Whenever I see that someone who seems to have it all has taken their own life- we seem shocked.

 

I think something we all need to understand is, depression is a disease. It doesn’t always make sense, in fact many times it doesn’t. If you have never felt this way then you can’t understand, and in many ways that’s a blessing.

 

I speak as someone who has suffered through depression. At different points of my life: as a teenager who (believe it or not) didn’t know how to be a “normal” kid for much of my middle school and early high school life- until I transferred schools; as a young adult when I was feeling lost- realizing my grades weren’t great in college and I was finding myself married and suddenly without a job; and later when I realized my marriage would not survive.

 

I get really frustrated with people who say things like “so and so had everything to live for”- of course they did. Does that mean someone who seemed to NOT have everything to live for is less tragic for committing the same deed?

 

Another young man in Middle Georgia attempted to kill himself today, thus far he has survived the gun shots to his head- but he will also have to live with everyone knowing what he did. I pray he can make it through that.

 

I’m sure you know much of this post has been inspired by the death of Robin Williams, and that it appears to be by suicide, but I also think about this young man in my own community.

 

 

 

 

My timeline on all social media channels is filled with quotes people are posting. I hope Robin Williams knows how many he touched.

 

My timeline is also filled with those who know this young man in my own hometown, I hope he knows how many people are pulling for him.

 

I hope and I pray the world can learn to accept depression, to address it head on, and not to condemn those who suffer through it. 

 

I hope those whose pain is such that they feel no one can understand them knows that there are those who can help. I know that people are posting links to prevention hotlines and those things are great- they provide a great service but I want you to know that there are people in your life who will understand. Who won’t judge you. There are priests. There are friends. There’s even me.

 

As my friend and pastor Stacey said on her Facebook, ” you are needed in this world and someone somewhere will be heartbroken.” Do you have kids? Think of them. As a parent, I can assure you, your parents will be heartbroken.

 

Always, always speak up first. Don’t feel like you have to laugh to cover up the tears.

 

Washington Irving said, ” There is a sacredness in tears. There are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love.”

 

My addition to that, is that tears are the strongest sign of your own inner humanity. It shows you can still feel. There was a time in which I prayed to not cry anymore, to stop feeling. But if I were to stop being able to cry, to stop feeling, then I would no longer be able to empathize with those who are here with me. The same goes for you my dear: without your tears, without your ability to feel, you lose the ability to be the greatest gift you can be in this world.

 

My words are starting to fail me…. so I shall stop. Remember- there is always someone who cares, someone who loves you.

 

Another good example, Stacey also spoke earlier today, saying this:

 

” There’s a woman who sits in High Street Park. I’m not going to tell you her name, although I know it, because she doesn’t share that information with everyone. Most times she yells incoherently, strings of words that don’t make sense. She mostly looks/sounds angry and prophetic. Yesterday at church, she wrote her name, homeless (on the address lines) two words on the card ‘Love You’. Folks in homelessness are people. They may yell and be abrasive – I think they have to be to survive on the streets. But they are people. Capable of love and present in worship services across our city. They are children of God. And they are more than capable of love.”

 

We are all people. We are all capable of love.

 

Love to all y’all- truly

 

Molly