May is Mental Health Awareness month
written by: Don Knowles
@DonKnowles3
They call it mental illness
They say those that suffer from it
Should be secluded
I know of many
Where this would be their death sentence
They perceive life intensely
Their differences are not apparent
Like eye color or skin tone, or height.
But the depth in the way they feel
Feeling emotions in multiple dimensions
Tasting it, smelling it
Hearing voices that guide in multiple directions.
We need to learn from these individuals
Listen and learn.
See the minds unique fingerprint.
Lessons that may help us all feel for
The weak, the lost, the young and old.
Each beast on this earth,
With more clarity and compassion.
I call it mental extraordinaryism
Defined as the ability to feel and react to life
Beyond the established norms of contemporary
And commercial society.
Discounting these abilities has desensitized
Our understanding of the
complete human condition.
It is not an illness to feel.
It is not sickness to care so deeply.
It’s not a curse to be touched by others struggles.
You are not less of a man if you feel compassion.
You are not less of a mother because you weep.
Living intensely but in the moment is truer to our
Natural selves then suppression of these instincts.
Feeling, emotions, there is a whole inner universe
That we must continue to explore.
I’ve heard there are parts of the world’s oceans
Where no man has ever been or seen.
I’ve read of new species of animals discovered to this
Day.
Medical advances, technology wrapped around
Our wrists.
We have to explore the mind.
To discover it’s depths.
To embrace the once shunned
To believe each individual’s unique emotive process
Is a road map to universal love and
The key to the eternal answer to our questioning and
The meaning of life.
Born in West Chester Pa in 1960 I have been inspired to begin writing again through my interactions with two people I care deeply about that are experiencing the torrents of mental illness.
- Where are the Words - September 3, 2024
- Forget - June 24, 2024
- The Edges - March 21, 2024
