Bottoms Up

No, I’m not talking about shooting tequila- although I guess that could apply. I’m talking about finding your bottom- recognizing it and pushing off.   Alcoholics obviously talk about hitting bottom and the importance of having a high bottom vs. a low bottom.  The idea being that the higher your bottom the less havoc you will be able to tolerate and the sooner you will see your bottom, face your demons, and begin recovery.  While we readily identify the phrase rock bottom with alcoholism- I’m curious about how our acceptance of our bottoms can elevate us in all areas of our lives.  For example, what about bottoms in our personalities, our relationships, our finances, the space we live in- ( our closets :)  I still can’t get that cat out of mine, see previous closet cleaning blog for clarity), when do we see our bottom?  I’m betting
it is different for everyone and the more we avoid what we don’t want to see the lower our bottom and the more vulnerable we become to chaos and destruction.  Everything needs a definable bottom.  We live in a world with endless possibilities and no one wants to look at their bottoms- ha, figuratively and literally!  Who notices when they have run out of time, money, life?  We live in a culture where there is always more- more that can be borrowed, more help, more whatever- meanwhile, the world is collapsing.  People are valuing each other less, we treat each other with less regard, crime is out of control, hell, the weather is out of control, we are a dysregulated society and everyone is so busy looking for the next thing that it doesn’t seem as if anyone is noticing the abyss that we seem to be free-falling through.  Perhaps it is time for some acceptance of where we really are in this life.  The truth hurts and parts of it are really, really ugly.  As painful as truthful acceptance is, we can’t make it better till we slam into that bottom- get injured, look around and figure out which way is up. You can’t get up until you fall down.  As we stand at our bottom we can begin to see what must be different in order to stay at our bottom and move ourselves up- thereby making our bottom higher.  Get to a higher ground but stay connected to that bottom because when you lose it you become hollow.  Here’s the thing about the bottom- you know it when you slam into it.  It may hurt like hell but at least you know where you are.  Without a bottom there is simply an abyss.  With a bottom we have the opportunity for redemption.

- Anne