Bleak despair, no hope for the future is reality.
I thought about taking my life today.
Poverty, no savings, no retirement — work each day, fall another step behind.
I thought about taking my life today.
In rooms full of people, more alone than when in solitude.
I thought about taking my life today.
Burnout — no money to visit the ocean and allow the body to rest, the soul to heal.
I thought about taking my life today.
Looked up from the murky depths and saw you — both of you.
In eyes no longer present I saw your kindness, your compassion and I saw myself.
You raised me — You loved me. When we had nothing — You gave me everything.
From the abyss I reached my hand, and though gone, you were both there to take it.
I will not take my life — not today, not any day.
Not everyone makes the decision not to take their life. For some they don’t think they have that hand to pull them from the abyss. For others, sadly, there is no hand.
Suicide occurs every day. In one way or another, it has touched us all. It leaves someone behind. It leaves those left behind with many more questions and often with no answers.
It leaves those left behind with grief. It leaves those left behind with remorse. It leaves those left behind with unimaginable, unending and undeserved guilt.
I wrote Is Suicide Painless for, and dedicated it to, those who could no longer survive, and those who remain behind, and have no choice but to do so.
It may be the most important work I have written.