12:04 am
I hate that my posts are OH-so-heavy seemingly all the time, but lately, I’ve been away. Disconnected, really. It’s why I am here, on the west coast of Costa Rica, doing yoga and being alone and trying to get myself back. Or, get back to myself. Or, both!
Before coming here, though, I spent a few days in the city where I started this blog, where I got sober–and, where my drinking became alcoholic. It was another pilgrimage, I suppose; since storing my stuff nine years ago (I’ve since cleared that unit out–a big deal after nine years!), I’ve clung to this idea that I would move back. For sure, I would. This is (was) where I belonged, where I am (was) my most “me,” where I feel (felt) at home. This was my dream, for nine years. Well, over the past nine years, I’ve gone from definitely moving back to probably moving back to most likely not moving back…to probably NEVER moving back because I don’t belong there and I don’t want to live there! It’s been a long, gradual process of letting go–and frankly, I don’t know if I’ve actually fully let go yet.
It’s like, I can barely articulate it to myself, so I’m going to try and write it out and see if by writing it out, I can somehow locate this neurotic loop that my brain has been running for weeks, months, and years. It could be as simple as admitting, I can’t let go of the past. What does that mean, though? Is it that I want to relive that past? A part of me has a certain obsessive, stalker-esque fondness for that period of time when I started this blog: it was all new, and I had a LOT to look forward to. I had a new love, I was finally getting sober and starting to write about it (on this blog), and, I had finally made it back to the city of my dreams! I realized this, as I was freakishly standing (once again) in front of the apartment that I sublet that summer (in 2012): my nostalgia for these early years might be so strong because it includes finally moving back to the city of my dreams. Now, do I want to relive this past? No, I don’t think I want to relive any past–I do want to live in the here and now. I think I just miss feeling the way I felt then. And, every time I go back to this city, I want to feel how I felt then.
Every time I go back to said city, I am looking for this…sense of looking-forward-to, or anticipation. I don’t know, maybe I equate this feeling of, let’s call it anticipatory glee with being young? I was only seven years younger then! It’s like, I want that feeling yet I know that I don’t want to relive the past, and I know that what I have now is like, the culmination of all that so-called dreaming/anticipating/looking-foward-to. If I have what I was yearning for then, why am I sad that I am no longer in a place where I don’t have it?
Sounds neurotic, maybe even a bit crazy, doesn’t it?
What has changed in the past seven years for me is hard to deny: I don’t want to live in this city anymore, and moreover, I don’t want to cling to my dream of living in this city anymore. Yet, I WANT to want to! I feel like I’m giving up, and that scares me. What is there for me, after I finally do let go of this dream that I no longer want? Who am I? How do I define myself now?
Every time I go back, I become less and less enamored with the city; this time, it just exhausted me, it triggered me, and I saw all the warts. I have almost fully embraced the fact that I need green space, nature; I need it to rejuvenate and inspire me! I also have come to depend on a much less stimulating environment in order to write/be creative; if I know there is something new to consume (a new restaurant, a new bar–at least when I was drinking, which I’m not–a new museum), it’s like, I cannot BUT consume it out of some obsessive need to know it all or do it all or just a fear of missing out. Yet, it’s distracting, and I don’t get anything done. And, that triggers me to feel confused, sad, depressed, wound up, whatever it is that writers (or creatives) feel that makes us go insane if we don’t write or create.
So, it was a tiring, vexing visit; and, after all my walking, stalking, and incessant thinking, I had a night where I just melted down. It was brought on by me looking at The Dodo videos, which made me start thinking of our sweet boy who we had to put down last year, which just snowballed into a general sense of grief–for our “son,” for myself, for my dreams, for my youth. GAH. JESUS. (It’s funny now, but only because it sounds so freaking neurotic!) It felt like my mind was dissolving that night; I felt like I had some sort of “dementia” episode, if there even is such a thing. OH, WAIT, there is such thing, and it’s called a night of binge drinking and a hangover the next day–which I totally felt like I had. I had an emotional hangover, and the ONLY place I’ve ever had these types of hangovers is this city! Make the connection, Drunky Drunk Girl: this city triggers you for all sorts of reasons, why keep coming back?
These days, I have to admit that I’ve moved on, thankfully; I’ve formed new plans and conjured new dreams. I am here now, in Costa Rica, and it is super-refreshing, a huge mental reprieve, to be here and now with my present-day self. A part of me feels like I am grieving, though (which hit me clearly during a sound bath class that I took)–and I think I just needed to sit still for a little while to actually acknowledge that the grief is there, and that it is real, and that it’s legitimate to feel this way.
Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes…
Hi, difficult one to comment on other than it takes us inside your head where there is ambivalence , mixed emotions and a complex interaction of feelings. That’s not a bad thing.life is often like that and it’s refreshing to see someone laying it bare, throwing out questions rather than trying to give neatly packaged answers. I liked it!
Wherever you go…there you are.
Great stuff. I hear the intensity/complexity of this for you. I can relate to being powerfully — and mysteriously — affected by places, and I can imagine how the sobriety/drinking angle might intensify that. I, for example, have a powerful draw to the US Northeast, and lived there for two years which showed me that it, in today’s concrete terms, holds nothing for me. It was a lonely, lonely experience, but I remain with the tug. (I actually think that I must have had a lovely past life there (but YEMV (your explanation may vary)). It’s a bit painful, but there it is. I enjoy what I have of that ancient green and rolling part of the world. I hope you’ll be able to relax more and more into this strange thing and let all the stuff roll around, call it good and lovely and real and big and good. I’m still in Releasing Resistance 101 but find it the only way in/through. Sending hugs!
Just a thought. When you get off drugs or get sober aren’t you often supposed to also “get rid” of the people you used to “party/use” with? I think it’s the same with a city, in some ways. It and the lifestyle was your trigger and enabler. As they say, “you can’t go home again.” But boy, it’s tempting to want to! My 2 cents.
Amazing article, very inspiring. We had alcohol problems in our family. Here is a great way I found to quit. I hope it helps some others! https://bit.ly/2lz3VbH