Instructions for loneliness:
Dive as far as you can into it
Be immersed
Swim around for a while
Search for something
You’ve never seen before
Come up for air
Breathe what you found
back to the world
Do not let it weigh you down.
Tread, there
Rest on the surface
Get level
Then dive again
Explore, get deep
—deeper than you ever thought possible.
It’s cold and dark down there
Heavy and murky
Low visibility
Freezing cold
And you keep moving through the dark
Feeling your way along the bottom.
You have to keep moving
So you don’t freeze, or sink—
Stopping now means certain death.
Explore with every sense
Work the darkness in new ways
Understand that we all adapt.
Now it’s time to come up for light, air
Float star-shaped
rest in sunkissed skin
For just as long as you need
But don’t get so comfortable that
Your eyelids creep shut—
Stay open.
Breathe in, out, in.
Dip down
Sink
Begin again.