The writer Anne Sexton wrote:
"Now listen, life is lovely, but I CAN'T LIVE IT. ... To be alive , yes alive, but not able to live it. Aye, that's the rub. I am like a stone that lives ... locked outside of all that is real ... I wish, or think I wish, that I were dying of something, for then I could be brave, but to be not dying and yet ... and yet to be behind a wall, watching everyone fit in where I can't, to talk behind a grey foggy wall, to live but ... to do it all wrong ... I'm not a part. I'm not a member. I'm frozen"
She committed suicide.
I read this over and over again 8 months ago, when I was thinking suicide was my last and only option. I came home every night from work, read this then pulled a knife across my upper arm until blood was dripping from my elbow. Just to feel real. I am one of the most upbeat people I have ever met, but even I get down.
I started looking for statistics and found this:
A study in the late 70s tracked down 515 people who were stopped from jumping off the golden gate bridge. 94% were either alive or died of natural causes.
It made me rethink everything. I decided that sometimes life just sucks, the point is to get through it.
I made it through to the other side and you can too. PLEASE don't give up yet. Be one of the 94% with me.
This week when I realized I was a woman. I wrote a poem to remind myself if I ever get down again.
It's corny so please don't laugh. This is the first time I've shown my poetry to anyone.
"Sunset", by Michelle
Flame tipped waves dancing below
Give three small questions before you go
Asks coppery cotton clouds that fly above
Did you live?
Did you laugh?
Did you love?
Hang in there, it will get better!