Beyond Blue

When I was buried in the Black Hole of depression, nothing comforted me like the Psalms. My very religious aunt told me to read them every morning, because they were written for people fighting against despair. So I would take my bible into my walk-in closet and open the Bible to a psalm.

I was excited to see this Beliefnet gallery of psalms compiled by Ansley Roan because it includes my favorites. To get to the gallery click here. I've included the first four psalms and the introduction below....

To read more Beyond Blue, go to http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.

To subscribe to "Beyond Blue" click here.

On my post "6 Favorite Prayers," Beyond Blue reader June wrote: "Thank you so much for these!
Will there be a sequel?"

Here my sequel! 9 of my favorite scripture verses ...

Ecclesiastes 3: A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

John 14:27: Peace I Leave You

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Psalm 46:10: Be Still

Be still and know that I am God.

I've missed Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker's wise and insightful comments on Beyond Blue. I didn't realize how much I missed them until he wrote this in response to Vincent on the combox of my post, "What If You Have No Faith?"

Vincent:

I am a fellow traveler (bipolar disorder type II), so I can empathize with your suffering.

I think everyone in the Beyond Blue community was wonderfully supportive of you, but I would say Dawn Nelson today and the anonymous person on May 17 -- both of whom spoke of dropping theology in favor of spiritual truth -- gave you the best advice.

From my Catholic upbringing, some of the Protestant denominations I have attended, my girlfriend's Buddhism, and other religions, philosophies and medical discoveries I have studied, I -- in the words of 12-step -- "take what I like and leave the rest."

But this is faith, too. Indeed, the subject of the recent movie "Doubt" is one seen numerous places even in Judeo-Christian tradition (Job, 2 Corinthians 12, Ecclesiastes, even the Genesis creation narrative) -- faith is different from certainty. And one cannot truly believe unless there is the possibility of not believing, as Meryl Streep as the ultimate traditionalist nun finds to her anguish at the end of the movie.

One thing my studies and prayers (in the most general sense of that word) have taught me is that there is some purpose to human suffering -- depression, schizophrenia, cancer, natural disasters, heart disease, shootings, car accidents, Alzheimer's, diabetes, you name it -- that is just beyond our frail capacity to understand it. Perhaps we will understand after death -- perhaps not -- but for now we must (again going back to 12-step) accept the things we cannot change.

And given our own frailty that leads us sometimes (for some, often) to not even have control of our own moods -- or our own minds -- this has been of tremendous, if paradoxical, comfort to me.

I wish you the best.

To read more Beyond Blue, go to http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.

To subscribe to "Beyond Blue" click here.

I used to be afraid to write.

Because I knew I would write badly.

I couldn't commit my words to the page because I was sure I would use the wrong ones not to mention incorrect grammar and punctuation.

I forgot about how much progress I've made in this area until a friend dropped by the other day and, like an excited kid on Christmas morning, I handed him a bound galley (looks like a paperback version of a book, printed for publicity reasons before the book comes out) of my book, "Beyond Blue," because I still can't believe I actually wrote my story, something that I've always wanted to do since I was a young girl. 

My friend works in the book business and wants to write more, too, but is sure he's bad at it. Positive.

"Do you feel like you've made it past that hurdle?" he asked me, "of always questioning and doubting yourself?"

I laughed out loud.

"Ah ..... no," I responded.

"The insecurities don't disappear once you're published. They simply change. So instead of getting ding letters from publishers, you are getting royalty statements printed in red, and let me tell you, they hurt just as bad as the rejection letters."

"So how do you work around that and still produce?" he asked me.

I thought about that for awhile and then came up with these three steps.

Yet another way of silencing the inner critic and perfectionist is trying not only to cope with failure, but to ENJOY it! Gretchen Rubin explains in her blog, "Enjoy the Fun of Failure. At Least Try" that two of her happiness-project resolutions are enjoying the fun, and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. She writes:

I'm a perfectionist. I hate to be criticized. I'm defensive. I'm thin-skinned. As a result, I really, really, hate to make a mistake or to be connected with things that aren't perfect.

The problem is, failure and imperfection are quite common (maybe you've observed this yourself), and if you aren't willing to make mistakes or to accept flaws or failure, you can't achieve much.

Novelty and challenge bring happiness, but they also bring frustration, anxiety, flaws, and failure - in fact, the more challenging the undertaking, the more likely it is to fail or to be flawed.

I often feel myself shrinking away from opportunities or ideas, because I'm worried about doing a less-than-perfect job - even though I know that I'm happier when I create, when I push myself, when I try new things. That's why these two resolutions are important for me.

Enjoy the fun of failure reminds me to lighten up - to accept failure or mistakes as an important part of a process. It's okay if something fails. In fact, that's part of the fun!

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good reminds me that it's more important to do something at all than to do something perfectly. Many things worth doing are worth doing badly. Doing something badly is often a necessary stage toward doing it well.

To continue reading her post, click here.

To read more Beyond Blue, go to http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.

To subscribe to "Beyond Blue" click here.

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