Artful, Conscious Living with Bipolar Disorder
28 Jul 2019 2 Comments
in art journaling, bipolar disorder, mental health, mental illness, poetry Tags: agitation, distraction
Discomfort.
My mind is itchy, scabby, oozing where it’s scratched itself raw.
My body aches and pinches, the hollow parts filled with vinegar and steel wool.
Gravity increases.
Distraction telescopes out of reach, leaving only the rote movements.
My hands do them anyway, a prayer, a coax, a thing to do
when there is nothing to be done.
14 Mar 2019 3 Comments
in art journaling, poetry Tags: Ellen Bass
Pray for Peace
Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekhina, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.
Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.
Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.
To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.
Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.
Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.
If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.
When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else’s legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.
And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas–
With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.
Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.
Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.
—Ellen Bass
(thank you, Carol)
17 Dec 2018 7 Comments
in art journaling, blogging, cats, creativity, death, gratitude, music, video, writing Tags: electroconvulsive therapy, grief, memory loss
I love my blog. I never came here to do anything except tell my story—whatever that might mean. I never expected to find deep connections. I never expected to touch so many lives. Or to be touched by so many. The only conditions I placed on my posts were to tell the truth and to wait long enough to know what the truth might be in a given situation.
Keeping this space for almost eight years means it has also become my memory. Electroshock not only eliminated 2006 and 2007, but continues to burn holes in the process that changes short-term into long-term memory. I stopped fussing about that long ago. Being forced to live in the Now is a pretty decent way to live.
As I think about making some sort of journal/tribute for Henry, though, I mourn all the stories I’ve forgotten, all the little details, the ways he, Emmett and I became a family. So, when I sit down to write about him, I start with what I notice now. This morning I wrote about how quiet the house is without him. That thought led to another and another, stitching together fragments of memories into a surprising string of delight and appreciation.
And I come to my blog, where Henry’s stories remain clear and available. I took more pictures of the cats so I could illustrate those stories. How grateful I am to have this reliquary! Who knew how smart I was in 2011 to fiddle around with WordPress?
As Emmett and I rearrange ourselves around and within the space that was Henry, I’ll keep coming here to share our truths. Today, Emmett is soaking up the morning sun in the Alpha chair. When I came home from yoga (noticing the silence instead of Henry’s irritated greeting), and saw Emmett basking, I took pictures. This is an important moment for him, for us, for our life now.
The sun and the silence. And the Adventure Continues.
(This song by the Wailin Jennys has always felt like Henry to me—his energy, his personality—so I share him with you in a slightly different way.)
13 Aug 2018 6 Comments
in bipolar disorder, mental health, mental illness, poetry, video
≈
I awaken in sips
as I breach the cold dark,
undulating through the mind’s long slumber.
Above the surface, sound pierces
colors blind
details sharpen.
One sip
to orient
before sinking
into a darkness that must not remain home.
I angle again toward the light.
≈
08 Apr 2018 10 Comments
in art, art journaling, developing consciousness, poetry, quality of life Tags: art journaling magazine, authentic, David Whyte, moving
I waver over the line of leaving and arriving, trying to come back to today where they meet. This David Whyte poem spoke to me before I even contemplated moving and became a part of the art journal that will be published in July. I tore this spread apart three different times, trying to find my true connection to the poem and my authentic voice in it. It was one of the first spreads I created in the journal and one of the last I finished. It seems fitting—the struggle of leaving and arriving—to a place and to ourselves.
13 Mar 2018 9 Comments
in art, art journaling, bipolar disorder, mental illness, poetry
Sunrise turns the derelict house across the street
golden.
I am inside watching.
There is nothing golden here.
05 Feb 2018 13 Comments
in awareness, bipolar disorder, blogging, creativity, management, mental health, mental illness, mixed-media art, quality of life, spirituality, symptoms, writing Tags: birthday
For A Mind Divided’s seventh birthday, I thought I’d look up my very first post. Hmm…somehow this seems so familiar…
♥
When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I thought my life had ended. And in a very real sense, it did. Parts of my life fell off like flesh off a zombie–my home, my job, my friends, my ability to support myself, my ability to live independently. In the months and years that followed, the lessons of living in the NOW and letting go of attachments kept repeating. Living with bipolar disorder (BP) was like living in a constant fire. It burned away everything I thought I knew about myself and how the world works. But with fire comes new growth that could never happen otherwise. I’m finding that to be true in my life as well.
While I always considered myself a writer, I also became an artist because of BP. I needed a way to express the chaos I felt and the wild shifts from despair to joy and back again. My study of the world’s religions deepened. I explored the science and metaphysics of the brain. I also fell in love with “Criminal Minds” and “Fringe.”
I invite you to journey with me into the overlapping realms of mental illness, creativity and spirituality. There will be fire and ice, but also miracles.
Of that I’m certain.
05 Jan 2018 9 Comments
in art journaling, bipolar disorder, distorted thinking, mental health, mental illness, poetry
This morning’s art journal spread.
(Click on the image and it will get big enough to read)
28 Dec 2017 37 Comments
in Bipolar Bad-Ass Training, bipolar disorder, gratitude, management, mental health, mental illness, quality of life, spirituality, video, writing Tags: First Unitarian Church, public speaking
Our Social Justice Minister, Erin Gingrich, asked me to participate in her service a couple of weeks ago. Her topic was “Hope Rekindled,” and she’d heard enough of my story to think some version of it might add something “powerful.”
I loved crafting a speech to fit the theme and metaphors we chose—visions of high school speech competitions made me smile as I worked. Even better was the opportunity to pull out parts of my story that could be told in an uplifting way. I wasn’t nervous that Sunday, just honored.
The third member of our service team that day, Martha Shen, crocheted a huge doily for Erin some time ago. She included a poem with her gift that became our service’s central theme.
a single strand
masterfully intertwined
whose beauty is defined
as much by the empty spaces
as by the strand itself.
Here’s my Reflection. If you’d like to hear Erin’s homily, you can click here.
26 Nov 2017 6 Comments
in art, art journaling, bipolar disorder, depression, mixed-media art, poetry Tags: despair, hope
Trust is completely paradoxical:
The thing with which to begin when
you have nothing.
The end point, which
somehow you must find first.
The smallest of present moments,
measured haltingly into a past.
Both question and answer, when every
word of your acquaintance has fled.
♦
You think the arc of the horizon
should split, one side jaggedly askew,
one forever gone.
The horizon doesn’t split.
Its edges remain.
You think the ocean should dry to sand because
all the tears it held, you have used up.
You have stolen water even from the clouds.
But the ocean is not dried, nor the clouds
gone, though you have cried them both,
multiplied, and more.
You rub your eyes that grains still ripen,
plums turn blue, still the moon increases.
You thought all of this was gone.
Such is the unimaginable you have lived.
You thought everything was gone.
♦
But,
without your doing, the world is fashioned
in this way: moments
become other moments; steps
lead somewhere; all things breathe,
even without remembering.
One day, after a very long time,
without rubbing your eyes you see
the arc of the horizon still
an arc; the ocean, full.
And you are not betrayed, but glad.
♦ Nancy Shaffer ~ Instructions in Joy
♦
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