Dull Saws and Burnout

I heard about this story from my amazing Spiritual Director a few months ago and then looked for the story again tonight as it was ringing true for me (this quote from here):

 "Stephen Covey tells a story of a man who’s working laboriously to saw down a tree. The work is difficult, and although he stays at his task diligently sawing away, very little progress is made. The saw blade is dull, too dull to make much of a dent in the tree trunk. When asked why he doesn’t sharpen the saw and therefore make the work easier and faster, the man says he can’t afford to stop. The tree must be cut down, and there’s no time to stop and sharpen the saw!" 

As I sat in that same Spiritual Director's office last week, sinking farther and farther into her couch, I told her how exhausted I was and how I didn't want to go to work lately and just felt blah. She looked across at me, almost lost to the folds of her couch and told me that these were early signs of burn out. She recommended vacation. ASAP. I of course said there was too much to do. I'm too far behind. 

QPR: like CPR for Suicide

In between worship services today we had a training on QPR - the CPR of suicide prevention. The idea is that as we talk about suicide as a culture and recognize those tell tale warning signs, the very high suicide rate will decrease. I even corrected a few of my own misunderstandings and myths during the workshop.

QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer. You can get trained in an hour. The idea is that EVERYONE needs to get training on this, much like we as a culture have responded to breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, and heart disease.

Suicide has to stop being taboo. We all have to be bold and brave and ask that question that feels crazy, "Are you thinking about killing yourself?" She assured us that no one has ever been pissed for being asked this.

So there's that.

Also, if you are thinking about killing yourself, please call 1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-SUICIDE. I'm here, too.

Depression in the Sunshine

I like to blame dark gray skies for my depression on the days when the sky is cloudy and gray.

Days like today? No excuse. The sun is out. It is gorgeous. It is warm.

It makes it more difficult to describe to people what depression is. But think of it like tree branches that creep up into a bright blue sky. Against a back drop of blue sky, they appear all the more dark and black. And they extend up towards the sky, reaching as high as they can, interrupting the expanse of blue.