Thankful for this peace that I found today
Swear I almost threw my life away -- now I live on
Sweepin' through the streets still around the way
Man a good thing
I found a way -- pain made me strong

- Lyrics by Gmac (unpublished and song still in production)

Last week I was part of a suicide prevention training.  By miraculous coincidence I also received the following lyrics via e-mail while I was at the training from a Detroit "conscientious hip hop" artist named Gmac whom I'm in the midst of collaborating with.

Here's what I personally gleaned from the training, and some of the other stuff that arose earlier in the week:

1)  Once we've tried everything we can come up with, it's time to wait.  Waiting allows new opportunities for us to move forward.    To "suffer with patience" is wisdom for the crisp moment at the brink of life and death, and it's perhaps the same test of patience for any life endeavor too.

The biggest challenge posed in the workshop comes from empowering people with reasons to survive and sustain themselves.  However, to ensure meaningful impact in the bigger scope of life, you must help them engage something they love--"reasons for living".  During an intervention, you facilitate the discovery of their reasons.  You might also be their only reason for living at the moment too.  Sometimes the opportunity to be heard without retribution is most profound demonstration of compassion one has ever experienced.

In the long-term however, we need a resilient vision that moves one beyond the balance of survival by means of subsistence toward living well.  The Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (AKA ASIST) workshop, developed by Living Works and hosted by the American Indian Health and Family Services, gave proper priority to the survival aspect of an intervention.  However, as I've mentioned before, some of the people I carry concerns for were driven to considering suicide because of the long-term

2)  Tenacious creativity literally becomes a vital tool.  Creativity no longer becomes a luxury as an outcome of proper resources and imagination, it's necessary for living life and helping others live their lives more fully.

Though I don't have an explicit connection, I know the following's related:
Earlier this week, I clarified part of my interpretation of social sustainability for a social entrepreneur's keynote speech to Jane Goodall's Vision 2020 symposium earlier this week.  The notion basically coheres all those lofty ethical ideals (peace, compassion, love, etc.) and processes of governance (democracy, restorative practice, etc.) and brings us to consider at what point do our relationships impact how we engage other things in the world?  I used this photo series to visually pose answers to that question:  The collateral effects of poor relationships create definite economic and environmental impacts. Though most of the animals here are/were domesticated, the idea that our social relations among other beings bear economic and environmental consequences as well--what does it take to rebuild a war-struck neighborhood?

[note, it might have pop-up survey questions, I got annoyed by it but the first couple of photos highlight the notion really well]: http://media.sourcenewspapers.com/2013/03/18/photos-animals-caught-up-in-human-conflicts/#1


#11:34 31 Mar. 2013