let there be light – photo credit to the Resonant German
Depression is an ugly beast. It’s incomprehensible. It is vile. A trap. It is a vile trap. And it’s an experiential thing that others who haven’t tasted it can even begin to understand. You want to be reached, but you don’t know how to let yourself be reached, because you’re trapped, in the dark. You want to be helped, but you don’t know how to let yourself be helped, because you’re trapped, in the dark. You want to live, but you don’t know how to let yourself live, because you’re trapped, in the dark, where you’re running out of air and you can no longer breathe.
Sometimes, it’s too late.
There aren’t any do overs.
LIFE IS SO FRAGILE!!!!!
Life is such a beautiful and precious thing. We all get it, a gift, without asking. It’s so random, who we are, where we ended up when we entered this world and took our first breath. We got what we got. Nobody asks to be a Star Bellied Sneetch. Or a North Going Zax. We just are who we are. Why is it so hard to just be?
I AM SO ANGRY!!!!!
I am angry because I am helpless. And because it’s too late.
There were signals that drifted to me and through me from across the universe, but I didn’t pay enough attention, or I didn’t understand. I reached out, but not far enough. In retrospect, it’s as though her spirit was crying out from the place where she was trapped and otherwise unable to call for help, and those were the messages that drifted to me. Because I have been thinking of her. I wish I had reached her. Maybe, just maybe, it would have made a difference.
So yes, I am angry. Not at her, not at myself. I am angry with the ugly beast, and I want to wage war against it. I want to tell everyone I see, everyone I know, everyone at all, that THEY MATTER. I don’t know where it comes from or how it happens, this despicable beast called mental illness, but I will battle it any way that I can. I want to pierce the darkness that any part of any person might be trapped in. Because that’s all it is. A trap. A dark, despicable trap. The con of the ages. I want to blast it apart with nuclear force and set it ablaze with the brightest of lights so that the preciousness of who they are is evident, that their life is treasure, and that I am privileged to be someone with whom they share breath. I want to infuse hope and vigor, to spark enthusiasm and joy.
Who can ever truly know what’s going on within another? How many people do we know who are suffering inside, wrestling with incomprehensible things? What if we were to take a moment to just say hi, or smile. An unexpected greeting can disrupt the grip of the ugly beast, and it only takes a little light to break the darkness. It could save a life.
My heart is broken for her, for our family, for everyone. Her anguish is over, but in its place is a heavy blanket of sorrow and new anguish in the hearts of those who love her, those who need her. It’s a shame. A complete and terrible and horrible shame. A beautiful, vibrant, strong, loving, courageous, intelligent, capable, talented, and amazing person with so much to live for has been tricked out of her own life. Nobody saw it coming, so nobody was there to help. Nobody could help. It’s a tragic deja vu. History has repeated itself, and I wish I had been paying better attention.
I’m holding my children tight, taking extra moments to make sure that they know they matter, they are important, they are wanted, they are loved. I’m listening more. I’m sending out my love. To everyone. Because everyone matters.
