Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Disciplines

The daily disciplines I must do in order to get out of depression and to be ready for a new life.

Liturgical prayer: Shema, Lord's Prayer, Hymn of praises to our God

Time of silence, start with 5 minutes

Prayer for enemies, prayer for needy

Read a book for at least 15 minutes

Write a blog post (whatever length)

Study the gospels


Do this (except for study) before getting on other internet sites!

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

7-12-17-- Causes

Reading my post from yesterday makes it seem as if my needle had not moved in months.  I am just as depressed as before and saying the same stuff.

Not really.  For one, we moved out of the property that I worked at off and on for twenty years.  That is an important step and quite possibly essential for me to progress out of my depression.  As long as my organization was there, I still felt responsibility for what they did, and it lingered in my mind.

I feel as if I were carrying many different boulders of responsibility over the years. I have my house, my family, bills to pay, teaching and writing.  One of the biggest ones was the property and the management there, both the continuing work that needed to be done as well as the result of the decisions I made.  This week, taking the rest of our property off of the land, I can wash my hands of the whole thing and it is no longer my responsibility.  What happens there or doesn't is no longer mine.  We have paid what we needed to pay and we have fulfilled all that we said we would do.  We even met our long term policy, "Leave a location better than you came to it."  What happens to Red Barn/Sanctuary now is out of our hands.

I should feel freed, but I don't really. I have a job now which I can leave and not have to think about at home.  I am paying off the bills more consistently than I have for decades.  My family is (mostly) doing quite well.  So why don't I feel better?

A couple things.

First, losing the Red Barn is losing what I poured my life into, somewhat for twenty years, but especially the last six.  It was all-consuming, and it was the purpose of my life.  I did what I needed to for my house and family in between times of supporting that work.  It was overbearing and eventually I saw that no one could hold onto all the pieces, but still, it was my baby.  To give that up is like losing a parent, losing a spouse.  My depression makes sense because I am grieving a loss.  A loss other people can't feel or perhaps understand, but it's still there.  This is why I am going back and forth between sadness and anger, it's all a part of the grieving process.  I need to acknowledge the loss and take the chances I can to move on.

Second, I have lost a way of life.  My wife and others pointed out that I dove in too far, swam too deep in trying to help homeless folk along with many others.  I need to slow down and take care of myself.  However, I organized my life to be a helper and support to those in the greatest need.  I arranged systems so that I could overcome my deep social anxiety to connect with and support those in need.  Now I am at sea.  Without the structure and support inherent in the system I created, I don't know what to do.  The inability to have a place to help people paralyzes me.  I have a smaller system of food distribution that I am running, but the benefit of this system is seeming less important.  I don't know if this is the positive work I'd like it to be.

I feel as if the motivation and drive of my life is missing.  Animals have instinctive work they do and they accomplish it without thinking.  Humans need to have a system which they are a part of to establish motivation.  An entrepreneur like me, who loses the business that is their life, leaves a void.  What is the reason for getting up out of bed?  I'll do what I must, but beyond that, what's the point?

Pretty existential questions, but depression forces one to confront them.

If God would tell me, "do this" then I'd have my next action.  But to command "rest" is to leave me adrift and unmotivated.

I must motivate myself.  I must find something to do with my time and focus on that.  So I will focus on writing.  I have a theology of Jesus I want to write and essays about my experiences with the homeless.   For now, that will have to do.  I hope to have a more focused motivation or another system to plug myself into.  In the meantime, I need to do something.

7/11/17-- Post Service Blues

Please forgive me.

I am in dire need of a therapist, and I can't get one for now, so I am continuing to use this blog as my sessions.  There will be much whininess ahead, just as there was back before.

It's been a while since I posted.  I've been focused on my new job (cleaning offices), and a Bible study and getting my family adjusted.  Now that we are all settled into our next stage (for a year or so until we go through it again), I am feeling what I'm feeling again. And, damn, if I'm not depressed again.

Typical stuff: anger, self-pity, wanting to isolate, sadness, lack of motivation.  I've got plenty of stuff to do, but I just don't care enough to apply myself.  Occasional thoughts of suicide, but not as frequently as last year, and I have no fear that I'll be motivated to act on it. I am surprised that my wife is taking such a stand-off approach to me.  Perhaps because she doesn't really know what to say, or doesn't realize the depth of my angst.  

My main fear last year in shutting down the day shelters and all is people's suffering.  Right now, my greatest realization is how little anyone actually needs me.  There are sufficient volunteers and outlets that frankly, I could walk away and no one would notice.  I am desperate to help, because I need it to give me some joy in my life, but half the time when I offer I'm told to never mind.  They got it covered.  I'm glad that my prayers and work for many years has put up so many people wanting to do this work that I felt so lonely in.  But I now feel like I'm on the outside looking in.

I wonder if I would feel better getting a job in the field.  Work for Sisters of the Road, or something.  But I know that my demands of what is good and right would end up conflicting with whoever I would work for.  I am quite narrow-minded.  

I have two temptations: one is to just quit everything and walk from camp to camp, praying for people and listening to folks, using the resources I have to try to help them.  The other is to just walk away from it all, quit my social media and not have anything to do with any of it.  Of course I will lean toward extreme reactions.  That's my nature.

Like I said, a bunch of whining.  I can't imagine this is interesting to read.  Maybe my next list will be those who I am angry at.  That would be fascinating, I'm sure.