11.30.18 - The Coming Back

-Dear Sweet Babe,

I want to talk about depression.

It runs in our family, did you know? Everyone in our family has grappled with it; me, your momma, your auntie, your g-ma and g-pa, your  great aunt and uncles, your great-grandparents. Most of us have even won occasionally. But, there is a rather scary thing about depression that you should know about. I don’t like telling you this, because there is a part of me that would prefer to never have talk to you about anything scary. I’d rather only explain about the positive and the happy. I’d rather share about how great life can be, and how there’s always a silver lining, and that, no matter the obstacle, there will always be a safety net for you to fall back onto, and that safety net is an assurance of your happily ever after. And, partially, that’s true.

But, here’s another truth- the scary thing about depression, and a lot of other dark, terrifying things in the world: they can come back.

There will be hundreds of thousands of stories that you will hear in your lifetime; tales with heroes and victories, and the vanquishing of evil and prevailing of good. You’ll hear about myths and fairytales, fictions spun to entertain and to educate…but, these stories have one inherent flaw: they’re contained. Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and in that end there is the flaw that keeps a little truth out of every story; a truth about life that should be accepted, and then promptly forgotten.
Things come back. Narratives repeat. Dark and terrifying things, beautiful and wonderful things, average and tolerable things, and even miraculous and astounding things all come back. We don’t always know when things will come back, or if they’ll even come back to us, but we can always depend on the fact that things will come back. They’ll come back to teach us new lessons. They’ll come back to switch up our lives. They’ll come back to remind us of their presence. They’ll come back to show us their complexity.
So, when you’re looking at something, say depression, and you find yourself worrying about when or how it will come back, I would like you to remember one thing: just as sure as the rain will come back, so will the lightning will both make thunder and turn the beach to glass; the rain will both wash away our chalk drawings, and help the flowers to grow; the clouds will both block the sun, and paint the sky with glorious hues when the sun sets. The terrible things will return, but they will also bring new and stronger life with their challenges… and they will return with the wonderful things that also come back.

Also, if you’re ever having trouble seeing the goodness coming back, I’m only a phone call away, and I will happily remind you of the greatness you already hold.

xxx