I’ve spent much time trying to write my Living Room history. There’s a lot I haven’t covered and, as I’ve said, I would like to move on. But I do want to leave this capsulated form of my history. It offers a clearer overall picture of how things went for me. 2005 or so […]
Read More...This story tells – and will continue telling – things that need to be heard. It tries to show the many ways in which stigma, emotional abuse, and rejection can affect a person with mental illness. You are reading about an example, a tragedy in the life of one individual. Within a brief period of […]
Read More...Told how another with illness coped by doing things for others and not complaining about pain, I felt the silent criticism. My quiet response: “I write.” The reply: “But you write for yourself.” Within myself I thought: I write to help many. To let them know they’re not alone. To remind them of God and […]
Read More...I felt embarrassed sharing the last post from 2009. How sick I was! Not just physically, but emotionally. Not only from bipolar disorder, but from emotional problems stemming from childhood. I found friends who showed me the greatest love I had ever known, but ended up stifling them. Is that what created so many problems […]
Read More...After I retired from my Living Room group In 2015 it was as though all I had done was forgotten – as though I no longer existed. Please let me share why I felt that way. Sometime before I was asked to do a presentation of my manual to new Living Room facilitators. Not feeling […]
Read More...The friend I talked about in the previous post was a person I loved dearly. And I can see in this story how she tried to be there for me, despite her own illness. I tried – within my own limitations – to be there for her as well. But I was better able to […]
Read More...Looking at the post below, I can clearly see how very much I came to miss that kind of love when it was later withdrawn. I can see how very cruel it was. It was no wonder I was badly affected emotionally. What turned that amazing love I received – the love in which I […]
Read More...I have spoken much in the blog posts from these early years about the warmth and care shown to me by church friends. They helped me experience what God was like through the love they gave me. Through them I was able to truly “feel” God’s love. You have seen my happiness expressed throughout my […]
Read More...Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 This is not one of my regular devotionals, but I’m sending it today, because I think it’s important for those with mental health issues and those who support them. There have been many times […]
Read More...Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent […]
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