Someone I Admire
Purchase link and phone orders not working...check entries below.
The last few entries have sort of been downers, and so I think I will try to write something more positive.
It is about 10 PM right now, and I just got a coffee from Starbucks before they closed. The barista asked if I were going to be up late writing, and I said I wouldn't be, but that I don't like going to bed because it makes me feel like I've quit on the day. But, now that I think about it, I think I might actually write tonight.
You see, I'm just going to be starting my second book. It is going to be about the life of a woman I have recently met. Her life has been difficult to say the least. If I had lived through even a tenth of what she has experienced, I don't think I would still be around. But she has triumphed and is happy and hopeful. She is such a delight to be around, and I admire how she can laugh continuously despite such hard times. She is simply amazing, and I know that I have to share her story with the world. Before I met her, I thought I could pretty much play the suffering trump card on anyone I met in life, but she has made me realize that I truly have a charmed life. I have never met anyone who has had a life as hard as she has, and I have never met anyone who has her joy. I will write more about this next book as it comes together.
Someone anonymously wrote that he or she admires how I speak on mental illness. That is such a sweet compliment, and I take it to heart. But much more important than speaking about adversity is coping with adversity. That truly is the most admirable thing imaginable. A lot of us with mental illness have to cope with some severe circumstances, and many have it more difficult than I do. I admire all of you who are coping with these illnesses so well; it isn't easy.
Mental illness is sometimes a very ugly illness, full of thoughts and behaviors that hurt relationships with others (that has been true in my case in the very least). But I have learned something recently: the most attractive thing about people is their joy. It is a recent revelation, mostly because I rarely meet people who are joyful. The true way to change society in order to help the mentally ill will start with increasing the joy of those with the mental illnesses. Others will recognize the humanity of the mentally ill and will desire to help them if the mentally ill are abounding with joy. Mother Theresa said something to this effect: Joy is the net of love that catches souls.
It might be difficult to have joy as a mentally ill person, but it is still possible. I even think someone with severe depression can have joy. Really? You might think I'm ignorant, and you might think that a lack of joy is pretty much the definition of depression—I assure you that it isn't. I will discuss this in coming entries.
I would like to leave you with this: Joy produces successful coping, and is not a product of it. Its seeds are not found in paradise, but in the deepest, darkest, dungeons of hell, germinating to the raining sweat of the sufferer. Its fruits are happiness, coping, and hope, and it is the only way to bring about all of them. It leads the way out of any hellish existence. Joy is but the kernel of heaven that takes root in the sufferer.
The last few entries have sort of been downers, and so I think I will try to write something more positive.
It is about 10 PM right now, and I just got a coffee from Starbucks before they closed. The barista asked if I were going to be up late writing, and I said I wouldn't be, but that I don't like going to bed because it makes me feel like I've quit on the day. But, now that I think about it, I think I might actually write tonight.
You see, I'm just going to be starting my second book. It is going to be about the life of a woman I have recently met. Her life has been difficult to say the least. If I had lived through even a tenth of what she has experienced, I don't think I would still be around. But she has triumphed and is happy and hopeful. She is such a delight to be around, and I admire how she can laugh continuously despite such hard times. She is simply amazing, and I know that I have to share her story with the world. Before I met her, I thought I could pretty much play the suffering trump card on anyone I met in life, but she has made me realize that I truly have a charmed life. I have never met anyone who has had a life as hard as she has, and I have never met anyone who has her joy. I will write more about this next book as it comes together.
Someone anonymously wrote that he or she admires how I speak on mental illness. That is such a sweet compliment, and I take it to heart. But much more important than speaking about adversity is coping with adversity. That truly is the most admirable thing imaginable. A lot of us with mental illness have to cope with some severe circumstances, and many have it more difficult than I do. I admire all of you who are coping with these illnesses so well; it isn't easy.
Mental illness is sometimes a very ugly illness, full of thoughts and behaviors that hurt relationships with others (that has been true in my case in the very least). But I have learned something recently: the most attractive thing about people is their joy. It is a recent revelation, mostly because I rarely meet people who are joyful. The true way to change society in order to help the mentally ill will start with increasing the joy of those with the mental illnesses. Others will recognize the humanity of the mentally ill and will desire to help them if the mentally ill are abounding with joy. Mother Theresa said something to this effect: Joy is the net of love that catches souls.
It might be difficult to have joy as a mentally ill person, but it is still possible. I even think someone with severe depression can have joy. Really? You might think I'm ignorant, and you might think that a lack of joy is pretty much the definition of depression—I assure you that it isn't. I will discuss this in coming entries.
I would like to leave you with this: Joy produces successful coping, and is not a product of it. Its seeds are not found in paradise, but in the deepest, darkest, dungeons of hell, germinating to the raining sweat of the sufferer. Its fruits are happiness, coping, and hope, and it is the only way to bring about all of them. It leads the way out of any hellish existence. Joy is but the kernel of heaven that takes root in the sufferer.
Comments