December 2022 3rd Street Beat

3rd Street Beat 3rd Street Beat

The 3rd Street Beat Mission Statement

The Third Street Beat is a newsletter written by and created for people with substance use disorder. Our mission is to validate that experience so people know that they are not alone, and to emphasize the many unique roads that we take to recovery. This is an opportunity to share our experiences to creatively support each other. We are non-political, non-denominational, multi-racial, and gender neutral. Our mission is one of recovery and harm reduction, and all experiences are welcome. All the viewpoints herein are personal in nature and related specifically to our contributors’ recovery.

The 3rd Street Beat Editorial Team

The 3rd Street Beat is produced byThe Recovery Center community with assistance from the occupational therapy team.

Human Nature

by Kennard Singleton p. 3

The Chronicles of arryl Armour p. 4

Love for Sports

by Moses Flores p. 5

Staying Healthy

by Raymond Bird, III p. 5

A Kind of Paradise

by Raymond Bird, III p. 6

Roses are Red

by Julius Simms p. 6

by Moses Flores p. 7

A Decision Must be Made

by Raymond Sanders p. 7

Human Nature

By Kennard Singleton

I sit and ponder, why is the human mind taught the way that it is?

Or is it the way the brain was created?

Just food for thought processes.

Is it always just individual?

From my life skills and survival skills

Why does the mind always portray an image?

Or is that what the human mind wants?

It seems that mine wants to hear bad news or the worst news.

I’m programming my mind to think differently

Or somehow hope for the best for my brothers and sisters.

Thanks to TRC, where I went for coffee and stayed for the love

How they live has penetrated my thoughts, and most of all, my bad behaviors.

Drugs were only a minute symptom of what I thought were problems.

Coping skills are my favorite consequential thinking skills

Big ups to TRC at 8 E. 3rd St.

All my peers that hold my hand and show me the way out of that hole. They told me that, no matter what, light will always defeat the darkness. So when you figure that out, you’re well on your way, and I will never forget where I come from, but I know where I went to TRC.

The beasts from the lower East!

They gave me the best directions in my life to cope with and deal with all the detours in my life I will go wherever and if I think-ith I make-ith.

TRC family 4 lyfe

Kennard A.K.A. “Special K”

THE CHRONICLES OF DARRYL

November:

My roommate is something else. I went to the bathroom and I told him that I did a number two and blew it up and he went to use the bathroom. When he was out, he called me stupid n*****. Last week he took a shoe or something hard and he cracked the screen on the TV. He’s making my life miserable. Now I can’t watch football games on Sunday, or movies, or TV shows. I’ve been out of work for over a year and it’s driving me crazy. I lost my wallet with all my IDs… social security card, drivers license, my state security license. I need money. I need to get my documents in order so I can go back to work.

December:

I finally got out of Brooklyn. In Brooklyn I was in a hotel for 2 1/2 years. It was going to be three years in May 2023. My roommate got on my nerves so much. I was so miserable. Now I feel relieved that I’m gone. My new place is in Harlem, but I just got a room. I gotta share a kitchen and a bathroom. That’s OK, though, I’ll deal with it for now. I just come in and out of my room. I try to be nice, speak to people. I said hi and bye. I just mind my business. I leave in the morning and come home at night.

I like my new room. It is pretty big. Just for me. Sharing the kitchen is OK because I have a mini freezer to put my food in, a microwave to heat up my food, and a sink to brush my teeth then shave my head and face. I trim it up. I birdbath in the sink sometimes. I cannot take a shower because one bathroom is locked all the time and the other bathroom is next to a guy‘s room. He is always in the bathroom. He acts like that bathroom is his because it is next to his room. I don’t want to use that bathroom because he might get an attitude with me and tell me that it is his bathroom because it is next to his room. I don’t want any problems with him. I don’t want him to get violent with me.

I come home late at night sometimes and the young kids are in the lobby and on the first floor. It gets so packed with people. Young ladies and young men in their late teens or in their early 20s. They hang out and smoke weed there, by the stair steps. I have to say “excuse me” as I go up the stairs to go to my room. I live on the fourth floor. I don’t mind because it is good exercise and it keeps me in shape. I enjoy living there.

I got four guys that I know from my old shelter in Brooklyn in Bay Ridge. I was 30 blocks from the Barclays Center on Atlantic and Flatbush Avenue where the Brooklyn Nets play basketball. That’s their home court in Brooklyn. They have boxing and concerts where singers and rappers perform live, so I’ve been in the Barclays Center a couple of times. Not for the Nets or basketball games and not for boxing either. I’ve been there for live shows. Concerts. I saw Monica, Mase, Maxwell, Tyrese, Jaheim, New Edition, Joe, Jagged Edge, and Carl Thomas. In my life I have to get a job so I can pay my own rent. I am rent-free for a year. I have one year to get myself together and live my life clean and sober.

Thank you.

God

Darrylbless.Armour

Love for Sports

by Moses Flores

Since I was a young boy, I could remember my grandfather not only loving to play baseball, but always to watch it. Since then, I’ve had a love for baseball. Ironically, I was so competitive that I began to love all sports. My son also learned how to love sports from the time he was an infant. Some things are genetic, some things are learned. I say this because he was my step grandpa and his two sons were not super fans of sports. Go figure!

Staying healthy is my most important goal in life.

ByRaymondBird,III

As a child, my mothers, younger brother always taught me that exercising 3 to 4 times a week would help to increase my mental and physical health. So throughout my years, I continue to remember what my uncle taught me out of very young age.

Roses are red

Feelings are blue

Staying off drugs

HowdoIregainakindofparadise. AsIreadthebookofAliceWalker,whereshewroteaboutone ofhersouthernrelatives,whohadmovedtothenorth; shehadintroducedthemtoabookabout thesouthernlifethattheyhadleftbehind… Anditdawnedonmethatitmademeremember thekindofparadisethatIhadleftbehind… Leftbehindformejustremindsmeofmywonderfullife asachildgrowingup, wantingtobethebestthatIcanbe intheworldinwhich Ihavebelievedtobe mykindofparadise.

Is the thing to do

This is my rhyme

Rhythm is time

I give for another day to rise and shine

Rhythm and blues are every day news

The struggle is real ups and downs from town to town but we hold it down.

Today is a good day

I’m at my best

I don’t feel stress in a world that’s a 360 mess

Wake up to be at my best

With a pen and paper written

Character for movie chapters

But it’s not always happily ever after

You get on screen disasters

But the show goes on

And you live you survive

Time after Time

by Julius Simms

ByRaymondbirdIII

MY 10 MINUTES

MY 10 MINUTES OF SERENE

MY 10 MINUTES OF CLARITY OF THOUGHT OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

MY 10 MINUTES OF REWARD AND GRATITUDE FOR THE LORD’S GRACE

10 MINUTES OF RELAXATION AFTER A QUICK, DISCIPLINED, AND RIGOROUS WORK OUT

10 MINUTES OF QUIET MORNING SERENITY

THE BEST 10 MINUTES OF MY DAY

MY 10 MINUTES OF MY FRESHLY BREWED COFFEE

10 MINUTES THAT IS NOT PROMISED TO ALL AND 10 MINUTES THAT IS NOT AFFORDED BY MOST

By Moses Flores

A Decision Must be Made!

By Raymond Sanders

Here I am at “Main Chance Drop-in Shelter” again. You can say I’m simply “starting from scratch,” so to speak. I’m 30 years of age, and my life has been an awkward, but “blessed“ one. What’s my secret?

A bright, innocent, and calming “smile!” I learned that when I smile outside, I also smile inside. Trauma from childhood and lies has driven me to drug usage…and eventually homelessness. Today is the day that a “new“ Raymond is being reborn. I’m tired of my routine And how my life has turned out to be. I’m not used to living off the government and public assistance!! Today, I regain my independence back!! I know it must be done, and I’m going to do it to reach my goal by any means necessary. I declare today, I am free!!