So, I guess today (I started writing this on September 10th...) is World Suicide Prevention Day.... Taking that into consideration, I’m going to share something I wrote last week (and give a bit of an explanation afterwards- just in case you’re in a reading mood) while I had taken some time away to try to reset after an emotional rollercoaster of a Summer. Anyways, in hopes that this could encourage even one person (or encourage a more encouraging way for us to see and speak with and about one another) here is something I wrote ... titled:  “Fire Across the Wall”

“Fire Across the Wall”
We can’t see what’s on the other side
When there’s a wall standing before our mind’s eye
You’re on your side
And I’m on mine

How can we see the other
If we don’t take the time
I think my side is so different than yours
And you think yours is so different than mine

But I’ll never know for sure what you see
If I’m not willing to cross some lines
I’ll never know what you see
If I don’t consult your eyes

I may think I know your story
I’ve read or heard about you on the news
But you tell me that’s not what’s really happening
Why don’t I take your word as truth?

Maybe I should cross the line
Maybe I should take the time
Listen to your story, I’ll listen to your story
And maybe you’ll listen to mine

Can we turn off the news?
Put down our screens?
Pick up a phone, take a drive or a walk
And talk person to person about these things

Person to person
Not pundit to pundit
Not left side or right side
Or who’s lost or won it

There’s no winners or losers
I’m not looking for victory in a fight
At least not against you
I’m working against hurt and hate in this life

Cause I think we’re all hurting
No matter where the lines fall
So can we stop all of these attacks
As we shoot with eyes in blindfolds

Its not about who said what first
Or who hit the hardest
Or who behaved worst
How’d this even get started?

If I see you crying
Or see that you hurt
I should hold out my hand
That might have been throwing hate’s dirt

I should ask you to tell me
Whats making you sad
I should listen really close
Try to understand the day that you’ve had

I don’t have to get it
I don’t have to agree
But if I don’t care that you’re hurting
There’s something heart-wrong with me

Person to person
We all bleed red
And when anyone’s bleeding
Some tears should be shed

Tears on my side of the wall
And your side, too
Maybe if we cry enough
Some of this wall will melt through

We will see more of the human
On the other side
feel more connected,
Less divide

'Cause the division on the outside
Has made its way in
And my heart is all broken
Desperate to mend

So I will be the first
To cross the line
Tell me what you see on your side of the wall
And if you’d like, I’ll tell you about mine

'Cause if I don’t ask you
And you don’t ask me
We’re only guessing about
What the other sees

And the walls may get bigger
Built on fiction, not fact
We’ll become more separated
We’ll fear the other’s attack

And sometimes a heart
that feels under heart attack
finds itself flailing and wailing
Knocked down on its back

And that heart may feel dead
And the soul may feel numb
To all the other hearts
In this world we call home

The one numb to love
Now only awake to hurt
And if that love-numb soul gets a gun
We’ll soon be digging in the dirt

Digging graves...
from the heart attacks
And the boxes going in
won’t be coming back
And the boxes going in
won’t becoming back

So, can we hold our fire please
Aimed at the other side of the wall
Cause whether or not we’d ever hold the gun
The fire hurts us all (it keeps disconnecting us with these box walls)

And I’m so done with dirt boxes

Let’s
break
down
these
walls

Can we hold our fire please
Hold your fire please
Can we hold our fire please
We're all getting burned
—-
(End of poem)
Now a bit more of explanation ... I had headed to the mountains for a few days to try to reset. This Summer was difficult for so many reasons/ on so many levels (from national tragedies to very personal challenges) I thought I needed to take some time and process it all a bit- hash it out with God... step away from the noise to really deal with some of what I heard and saw. I have been depressed before, and I could tell I was heading down that path... so before I got too far, I thought I needed to interrupt the path—- so off to the mountains I went- And much thanks to my husband, Jim Folk, for making the time away possible. The events in the world, the events in my life and how we were talking about each other - each human other- were breaking my heart..I wanted to reset a bit to be healthier for my family and whatever I am here to do... I had some pieces to put back together, and also to seek God in helping my piece things back together...

If you are in a rough spot, feel like you are going down a dangerous or hopeless path, please reach out to someone f
#love #loveallpeople

or help. Please take a step to interrupt the path- if you don’t feel comfortable talking to someone you know about where you are at, you can call the suicide prevention hotline number which is 1-800-273-8255. Don’t try to figure it out on your own. You are loved. You are valuable.