Gum on My Shoe

I have lost the freedom of not having an opinion. — Umberto Eco “I absolutely looooove how opinionated this is!!!” — that’s how my friend and fellow blogger Aimee Wilson responded to one of my recent blog posts. Her reaction caught me off guard. I hadn’t thought the piece was any more expressive of my opinions than others I’ve written in the past few years. What interested me was the fact she seemed at least as excited by me airing my opinions as by the opinions themselves. She’s one of my closest friends and most ardent supporters, but I can’t remember her responding quite as energetically before. What was different this time? I was keen to explore it further. Three additional comments Aimee made helped point me in the right direction. She said I do share my opinions, “but perhaps not as often as maybe me or a lot of other people do.” This is a valid point. Aimee has her own incredibly successful mental health blog I’m NOT Disordered . In the articles she posts she’s very o...

To celebrate reaching one million pageviews (thank you!) here are our top ten most viewed posts of all time, most popular first. How to Write the Best Acknowledgement Page for Your Book The Miracle of Light: An Open Letter to My Friend Marty 2021: My Year in Photos and Blog Posts Shhhhhhh! A Friend‘s Guide to Secrets The Box on the Shelf: A Strategy for Handling Difficult Issues and Situations An Open Letter to My Bipolar Best Friend How Can I Best Help My Bipolar Friend? Get It Right When Asking for Help with Bipolar Disorder 10 Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Friend That Don‘t Involve Talking about Mental Health It‘s Not Enough / Never Enough   Photo by Gift Habeshaw at Unsplash.  

So many people from your past know a version of you that doesn’t exist anymore. — Unknown You know how people say they can meet up with someone they’ve not seen in years and it’s as though no time has passed at all? I’ve never been good at that. It’s lauded as the sign of a healthy friendship, but it doesn’t work that way for me. I’m too aware of how much my life, my interests, my understanding, and my very self change over time. There’s a social media meme that expresses this perfectly. You’ve changed. I hope so! If we’ve not been in touch through those changes — mine and yours — then we no longer know each other. The person you think of when you think of me no longer exists. We might reconnect, but unless it’s to re-establish an ongoing, more-or-less frequent connection, there’s little point. I’m not interested in sporadic news updates of what’s happened to you since we last met. I want to know who you are , not who you were. I want to share with you who I am , not who...

If I mention suicide prevention, it’s a fair bet that the first thing you think of is some sort of telephone hotline. The first call to an official suicide helpline was made in November 1953 to the Samaritans. The first US Samaritans branch was established in Boston in 1974. Helplines run by charities and other bodies around the world are a vital part of the safety net for people in crisis or thinking of suicide, as well as offering support to friends and family members. As vital as they are, hotlines are not enough. World Suicide Prevention Day reminds us of the need to raise awareness about suicide and suicidal thinking. It also challenges us to think how we can do more, individually and collectively, to help people stay safe. In this blog post, we’ll explore a range of approaches to suicide prevention. We’ll see how modern technology, community initiatives, and wider policy changes all play a role in developing more holistic strategies for saving lives. Technological approache...

In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. — J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories” Most of my blog posts are inspired by conversations but this time it was an e-mail. My friend Karl got in touch to let me know he’d achieved his black belt distinction in martial arts. One sentence in his e-mail really caught my attention. Going to the gym is my “quiet place” where, despite the blasting music, I can shut out the noise of external life and just focus on one thing. You’ll hear more from Karl because I invited him to expand on what his martial arts sessions mean to him. For now, though, I want to explore that one line. I’ve never been inside a gym and can’t imagine doing so. Nevertheless, what Karl said resonated strongly with me. The focus. The sense of being in a world of one’s own. In my case, it’s not gyms and martial arts, though. It’s coffee shops and writing. I’m there almost every Saturday...

Check out our top posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first. Shhhhhhh! A Friend’s Guide to Secrets The Box on the Shelf: A Strategy for Handling Difficult Issues and Situations It’s Not Enough / Never Enough I’m Weak and What’s Wrong With That? I’m on My Way: Thoughts Inspired by Ed Sheeran’s “Castle on the Hill” I Believe You. It wasn’t Your Fault. You Are not Alone. Being There for a Friend Who’s Survived Rape or Sexual Abuse I Hope We All Make It One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy: Encounters With the Absurd Man Why Bucket Lists Don’t Work for Me (But a Things I’ve Done List Does) Thank You Anyway: The Gift of Ingratitude Our most visited pages were: Contact Us Resources Our books About Us News and Appearances Testimonials   Photo by Nikolett Emmert at Unsplash.