Archives for category: Suicide Grief

I just woke up from a dream about you. You were the one who always remembered dreams. It was something we talked about in the mornings before we threw back the covers and put our feet on the floor. Me, not so much. I was always pretty sure I had dreamed the night before; I could just never remember them. Certainly not the way you always did. After you died, I just stopped dreaming all together. But not tonight.

You came back. I was so happy. We talked and laughed and did things together. Like listening to music and cooking and taking the dogs for walks. We had this game we started playing where we would call each other on our phones and talk even though we were sitting right there together. We would watch each other while we talked on the phone. It was silly. I would record the calls so I could listen to them later.

Then one day I tried to listen to them and it was only my voice. I called you, but you wouldn’t pick up the phone. I called and I called. I was frantic. Where were you? Why weren’t you answering? I needed you to pick up the phone.

You came home and I yelled at you. I insisted that we play our game. This time I wanted you to play it right and not mess up the recording. I called you again. Looking right at you, screaming at you. “Answer the phone. Answer the phone.”

You looked so sad when you said, “I can’t. I’m dead.”

I woke up.

And so here I am, crying in the middle of the night in this quiet and lonely house. Missing you. Wishing all the wishes again that you had made a different choice. Feeling like this path to healing has looped back again. Again. Just when I thought I was doing so well.

I miss you. Nothing about your suicide is good or right or fair. I miss you. And tonight I am sad.

Artist Caterina Giglio shares her art. And her heart.

 

Go ahead. Talk about the “S” word.

 

An excerpt from a New York Times article:

For some people, however — an estimated 15 percent of the bereaved population, or more than a million people a year — grieving becomes what Dr. M. Katherine Shear, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia, calls “a loop of suffering.” And these people, Dr. Shear added, can barely function. “It takes a person away from humanity,” she said of their suffering, “and has no redemptive value.”

Please support And Tomorrow Comes Again.

Soon we will be able to accept online donations through PayPal – we’re just waiting for them to confirm our bank account. In the meantime, you can still go to CommunityFunded and make a pledge. Every dollar is important. Every dollar counts.

Your generous donations will help us to create an art book that showcases the artwork of suicide survivors as they explore their grief and healing. It is our goal to then create a traveling exhibit that features artworks from the book as well as pieces by survivor in communities the exhibit visits.

 

 

Thank you.

Click on photo to read the article.

30.
101.
36,000.
1.1 million.

Every 30 seconds, someone attempts suicide in the United States. 101 people die each day, adding up to over 36,000 suicide deaths every year. And across the globe, 1.1 million people are lost to suicide.

Imagine how many people are left behind. What does that number look like?

How do suicide survivors deal with the shock, anguish and guilt that follows a suicide loss? For each person, the answer is different. Some channel their grief through creative expression. They write. They make art. They compose music or make films.

I am working on a book, And Tomorrow Comes Again, showcasing artistic  statements of grief, healing and peace. A traveling exhibit will feature selected pieces from the book and contributions from community members.

This powerful project is important, intending to spark vital dialog about suicide and what it leaves behind. It takes a lot of time, effort and financial resources to build a book.
There’s the outreach to find creatives, compiling and editing the material, book design and layout, social media and publicity expenses, administrative costs, professional fees. It adds up quickly.

I’m asking for your help to finance the production costs through Community Funded, a tool that connects people, ideas and resources in historic new ways, empowers our communities, and promotes “grass-roots economic recovery.”  Like KickStarter, Community Funded gives you the opportunity to invest in meaningful projects like And Tomorrow Comes Again.
For as little as $10, you can help make this dream a reality. Please go to the Community Funded web site and pledge to contribute. Every dollar helps. Every dollar makes a difference.
Anything’s possible when it’s Community Funded.

Two young women share their memories of their poet friend, Harrison.

 

 

I can still see his tall frame in the moonlight.
I can see his smile in the shade of the trees.
I can feel his embrace, his kindness.

He is one of a kind. He is a deep thinker. He likes to listen.
His laugh. Oh, his laugh lights up a room.
He is a poet. He is so young.

He is gone.
And no one knows why.
No one understands.
We all cry.

And as I lay in the dirt, discussing Harrison,
I look up at the sky. Say his name.
Harrison.
And a star shoots across the sky.
Red, bright, fierce, and present.
The tears roll down my face, as I clutch the hand of the person beside me.

Because he is gone. In the physical sense.
But he is very much alive, in the hearts of those left behind to wonder.
He is in the trees. He is in the summer wind. He is in the stars.

He is where you need him to be.
He is in your heart.

 

Written by Taryn Gawronski

I have a daily gratitude project on Facebook; it reminds me that life is abundant, even when it feels bleak. It reminds me that I am blessed, and those blessings are everywhere I look.

This is one of the entries.

This Weekend’s Gratitude: Catch and Release
by Michelle Venus on Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 10:00am

The Sky Is Not Lost

I have been a fish for these past ten and half months. A fish caught on a line. I’ve had a hook in my mouth; I feel its barbs digging deep into the soft tissue. It’s a big, long hook that also caught my heart. Read the rest of this entry »