Suicide Prevention Awareness Month …..
As I talked to a young woman in some seriously tough circumstances, I held her hand and saw this tattoo on her forearm……. I asked her to tell me about it it. She replied, “It’s a suicide survivor’s tattoo .” I said, “you’re a suicide survivor? When was that?” “Many times,” she said. Are you experiencing suicidal thoughts now?” “No,” was her reply. “It’s an interesting statement of overcoming, the three chevrons. It speaks of courage in battle,” I observed. “A sargeant’s rank,” she replied.
We talked further about her past, as well as her present hurdles. We talked about emotions of truly wanting to die versus feelings of simply not wanting the pain of one’s present life circumstances to continue. I shared with her some of my own feelings of the latter…..I told her something I had learned through my own experiences…… that there are three ways to die…. spiritually (feeling separated from God), psychologically (feeling separated from connection to one’s own soul), and physically ( feeling of being separated ultimately from one’s own body). She knew the feeling of all three. We shared contact information and hugged as we parted….. 2 warriors in a battle who know and love the One Who Leads us through the battles and who establishes a beach head at the gates of hell to fight for us when we no longer have the strength to stand. (9/13/2021)