Community

There is something pulling us apart.

I was with a group of medical residents who have made it a priority in their busy schedules to meet together once a month. Single, married, married with children, they all come together, as many who can, who are not on call, for a meal and a conversation about life, about their struggles, and to encourage one another. This has been going on a few years now. Strong bonds have formed and are enabling people to live better happier lives in the middle of some of the most difficult days most have ever experienced up until now.

To show how difficult these days can be for young doctors beginning their chosen medical or dental specialty training, about this time last year two new interns committed suicide. They didn’t know each other and none of us knew them, but their situations were similar and typical. Each came into a new and very stressful situation having just graduated from medical schools and moved away from family and friends to begin work at the bottom of the totem pole once again.

Certainly each one’s circumstances were uniquely complicated, but this is exactly what they shared. They were isolated with heads full of thoughts, many destructive enough to drive them to the conclusion that living was no longer a good idea. Life would be better for everyone without them. They were failures, drains on those so productive and bright surrounding them. When people fall into this level of depression it appears as if nothing will ever change. Things will always remain the same, always be hopeless. And because they are alone in their own heads, at some point no words from outside are able to reach them.

Here is my word for you today: Good mental health is a byproduct of community living.

Healthy productive people need to be reminded and encouraged from outside themselves that we have value, not based on performance, but as a part of being humans. We need to be reminded often that we are God’s children. Each of us is precious and unique, placed into our specific time and place for important reasons we may not yet know or fully appreciate. More will be given to us as we walk and live life with others — hopefully a small group of people who care about us and who give us opportunities to care about them in return.

It is the wise man or woman who seeks out communities to be a part of, even if the time in a place has a known short duration, because it is in these mostly mundane activities of life, meeting and possibly sharing meals together, where we can discover hidden food for our souls.