Here’s a Little Friend Who Posed For Me At Hawrelak Park This Summer….
Well Dear Readers, I regret that I haven’t been keeping up with my blog entries, there really has been so much stuff going on in my life that I haven’t been up to the task mentally. I have been doing a lot of presentations for the Schizophrenia Society which is very interesting work and rewarding in many ways. What I mostly do for them is show a Power Point presentation and give a bit of a lecture on it as I go through. It talks about a lot of things like famous people who had a mental illness, there is a video where Anderson Cooper from CNN participates in an experiment to replicate what it is like to hear voices. Then I give a 15-minute speech I prepared about my own experiences. I am kind of excited about this month because on the 19th of November I will be giving a talk to a lunch of faculty members at the University of Alberta. So much has been going good for me, sometimes other people are a bit amazed at where I was at compared to what I have been doing.
It may seem a bit funny, but one of the most important things in my life right now is one of my friendships, with a friend who is an incredible author, an amazing storyteller and also a film producer and public speaker. I first met him at the U of A writer in residence office and he has done so much for me and mentored my writing career and all kinds of stuff like that. Sometimes it seems a bit funny at my age to value a person so highly, but this guy is really incredible and is one of the few people I have ever been really close to that didn’t seem to want to take advantage of me in some way. He kind of inspired me to write the poem you will see at the bottom of this blog post, I hope you enjoy it.
A lot of things are on my mind. The other day I went out to my home town of St.Albert and had dinner at the house of a friend I have known for a very long time. We talked and talked about the people we grew up with, all the crazy stuff that used to go on and it was so amazing. It is odd though because I am so used to isolating myself that I kind of decided to duck out early even though there really was no rush to go and I was having a great time. Ever since I became mentally ill a lot of people except my oldest friends seemed to never invite me to their houses or seem to trust me much, but a lot of that is changing. I not only went to see this old friend whose son is this amazing, cool little boy but we also hopped in her husband’s truck and went to visit her parents who I have always had so much respect for. It was neat because the house they live in always used to be a great place to hang out, they had a pool table in the basement and her parents not only cared for her friends a lot and kept up with their lives, but they trusted them to use their house as party central. I can recall this one incident when I went out with a different group of friends on New Year’s and got so drunk I couldn’t see straight then came back to St.Albert and ran into this young woman’s brother and somehow we ended up going to his house in my car and a bunch of us, girls included, curled up under blankets and watched an ‘R’ rated cartoon called “Fritz The Cat”. I am so glad I don’t drink like that anymore but I miss those times when freedom and possibilities in life seemed endless.
Well dear readers, I don’t know much of what else to say except that I am working on another short story collection and possibly another poetry collection soon as well. I am posting today’s poem below, as always anyone who reads this blog is totally free to email me with any questions or comments they may have, my email is still viking3082000@yahoo.com and I would love to hear from you. Keep reaching for your dreams, keep setting goals for yourself and writing out plans and most of all keep being you.
Old Friends
Sometimes our lives can get so difficult
Make us wish we could just collapse and shout
Let out all our hopes, anxiety and fears
Lose ourselves in our self-pity and tears
In these times we long for friends to be close by our side
To talk; embrace them, to hell with our pride
Loving, dear friends can always do so much
With so few words; with a gentle touch
When friends are by your side in times of pain and doubt
It seems there is nothing that you and them can’t figure out
It can hurt when the passing years take things away
When true old friends have nothing left to say
Please don’t let your heart grow indifferent and cold
Because this is when one truly grows old
Hold tight those who have shared their lives with you
Hold tight to your close friends be they old or new
Some people have let things get in the way
Of those times of joy and bliss, of camaraderie and play
Don’t look down on those who are alone and sad
Think instead of how they must have been treated bad
Remember it is a noble thing to go the extra mile
Just to warm a lonely heart and make them smile
And know that if you show your kindness to them in a special way
Someone may do the same for you one dark and lonely day
Leif Gregersen
November 1, 2015
Mental Health coping skills blog by leif gregersen 