(Unm)otivational Text

I was browsing my facebook newsfeed earlier...and I came across the picture to the right. It actually made me angry. It's funny how little things can bring emotions right out of me...must be my state of mind at the moment. Either way...there has to be some kind of doublethink going on, there are all of these motivational, "come out of depression," kind of word pictures going around the internet these days. Wonderful! These are great messages. Who wants people to be depressed all of the time? I sure don't want to be depressed all of the time...I don't want my friends or family...even a complete stranger...I don't really wish depression on anyone. HOWEVER, it seems to me that this doublethink practice allows these creative minds (those making the word pictures) to ignore the clinically depressed people out there. Depression isn't just a mindset, it's also a chemical imbalance in the brain. Lack of energy can stimulate the same type of symptoms, and can be itself a symptom. The message this text is sending does not send out the message of a caring and supportive community and mindset for and of the depressed. Clinical depression makes doing EVERYTHING difficult. It makes it harder to get out of bed in the morning, more difficult to find motivation to do things that you LOVE to do...things that are important to you. Or at least they seemed to be at one point. Depression is a slide...it happens slowly and then falls ever more rapidly. It can happen before you realize it is happening, and then it feels like it's too late to do anything about anything. Hopelessness kicks in. Which is why this picture pisses me off to no END.
I suffer from depression, and am currently having a hard time coping with academics and many other situations. Things are harder than ever for me...and things that are very important are slipping from my grasp. I feel like a failure...this picture does nothing to help that out at all. This type of negative motivation...it's disheartening if anything. This idea that my depression is my excuse is infuriating...perhaps this is part of the motivation...then what kind of motivation is that? Negative dialogue...self talk...negative self-talk can be disastrous if coupled with the right, or wrong, persons.
It is ignorance that forwards this kind of thought. It is outright wrong to ignore the clinically depressed. Do not make my handicap my excuse, let it be my motivation.

Henna for Hair

Hello Readers!

I would have you ALL know that I am going on an adventure in the near future! Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the slaying of dragons, saving the grand legacy of the unicorn and the narwhal, or a crazy man with a box. Sad Face. I'm not sure how many of you know, but I do currently have vibrant red hair:

I love the way this color looks on me! By the way....this is under mostly fluorescent lighting...I'll get pictures from sunlight as soon as I can! Below is my natural hair color:

The first is a swatch from a photograph taken on a sunny day in the shade, the second on a very overcast day in Niagra.


What I'm going to do is HENNA my hair...but I don't know if I should go back to my natural hair color before doing the Henna or not...does it matter? Do any of you have any advice on the subject? When my research is finally complete and I DO it...I will post pictures (preferably of the process and outcomes) and let you all know how it went!

Knowledge

Inspiration comes from the strangest of places. And at the worst moment imaginable. It's not that you don't want to be inspired. Inspiration is good. It's only that you wished that happier things inspired you. Don't we all. Perhaps it was the chick falling from the branch that made you ponder on strife. Maybe it was the passing glance of a stranger that made you recognize how terribly alone you feel right now. It could have been the awkward laughter at the dinner table...the laughter that you had nothing to do with...that made you come here. I don't have the answers. I don't pretend to. I do know, however, that life's hardships bring more hardship. That these fleeting feelings of happiness are better defined as a lack of hardship. It is this enlightenment that have brought many a man to his knees. To know that it never ends. That is the worst knowledge. Would you ask Eve to stay away from that tree? Would you beg? Perhaps it is only easier to remember the hard times. To know distance and heartache...I would not wish that upon you. You have come here with that knowledge, already. None of us are free from that knowledge...none spared.
Time is a fickle thing. It ticks away...consistently...without need of motivation. There is nothing that could motivate Time. This idea that Time is relevant is peculiar, because while this is an entirely valid statement, it is also invalid. It is as true as your vantage and as false as Time is constant. Labor on that a moment.