Welcome back! People have asked about you and I've been worried about you, but hoping that you were having a good break and doing okay. Please thank Jonny for me for showing up when he did. He must have been inspired. I have been praying for you. Maybe someone heard.

Did you get your light box? You said that you were going to get one; that your friends were getting it for you. It isn't a cure, but it does help.

People change as they learn and grow. They would happily take you along with them if you let them, just like Jonny thought of you and invited you to go along with him to Jasper. They don't want to leave you behind, but it is up to you.

Since you asked how we are all doing, here I am. I'm busier than I thought I would be with going back to school. The university keeps throwing rocks in my path and sometimes I just want to give up, but if I did it would be devastating to me, so I keep plugging along. I just hope they will award my degree this year so that I can apply for graduate school. I would have graduated 12 years ago if I had not had an incomplete in one class (which wasn't even required). I had two majors. One department said that I would have to basically re-do the entire last year and I can't from where I live now, so I just dropped that. The other one said I was okay, and didn't see the point in me even taking more classes (I am anyway), but now they have decided that I have to take tests to revalidate my classes from before because it has been so long. And they wouldn't answer my questions about what I needed to do to get the tests and take them. I finally caught someone on the phone and have that set up, so I take the tests next week and will have one more hurdle crossed. I'm not really worried about the tests - it was just that they were treating me like I don't exist. Sorry to talk about myself so much, but you did ask.

I really want things to get better for you. They will if you let it happen. And I wish that you would talk to someone about it - your choice but please do. I know that you don't want to go to a mental health professional, but like Heidu said, maybe it would help to talk to a pastor or religious leader of some kind. Life just doesn't have to be so bad, but you need to let someone help pull you out of this rutt, and we can't do it from so far away. You don't have to deal with it alone.

Thanks for the update. It's nice to hear from you again.

<font color=purple>"The real problem of mental life is not why some people become insane, but rather why most avoid insanity." -Erich Fromm</font color=purple>