Get engaged to love of life, check!
Graduate from college, check!
Cross Country move, check!
Begin teaching career, check!
Get married, check!
First 2nd grade classroom, check!
Pregnant with first child, check!!
Then came the overwhelming anxiety, nausea, and depression. Like an unwelcome dark cloud over a sunshiny day, there it was. Nothing could take it away. It had to be gone through, lived out day by day. The scars, the pain, it stays with you, a PTSD of the heart that swoops in again without warning. The meds, the prayers, the counseling....I could NOT do life without my community!! Have you had a similar experience? Anxiety and depression do not care who you are. They will overtake you without warning. It's not a topic discussed openly, and it comes back even with all the supports in place. AND we still need each other. Please know beyond a shadow of a doubt that on your darkest day, hour, and moment, you are loved, wanted, needed. Please stay here and fight for you. The good and bad. It's all worthy of time on this planet. I wrote this poem after a dark day. I hope it blesses you!
I didn't know how scared I'd feel
To let the Light shine in
I wasn't sure I'd counted the cost
To "be myself", and then...
The darkness came, of stifling depths
The struggle was real to breathe
The fears, the loss, heartaches great and small.
This path known as "anxiety".
The current was strong
A glimpse of joy broke free
Still I'm straining to see past
The shadows, of life
That truly belongs to me.
A healing road...a path...a plight
Comes to reach out and up,
Speak the truth,
Feel the light.
Be real, let them see
That healing takes time
And I claim, "BE SET FREE!"
By the truth that is mine!!
~Rebecca Joy Bunker
"I've got the Joy, joy joy, joy
Down in my heart.
Down in my heart,
Down in my heart.
I've got the Joy, joy joy, joy
Down in my heart.
Down in my heart,
To Stay!!!
