Rules to Recovery

Warning: some of these steps may seem painful, cruel, or for some inadequate reason you are unable to

explain, unholy.

1. When you let your friends in, there’s no need to tap the staircase bars four times in order to save

them from an impending death.

2. When you finish doing the laundry, don’t burst into tears.

3. Don’t tell ghost stories unless you really don’t believe in them.

4. If you meet a sadist, call him what he is.

Please ignore the trials of the false prophets, the fake medicine men who feed their remedies to you on a

golden tray. Drink four cups of herbal tea a day, and it will exorcize the devil away from you. Sleep for

twelve hours, then spend another two meditating on the laughter of the Holy Spirits. Sip joy from your day

like chocolate syrup. They do not wish to help you, but to cast onto you all their own histories and lovers

and means.

5. Just know that whatever the right thing is, it isn’t what you think.

6. Do not listen to your intuition, it has been held hostage by an intruder.

7. Intellect is a sin and a blessing depending on how well you employ it.

8. No God that you believe in may be able to view your mind’s eye.

Understand the difference between fantasy and fiction, that is the most important rule. Avoid the rulings

of those who judge thoughts and not actions, this is like judging eyes and not mouth. Avoid the rulings of

the weapon inside your brain that wishes to devour you from the inside out.

9. Believe in a freedom, a paradise, an Eden, but do not anticipate it’s arrival.

10. Believe in your recovery path and you just might find a way out.

Svetlana Rostova is a teenage girl with a deep passion for art, writing, and all things creative. She spends her time, reading, writing, and coming up with new ideas. She is an accomplished poet with a national Silver Medal in scholastic and has been published previously more than 60 times. She hopes to one day publish a book or novel and is mostly focused on improving her work as a poetry writer. Her main inspirations include Olivia Gatwood, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Laurie Halse Anderson. She would be honored to have the chance to receive publication and would appreciate it. She is based in the US.