National Suicide Prevention Month

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, this week is National Suicide Prevention Week, and Wednesday is World Suicide Prevention Day. Please always remember that if you’re worried about yourself or someone you care about, you can call the Suicide and Crisis National Lifeline at 988.

While I don’t do many workshops now about suicide and/or grief, I still believe it’s my job in some way to contribute to the world in an inspiring and hopeful way.

On Sunday, I was reading the Albuquerque Journal newspaper and the Pearls and Swine cartoon made the point that we are constantly told to go forward, to go forward, and yet often we aren’t told…how. This is one of my irritations with therapy. Sure, it’s great to spill what’s in your head, to purge it, but that can only take you so far.

You need homework and you also need to know how to push yourself forward, how to keep moving toward the light. The cartoon made me think about my own messages and wondering if I provide enough ideas about how to go forward.

I do believe there is hope and light ahead of us, but it’s like my dog Goose who loves to be in the pool. However, Goose’s idea of being in the pool is to stand on the top step, maybe the second step if he wants to cool off his belly on a hot day. And yet Goose doesn’t want to take that step forward to swim (unless he’s pushed from behind at which time he will happily swim to the deep end of the pool and return to the steps in the shallow end). We want to go forward and yet we’re afraid to take the step forward. Do we need to be pushed? Or do we need the right motivation? Does it scare us that if we go forward, maybe we can’t turn around and go back if we’re afraid? So many questions, so many fears.

We know the light is there- we’ve seen it. Maybe just take small steps. No one said you had to run forward in a sprint. I believe you can do it and my hope is to create better blogs on the how that I believe is missing in so many messages.

But for now, take a small step. You can stop, you can rest. Remember, the light is there and you definitely want to not just see it, but be part of it.