WALK YOURSELF THROUGH IT
Treat yourself like someone you care for
Responsible for
Someone worth being there for

Take yourself to the refrigerator
Make yourself a sandwich
Even if it falls apart, even if it’s a rubbish sandwich.

Turn on the shower, step under the water
Even if it feels like needles
Let your breath out slowly
Let yourself breathe.

Walk yourself through it
Step by dismal step
Hold yourself by the hand
Get into your pajamas
Bring down the covers
Climb in and fold a simple warmth around you.
Sing yourself to sleep like a mother.

As if the very life of all depended on it.
As if you were the life that all depended.
As if your weakness and fragility, as if your very lack was something precious.

This is the way out of the despairing deep,
One kind gesture at a time.
This is the way out of the well of depression,
One bucket drawn, one care tended.
Not diving for future happiness.

Only when you extend the hand to the broken within.
And then you are ready for the broken without.