Tag: loss

Another Life Claimed by Suicide

On By Jo Price10 Comments

Tonight I received a call informing me that a family in our community lost a parent to suicide. Sadness doesn’t begin to describe my feelings for them. When I told my husband, of course he felt the same. In the course of our conversation about this, he made this comment that so many people make.

“No matter how bad I feel, I just can’t imagine it getting to the point that I would do that to my family.”

There is very real truth is those words. He can’t imagine it. Although my husband has his own heavy emotions and struggles to carry, he has never walked the path of someone who lives with severe clinical depression. He literally cannot fathom the world through that unimaginable filter. If a person has not faced the darkest of nights or wrestled to the depth of their soul about the value of their own life, they have no way of comprehending the torturous confusion and pain of those moments.

A person who committes suicide did not have a clear perception of their reality. His thoughts were terribly twisted. He couldn’t recognize the tidal wave of devastation that his death would bring. He didn’t see that his mind was creating vicious lies, and he couldn’t understand that his life was precious and invaluable. He truly could not comprehend that he was and still is needed more than he could ever believe.

All that person knew was that he wanted the pain to end, and that he didn’t want to hurt the people in his life anymore. He had no ability to perceive that his leaving his family would create a deep void in their hearts. Although they would heal to some extent over a long, long time, that place in their hearts would forever remain jagged and raw. His presence will never be forgotten, and he will always be loved.

If you are fighting this battle in your mind, do not believe the lies that depression creates. It poisons your thoughts and tells you that you have no value. That confusion feels so real but it is the cruelest of tricks. Don’t you dare ever believe those lies. Never ever ever.

Your mind will not stay in darkness forever. You must continue to hold on whenever you most want to let go. Your life has value beyond measure, and the people in your world need you more than you can fathom. Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be worth living, and despite what you seem to see all around you, everyone is fighting some kind of battle.

If you struggle with loneliness, self-worth issues, fear, guilt, or overall chronic imperfection, you are landing solidly on the scale of normal humanity. You aren’t alone in this and you don’t have to be alone in depression either.

Speak up. Ask for help. And hold on another day. And if needed, hold on again. Just don’t give in and don’t give up.

You’ve got this, and we’ve got each other. You are here for a reason. Give your life a chance to prove that to you.

You matter and your life is precious. Fight to keep it. Always.

My heart and prayers are with every person who has lost someone to this battle. Please know that it was never your fault, and it wasn’t the fault of the person who committed suicide either. Depression is a vicious disease.

***Please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline if you feel like you are at the end of your rope and truly can’t hold on much longer. If you are seriously considering ending your life, you desperately need to speak to someone who can help clear the blackness and the lies that are you can’t control in that moment. Call 1-800-273-8255 and please please please get help.

You are precious and you matter.

In love and light always.

Joanna

Continuing to Live When the Life You’ve Planned is Lost

On By Jo Price2 Comments

sand castle - bandw

You are going to spend your entire life with this person. Be able to hold this job. Live happily in this town. Recognize that these friends are kind and honest. Understand that the world may be a fickle place, but some certainties are unshakable.

Until they crumble before your eyes and there isn’t anything you can do to stop that from happening.

I have walked that road many times. Obtaining a dream job only to find that it was a total disaster (perhaps you have heard of Enron?). Moving to houses that were financial pitfalls. Learning that some people will go after you with no cause beyond simply bringing you into their world of misery. Being faced with devastating hurts in friendships. Recovering from the loss of trust in relationships. Facing the heartbreak of infertility and miscarriage.

When moments like this happen, our course of life forever changes. We once knew that our journey was going to include those places and those people, but an instant later, everything changes and those certainties that we maintained with unwavering faith vanish before our eyes.

When this happens, life can seem heart-wrenching and terrifying. We move from grief to rage to denial to total shut down. Maybe you go in a different order on those responses, but those reactions are common when life plans are obliterated.

However if we can continue breathing (and you can do this – I promise you it’s worth it), we will begin to heal. The plans that we had once believed to be set in stone were just a prelude to the real story that was yet to be revealed. When you lose these parts of your life, you will be led to alternate scenes, new characters, and completely different adventures that could not have occurred in the previous setup. Your foundation isn’t shaken but rather strengthened by these trials. While we likely would never want to repeat those painful experiences, time often proves that we can be better for having gone through them.

In this moment, I am so very sorry if you are in this place in your life and hurting within your soul. I wish with all of my heart that the pain would disappear and that the memory of this moment would go with it. Healing takes time, but you can survive it. Just keep breathing and keep going. Give hope a chance and let faith do its thing.

Your story is still unfolding and the best chapters are yet to come.

Much love to you always.  Jo

***Thank you Janie at https://authentically50.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/7-day-bw-photo-challenge-day-four/ for tagging me to participate in the 7 Day Black & White Photo Challenge. The rules are straightforward. Seven days. Seven black and white photos of your life. No people. No explanation. Challenge someone new each day.

I am tagging Shalini (a.k.a. Fablini) at https://bookreviewsbyshalini.wordpress.com/ for day 2 of the challenge. The post attached to this link is a beautiful poem that Shalini wrote a couple of weeks ago. She is a rockstar of a reader and reviewer, but I believe that she also has a book in her just waiting to be written, too. 🙂

As always, please know that anyone who is tagged should feel zero pressure from me regarding actual participation. Although I would always love to see your photos and read your posts, I fully understand that we already have plenty on our to do lists. Participate if you would like. Don’t if you would rather not. No worries either way. Just know that I was thinking of you. Much love! 🙂