Another Great Loss!!!

My beloved youngest daughter will be starting to teach 5th grade tomorrow.  I am so excited for this goal that she has achieved through very hard work. 

Today she received dreadful news.  One of the teachers at her school found their fifteen year old son who had killed himself.  NOT ONE MORE!  We can't afford to lose one of our precious children.  They are our future.  It won't do any good to think, how could we have stopped him...UNLESS....unless in thinking these thoughts we can find the way to stop just ONE PERSON....one person from taking their own life.

My life has been far from easy.  I was born with such severe asthma, chronic bronchitis, and very  little immune system (oh did I mention that I was basically allergic to any substance known to mankind), the doctors literally told my parents that I would not live long.

We moved to Utah when I was 6 and I began school.  I was a very sensitive little girl.  The children said cruel, unkind things to me from first grade all the way through 12th grade.  I was barked at (I was told that I was ugly, like a dog they said), things were thrown at me (including a pen that stuck in my forehead a short distance from my eye, I was sexually harassed (male students sitting around me would say the crudest, most vulgar thinks imaginable).  One boy cornered me at my locker and grabbed my breasts and fondled them.

Then there were the 10 car accidents (I'm a great driver, but some of the people that I rode with weren't), many, many surgeries because of the accidents, breast cancer, and many, many other illnesses, including a long bout with clinical depression.

I don't say these things to make me seem noble...."Listen to me, I've had a hard life."  I'm saying these things to affirm the fact that in my youth I considered killing myself on many occasions.  What saved me was my family.  They were my sanctuary, my safe haven. 

Through all of the trauma and drama that I have faced I have learned the lesson over, and over, and over, again that "LIFE, EVEN IN THE WORST OF EXTREMITIES, IS PRECIOUS!"  I actually repeated this mantra like to myself sometimes in the hardest times of my life.

I believe that those who kill themselves hoping to solve their problems will be shocked to learn that they are applying a "Permanent solution to a temporary problem."  Life has a way of surprising you not only with hard things, but with joyous surprises, such as a brilliant sunset, a card from a family member, a post on Facebook, flowers from your sweetheart, etc. etc.  It's not always the earth shaking changes that give you courage to continue, indeed it's usually the small things that DO give you that courage.

Please TODAY...write down as many blessings as you can.  I'll make a list so you can see what I mean.

1.  My faith
2.  My family
3.  My friends
4.  A safe home
5.  My fur lined friends
6.  Food to eat
7.  Perspective that I have gained from 57 years of life
8.  Eyes to see with
9.  Ears to hear with
10.  A brain to think with.

If your life is impossibly dark right now, write just one thing...but write more than just a couple of words.  TALK TO SOMEONE!  Tell them of your struggle.  There are phone numbers that you can call to talk to a counselor.  GET HELP!  The entire internet is at your fingertips...find someone to talk to!  Please oh PLEASE, do not rob our world of one more precious person!!