Lived Experience Forum

[Sans911]

Great writing @Define_normal

[Define_normal]

Thanks @Snowie and @Sans911 

I wrote that when i was 16 it was relevent to how i felt back then and how i still sometimes feel

[eth]

Good morning all here @WriterMelb @Appleblossom @Snowie @Sans911 @Define_normal @Silenus  and anyone else around here today. Some wonderful words and ideas being shared here.

Apple that A Ha moment sounds like a big one.

I like your piece Define_normal.

Some of you might be interested in this link.  It's for 300 writing ideas for kids, but anyone could use it  :

https://thinkwritten.com/writing-prompts-for-kids/?fbclid=IwAR2GMYRd0qyf5HIU7lBLuBZFVibZ7DfJXVcK5uNi...I'll be using it to get myself writing regularly - someone said 'If you want to be a writer you have to write'  and my theory is that just doing some sort of writing exercise more often will get the juices flowing more.

[Snowie]

Great link @eth 

Might send this to my kids.

[eth]

I've decided to keep a journal about this period of enforced hibernation.  Might be interesting reading from the future or for my grandkids one day.  

[Sans911]

The Newest Anzac Heroes

This year we are fighting a new 'war'
One that we were not very well prepared for
It was wrapped in propaganda & lies
From the East it came, almost in disguise
A tiny virus, new and improved
Everyone said it was just like the flu
But it lay in wait inside our nasal tracts
And spread like wildfire among the stacks
And then it ambushed our lungs & our blood
It left us drowning in a cytokine flood
The heroes of the hour rose from the trenches
They rose and fought for our defenses,
These soldiers were hardened by battles fought before
But even this enemy had them rattled some more
The dead and the dying rose by the day
Hospitals filled & in some countries the dead fell where they lay,
So this Anzac day is like no other
We cannot stand beside our brother
We must stand alone, silent in our grief
But we can support each other as a collective brief
We can remember the fallen soldiers of previous wars
And least not forget what they were fighting for
But now we have new fallen heroes to add to the tally
They might be different 'soldiers' but they are our best ally

Anzac Day 2020

[NatureLover]

---

Wow, @Sans911 !

@Silenus wrote:

Thank you very much @Appleblossom. Indeed you are right - darkness is not all bad. I feel this way about depression too - it is not all bad. It is a flip side to the coin of my mental health. Often, the depression comes as a form of self defence - the mind and body can take no more, and so a period of rest is forced upon us. It can be brutal, but in the grand scheme of things, it provides a balance of sorts...

---

I'm relatively new to the forums, and am reading through this thread from the start and came across this. This is a mind-blowing thought to me! I always thought depression (which I've had all my life, and severely in the past) was 100% bad, with nothing at all good about it. Severe depression terrifies me. So I'm going to take this thought and think about it some more.

I've been writing all my life, and have thrown away a lot of my dark stuff as I didn't want to be reminded of my SI. Interestingly I never write poems unless in a very dark place, when they seem to spill out of me.

I think I'm going to enjoy this thread.

[Mazarita]

secrets

even in isolation

even though isolation

is not new.

and impulses to

reveal everything

as when younger.

to confess or

not to confess.

a question.

it's a question of do

we share all of us?

a wise man once

taught me

about secrets.

he introduced 

the love within

secrets

our sacred solitude.

[Mazarita]

Greetings from 4:30am. I started this post a little while ago, not expecting it to be this long. My words have run away with me again. So no worries if it's too long to read. If you are tagged here, this is first of all, just a Hi, if you'd like it from me. 

Hi @NatureLover,

Thanks for reviving that quote from the wonderful, @Silenus, who hasn't visited for a long time in my memory. He started something beautiful here.

Darkness is not all bad is how I perceive it too, after being with depression since ever I can remember. My first memory seems depressed as I now recall it. 

Maybe in my mid-to-late teens I started thinking more about accepting myself and found it helpful. It has stayed with me all the way to my late fifties, though I forget about it a lot of the time too.

So sometimes I remember the value of being okay, or at least as okay as I can be, with depression being part of who I am, as I've not found a way of dispelling it. My creativity, something I love and am hugely grateful for, may even have arisen because I was depressed and lonely, more or less. Certainly I think it has at least fanned the creative flames.

I listened to a short meditation on the SmilingMind app a couple of weeks ago. The narrator encouraged we listeners to approach our experiences with curiosity and without judgement. It reminded me of acceptance again and I've since been pondering curiosity, thinking it is a great blessing, especially when free of the critical mind.

Hi @eth hoping to catch up with your posts at 'The Long Rave' soon.  Being here with writing, wondering how you are going with yours. If you are doing some, that is awesome. If not, doing nothing is said to be part of creativity as well. I'm hoping so, given the way I am at the moment. Not doing much creatively since the start of the Big Change in the world. This, after years of high creativity. Be well, my friend. 

Hi @Sans911 fantastic poem. Topical, knowledgable and heartfelt. Beautiful and well-written. Thank you for sharing. 

Hi @Snowy @Define_normal @WriterMelb @Appleblossom and anyone reading who would like a Hi. 

[NatureLover]

Hi @Mazarita , thanks for your reply. That's interesting that you linked your depression and your creativity. 

I've accepted all my illnesses but the depression frightens me so much that that's the least accepted one. I am also scared of the dark (yes I am middle-aged lol) but I can accept that darkness has some benefits, like increasing serotonin. 

I can see Silenus' point about deprsssion balancing out mania. But I don't have Bipolar, just major depression, and I can't see any good in it yet. Am still pondering it.