,” Fred tells Samah. “We’re not made of glass, you and I. We’re not gonna break,” Samah responds. She looks Fred straight in the eyes. Fred gets nervous and looks down before he speaks. “I didn’t want you to [...]
how to love a broken person
When I was twenty years old, I told the first man I had ever been in love with that I wanted to kill myself. I am sobbing, my salty tears drenching his shirt, my cheek pressed hard to his chest, listening as his heartbeat beats harder and faster. “If you died, I would be devastated,” [...]
a seat next to God
Some people think, schizophrenics can hear God. I think, in many ways, we all do. I remember this episode now as if remembering a dream so clear and vivid, the longer I keep the memory, it becomes more anecdote than dream, but while I believe its happened to me, it takes on the ephemeral nature [...]
How Not to Kill Yourself (a work in progress)
I recently came across a status update on my Facebook wall posted by a Facebook friend that rocked my faith in humankind. It read: If you feel like the world sucks and you don’t want to be a part of it anymore, feel free to kill yourself. But please don’t call me to talk about it. [...]
5150
You wake up in a hospital room having no memory of how you got there. You have no tubes sticking out from you, no bandages, not even a band-aid. You’re not even wearing a hospital gown. In fact, you look down to discover you’re wearing an ugly green Christmas sweater with silver puffy paint snowflakes [...]
the destination
I’m sitting with the wide green-blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean to the right of me. To the front of me is Chris, my partner, with his head leaning on his arm, watching it all pass us by. And behind me, a peculiar white dude with an orange tan is flirting with a red headed Canadian backpacker. We’re in the [...]
