How could someone who apparently “had everything” become so disillusioned that they would elect to commit suicide? How could their life become so tragically painful?

Short of some long-term, pain-filled illness, most of us have a hard time imagining a scenario so devastating that self-termination would be an attractive option, While I do not claim to have any special insight into the head of someone who would willingly choose death as a solution to their suffering, I do know that our minds “lie.” The world we see and perceive through the senses is an illusion. Unless we have some sort of Truth, bigger than the story contrived by the mind, to rely on when times get dark, we can become convinced that life, and in particularly our own existence, is meaningless and not worth preserving.

I have never seriously considered suicide and wouldn’t (hopefully) knowing how that would impact those I love; but I have experienced the seeming hopelessness of depression. I have seen how devastating it can be when we believe in a sense of isolation, so real that mere loneliness would be an improvement.

Our mind is absolutely amazing. It can take “what is” and twist it in ways that make life seem unbearable. To a soul, trapped by such imaginings, the escape presumably offered through death can become attractive.

Consider the words of the wise LDS minister, David O. Mckay: “The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul.”

It always touches me, very deeply, when I hear of someone who took their own life. Common sense cannot explain how much this saddens me. It always feels like I have lost a piece of myself, which based on my Truth, I suppose I have.

I do not recall ever noticing country celebrity, Mindy McCready prior to the recent news of her apparent suicide, nor was I aware of the brilliant Aaron Swartz prior to the news of his death; however both incidents created such pain in me it could be labeled as irrational.

Life is so very precious to me. I spend most of my time intoxicated by the beauty which is everywhere-present, and yet, I can also lose my-self, sometimes for days at a time, in the insane projection of a mind running, unchecked, in the dark forest of duality.  I can empathize with the pain that appears so real. I also see the catastrophe that is created when a mind is bent on self-destruction.

Sometimes the only way to weather the inevitable trials of being human is to simply surrender. Letting go and saying to life, “Come what may!” is often the wisest path back into the Light.

I am not exactly sure why my soul has insisted on creating this writing. I feel kind of like Elton John saddened by the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe, though he “never knew her at all.” As odd as it seems I think someone needed to hear these words. Then again, perhaps I have sweated over this piece just so I could promise you and remind myself of this TRUTH: “What is REAL is Love and only Love. Everything else is a lie.”

Life is Love.

We are Love.

All that is REAL

Is LOVE.

This TRUTH

And this TRUTH alone

Is the unchanging reality

To which we must cling

When life becomes stormy.

IT is the LIGHT,

Which provides us passage

Through the darkness

Of menacing imaginings.