Don't do WHAT?
Don't beat yourself up on these issues.
Listen folks, I was reading some of these blogs and posts, and as a guy that has written a few thousand pages on my prison blogs, I understand how hard it can be to deal with life with a loved one in prison. hey, I have been there, so I know what it is like. I know what it is like to attempt suicide more than once, and I have seen and live how hard it is to try to get life together after you get out.
Folks, I understand how hard life can be with a loved one in prison.
But understand this, when you post or blog, your words carry containers of hope or hopelessness. I made a decision within myself a few years ago that if I posted on prison support sites, I would try to keep it positive and constructive as I could. Now, on my prison blog, I can let everything go, sharing my problems and my successes. But even when I shared disappointing situations on my blog, I always came back to build up my hope and faith. I had to, because I knew that there were people reading my blogs, looking for hope.
Who am I to sit here and make consistant posts about how miserable life is, knowing there are people looking for hope? What do I gain if I shared 10 posts about how bad life is for me now, and all the bad things going on in my life? Who benefits from that?
Uh...folks...don't do that.
The idea is SUPPORT, and any person with a loved one, ESPECIALLY this time of year, needs support. I truly understand where some of you are, and how you feel. I have shared on my blog that it was about this time when I was in jail that I attempted suicide...right on Christmas Day. But get this folks...
I didn't succeed. And there was a reason for that, which I talked about.
I talked about how hard is was for me to get my life back after I did my time, and yes, there were many pitfalls, but I also talked about the success I have, and continue to get by the support of my blogs. I talk about people who say to me "God bless you" for my blogs, and I know that by sharing something positive, I am giving people hope.
I talk about some of the tough times I had while in prison, but I also share how I was able to get through it. Not every story about prison is a dead end folks, and if you are going to make it, you have to place some faith in that. If you continue to feel down and bad, you are powerless to find a way to get through this.
You have a choice folks...to be miserable, or to build some faith by saying, "things can change"
"Things can get better"
"I am going to support my boyfriend"
"I am going to support my son"
"I am going to support my husband"
"I am not going to give up"
You have to do this folks, it cannot be an option. You cannot focus on how bad life is for you, goodness knows I have been there more than once. Life after prison isn't easy, but when I fall face down into the mat, it just seems that God lifts me back up. Any of you who has read my prison blogs knows that I gave up more than once, thinking that writing about my prison life and post prison life was a waste of time,but each time I stopped, I got emails from people asking me not to stop. I was realizing that somebody was relying on me to keep them positive.
You are no different. The words you share on prison support sites or blogs are a powerful source of energy, either positive or negative. If we all talked about the problem, there would be no faith here for solutions. We have to keep the posts and blogs about prison in a way that says, "yeah, this is the problem, but I have faith that this will change".
You gotta believe in something, right?
So if you find yourselves writing posts or blogs only about negative things...don't do that. I am not saying to ignore those things, because they are there, but faith says that even in negative situations, things can change for the better. You DO believe that, right?
Thank you very much for you insights. I try to read all your posts. It keeps me grounded and helps me when I feel despair.
Peace