Today’s crochet Mandalas for Marinke contribution is a beautiful spoke mandala with bright sunshine yellow spokes that made me smile. I also really liked the wavy white round; it adds a sense of movement to the mandala. Captivating.
The note that came with the card was on beautiful handmade paper with flowers pressed into it, which made me smile because I used to make my own paper many years ago and it brought back a lot of great memories. It reads:
“Thinking of all those who love you. You are greatly missed. How we wish for you, your smiles, your shared stories, your gentle ways, your friendship! We love you. We miss you.
MJ, “The Knottingham”
Today I wanted to share the link to a powerful Washington Post story by a woman whose father died by suicide when she was a teenager and how that impacted her. She shares that she hated her father’s depression and also that because of the way she learned about depression, upon finding him hanging, she always equated it with death, which made her own journey with depression that much more difficult.
She writes in part,
“My diagnosis felt like a death sentence. My dad’s suicide left me feeling suspicious and fearful of mental illness. I saw how bad depression could get – I had lived the worst-case scenario. I didn’t want it to become my problem and I certainly didn’t know how to deal with it. Depression felt more like a family curse than a legitimate health issue that demanded treatment. Although I felt conflicted I agreed to start medication and I continued in therapy.”
Part of her byline on the article reads,
“Amy McDowell Marlow is a 20-year survivor of suicide loss and lives with depression and generalized anxiety disorder. She writes about her journey through mental illness at www.bluelightblue.com.”
Her bio on her own site reads, in part:
“i live with mental illness. i have depression and generalized anxiety disorder. i experienced ptsd as a teenager following my father’s death. i have wanted to give up but i kept going. i fell apart and now i am starting over.
i am living recovery. “
This is one of the posts made in honor of Wink, in celebration of crochet mandalas and to raise depression awareness. See all Mandalas for Marinke posts here.