Come, let us live!

All around us, the procession of suicides grows longer. Let us become aware, let us learn to recognize the signs of those who suffer from depression.

If you see your vivacious, ever-smiling friend suddenly fall silent, look into it. Before going out completely, even the brightest lamp grows dim and weak.

If that familiar person close to you—whom you always saw singing, writing, dancing, or painting, activities they simply could not live without—suddenly stops doing these things, be alert. Creative souls cannot survive without their art. If that spirited person suddenly falls quiet without any reason you can fathom, if a familiar artist stops living through their art, then understand clearly: that person has died inside, and given the chance, they will separate their life from their body.

If your acquaintance or loved one has suddenly or gradually reduced or cut off contact with close friends and family, go to them and check. Perhaps they want everyone to learn to live without them, perhaps they have already hatched a plan in their mind to escape from life.

Check if your unemployed friend is suffering from severe financial distress, notice if someone close to you is crushed under work pressure, keep watch whether your sister or wife is secretly suffering domestic abuse. No one wants to die unless living becomes unbearably painful.

Perhaps each of them has given up hope inwardly, and finding no escape, receiving no hand of friendship, they will petition death to flee from life. Whom life turns away, death wants to pull to its breast. If you just extend your hand a little, many can be saved from drowning. With just a bit of help and pulling them up, some can find their way back from being lost.

Instead of weeping for a whole year after someone dies, try weeping for that person just once while they're still alive. Your tears after their death mean nothing to the deceased, but while that person is still living, some help from you, a few compassionate words, assistance in making decisions, or simply listening to their words... might save that person from something like suicide.

If you have the means, lend your unemployed friend money occasionally without conditions; hold them close and say, "Tell me if you need more money, I'll give what I can. Don't worry, I'm here beside you."

To that sister on whose head you've placed the burden of household and forced into domesticity, just once place your hand on her shoulder and say, "I'm here, leave that household and come here."

To your dear one who suffers from work pressure and can't sleep day or night, hold their hands firmly and say, "Life itself is more precious, not the job. Leave the job if you must, surely God will provide something new."

Even if it means tolerating the bad behavior of that familiar person suffering from depression, call them repeatedly, earn their trust, patiently listen to the words they cannot speak. Don't judge those who have human blood flowing in their veins.

That's it! Even this small help can bring a person back from the brink of suicide.

Even the deepest night of fierce nor'westers eventually sees dawn, even the current that submerges islands at high tide recedes when the time comes for low tide. One just needs a sturdy post to stand against in the deep dark night, a moored boat on shore to keep from being swept away.

Be that post yourself that won't break even in the fiercest storm, become that boat that cannot be dragged under by the current's pull. You'll see, living feels wonderfully good.

Life, like the tides, will indeed end someday, but let no dragonfly be swept away in an untimely flood.