Day 46 of 365

Coming out of the darkness

What if you could wear a string of beads that demonstrated to the people around you you grief and loss? Would you put them on? Would you invite strangers and loved ones to ask about the colors you were wearing. What if the person beside you had on the same color, and finally you saw someone who's been where you are?

Today I attended the Out of Darkness walk for suicide awareness. This is the first time I've ever participated in a walk for survivors and their families. Every person in the crowd had been touched by suicide and the emotions that come from it. Every community was represented as suicide and depression know no boundaries. It doesn't care if you are young or old, queer or conforming, christian or Jewish or any human being on the planet.

Why did I walk? I walked for you and for me. I walked because when I was young I was in a dark place and no one should ever have to be there alone.

You are not alone.

As I sat in the warm and dry pavilion waiting for the walk to start, I heard a little boy ask his mother about the beads around her neck. She explained and when she told this child in his dinosaur raincoat what suicide was his expression changed to one of sadness. The purity in his reaction stopped me cold. The next thing he did was reach forward to touch her string of beads. She was wearing purple and blue. He took the blue beads and put them around his neck. It was beautiful and so innocent. I've been to a lot of Suicide and Depression awareness programs and events since writing Dear Kane; what I wish we would have said. I've listened to so many stories and sometimes all I had to do was hear them. I've learned to be quiet a let someone tell me their story.

Today was rainy and wet and so cold but it didn't matter. We have to start asking questions and take the time to listen to the answers.

Day 46 was humbling.

Love & Light

I planted #365rockdays rock at the Walworth County fairgrounds.