Rock bottom is a place we don’t like.
In fact, it’s loathed when we descend into it, and despised upon arrival.
I know because I’ve been to my rock bottom before.
I hit it not very long ago.
I didn’t like being there.
I cursed it and tried to find an exit out of it.
But there was no escape… it didn’t have secret doors or tunnels leading out.
At first, I could not understand the purpose of being thrown into the depths.
Afraid, desperate, and alone.
But when I stopped kicking and screaming, I found silence.
And in the silence, I had a brave understanding.
Perhaps I didn’t fall there through failure, perhaps I was put there.
Put there by God so that I can awaken to my existence and call out to Him in tears of desperation from a place where only He can hear.
To be awakened to Him who has never, not once, left my side.
There in the solitude of rock bottom, I did not see Him but I felt Him.
I did not hear Him but I understood Him.
Eventually, I was able to leave rock bottom behind.
Realizing that the only way out was to go up.
But there was a wisdom that was gained in the process.
Rock bottom is a gift enveloped in hardship.
Rock bottom is a place of awakening.
Rock bottom is the answer to a prayer.
I now have a new respect for that place, as we all should…
because it is from where we rise.
-Tumkeen, Writer+Poet
@thepoetryoftumkeen
Tumkeen, Writer+Poet 