uhhh

Do not tell yourself that someone else will take care of it. That mindset is what kills hope at the very end of the road. We are not asking for the impossible we are asking you not to close your heart when you can see we are only one step away from relief, and that there is a sick body struggling to hold on while waiting for that step. A share, a donation, or even a single word of support refusing now is not neutrality, it is abandonment.

Sudan Funds

I am Sami, supporting more than 22 members of my family — including my sick parents, my children, and relatives who lost their homes and have nothing left. Every day is a fight against hunger, cold, and despair. Your donation, even the smallest amount, can ease a part of this unbearable suffering and help us hold on to the little hope we still have. Donate here

The war ended… but only in the media

I need you to stop what you're doing. Stop playing your game, stop reading your book, stop listening to your music. I need you, all of you, please, to go and help palestinians. Right now and in the future. I need you to help them because they need our help, our help to survive the horrible conditions created by israel.

My friend Abdalrhman has had, very understandably, a hard few years. He’s had to battle things hardly any of us have even come close to dealing with. Bombs, bullets, the destruction of his home, a famine, he has had to brave them all, and has lived through them all. I ask you to please, please, help him.

Went to the Holocaust Museum in DC once. There was a video interview of an Auschwitz survivor who said he and some other prisoners stayed up all night with a man who wanted to kill himself. The man didn’t kill himself and survived to liberation.

I think something a lot of people don't understand is that depression is not suicidality, and suicidality is not depression. People can, and are, depressed without being suicidal, and sometimes suicidality peaks as people are emerging from depression. Suicidality is a wave, and the trick is to allow that wave to crest and subside WITHOUT acting on it. Whatever it takes to ride it out. For some people that's distraction, like watching television. For others it's calling a friend -- not to talk about the suicidality, but just to talk. For others it could be as simple as going to sit in a coffee shop or library, because the presence of other people is a huge diminisher of suicide risk. That's what suicide safety planning is about. It's like having any other type of emergency plan, like a plan for fire or evacuation. It's making a plan when you are in the frame of mind to do so, so that you can just DO the plan without having to think about it when the occasion arises. When you're in the midst of suicidal ideation, or even intent, you're not in a problem-solving mood. So knowing past!you, with the help of a therapist hopefully, came up with the plan and all you have to do is follow up until the wave crests and subsides, is what allows you to see another day.

No permanent solutions to temporary problems

One of the main things that's carried me is a quote from Animorph's The Andelite Chronicles:

In the 1950s, my grampa chose not to die by suicide because he was reading Lord of the Rings and had only gotten through The Two Towers (ROTK wasn't out yet), and he "wanted to see how it all turned out." He ended up getting caught up in other things, and never did read it.

Fifty years after

Just because there is a ceasefire does not mean you can ignore Palestinians and Gaza now. Israel is still heavily restricting aid entering into Gaza, and Israel is still firing on Palestinians. Aid trucks are often delayed at the border, and some are even forced to turned back. The two border crossings to northern Gaza remain closed, and so aid often struggles to reach the people who need it most.

I've been thinking I really want to do something to try and help folks over in Palestine, so while I can't donate I want to at least help link to some of the general charities for folks there:

a bonus if you don't have money but do have a skill and an hour or two to teach it:

As we're getting into the colder months people will be using hot water bottles more frequently here's just a little reminder you shouldn't be using hot water bottles if they're more than 2 years old as over time plastic disintergrats and the chances of the hot water bottle bursting rises each hot water bottle comes with a daisy wheel on the neck to tell you when they were made and here's a little picture to help you read it

three types of reaction on this post: