THE DARK AND THE BEAUTIFUL

BLACK DOG
"It lingers, lurking, waiting for an opening to dismantle the light
Knowing that time is limited, it can destroy all that is bright
Silently creeping forward within, ready to weaken, then destroy
Blinded by a radiance of the enemy, to eradicate all beauty its ploy

But the power, the source of all that transcends the beauty within
is the consciousness of an eternal light, a flower blooming in Spring
Sole provider of our thoughts, messenger of the pure, food of the soul
Protector of the weak, forever beaming for love, knowing His role

But the Black Dog of  fear, loneliness suffering and despair
Assassin of dreams, the king of darkness has no need to care
Simply to wrap up our souls, to darken the flickering light
of love, but unable to darken a beauty, faith immortal in flight"

                                -    TriggerDot
                                -    aka Brendan Lauritz



 

...the brilliance of the MIND.....

Having lived amongst the homeless for such a long time, I have lived with the symptoms of the wretched, the disease of the MIND that affects every one of those unfortunate enough to have hit the skids of life. I know a lot of stories. Every homeless person has a STORY. I know the sicknesses, the illness of a weathered life. I know the symptoms of the illness. There are the physical sicknesses that accompany a life hardened by addictions, loss, grief and, well you know the stuff I have talked about at length. But then there are the 'forgotten' diseases of life, the ones you can't see, the ones that are hard to treat, the ones that are hard to find. These are the mental illnesses that go hand in hand with loss, grief, pain, suffering and despair. The illnesses that do more damage than the physical. But because we can't see them the medical authorities make an assumption that 'if it isn't broke, no need to be fixed". How wrong they are. The simple answer is that the longer you are susceptible to the hardships life will throw up at you..... The longer you spend unprotected. The longer you spend alone. The longer you are away from 'normal' society. The longer you keep living in the past. The longer fear sleeps with you every night......... Then the longer IT will invade your very soul. The longer IT will darken any light of hope. The longer IT will flourish......

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.... hey Black Dog, how they hangin'?

IT is Black Dog, an appropriate term for one of life's greatest killers, Depression. I don't know how many people I have known in the homeless world but I have spent many hours listening to other sad stories that are the catalyst in harvesting the seeds of the Black Dog. Medical experts say that being "sad" isn't depression. Well it depends what you are talking about. Doctors refer to 'clinical' depression which they say is treatable with prescribed drugs. I know. I have clinical depression. I seem to get it about once a year and it can last from one to four or five weeks (so far!). It is not a causal affect of my being sad. Lord knows I've been 'sad' for many years now. Prescribed drugs do help, if you want to take them. I did but won't anymore. I would rather just be alone and ride it out because I know it is only a temporary setback. The drugs help make you feel better but they make me feel too much better, creating a false ceiling of reality that I find harder to deal with than the depression itself.
But then there are the more severe types of depression that infiltrate the psyche. The schizo types. The manic types. The "voices" types. These are epidemic in the homeless world. They cause addictions. They cause permanent sadness. They cause overdoses. They cause the loss of our most precious gift. They cause death.
But because of its very nature, the medical world, or more appropriately the 'mental' medical world, can only treat the symptoms they are told about by the patient, not the symptoms that they can see or diagnose through x-rays etc. So if the patient cannot explain their symptoms accurately then surely the prognosis is doomed to be incorrect, the treatment will be incorrect, and the Black Dog continues to win. How do I know? I am no Psychiatrist or medical expert. Yep correct. But I have done more 'interviewing' of real live cases of Black Dog than many of the 'experts'. I have talked to many "voices". And I have lived with my own demon dogs......

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..... the LIGHT of BELIEF ....

But as my title above suggests, there is DARKNESS and there is BEAUTY. I am going through the darkness myself, but because I don't give it the attention it craves, then I am becoming more resistant to it's advances and seem to cope until the worst is over, which is the case with me right at this moment. But because of my life learning and my spiritual awakening I am AWARE of the beauty around me. I am AWARE of the beauty WITHIN me. I AM AWARE that the light within me is eternal. Therefore I am resistant to the dark force beckoning to diminish it. My light will keep radiating for eternity because I BELIEVE. The light does not switch off when the body does. Black Dogs try to break the spirit and they sometimes succeed when the spirit is at its weakest. But the light doesn't die. It flickers maybe. Black Dogs don't win unless the spirit let's them. But then something beautiful will make the light illuminate once more......

                      ......THE BEAUTY OF LIGHT WITHIN......

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