Introducing the Recovery Go-Bag

A new feature about how people keep their spiritual side alive when chaos reigns.

I kicked around an idea for “Desert Island Discs” for recovery for a couple of years, but instead of top-five favorite music albums you’d take with you to a desert island, it would be which recovery books you would bring.

I had this experience when, out of an abundance of precaution, we left our home and neighborhood semi-urgently during the recent LA fires. What did I throw in my bag? Well, two physical copies of my marked-up version of “When Things Fall Apart” by Pema Chödrön and “How to Do Nothing” by Jenny Odell. I took those two because I feel like I’ve studied them and used them enough during various crises, both existential and familial, that I know how beneficial they are and how essential they’d be had we been away from our home for an extended period or, God forbid, lost everything. We were fine. And I was fine, and I knew if I stuck to my books, I would be fine even if something terrible did happen.

It gave me the idea to ask other writers, artists, and musicians about what they’d bring with them if shit went down and they were forced to only bring a few items with them to help keep their recovery intact, well — what would those items be?

Today, we have our first participant, writer Holly Whitaker, whose work I’m pretty sure 90% of The Small Bow’s readership is familiar with.

Okay — let us begin.

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Recovery Go-Bag: Holly Whitaker

As I mentioned to you on the phone, the first book I thought of was When Things Fall Apart for extremely obvious reasons. It’s my constant touchstone and security blanket book. The second would be Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, mostly because you can take one sentence from that book and work with it for a year. I love this book in particular because it’s so very basic and (IMO) at direct odds with the neoliberal wellness agenda. I would grab a meaty book I have always wanted to get through, like the Mahabharata; Sex, Ecology and Spirituality; or like a big bound book of all the Greek myths. I would perhaps grab something that’s comfort food or a good re-run, like The White Album because I can read and re-read it and it makes me feel cozy. And finally, probably something that is hard for me to read and for which I don't have patience in real life, like Virginia Woolf. It’s important for me to stress that I would definitely try to put five huge books in a go-bag — even though it’s completely fucking impractical — because I’m me and I always bring too many books instead of what I actually need and end up paying for it.

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Holly Whitaker is a writer, researcher, and author of the New York Times Bestseller “Quit Like a Woman.”

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If you don't feel comfortable calling yourself an "alcoholic," that's fine. If you have issues with sex, food, drugs, codependency, love, loneliness, depression —whatever-whatever–come on in. Newcomers are especially welcome. We’re here.

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A POEM ON THE WAY OUT:

The Crystal Gazer

by Sara Teasdale

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I shall gather myself into myself again,
I shall take my scattered selves and make them one,
Fusing them into a polished crystal ball
Where I can see the moon and the flashing sun.

I shall sit like a sibyl, hour after hour intent,
Watching the future come and the present go,
And the little shifting pictures of people rushing
In restless self-importance to and fro.

—Via Poets.org