New Year

I've been fishing around all week for an honest and optimistic new year's greeting. "Happy New Year's" doesn't feel right. There's certainly more to life than happiness, and I'm not counting on "happy" this year. I think I've settled on something more like "God's blessings this year." That's something I count on.

This week I came out of the closet to my Bible study group. I told them about my depression and asked them to pray for me. One person offered this chirpy advice: "Are you taking vitamin B? I take vitamin B every day and boy can I tell if I don't take it!" She told me that she heard on the radio that the mental health facilities would close down if everyone took vitamin B.

Oh my. I'm confident that she wants to be helpful, but that was an awkward moment.

It feels good to have told them, if only so that they see all of me. It's hard to find the right time to announce that I'm clinically depressed, but it is reassuring to me to feel known. Maybe that's a new year's greeting: May You Be Known This Year.