LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  81 

(July 14, 2007)

Living Room went well yesterday, even if there were only eight participants this time. Many were on holidays or just feeling the summer laziness.

We focused on a poem written by one of our members.

Briefly, it’s about a cracked vase that is threatening to break but looks beautiful as it tries to keep up a facade – not being real. Being real would mean pain. It would mean being broken and exposed. It would probably mean death (it thinks).

One day the vase falls and breaks. “Humbled, it is stripped of all its glamour; its realness is exposed.” The Master Potter restores it, though it’s a long, painful process. But in the end the vase becomes whole again, a new strength holding it together. The cracks don’t disappear but there is a Light shining through the cracks. At last, the vase is real.

The discussion that followed was neat. I think all of us could relate to that vase on some level. The Cracked Vase is a poem with amazing depth. I’m so glad this member brought it.

As we all know, so many of us with bipolar – and with unipolar depression as well – are creative. That’s one of the things I value about living with this disease. I can see the talents emerging in our Living Room group and hope that more members will come forward with their poems, stories, songs and artwork. An idea I have on the back burner (w-a-y on the back burner) is to do a little book of things our members have done. One day perhaps we could produce something rich and beautiful like that.