Putting It In Perspective
It's funny, the way we live our lives it's easy to get caught up in our own sorrows and emotions that we fail to take into account the sorrow and heartache around us. But in truth the world is filled with a lot more suffering than just our own.
Take for example today. I was feeling really low this afternoon about the situation with Big. While I have been making significant emotional and spiritual growth about this situation, I still get sad thinking about it. It is very much a grieving process. the only problem is that it is easy for the grief to become overwhelming and begin to impact my ability to work and function (because it teams up with my S.A.D. and kicks my ass).
So I was all down in the dumps and thinking of nothing else but my own pain and sorrow. Well my office mate gets this call from her brother and as soon as she gets off the phone with him tells me some very disturbing news. Apparently he was in training two blocks down from us in this office building when he saw something large fall past the window. He got up and looked out the window and there, laying several floors below on a concrete awning, was a man's body. Yeah. The police are still investigating but apparently this man committed suicide by jumping from the 8th floor of that building.
Crazy, and sad. Can you imagine being in so much pain and distress that your mind finally snaps and you do yourself in? I have been suicidal before, when I was going through my depression and mental break down, but there was always some rational part of my mind that kept me from committing the act. And I'm thankful for that. But here this poor man went beyond that point. Whatever his pain and suffering was, it drove him past the point of rational thinking and he ended his life.
I think about my own lot in life and the things that make me feel sad and depressed and I realize that I am so damn fortunate. I have a great job, wonderful friends, and a future that is full of upcoming opportunities. And yes, I don't have the guy I want in my life and that is sad, but Jesus that is small potatoes compared to this guy that just killed himself. He's dead. That's it. He won't wake up tomorrow to see the sunrise or feel the warmth of another spring breeze, or hold the hand of the one he loves. I still have my health and I still have tomorrow. And whenever I feel lost and lonely and so completely frustrated all I need think about are the others in the world who are suffering more, especially the ones who have been overtaken by their grief permanently.
