what a start

Here I am talking about getting back to writing, and I start with someone else's words.  Hmph.

However, in said defense, sometimes people just say it better than you can...

(from Eat, Pray, Love...if you haven't read it, you should, or a hundred times like me :)

"What a large number of factors constitute a single human being!  How vary many layers we operate on, and how very many influences we receive from our minds, our bodies, our histories, our families, our cities, our souls...I came to feel that my depression was probably some ever-shifting assortment of all those factors, and probably also included some stuff I couldn't name or claim. 

So I faced the fight at every level.

I bought all those embarrassingly titled self-help books...I commenced to getting profession help with a therapist who was as kind as he was insightful.  I prayed like a novice nun...I drank enough of that damn St. John Wart's tea to cheer up a whole Russian gulag, to no noticeable effect.  I exercised.  I exposed myself to the uplifting arts and carefully protected myself from sad movies, books and songs.

until finally...I sat down in the middle of the road like that, and said "I cannot walk one step further, someone has to help me."

elizabeth gilbert




p.s. does it ever go away?