When I Must Leave You   When I must leave you for a little while Please do not grieve and shed wild tears And hug your sorrow to you through the years But start out bravely with a gallant smile And for my sake and in my name live on And do all things the same, feed not your Loneliness on empty days, But fill each waking hour in useful ways Reach out your hand in comfort and in cheer And I in turn will comfort you and hold you near; And never, never be afraid to die, For I am waiting for you in the sky! Helen Steiner Rice		What I never Said It's 2:00am and I can't sleep I'm awake and lying on the bed thinking...or am I dreaming about all those things I never said. Did you know how much I loved you? Did you know how much I cared? Had I known how it would all end there would'nt have been so much time spared. Maybe I would have made you laugh or tried to make you smile I might've told you how much you meant to me when I was just a child. Who's to say, I cannot I just know the words come now... It's not what I said that counts it's what I should have said the keeps me up at 2:00am lying in the bed. By Lenise
INTERREGNUM   The span between life and death Can be as quick and sudden As a puff of wind That blows out a candle. But the candle does not suffer After darkness comes. It is the person Left in the dark room Who gropes and stumbles. ~~ Helen Duke Fike ~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   If tears could build a stairway And memories a lane We would walk all the way to Heaven To bring you home again   No farewell words were spoken No time to say goodbye You were gone before we knew it And only God knows why   Our hearts ache in sadness And secret tears still flow What is meant to lose you No one will ever know. ~Anon.~		1000 Deaths Each day I die a thousand deaths Seeing your pale, too-quiet face. Knowing you won't warm me with your breaths I am cold inside, gasping, strangling, Because you left your body dangling In a convenient place. Again and again I rise From the ashes of my life. Wanting to hold you, see light in your eyes, But my arms are empty, my eyes yearn still Because we buried your ashes on a hill With your great-grandfather and his wife. I wait for the time when I am old and so Leave the pain along the way, Of wishing you had fought to see life flow To all the good times just ahead. But you wouldn't wait, and I die instead A thousand times each day. Christine B. Smith 1997 © 1998
I am alive..... I may have lost my brother, my sister, my parent, my child, my friend, my spouse, my partner but I am alive. I am a survivor of the dark night of unspeakable loss, of my own darkness... and I am alive. I am unwilling to stand idly by and allow shame to defeat love or silence to defeat action. I stand for the enlightenment of a society that would hide from suicide and I am alive. I am unwilling for my perseverance to be in vain. Unwilling for the passing of my loved one to be in shame. I loved them more then I loved myself and their life will have meaning in my action I am alive.   In a world blinded by the pursuit of pleasure, I am here to say that people are in pain. In a world rushing to get ahead, I am here to say that people are being left behind. In a world obsessed with the value of the market, I am here to speak for the value of life and I am alive. This will be no quiet fight. I am the voice of audacity in the face of apathy. I am the spirit of bravery in a world of caution. I am a commitment of action in the face of neutrality. I am out of the darkness.... I am into the light and I am alive. read by Dan Pallotta at the Out of the Darkness Suicide Awareness Walk in DC, August 2002   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. - Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet
THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD I dreamed I had an interview with God. So you would like to interview me? God asked. If you have the time I said. God smiled. My time is eternity. What questions do you have in mind for me? What surprises you most about humankind? God answered... That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money... and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future. "That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived. Gods hand took mine and we were silent for a while. And then I asked... As a parent, what are some of lifes lessons you want your children to learn? To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them. To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least. To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply have not yet learned how to express or show their feelings. To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently. To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves. "Thank you for your time," I said humbly. "Is there anything else you would like your children to know?" God smiled and said, Just know that I am here... always. -author unknown
DESIDERATA Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself to others you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your career however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself, especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture the strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars: you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be; and whatever your dreams and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its shams, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. - Max Erhmann

Break, break, break,          On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!      And I would that my tongue could utter          The thoughts that arise in me.      O, well for the fisherman's boy,          That he shouts with his sister at play!      O, well for the sailor lad,          That he sings in his boat on the bay!      And the stately ships go on        To their haven under the hill;    But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,        And the sound of a voice that is still!    Break, break, break        At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!    But the tender grace of a day that is dead        Will never come back to me. Alfred Lord Tennyson   "Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward."   Henry Ford		For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? Ecclesiastes 3:1-9   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories.... So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday.
Please don't ask me if I'm over it yet. I'll never get over it. Please don't tell me he's in a better place. He's not here with me. Please don't say he isn't suffering any more. I haven't come to terms of why he had to suffer at all. Please don't tell me how you feel Unless you've lost someone to suicide. Please don't ask me if I feel better. Bereavement isn't a condition that clears up. Please don't tell me at least you had him for so many years. What year would you like your brother to die? Please don't tell me God never gives us more than we can bear. Please just say you're sorry. Please just say you remember my brother if you do. Please mention my brother's name. Please be patient with me when I am sad. Please just let me cry.
"Elephant in the Room" There's an elephant in the room It is large and squatting, so it is hard to get around it. Yet we squeeze by with, "How are you?" and "I'm fine." And a thousand other forms of trivial chatter. We talk about the weather. We talk about work. We talk about everything else-except the elephant in the room. There's an elephant in the room. We all know it is there. We are thinking about the elephant as we talk. It is constantly on our minds. For you see, it is a very big elephant. But we do not talk about the elephant in the room. Oh, please, say his name. Oh, please, say "John" again. Oh, please, let's talk about the elephant in the room. For if we talk about his death, Perhaps we can talk about his life. Can I say "John" and not have you look away? For if I cannot, you are leaving me Alone... In a room... With an elephant.	At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. Albert Schweitzer     MISS ME, BUT LET ME GO   When I come to the end of the road And the sun has set for me I want no rites in a gloom filled room Why cry for a soul thats free?   Miss me a little, but not too long And not with your head bowed low Remember the love that we once shared Miss Me, But Let Me Go For this is a journey that we all must take, And each must go alone Its all a part of the Masters plan A step on the road to home   When you are lonely and sick of heart, go to the friends we know And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds   Miss Me, But Let Me Go
You are not here any longer and l wonder now, time and time and time again, how l will ever come to terms with a space that no longer contains you. I cannot yet, for the life of me, imagine. Perhaps it is true, in a very cosmic sense that we came here from some other place only on loan to each other, to evolve and discover what words we would come to use about ourselves - the who and what of us - all that we struggled to uncover and become. Now, strangely, among other truths, I am left with a startling realization: winning is not the opposite losing. Keeping is. And while l always knew that I could not keep you forever, I couldn't refrain from wanting to. Still, if the purpose of love is to reveal us to ourselves and others, then I  will honor now, all that we achieved and the resultant belief that the expression of love is the most profound and worthwhile expression ever, and that love unspent is not love at all,  but fear. There is one more truth that l have discovered over time and it is this: allowed to nurture itself and go on interminably, - sadness turns to rust. I will not entertain the thought that someone else can take your place. Impossible. But I will, when I am more finished mourning you than I am now, remember to open myself again, incrementally if necessary, to any signs of love at all - especially in myself. By Rhonda Mson Asheboro, North Carolina   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~