Earlier in the week, Jerri Clark’s 23 year-old son killed himself. On March 28, Jerri wrote:
Today, extended family of our beloved Calvin Clark arrive in Vancouver, WA, to celebrate his brief but spectacular life and to mourn with us. Deborah Wang, reporter for KUOW, released this article (below).
Deborah interviewed my husband and me as we packed up Calvin's apartment in Seattle last week. She captured some of the complex emotions that flooded us that day and that continue to surge through our systems as we process this tremendous loss and seek a path forward. My goal is not happiness but human understanding and compassion within the complexity of life. I'd like to explain this a little more.
Accepting that happiness is a momentary and fleeting aspect of life and not the "goal" leaves room for grief, struggle, and confusion. Those equally important experiences cannot be disregarded as bad, wrong or something to avoid. Families impacted by mental illness can seek comfort in accepting that happiness is not the only experience worth feeling.
My family and I are going to be with our emotions this weekend, in all of their complexities. Peace and gratitude to all who have reached out with love. Please find courage to sit with whatever you are sitting with right now and see the path lit before you. What is yours to say or do? What does that action look like? How will you make it manifest?
Anne Frank: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world?"
Jerri Clark is the founder of MOMI - Mothers of the Mentally Ill
https://www.facebook.com/MOMI-Mothers-of-the-Mentally-Ill-287852191968017/
Read Deborah Wang’s article: Click here.