List of things that will keep you alive when everything feels like death

Seinfeld. All 9 seasons of it.

Water.

Short stories. Or blogs.

Friends. Friends who choose you despite inconveniences and distance and across time zones
Friends, who live up to the word and stay

Laundry. Dig up clothes from a lifetime ago and wash. Clean it all out. And then dry them and fold them into neatly organized stacks. Stacks of accomplishment.

Work. Work the job even if you hate it and complain all day. Work like a crazy person. Work.

Food. I know everything tastes like sawdust and scratches the surface of your tongue, bloodying it like that bleeding heart you live with.
But food, because your mother will ask you about it on the phone and that’ll be one less lie for the day.
‘I’ve eaten. I’m fine.’
‘I’ve eaten. I’m fine.’
‘I have eaten. I am fine.’

And finally, sleep
It will be hard to come by but I urge you to try
Sleep
Think of them as painless hours and sleep
Remember the last time you laughed and sleep
Sleep like it’s the end and there’s no one and nothing left to lose
Sleep like it’s 2009
Sleep