Light 2 Dark Art studio

The artwork of Lisa Brandel.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQtFEYvTLtY)

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People think old wisdom has little to offer us, but personally, I listen to old wisdom more than most.  It stands the test of time, and whether you are chiseling messages on rocks or text chatting on your phone some things about human nature just do not/have not changed.  The tools we use now may be different, but the people behind them are the same. Socrates said this quote ages ago.  Don't fight the old but focus/build on the new.  I see it, and I hope you do too.  That is a powerful, powerful, thought on changing not only yourself but the world.  It is healing.  It is an old wisdom and yet 2000 years later it's a lesson few have learned.  I guess it's because it's not how we think.  We think in order to make new we've first got to bash the heck out of what we believe stands in the way.  You see it all the time in both religious and political debates, that is where it is most obvious, but it happens internally as well.  We beat ourselves to death with how things used to be.  Old ideas of security and perceptions that loss, depression, anxiety, and that sort of thing crumble around us yet we are there bashing them around, haggling over them...it's insane because there standing in the rubble we think we are building new lives, and new thinking.  We aren't though.  We are, as the old saying goes, beating the dead horse.  The truth is and this goes for everything we face: You cannot beat old ideas into submission.  You just can't.  Why? Because the focus becomes about those things and not about the new things that can and will make a difference in your life.  Oft times the more you beat them the harder people (you) cling to them.  People don't like to feel "wrong".  The louder you scream "IDIOT" at yourself or someone else the more they(you) will feel the need to defend how correct the position is-to the point of insane measures to try to make it true. Bashing what you hate only gives it more energy, more focus, and more control. If you want to change, if you want to change the world, if you want to heal, you are going to have to pull focus from the bashing and put that angry energy into living your truth.  I'll grant it is a far less sexy or dramatic thing to do, but we aren't trying to live an Oscar award winning life-we are trying to make the best life we can and live in peace with ourselves, finding some measure of happiness along the way.  You can't hate other people into change or love.  You can't hate yourself into peace and contentment.  You can't berate yourself or others into wisdom.  Looking at it on paper surely you see how silly that is?  So, let's focus not on all that rubbish, but let's pull focus to where the real magic of healing happens.  Live your truth.  Focus on things that edify you.  Promote what you love.  Amazing things happen when you do.  You lose the need to be "right".  You lack the desire to fight everyone and everything because you are too busy focusing on making things better.  The things other people cling to in fear you let go of in love.  Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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You don't know how many times I've chanted this very thing in my head. This quote and HOPE=Hold on pain ends.  It does you know.  The pang of absence is there but the pain does end.  The truth is, nothing lasts for ever on this earth.  And when we are happy that is a sad truth because that joyous moment won't last, but it will leave you with a memory that when called upon can warm your heart through dismal times.  When you are in pain, any kind, and you believe that will last this truth becomes all the more important.  It won't and can't last forever.  Hold on pain ends.  Hope finds away.  And as I am fond of saying: the only thing you need to have hope is to believe that hope is possible.  Hope. Like love, it is a four letter word with an infinite amount of potential pinned to it's one syllable. It is the word that has started revolutions, founded countries, started the marriage you now may mourn, encouraged you to have a child or children, it's started businesses, friendships, careers, started sobriety,turned lives around...in fact it is that grain of a word that has done just about everything.  Hope.  Without it nothing gets started. To have it is a simple matter...Believe that it is possible.  Get up everyday with the hope that this day will be better than the last. There is no "magic" to it really.  It is the focus which makes you look for real ways to make it happen.  Where you mind looks is where you will go...why not go to hope?  Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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Patience is the perfect gift to yourself and to others. It's not easy though.  We want what we want and we want it often times NOW, or better yet...YESTERDAY.  What is worse is when we want /something/ but we don't know what that something is but we know we want it quicker than quick too.  I don't know what I want or need but I want it now as fast as you can make it happen.  That is where patience really needs to come to play.  Patience for healing.  Patience with yourself first, and if you can do that then patience normally flows out to those around you as well.  Patience isn't about just waiting.  It is about the attitudes we have while we wait.  It's not giving in to the niggling little jerks in our minds that whisper paranoid and fearful things into our ear.  I'm not saying we need to throw a party and smile like fools when we are stuck in a place of patience.  I am saying that we need to realize and acknowledge that we can't always believe everything we think when we are in those between moments where things are not well with us. We think life isn't ever going to get better, that is what we tell ourselves at times in those moments that require our more gentle nature of patience.  Things aren't happening the way I want them so I am going to explode life in frustration, we do and act as such when if we only waited, kept the faith, and kept doing our thing in whatever small ways we could. Patience.  There is a reason why it's considered a virtue, and there is a reason why it's best mixed with wisdom when required.  Things will get better.  Perhaps, not today.  But they will.  I've been telling myself these things now for several months.  They haven't gotten better yet, not today perhaps, but they will.  Partially because I'm going to outlast it, and partially because I'm going to do what I can to make it happen.  I'm not more special or gifted than you are.  If I can you can as well.  Just some food for thought. With love, Namaste, WL

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I'm back and it's going to be a more posting schedule now.  Things aren't better in fact in some ways they are worse.  The thing is though, you can only run so far, and so fast before you realize that you can run, but you'll never be able to hide. I'm not talking about hiding from your problems.  I'm talking about hiding from yourself.  Can't do it.  You cannot be who you aren't.  Who you are will shine through whatever masks you wear.  Who you are, no matter what you are trying to be that isn't you, will always win out.  That's not always the most comforting of things is it?  When you are dealing with loss, depression, grief, anxiety...x the unknown thing sometimes we get this wild hair that we are going to change so much about ourselves that we simply stop the hurt.  Who among you has not said..."I hurt therefore I refuse to love or care anymore."  You say it with conviction too because you think that becoming that person will protect you from the "next time".  The twisted irony of things is that the simple act of trying to be someone you are not hurts you far worse.  The other thing is that you may well start off with the intention of doing just that, but find it completely impossible to do.  Why? Because you can wear a mask for a while, but eventually the mask fades.  At the end we cannot be who we are not, at least not for long.  So, why try?  Why not be authentic to who you are and learn to deal with life and it's storms the way only you can and would.  No, it's not easy.  It means we have to face up to the fact that things, people, events, will hurt from time to time.  I've said for ages now that I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.  That begins with me and my own perceptions of self.  I cannot run from who I am. I can't pretend to be other than who I am.  None of us can for long.  It's a healing step here.  It takes a lot of moxy to stand firm with yourself.  The bravery there is to be scared and be you anyway.  It is who we claim ourselves that defines how we heal from anything, at least, it has been for me.  Let your light shine. Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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I believe in loving people.  Completely and totally believe it, and I hope my daily life reflects that on one level or another every single day.  It's healing to do so.  It has made my grief and pain lesser.  The outward expression of an inward state of being, loving others no matter where they are in the journey of their life. How does one possibly begin that? It's rather simple, but for some it seems impossible. You love yourself first. The first person you hate.  The first person you are angry at.  The first person you judge harshly.  Those are the same person usually, and that person is you.  If you wonder how this connects with grief and depression (and all the other things I write about here)  let me say it just does. Because all the question begin and end the same way: because love.  If you are going to claw your way out of the abyss of grief the reason you will do so is because of love.  If you are going to get up today and give this day your best shot; it's not going to be because you /have/ to (not really) it will be because you love your life just enough not to want to lose it.  You may be holding on to the ledge of life by your fingertips out, but it's not fear that keeps you from lifting that pinky to let it all fall.  It is not fear.  It is love and it is hope that somehow, some impossible way, things will be better today than they were yesterday.  So, if you are feeling that way today, let's start from the beginning shall we?  Today don't look at the wrongs of the world. Don't look at how imperfect you are.  Don't see the extra pounds. Don't see the zero in your account.  Look at yourself and give yourself the best thing you can, a little love will take you miles down the road to the healing you need.  Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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There is always a way.  It's something I tell myself daily.  It prevents me from quitting when quitting not only seems like the easy thing but the safe thing to do.  Ask yourself what you want.  Then listen to yourself.  If you list the excuses you can't then you don't want what you are claiming, not really.  Excuses are the drug we live on to makes us comfortable not doing the things we dream of doing.  Excuses are an opiate that we numb our dreams down to a safe level.  I can't of course, because________.  Don't fib.  You know it's true.  They are handy reasons why we don't need to risk, because risk is scary.  Dealing with loss has taught me that very plainly speaking there IS always a way.  The path may not be apparent to us right away, but we'll never find it from the comfort of our couches.  The journey we take may hold risks of being hurt, but there are particles of risk in everything we do, including doing nothing.  So the next time you ask yourself how you plan to do what you dream and you begin seeing the reasons why it can't happen.  Write them down and burn them.  Then make a better list.  Make a list starting with the smallest of steps it will take to get to where you want to go.  Healing changes don't happen in broad measures, one big swatch of one huge action.  No, those things happen like all the best things do: One small step at a time.  No excuses.  Love yourself enough to get rid of that thinking.  There is always a way. With love, Namaste, WL

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I'm not sure a lot of this is going to make sense to you today. It has been simmering in my mind for some time.  I'm going write about it now after years of the silent tumbling in my head, because it just feels right to do.  So many of us feel like victims these days.  I think many of us are in bondage to those things, and that impedes our healing.  It stops us from becoming.  Our full potential is never met.  Our victory is stolen.  So, here it is, and I promise it's probably only a half thought but I'm not here to tell you everything, just make you think (like I do all the time) to find your own solutions.  Do you know why people fear visiting someone who is terminally ill?  Besides the fact that it reminds them of their own mortality, there is the fact that all the masks we wear through life leave us in the end.  There is nothing like counting your life on the second hand rather than a calendar to strip away the rubbish.  If we are being honest, that probably scares us the most, being faced with that truth.  The person we've seen one way all of our lives or for some given point of time, is sudden to us like a raw exposed nerve.  There is a lot there.  Lots of amazing things.  The person you believed the work-a-holic is suddenly stripped of that facade and you discover that his/her family meant more than anything to them.  Perhaps, they too only just realized that as well.  Sometimes, there is a revelation that the person believed themselves a victim all their life.  I'm using that "end life" moment to strip it bare for you right now.  This writing isn't about end life, it's making life before you get there so when you do, when your mask fades, what will be seen is that most amazing thing of peace and contentment.  That you lived exactly who you were, claimed all the power you truly had, and no matter your circumstances you were the victor not the victim.  If swear words offend you, I'm sorry right now, but this is the simplest way to describe what I am saying: SHIT HAPPENS.  Yes, it does.  If you've lived longer than a year here it's happened to you.  People break our hearts, they act in such a way that is harmful (first really to themselves and then because of that they end up harming other-important point please keep it in mind).  Husbands and wives cheat.  Children lie and sneak.  Companies dehumanize.  People attack.  There is injustice.  All things external to us, and of course, not an all inclusive list.  People get really creative about living to their lowest degree.  The thing is, all that they say and do, it's no reflection on us.  Not really.  It is a reflection on them.  <--Also an important point to keep in mind.  They do these things and that is the event, but long after the event is done and over much of the time we carry that stone they laid on our chest for miles and miles more.  So their event then becomes our life style.  We allow it to inform our every moment, and we give over our power and control to them long after we should. The funny thing is, that among all the religious factions I know fairly well there is a common thread about this...Call it letting go, call it forgiveness, all it what you will it's there.  Now, whether you believe in something or you don't that kind of commonality can't be a coincidence can it?  I mean there is something to that.  Logic and statistics even support those kind of odds. I talk to people all the time from all walks of life who tell me they can't forgive.  I never try to talk them out of that.  But it always makes me wonder why on earth someone would want to keep such pain clenched so tightly in their fist.  I can hate someone with all my heart and it's only my rage-stroke I'm buying, not theirs.  It's only my future and actions I'm compromising.  It's no different when I'm the one in need of some forgiveness, when it's my own doing that caused the event.  Anyway, this post is becoming a book.  The food for thought is there.  I didn't promise a whole thought, just a half one.  There it is.  If you are wondering what inspired this, it's because I've been hanging around with people who have terminal diseases of the mind.  It frightens me to think that the hidden life of things evil in our minds can take root so deeply that when the truth is finally exposed we've not only ruined our life but also our dying days. In the end, our masks fade and we are who and what we've thought and done all of our lives. Time to claim our victory. With love, Namaste, WL

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Not a lot to say today.  Grammy turns 91 today, and that kind of amazes me.  For 91 she is in excellent health really, bad knees and can't walk from a break last summer-caused by the fact that while the body is like a mule the mind is a seed in the wind.  She is a contentious old bat, and I love her.  I can tell you that right now I'm learning that this kind of thing (the mind going) is much harder on the people around you them than the people with the actual issue.  It struck me then about the changes in people as they leave this life, either the slow way (more pronounced) or the faster way (never an easy way for those left). All the challenges that come from dealing with the things related to loss and changes.  It strikes me that very often you don't know if it's killing you or making you stronger as you are in the moment. Let me give you a spoiler on this. No matter what the journey.  No matter what the change.  No matter what the pain.  It can make you stronger for having lived it. Because Love. Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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Who am I?  Probably one of the most asked questions with the most desired answered ever.  Who. Am. I?  A recovering addict asks this: Who am I without the drug in my life? A widow(er) asks this: Who am I without my other half? The depressed ask: Who am I and why do I matter? The Anxious ask: Who am I and why is does this control me? You can fill in your own.  Because it strikes us all in all kinds of ways.  Who am I now that _____ happened.  Who am I with or with out cancer in my life.  Who am I?  We search in the wrong places for someone to tell us who we are.  Someone to show us who we are.  We seek the answers externally.  I am this, because other people see me as this.  The problem with that definition is that it's rarely fully us.  People, even our closest people, can only see so much.  They can only see us with their eyes, which are always colored by their own experiences.  They perceive us, judge, and measure us by their own measuring stick.  That's ok, because that's what we all do, it's how we think as humans.  Few of us can entertain an idea that we haven't been exposed to.  So, who are you?  Why is the question so painful?  It's painful because we ARE looking in the wrong places and in doing so find disappointment.  We search, seek, find, and it's found wanting. I ask again...who are you? The only answer to that is for you to define it yourself, and then act on it.  Do what you need to do to become who you want to be.  No limiting yourself by letting other people define that for you.  No.  Who you are is what you do.  Who you are is what stirs you.  Who you are is what you dedicate yourself to.  It is the things you do everyday.  It is the things that set fire to your heart.  It is the things that you cannot live without doing.  I just told you who you are.  That should feel good.  If it doesn't...time to change your habits. Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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Ask any cancer patient who just heard, "You are so brave." spoken to them for the 100th time and you'll hear the same thing, "What do they think? That I have some kind of choice."  Ask any widow who hears, "You are so strong, I couldn't do what you are doing."  and you'll hear the same thing that the cancer patient said.  It's universal.  It really doesn't matter what it is...facing loss of any kind, change, hardship...From the outside looking in the bravery astounds us, while at the same time from the inside looking out, we have little choice but to keep going whether we are trembling inside or not.  Sometimes this gives birth to the strangest of things.  People forget, or because you kept yourself seeming so brave they assumed you weren't, that within you is a war raging.  The internal conflict of whatever burns your soul is being fought on the fields of your heart, and that my friends is when you feel alone.  It's not easy to let people in.  It's not easy to show people the pain you carry.  It's not easy to tell people you are afraid.  Because as much as it annoys you to hear how brave you are somewhere in your heart you cling to that as a hope for it being true. And THAT is what bravery really is.  It is the HOPE that you carry with you all the time that you can and will keep going.  No matter how much chemo they put into your viens.  No matter what the loss is.  No matter...NO MATTER WHAT. So, let them tell you are brave.  Tell them that you hurt and tell them how they couldn't imagine doing what you are doing, facing what you face.  Let them forget that inside you are a tornado of emotion.  Because in the end, it isn't what they say to you that really helps you.  It's that they show you a side of yourself you forgot really lives.  Hope. The coolest thing ever about hope is that in order to have it you only need believe it is possible. Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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Perceptions.  I love them.  I love challenging them. A LOT of the time we think we have things figured out (even me) but if we really look...REALLY LOOK...we find that our perceptions forget to look for the full story. You see, this is something I have come to embrace as I have lost, mourned, been depressed, anguished through deaths, suicide, and cancer.   There is something I have come to embrace and understand, and this something I am going to offer you now in hopes that it aids you as you heal.   For every story out there that ends in tears there were 100 that ended in joy.   For every story of murder on the news there were thousands that ended with people being in the right place at the right time to have a good long life.   For every Vet that took his own life because of the pain, there are thousands who are getting the help they need to heal. For every cancer patient who dies there are thousands who got the news that they will live. For every love lost there is a love found.  For every misfortune there are 100 people getting that blessing they need to keep going. You see, we aren't trained to look at things this way.  Our advertising is even set up in such a way that it makes us forget this.  Adverts and the news seem to be set up to make us feel horrible about ourselves and the world around us. Look at this murder.  Look at these people being taken advantage of. You are too fat. Too old. Buy our stuff and you may become a better person.   It's all rubbish.  ALL OF IT. Yes, I know it's hard to see.  It is easy when your own world explodes to embrace this chaos.  How about we embrace the truth?   The truth is you don't need their products to be a better person.  You need to love yourself without conditions.  The truth is that while bad things happen to us all from time to time, the world isn't made up of nothing but bad things.  The truth is that while there are people harming others there are more people out there who have dedicated their lives to making the world a nicer place to be.   It's time to open your eyes and see, really see.  It will heal you, because where we look and where our minds linger is exactly where we will grow. It isn't easy, but it is worth it... Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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I rarely write just about death.  In fact, almost never.  My writings lean toward life and all that it takes to reclaim, heal, embrace, and achieve.  If I am remembered, and it is for being a death writer I'm going to be very cross indeed...but today, I am going to talk about death.  I told you all yesterday that my sister-in-law's funeral set me back on my bum.  Let me share with you why. I know I can't be the only one, and perhaps there is something here that one or many of you might be able to embrace as "yeah, me too."  No funeral is easy.  After successive rapid losses though you might expect to get "better" at them.  That doesn't happen.  If you are like me they only get worse.  That is because the ghost of your memory of every one you've attended come crawling out of the grave of your mind.  You see connections that may or may not really be there.  You see people that you might not see any time except when an event like this occurs.  And then there is the depth of love that is suddenly apparent because of the absence of the one you mourn.  None of that is a cheery thought for today.  I'm sorry.  I really wanted to paint the picture of where the heart goes.  For me it was like walking back in time to chapters of my life now long gone.  A family that is both mine, and not mine anymore, and when one of the elderly aunts needed a re-introduction I found myself saying, "I'm Rod's wife."  Of course, I'm not, I'm his widow, but it was a spectacular point in time where it found me again in the past.  It was as if no time had gone at all, just for that moment.  Then, sitting in the back row, where ironically another of the living widows of the family joined me, the service unfolded.  As I glanced at her at various points in the proceedings it was strange to me but we reacted much the same at the same points.   There were ghosts everywhere for both of us.  In the flowers chosen on the alter.  The eyes of the living family that through genetics you can see the image of your husband.  The prayers said, the verses used...all of it.  As horrible as it all sounds, and as many tears as you shed, one thing is completely apparent if it needs to be so... You look out over the people there and then not, and you stand at this giant chasm filled with the love you have had for those lost and those remaining.  Because in the end, that is what the ceremony is about, finding the depth. Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

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So, I went to my sister-in-laws memorial this Saturday and I'm not going to lie to you...it set me on my bum.  I'm telling you that for several reasons, not the least of which is I never EVER want you all to think I'm super-human. I'm so not.  If I do have a super power it's that I embrace my weakness and it gives me no shame.  The memorial was hard, and over my next couple posts I will talk about that with you because it gave me yet another perspective on life and death.  (Did I need another perspective? Apparently.) The Pastor who officiated the service lead is my husband's family's Pastor.  When my husband died he did a few prayers in the service I had constructed. He told a parable during the service that I'm going to rift on now for you here because it was the absolute picture of life and loss to me.  The parable reads that a farmer's enemy came and sewed seeds of weeds in his field.  When it was brought to his attention he didn't have the weeds pulled because he didn't want the loss of the crops.  He instructed that at the end of the season, the weeds be pulled and burned, and then the crops harvested.  Now, I know a lot of people find it hard to think in parables, but I suppose because that is the only way my father ever taught me I'm a bit adept.  I actually got a lot out of this one.  I'm going to share one of the things I saw now. The field is life, and whether we have an enemy sewing seeds in our head, or it is just life that happens; right along side of the wonderful things that happen quiet often we are dealing with struggles (weeds).  Many times, you really cannot have one without the other.  In my case, I had a husband that I love greatly, but he also had cancer.  I could have avoided the cancer by avoiding him, but then I look at the bounty of life I have had because of him.  And after he was gone, the memories of that life and all that he has inspired me to do since mattered more than the cancer ever did.  So, when the harvest was complete the weeds were taken away and burned and all that was left were those things that nourished my soul. Like the farmer in the parable it was a choice to accept that the weeds were there, and grow the field anyway.  It was hard work to separate the weeds from the harvest, but in the end there was bounty.  And that my friends is your food for thought today...If you take away the "weeds" of your life it changes everything.  It removes possibly some of the best parts of you.  With love, Namaste, WL

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I have a lot to say today, and I think it is important... There is a war going on inside you. If you are struggling there is a big war and it doesn't matter what label the struggle has, it is the same war.  It is the fight between what is and what you want.  <---read that line again it's important.  I woke up with that revelation this morning.  It's not a small one either it was like being in a dark room and then suddenly flood lights illuminated the whole room.  Part of the pain of every struggle we have is the war between what is and what we want.  Why is that so important you ask? I'm glad you did...because with that revelation came some understanding on that matter. Accepting what is is the keystone to peace. If we have a diagnosis of something that is quite often painful enough without our added desire/fight of being outraged that it exists.  A break-up made is made worse by the screaming we do inside ourselves about how we thought things should be and how things really are.  A death and the grief and pain from the absence of those now gone is multiplied by our continued fascination with how things should be, could have been, and the future we thought was assured.  I won't micro-manage this by listing all the possibles here. You know what I mean I know you do.  I have an anxiety and depression diagnosis, have for a long time now...it was always worse when I allowed myself to rail against what was.  Now that I don't, the problem itself is far less.  That last couple sentences is where some of the healing takes place.  The longer we allow ourselves to dwell in what we think life should be (that often comes with crippling comparisons about how we perceive others have it better) the more the war rages and the less peace of mind we have.  The longer we rail against what is the more we try to change the things we cannot, and in doing that our hearts stagnate.  It stalls our healing and worse still can cause us to do thing, act in way, that actually worsens our already terrible situations.  Accepting what is, is not the act of giving up the fight.  You see, there are things we can change and we should.  There are things we cannot change and those things we accept.  That is not to say that in the accepting there is nothing to do.  There are always things we can do to make what is better.  Do you see what I mean?  The energy expended railing against what is, and demanding the thing change that cannot steals from us the ability to see and act on what is around us that can be changed.  What is, is, but there are only a million things surrounding that "is" that we CAN work on to make that thing a bit better.  So accepting is not laying down and taking it, accepting is the first productive swing of your fist toward making it better.  Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

[light2darkartstudio]

True confessions from the Widow Lady: I've been afraid (profoundly so) almost everyday since my husband and father died.  No, I'm not the sort of lady who thinks she needs a man in her life, but with them in my life I felt so much safer. It was as if I knew no matter what, no matter how dire that I could run into their arms for a hug and it would all be ok.  Last night I was on the phone with a well known artist talking about (what else?) art.  He said, "Your husband was the key that opened your heart to art and let the miracle happen."  It's true and so much more. Because my life with him and his death opened my heart not just to art, but to the concept that no matter how scared I was I should still do the thing that frightened me. I also said during the course of the conversation, "Love is the question and the answer."  I think back again to fear.  I was afraid to marry my husband.  Not just because he had cancer, but because I feared myself.  I feared that making this profound commitment I wouldn't be able to follow through.  I wouldn't be able to be a wife, let alone a caregiver at some point.  I married him anyway and ohhhhh boy was it worth it.   Because Love.  Back to the original thought, the first paragraph and another side story.  I reconnected with an old friend who knew me during the time when my husband was in chemo.  I told him what all I had done since my family died.  He said, "How did you become so amazing?" I replied, "I gave up fear."  The truth is fear is present. The trick is doing it anyway. Ignore the fear and just jump.  Because Love.  Life, healing, peace, contentment, all those things we want aren't on the other side of fear they are found on the way as you do those things you fear to do.  What is holding you back?  Many of you who come here have had your rock bottom, you've lost in ways you can't articulate, you have faced the worst and you are STILL HERE.  So really, what can stop you now? Just some food for thought... With love, Namaste, WL

[light2darkartstudio]

Don't ever hesitate. Reblog this. TUMBLR RULE. When you see it, REBLOG IT.

The original post only has US helplines. I've added UK helplines underneath. It would be great if people could add numbers from everywhere in the world.

Depression Hotline: [phone]

Suicide Hotline: [phone]

LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743

Eating Disorders Hotline: [phone]

Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673

Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272

Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253

Child Abuse: 1-800-422-4453

UK Helplines:

Samaritans (for any problem): 08457909090 e-mail [email protected]

Childline (for anyone under 18 with any problem): 08001111

Mind infoline (mental health information): 0300 123 3393 e-mail: [email protected]

Mind legal advice (for people who need mental-health related legal advice): 0300 466 6463 [email protected]

b-eat eating disorder support: 0845 634 14 14 (only open Mon-Fri 10.30am-8.30pm and Saturday 1pm-4.30pm) e-mail: [email protected]

b-eat youthline (for under 25's with eating disorders): 08456347650 (open Mon-Fri 4.30pm - 8.30pm, Saturday 1pm-4.30pm)

Cruse Bereavement Care: 08444779400 e-mail: [email protected]

Frank (information and advice on drugs): 0800776600

Drinkline: 0800 9178282

Rape Crisis England & Wales: 0808 802 9999 1(open 2 - 2.30pm 7 - 9.30pm) e-mail [email protected]

Rape Crisis Scotland: 08088 01 03 02 every day, 6pm to midnight

India Self Harm Hotline: [phone]

India Suicide Helpline: 022-27546669

Kids Help Phone (Canada): 1-800-668-6868, Free and available 24/7