Don’t judge! Oh goodness, we are judging all the time.
And thank God for that- it keeps us from walking down the wrong paths, making unhealthy decisions, destroying our lives.
Even those who criticize judgment are judging. It's fundamental to the human experience. Perhaps the real question is not IF we are judging or discerning if you prefer, but WHY we are judging?
Is it benevolently or malevolently intended?
Are we judging in a forward-moving effort to distinguish unhealthy from healthy, or are we judging as a reflection of an unresolved superiority complex?
Are we judging because we have a need to call out the madness of the world, or as a direct reflection of it?
Where are we coming FROM?
I feel startled and infuriated by those who call people who suicide "cowards". It is the heights of arrogance and insensitivity to imagine ourselves judges over a person's decision to stay or to go.
Only the individual knows what trauma they are carrying, what pain they have known, and what darkness blankets their inner world, what courage it has taken to even stay this long.
Only the individual soul knows what path it is here to walk and when its time has come. If you are lucky enough to have never considered suicide in this challenging world, then get down on your knees and thank your lucky stars.
Really, get down and kiss the ground and give thanks. But do not judge those who have made a different choice.
But for the grace of God there go you...
If someone dies from heart disease, we don't blame them and call them cowards. "They should have exercised more.""They should have eaten better."
If someone dies from skin cancer, we don't blame them and call them cowards. "They should have worn sunscreen.""They should have gone to the dermatologist."
If someone dies from depression, we blame them and call them cowards. "They should have picked themselves up and gotten over it" "They should have stopped being so selfish."
We have a long, long road towards ending the stigma of "mental" illness. Until we see all illness as an illness, without qualifiers or distinctions like this is physical and this is mental, then there won't be insurance, funding, compassion, empathy, or an end to the crisis of severe depression.
We lose so many people every day to an unresolved pain that overwhelms their consciousness. More than 800,000 people suicide each year worldwide and around one person every 40 seconds. Few are well-known.
Most live anonymous lives.
We must prioritize authentic revealing and emotional release in our world. We must slow down to see each other deeply and to share our inner worlds so that no one feels alone with their pain.
We must find a way to bring our compassion to bare with others.
There are so many of us here, yet so many suffer in isolation. We have to keep peeling the masks away. We have to keep sharing our truths. We have to.
Our survival depends on it.
love light and peace
ps/smoh
