Teen Suicides and Sacred Space Within

450 teens died by suicide in Australia in 2017 according to Brett Murray from Make Bullying History. This is tragic to me. Salt water wells in my eyes.

I first became aware of the rate of suicide in young people when I was a funeral director for a few years.

Prior to that I had experienced depression in my childhood and again in my 20's. In my 20's I considered suicide, such was my emotional pain and sense of isolation. I am glad I didn't do it because I am free of depression and I can help others be free of it.

Bullying starts with name calling and many children are very saddened by this. Often it leads on to other children saying stupid things like 'Go kill yourself' to the child who is already trying to cope with name calling. In truth names can't turn you into what the namer is calling you, but that is not how it feels to a child. The child needs to know there is a sacred space within, an untouchable essence that cannot be reduced or made less than whole by any other. They also need to know that names or labels are not truth, just one, or a few people's generalizations, made to put another down on the 'scales of worth'. These scales are fictitious but many of us live as though we are on them. Our 'worth' goes up and down according to what we do. We are human beings, being human, not human doings. What we do is not a measure of worth. The amount of love that we do things with, is the only true measure we can use. Each person is a unique idea of Life/ Source so we don't need to compare ourselves.

I wish I could help every child know their wholeness, their uniqueness, and that they have a role to play on Earth by bringing out their own gifts, expressing the unique idea they are.