How fragile LIFE is…#Go Fix

I’ve been contemplating about LIFE in general the last few weeks. I guess it’s just because of what’s going on in the world. The terrorism. The chaos. The killings. The fear. I blogged about them this month but if you can read only 1 please check out Life is Precious. It makes us think of our own mortality.  I was having thoughts on how fragile our life is. How we should be grateful of everyday  when we wake up in the morning and open our eyes to a familiar face… those of our loved ones. Of course, not everyone is fortunate to have something like that. My kids are grown up so I’m just grateful to wake up in the comfort of my own bed… no warm body next to mine… that’s fine… haha    not every woman needs one. Well, maybe during the winter months… sometimes…   😉   j/k

I found this flow chart as I was looking for a good photo to use and I thought, life is too short and we just let a year pass without a plan then we look back and think “what happened?” We should be mindful and live a life of purpose and meaning.

I remember that around the first part of the year, I was still high from the holidays then I found out that a friend from work’s lifeless body was discovered at her home. What made it worse was that there was a buzz that she took her own life. When I went to her funeral, it was confirmed and I took it pretty hard. I was feeling depressed and I couldn’t shake it off. I thought maybe I could have done something to have stopped her and changed her mind. Her daughter read excerpts from her journal. She wrote “Everybody dies but not everybody lives.” We all know that but we seem to be living on “auto-pilot” setting. This world we live in is so fast paced that it’s so hard to step off that “hamster treadmill”. It’s a cycle, there’s bills to pay, there’s never ending chores, checklists, extra-curricular activities, etc. We have to remind ourselves to be MINDFUL. Stop and smell the roses… or the coffee…

I was talking to a therapist friend of mine at work last night and shared that info and he says that one of our psychiatrist friends shared with him that “the completers complete, they’re the ones who don’t say anything, unlike the ones we have at our ER” so bottom line there’s nothing I could’ve done to stop her but it still didn’t make me feel better.

“the completers complete, they’re the ones who don’t say anything, unlike the ones we have at our ER” ~ J.A. MFT

I get a lot of young ones at my ER, some of them as young as 6 y/o and very depressed. Some coming from home, school,  and some from foster homes. I usually sit with them and talk to them when I make my rounds in the middle of the night, checking if they’re comfortable. It breaks my heart to know what they have to deal with at a very young age when they should just be playing and going to school and let the adults deal with the problems. Some of the teenagers who are “cutters” just want the pain to go away and how I wish I had some magic to take it all away. All I could do is to give them a tight hug if they let me and I wish I can promise that all will be alright but I cannot guarantee that either. I just share with them my mantra for whenever I have a difficult time… “This too shall pass.” We make sure they promise to seek help if they feel suicidal and we provide the hotline so they may call for help if need be.

Bottom line, we just have to live our lives no matter how hard it is because at any given moment someone somewhere is fighting to survive.

Go out… explore… serve… make your life extraordinary…   🙂

 

Carpe diem!

LIVE   LAUGH … BELLE PAPILLON 

 

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PS –I just want to share that a blogger friend, Imani, has started a supportive and caring revolution for people who are going through depression & suicidality. Please check out her blog, write your own post on it, talk to people you know about it. If everyone instigated a conversation with one person they know about suicide, think how many conversations would be going on globally. #GO FIX

Also, I found this website: International Bipolar Foundation ( Support For Suicidal Thoughts and Actions) that has a lot of articles that is very helpful.  Check it out.