Behind the Eyes
Behind the Eyes –
I saw a picture of me from several years ago today. As most people, I don’t care for my photo to be taken but when it is I “grin and bear it.” Looking at the picture today the smile was there but it wasn’t genuine. There was also something missing in the eyes. There was no light behind them. They were hollow and sad. I was surrounded by friends in the photo, good friends. It should’ve been a time of stories, thankfulness, and memories but I can tell in my eyes it wasn’t any of those for me, only a blank stare and pasted smile. This was about a year before I was diagnosed with a Chronic Major Depressive Disorder.
The journey over these last years has been a hard one and there is still far to go but looking back I can see where I’ve come from and this does bring me relief. I’m not stuck in the same place even though sometimes it feels that way.
I’ve been watching a documentary titled; “The Kingdom of Us.” (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/08/the-kingdom-of-us-review-netflix-teenagers-lucy-cohen) It is the story of a family recovering from their father’s suicide. They listen to recordings of his voice, often in song, and watch videos of him and the family. They ask each other repeatedly, “Look at him! He’s so sad. Why didn’t we see it?” I know the answer; “because he didn’t want it to be seen.” We’ve all been there and done that; plastered on a smile when our hearts are breaking inside. We’ve pushed on even though everything feels broken inside.
Too often we take people’s word when we ask; “How are you?” and they reply; “Fine’ or ‘Good.” The key to discovering the truth is asking more than once and keep at it until they feel you might actually want to know.
blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com
Share w/ Someone...
Posted on February 22, 2018, in Mindfulness and tagged #actually, #ago, #answer, #ask, #asking, #behind, #blank, #blessings, #breaking, #broken, #chronic, #comefrom, #depression, #depressive, #diagnosed, #disorder, #documentary, #eyes, #far, #fathers, #feel, #feels, #Fine, #friends, #genuine, #Good. #discovering, #goodfriends, #grinandbear, #hard, #hearts, #hollow, #inside, #journey, #keep, #light, #look, #looking, #lookingback, #major, #memories, #might, #missing, #most, #pasted, #pastedsmile, #picture, #plastered, #pushed, #recordings, #recovering, #relief, #repeatedly, #reply, #sad, #sameplace, #see, #seen, #several, #smile, #song, #stare, #story, #stuck, #surrounded, #taken, #thankfulness, #TheKingdomofUs, #time, #titled, #today, #Toooften, #voice, #watch, #watching, #Whydidntweseeit, #years, Family, Listen, People, Photo, Stories, suicide, Truth, Videos. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
Essentialist 
Leave a comment
Comments 0