Repost: Suicide as the elephant

FAMILY – it’s what nearly all of us live for; perhaps all of us.

Family is what can keep us from doing something silly; something incredibly stupid. But to talk in these terms to someone who’s contemplating ending their lives – someone who’s thought through the logistics – may not cut it. It may miss the mark. They may be resolved. They may be totally cold to life, having come to the decision. Having wrestled with the minutes and hours – having struggled and tussled with matters irreconcilable – there is the sullen reticence: It (life!) cannot go on!
Isolation seems the key sign of retreat.
Retreating from life, a resigning of self to the court of the night, isolation is that coursing of strained tunes in our minds – the prevalent rush of despair in our hearts – when the experience of life gets just too hard. One foreign hour, a twisted minute, a salient second – we are so vulnerable.
Truth | Connection | Hope
Suicide is something that needs to be called for what it is. It is an elephant that tiptoes, until it announces itself by stark and echoing aftershocks.
The impact of the loss of your life is incalculable.
You are so many people in one single person. You are a person with a voice. You are a person that people care about – and nobody cares like God. These are not just clichés.
Sure, this may still not be enough to convince you otherwise,
You who sits or stands there and simply utters sighs!
You who they care about – you, who they can’t replace,
You are the one, of course, who must find life to face.
There is something in your future that will turn you all around,
There is something ahead you’ll find – then you’ll be certainly found!
What must occur beforehand, though, is to hope beyond the despair,
To do what none can do and simply provide space for your own care.
***
Tears may come from nowhere,
A long face that holds a stare,
We need something to hope on,
A future calling us home to Care.
***
There is an elephant that roams wistfully in and out of people’s lives, wreaking destruction. Suicide destroys the lives left behind. If something will hold us in this life it’s that people care about us: our children, our spouses, our parents, friends, co-workers... and, yes, God cares!
There is a reason that will make sense to each one of us to protect our lives. Let’s not give up until we find that reason.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

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