In Our Words Canadians Reading Together

Margo knew that if she could muster the courage to pick up the phone and talk to someone, she would gradually climb out of darkness created somewhere inside her, by whatever forces, she did not know. She resented the medication that gave her back power to maneuver through the days as a valued member of her community. ‘Why can’t I manage myself?’ It was a question Margo often asked herself and no matter how she tried, only specific, doctor contrived, concoctions made the significant difference. Clinically depressed, they had diagnosed her as. She remembered how insulted she felt by the term, and she could not see past the negative connotations the term clinically depressed implied. Accept for the fact that life was now worth living, and she was willing more each day, to accept that fact that along with the help of others she could now cope and deal with the affects of her illness.

She considered each horse as they moved together into the distance. Each horse had come to find it’s own unique place of belonging in the herd. She saw their pecking order now as a compromise, and their instinctive abilities to socialize as a way of self-protection. Here, she too had come to see her life, with its many tough compromises, as lessons of discovery and healing. Those qualities we all find necessary in our efforts to contribute and belong.