EBB & FLOW: PART 3 of 3: YOUR FEEBLE FLICKER IS ESSENTIAL

Excerpts from Chapter 20

Depression, especially our mangled thinking, will often render us incapable of feeling like we’re valid and worthwhile members of society while we’re immersed in that darkness and confusion. And the stigma that still exists for people like us who struggle with depression or any mental illness, often renders us blind to our core truths, and unable to envision even the possibility that we are more than our depression.

We need to dare to change our definitions of self and redefine our capacity for giving. We need to rewire our attics and silence those old voices [mangled thinking] that tell us we are useless and have nothing valuable to contribute to society while we’re down and out. We need to ripple the Truth of our unconditional value – that we are worthwhile simply because we exist – deep into our old lie-defined selves and dare to believe that we do have a unique purpose and niche.

We need to dare to trust that we too have a light that the world needs to see. Even the least of us, the most fragile of us, can find our way into the ebb and flow and dare to shine our unique tidbit of light into a world that desperately needs every feeble flicker.

We see the truth of that right here in our own Boomer Women Speak site. How every voice brings unique wisdom and insight into our lives, evolving us, changing us, bettering us, healing us, simply for having listened and been in the presence of that voice. Some of us stumble in here broken, weak and feeble, with no idea of how our own voice sounds anymore, no inkling of our own inner wisdom. We see the positive changes that being here makes in each others’ lives. How the voices get stronger. How the wisdom finds courage to speak. How hearts find “niched-ness”.

We don’t have to do great things to be a light for the world. Even the loneliest darkest corner needs only one tiny candle to diminish the darkness.

I believe that every tiny flicker of kindness joins the ebb and flow and ripples out into the world as light.

I believe that even our feeblest tidbit of light, shining out from our brokenness and pain, joins with every other tiny flicker of light shining out from every other dark corner, and ultimately produces enough light to love the world back to life.