The Author's Corner: Slippin'

The thought of falling down in life comes in so many ways. There are things that happen in life which stops us dead in our tracks. When these times happen, they change our life in many ways. It could be one of many things from being let go from a job which could cause you to fall into a depression. Sometimes it is a death in the family or even a diagnosis of a life shattering illness.

For what it is worth, at these times we are tested to see how much faith we have in ourselves to rise above the issue. No one’s life is any easier that someone else’s because we live different lives. We may say that so and so has a better life than us because we compare ourselves to them, however we do not know what is happening in their lives.

In what slippin’ is that life will try to knock you down. Nothing hits as hard as life and the question is, ‘Are you going to get back up?’ That is what separates everyone from each other. Some will get up only to be knocked down again, which will break most people, yet others will always stand back up to take the next hit. These two choices are what we are faced with.

When I was brought down by schizophrenia, for the first five years I was giving up on life. I was running away from dealing with it and in all ways, I was ready to die. In February of 2010, I was driving to work and felt like ending my life. At that moment I saw that I had fully given up and I was tired of fighting. I would be admitted to hospital that day and would spend a month in the mental health ward of that hospital.

What would come to change my life was a tour of the main mental hospital that my nurse took me on. On that day she came to my room and told me to get my coat and boots because she wanted to take me out of the hospital for a coffee. We got our coffee and then she drove me to Sask Hospital where the worse cases of mental health conditions are kept behind locked doors. She gave me a wake-up call by showing me where I could end up if I did not change my path. That was in the first few days after I was admitted to hospital.

I have gone through many hardships in my life. However, my life story is no better or worse than yours as we have our own problems. In what we know is to be our future is unknown because it has not happened yet. The fact is you woke up today and it is a blessing that has happened.

It took great strength to move forward for me, and I know that you can do the same. Do not be afraid to stand back up and continuing you path forward. It comes down to you, are you going to take the pen to your life and move forward or are you going to give up?

Stay safe.