From: Martha Creek's Newletter

September 2014

Dedicated to Robin Williams—Rest in eternal peace and love and to all those who experience the crisis of living.

 
noun: crisis, plural noun; crises

1. a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger, the current economic crisis
2. synonym: emergency, disaster, catastrophe, calamity; predicament, plight, mess, trouble, dire straits, difficulty, extremity, etc.
3. a time when a difficult or important decision must be made. a crisis point of history
4. synonym; critical point, turning point, crossroads, watershed, head, moment of truth, zero hour, point of no return, doomsday, the situation as reached a crises.
5. the turning point of a disease when an important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death.

 

I have been reflecting lately on the way the word crisis is striking me when I hear it. A friend called and said she was away out of town for a holiday weekend and received a crisis call before she got to the edge of town. After hearing her describe the situation, I could not relate to the request as a crisis. I heard another friend say that her daughter was in a crisis and I asked what it meant, to which she replied “her life just doesn’t work”. I got the notice of the death of Robin Williams and was as deeply affected by this news as I’ve ever been by the death of a celebrity. I was shocked at just how much I was affected by his death. I was filled with gratitude for his life and work and astonishingly awakened by the depth of the suffering of souls that have all the ways and means to get help and there is no way for them to help themselves or for loved ones to help in many cases. That seems like a crisis to me.

What is crisis to me? In considering a response to this, like most, I first refer to some very personal experience with what I believed crisis to be, for example, ruptured appendix, gangrene, peritonitis, coma at age 14. My baby brother died at age 40 suddenly from a massive heart attack. My dad had perforated bleeding ulcers and collapsed lungs routinely during his last couple years of life that required emergency transport and ICU care. I’ve had friends commit suicide and failed attempts to suicide. In each case, the thing similar about the crisis, I thought was—it had a beginning and an end. I’m beginning to question whether it does or not. Death seems to mark the end—certainly of the physical. However, the crisis that causes the death, depression, despair, apathy, rage, disease, etc. does not seem to end. Where does that leave us?

I’m also thinking about the survivors of the crisis. Are they/we the ones that are stuck in crisis mode? What about when we can't help? When attempts fail? When the end means death? What about the survivors? The caregivers? When or does it end for them?

What is your experience with crisis? Is it true crisis, or like me, is it a crisis when the plane doesn't take off on schedule? Or when I get a diagnosis I don't like? Or when the city floods and the basement leaks? Or when a loved one goes into rehab again? Or when my company fails and I’m unemployed? Or my partner has an affair? Or someone doesn't pay back the money I loaned in good faith? Or when the treatments are not working anymore? Or when they simply don't want to suffer anymore?

These questions come to my mind and perhaps to yours. Can we find peace in the mystery, the uncertainty and the questions, unanswered?

In support of World Suicide Prevention Day September 10th, a topic which affects people worldwide, regardless of age, race, gender, or socioeconomic status, this publication is offered as an inspirational source to help those who feel despair, distress, sadness, or loneliness. If you or a loved one is suffering, ask for support and talk with someone who can be present with you through your struggle and pain. 

Inspiration can come in many forms… and if words can offer a means of insight, here are some favorites this month:

• “Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.” 
   —Joseph Addison
  
  
• “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” 
   —Harriet Beecher Stowe 
  
  
• “I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.” 
   —Joseph Addison 
  
  
• “One cannot change the past, but one can ruin the present by worrying over the future.”
   —Anonymous
  
  
• “It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.”
   —Anthony Robbins 
  
  
• “When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”
   —William Arthur Ward 
  
  
• “Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don’t even remember leaving open.” 
   —Rose Lane 
  
  
• “Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.”
   —Unknown 
  
  
• “Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.”
   —Osho
  
  
• “Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth… Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it.” 
   —John Templeton 
  
  
• “Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.”
   —Author Unknown 
  
  
• “Think of all the beauty that is still left in and around you and be happy!”
   —Anne Frank 
  
  
• “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
   —Alexander Graham Bell 
  
  
• “One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.”
   —Jack Penn 
  
  
• “When things get tough, don’t move. People and pressures shift but the sail remains the same no matter where you go.”
   —Unknown 
  
  
• “Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece—by thought, choice, courage, and determination.”
   —H. Jackson Brown 
  
  
• “When it is darkest, we can see the stars.”
   —Ralph Waldo Emerson
  
  
• “Any idiot can face a crisis—it's ‘day to day’ living that wears you out.”
   —Anton Chekhov

Here are some suggestions from an experienced friend for us:

From: A Person Living with Chronic Depression
To: Normal Americans
Re: Five Things I Would Ask You To Stop Doing

As someone who has lived successfully with low-grade chronic depression my entire life, the news of Mr. Williams’ suicide seems to have a different effect on me than it seems to have on you. The flood of facebook posts, tweets, and more formal news commentaries embrace a singular point of view which appears to represent the way “most people” react to such news, but that is not my reaction. His passing has led me to five ideas with five requests:

1. Please refrain from using language that equates the suicide as the inevitable end of a life-long battle against "demonic possession." Depression and addictive behaviors have causes but to keep using medieval language for the sake of colorful copy is cynical at best and not helpful. The causes of depression, like all effects in life, are over-determined. There is no one reason or cause. It is, most likely, that depression is a flaw in internal chemistry. Simplistic observers like to think it’s about a lack of maturity, resolve, or character. It’s not that easy.
2. Please refrain from glorifying celebrities who terminate their lives with hyperbole such as "genius, greatest actor of his generation, or greatest writer of his generation" (I am thinking of Mr. Williams as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman and David Foster Wallace). While these accolades may have merit, it only sensationalizes the event and that leads away from an appropriately mindful and compassionate response. The user of hyperbole seeks to express their cleverness and validate their own opinion. (I know that, because I am guilty of it!)
3. Please refrain from expressing exaggerated emotion over accomplished or privileged folks’ sorrows while ignoring others who might be right in front of you. As I drove about my Los Angeles neighborhood today, I counted nine men and women living on the sidewalks. Please, make sure you see them also as people, right in front of you, who have spiritual, mental, and physical needs that are not being met. If you have emotional energy to spare, make sure that while "your heart goes out to…" you save some for the woman living in a shopping cart, a child without a home, or the veteran who left his or her soul on a battlefield.

For the complete list click here.

I send you love and blessings for peace that passeth understanding. I would love you to join theJourney Within and to experience “who we are” outside of the crisis and the physical form for yourself, and find ways to be with day-to-day living in a new way. See calendar below for details. “Ready for a RETREAT?” Certified “Loving What Is” event? Pilgrimage to Unity Village? Click here for details. 

Thank you for all the love and care you provide for so many and the sacrifices you have made and will make in the name of love.