Depression and Suicide
From Darkness to Light
The ancient Celts believed the new day began at sunset, as do modern pagans, Jews, and some Christians. Similarly, the ancients celebrated the new year on Samhain, October 31. I love this idea. I love the idea that there is a period of dark gestation prior to the actual birth. The ancient new year celebration…
Read MoreDeath, Be Not Proud
The message came in Saturday evening. Our dear friend’s sister was dead. I’ll call her Mary. My heart sank in an all-too-familiar way. Not another, I thought. Not again. My Best Beloved stared at the message on his phone. I didn’t want to ask, but I’m sure the question was all over my face. “She…
Read MoreThe Solace Of Ousia (And Of Reading)
Every morning I spend a little time reading before I begin the real work of the day, which is writing. I choose the books I read in this time slot for inspirational value, either spiritual or psychological or artistic. This morning I finished The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, by Madeleine L’Engle, which is the second…
Read MoreMy Fears Made Manifest
Last week I received a request from one of the chaplains at the nearby hospital to visit a woman suffering from what may well be the last stages of alcoholism. This was her fourth time in hospital in twelve months. I admit my heart sank. Although I am part of a fellowship that understands helping…
Read MoreThe Forgiveness Cure
I’m in the midst of editing my new novel, OUR DAILY BREAD, which will be released in the US in September. It’s the story of what happens in a small town when, for generations, certain folks have been ostracized, pushed away and left to fend for themselves. Considered Those People—beyond the pale, beyond redemption—they become…
Read MoreDeath Be Not Proud
“Death is a test of one’s maturity. Everyone has got to get through it on their own. I want very much to die. I want to become part of that vast extraordinary light. But dying is hard work. Death is in control of the process, I cannot influence its course. All I can do is…
Read MoreRescued by a Rescue Dog
All right, I’ll just come right out and say it — I’ve become one of those annoying people who, if encouraged in even the smallest way, spend a good part of any conversation talking about my dog. If you read my recent post, “The Liberating Poetics of Low Expectations,” this probably comes as no surprise. …
Read MoreWe are diminished by every broken heart
As many of you know, both my brothers died by suicide, and so, whenever I turn on the news and hear a report of another life being lost to despair and hopelessness, the little shard of ice in my chest which never quite melts, twists a little. This week, Tyler Clementi, a student at Rutgers…
Read MoreRiding the tree roots
I wonder if you, like me, have ever found yourself sitting in the dark, tear-stained and brittle with anguish, listening to Tom Waits, perhaps, emptying a bottle of scotch, or a pot of coffee, maybe smoking cigarette after cigarette, staring out a fractured glass into the night, your soul blank, your stomach churning, your thoughts…
Read MoreApril is the Cruelest Month
Angel, Passy Cemetery (photo by Ron Davis) April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. T.S. Eliott – The Wasteland Eliott was right, at least as far as my family is concerned. On Easter Sunday, April 6, 1996, my brother…
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