"DEAR NANCY" Letter From My Friend, Kathy

Dear Nancy,

You're such a talented writer. (Please don't think I'm just saying that.) I've been severely depressed and what you communicate, how you communicate it, is so "right on".

I read some of your blog when you first started it and it was different than what I read today, it's like you're peeling away the layers of your experiences, your very psyche, and there's a profound transparency in your later entries. Your very soul is visible...

Your life would make a great book for people going through depression, recovering from it, or those in a relationship with an individual struggling with depression.

Your intimate experience dealing with darker issues helps us truly understand the degree of isolation felt by the depressed person, the inability to process the love and proffered help from others.

I'm so glad that you've made the decision to use your woundedness in the past count for something, to help people. What would have been the point otherwise? If all of that can't be re-packaged to count for something, to profit someone...the entire experience would have been rendered meaningless.

Your depression wasn't something you could harness and control. More importantly, it's over. You'll never get depressed like that again. Your strength undergirds your writing, your speech. You're transformed. You described yourself in one of your blog entries as a "people pleaser". I now officially dub you a "people provoker", lol. Where you once used your insight and powers of analysis to manifest endless compassion and understanding in the lives of others, you now use those same inner gifts to provoke others to look inward, own their attitudes/behavior, respect boundaries and thereby begin the process of constructing their own lives. You are a very stable and creative person, the emotional ground you stand on is so solid.. I love seeing the real you, the one whom you were designed to be...
Your friend,
Kathy