It's About DAMN Time

Keeping Afloat in Darkness - When Robin Williams is Gone

A few weeks ago Robin Williams was everywhere you looked. People were desperate for details; to find the one thing that assured them that his situation was so different from theirs that they are safe; that it could never be them. But if you suffer from depression, the suicide of such a brilliant, successful, individual; part of our lives for so many years and responsible for so many laughs; looks like a leak in your boat. A friend asked me, "Ok but no one knows what the future holds. Could he not see that?" For someone drowning in the dark spiral of depression, there is no future. There is only now. There is only nothing. The boat is gone. You are under. It is not about your spouse or your friends or your kids or career or fans or dogs or anything. When the darkness squeezes it is all about now. And now is nothing. It is bleak and empty and so dark, you cannot see a bottom, or edges or surface ---just darkness. "Some...

There is more good stuff--keep reading»

Being Enough

I am grateful that the chapters in The Gifts of Imperfection are short. Each one overflows with concepts that ask you to reach down to your very core and dig around a bit with a sharp object. Sometimes you have to pull back and take a break. Like at the dentist...when you have to put your hand up...they let you close your mouth for a minute....you stretch your jaw....rinse maybe. "You ok to continue?" You lie back, take a breath, try to get comfortable, open up, look at the outline of the hand holding the drill backlit by that horrible light...and nod. Not to say it is all bad. But this chapter on Exploring the Power of Love, Belonging, and Being Enough made me uncomfortable in my skin. I squinted a lot. Really, really trying to get at what she was saying without having to feel what she is saying....which is not the purpose. So I had to read the chapter a few times. Then I fiddled around on Facebook and Outlook to avoid sta...

There is more good stuff--keep reading»

Camping vs. Yellow-Orange Summer Sleep-away Haven

It has been made abundantly clear to me via my 15 year old step-son that setting up a tent in the backyard is not camping. In fact, he goes so far as to 'air quote' camping each time he refers to my now obsession with sleeping in a tent in the backyard. He claims camping occurs at a campsite, in a campground. (I am sure anyone who hikes and sets up in the wilderness is now 'air quoting' his use of the word 'camping'.) It is all a matter of perspective I suppose. Nevertheless, I get what he is saying. So it seems to me that this now begs the question---what do you call it when you set up a tent in your back yard and sleep in it for a month? (minus the two days that there were extreme hail and thunderstorm warnings) Bohemian backyarding? Tenting? Suburban Sleeping Out? Lazy Stay-cay? Whatever it is called, I am forever in love with it. Which is an amazing thing to me because: a) I am a light sleep...

There is more good stuff--keep reading»

Work In Progress

Search This Blog