good reading...

This is from the chapter entitled, All the way down, in Parker Palmer's little book-
Let Your Life Speak:Listening for the Voice of Vocation

This man needed to understand his clinical depression as a spiritual journey, and that is what this chapter goes through...and having gone through stages of depression myself, these words ring so true, so deep and move me to no words (for now) but to shake my head with a compelling sense to repeat it here for others to read. And it has encouraged me to later write on my own journey...And even if you have never been depressed, this is good to read to know how to be a helpful presence to someone you may encounter, and trust me, you will, this is not such an uncommon illness as you may be inclined to believe just because it is not widely talked about.


"One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person's pain without trying to "fix" it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person's mystery and misery. Standing there, we feel useless and powerless, which is exactly what a depressed person feels--and our unconscious need as Job's comforters (referring to the biblical story of Job) is to reassure ourselves that we are not like the sad soul before us."

"For a long time, the "oughts" had been the driving force in my life-and when I failed to live "up" to those oughts, I saw myself as a weak and faithless person. I never stopped to ask, "How does such-and-such fit my God-given nature?"or "Is such-and-such truly my gift and call?" As a result, important parts of the life I was living were not mine to live and thus were doomed to fail."

"One of the most painful discoveries I made in the midst of the dark woods of depression was that a part of me wanted to stay depressed. As long as I clung to this living death, life became easier; little was expected of me, certainly not serving others.
I missed the deep meaning of a biblical teaching that I had always regarded as a no-brainer: "I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Therefore, choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19) Why, I wondered, would God waste precious breath on saying something so obvious? I had failed to understand the perverse comfort we sometimes get from choosing death in life, exempting ourselves of challenge of using our gifts, of living out lives in authentic relationship with others."

A quote on what Love is; Poet Rainer Maria Rilke says,

"love...consists in this, that two solitudes
protect and border and salute each other."

Another great read that my sister brought to my attention last week, I'd like to share here with you now. It is a transcript of a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace
(the writer was found dead in his home last week, an apparent suicide at the age of 46. Many of
the articles about him this week mention this speech. After reading it, I thought it was essentially a speech about depression and well worth reading for sufferers and non-sufferers alike.)