Please don’t send our positive pillowcases to someone who’s really hurting. Please don’t send them nice pajamas. Don’t get me wrong. Faceplant is designed to help you feel good before you Faceplant into your pillow each night. We love to hear when people enjoy it enough to gift it to their tribe. But pajamas or platitudes aren’t enough when someone really needs our attention and our love.
Depression and mental health issues have been severely exacerbated by social distancing and Covid shutdowns. Gentle souls are paying the price. For those most vulnerable to feeling alone and isolated, our current existence can be too much to bear. The homeless, who are already challenged, now are feared if they don’t have a mask. But depression and mental health issues aren’t limited to the homeless… sometimes they’re much closer to home.
I’ve recently lost someone so very dear to me. Someone so loved, by so many, and yet unable to feel or experience the love we all shared. I can read and re-read the memories written online and see how important he was to so many people… just how many hearts he touched. And I can’t help but wonder if we could have helped. Would one more phone call have reminded him of our love? Two? Twenty? A card? A package? It’s easy to cycle into guilt, questioning what I personally could or should have done differently. But that path serves no one and my pain is raw and real enough without it. Hundreds of people have reached out to our family in some way to express their sorrow and their love. In a perfect world, with perfect concert, could that expression of unified love have reached his heart in time?
These questions are rhetorical, and the answers won’t change the outcome for my family. But what we all choose to do today might change tomorrow.
So today, instead of pajamas or platitudes, I’m asking you to share your heart. Please think first of your tight circle of friends and spiral out from there. Reach out to those who may need a (virtual) hug. Remind them how very special they are to you. Call them. Email them. Facetime or Zoom. Send a hand-written letter they can hold and re-read with a photo of the last time you enjoyed time together. Open your heart to them. Ask them what they need. Ask how you can support them during this particularly challenging time. Then ask them again next week, and the next. They may not have an answer, but asking the question, just might be enough.
Thank you for the love and prayers already shared with our family. Thank you in advance for honoring my request to graciously extend yourself today to someone dear to your heart.
In gratitude and love,
