TEDNA

Here is part four, entitled Slow Suicide, Slower Healing.  An excerpt:

In order to participate in this “continuing creation of reality”—the vitality of our communities—we have to be alive. That’s step one. Not just to exist, but to be alive. Present. Engaged. Aware. Intact.

Suicide is not necessarily an isolated event. It is not always, as is often thought, a single incident—a gun, a rope, a jump. These things happen, but these are only part of the story. The spirit of suicide is capable of longevity, of persistence, of gradual distinction. It can be sneaky, subtle, and even subconscious. What I’m talking about is slow death by suicide: the kind of killing that creeps up on us in the form of poor health and bad habits.