Make That Call

Christmas is a time of cheer and ‘joy to the world’. So what happens if you don’t feel joy at this time. Maybe you’ve lost someone you love this year, or something you never imagined would come your way has landed on your life like a fridge falling on your chest. Maybe you’re walking around looking at the Christmas lights but feeling only darkness inside. Many people feel this way, and the expectation that they should feel differently can exacerbate everything to the point where it becomes almost unbearable.

I understand how many of us can feel isolated, lonely and in some cases hopeless, and this time of year often magnifies those feelings. 

I remember a Christmas a long time ago, when I was sixteen. Someone I knew decided one night that he couldn’t take it any longer. His passing left us bereft and asking questions that we could never answer.

Years later I was suffering through my own dark period and Christmas was hard. I felt like I should have a smile on my face when all I wanted to do was hide in the dark hole inside myself. I held on to the hope that it would pass and that spring would return. It did, and with it returned my flagging enthusiasm for life.

This year I received a call from someone who couldn’t take it anymore and was going to do something to end the pain. After the call, I sat down and wrote a piece – the words I wished I had said. I’m sharing those words here so you can find hope in them or share them with someone who needs to hear them right now. Let’s look out for one another – that is the greatest gift any of us can give or receive – at any time of the year.  

Make the Call

There may come a time when it all feels too much

And a dark thought passes across your mind

Don't listen to it

No matter how it entices you with the promise of quick release, it lies to you

Instead call upon that soul that you can, the one you know won't judge or run but

listen

And offer a hand across the dark places

I've been the one who has made that call

I've been the one to receive it

And I'm glad for both

So don’t give up

There are moments waiting for you

It can get better

It will

Make that call.

*Thanks to my friend Darragh Murphy at November Seven Films who read Make That Call and said ‘We have to film this.’ And we did.