For all who suffer

I hope you both know that we all care a lot for how you feel. Depression is a mean one, and it shows how strong you are to be in the battle with it. Just know that we have your backs and feel free to unload here. We are good listeners. That often helps to say it out loud (or write it, as case may be). It's better when you are not alone and bottling things up.

Nice quote and a very large image too.


I'm in it for the long haul.
Thanks 2-ton.

That is very beautiful SysTemX sooo true

Wallace!
Warrior!

A story.

Years ago I met a man by chance who happened to be a sheep rancher out Idaho way. We talked long enough to discover we were kindred spirits, as Anne of G. Gables was fond of saying. So much so that he asked if I had any advice to offer the wife in a young couple who had "moved West" from New York City, overshot the mark, and landed--not in Ohio but--in Ida-dangnabit-ho.

She, he said, was used to the no-sleep energy of the New Rome and was, so it seemed to all who knew her, sinking into the abyss from the sheer weight of quietude.

I immediately had a response--if not an answer--"Tell her to 'create.' It is what we humans were made for! and when we are happiest!"

You two--brothers of the paint if you will--already have a leg up on the young lady (may she live long and happily!). Even if you feel depressed, and I sometimes too do, make something beautiful, even if all you do with it is place it among the others. Even if no one comes forward to tell you in this life how beautiful your art, and you, are (and already this forum has taken some of that uncertainty away...), even if--as I say--no one comes to you, imagine that the one who truly appreciates and understands your efforts finally one day finds your trove. Imagine the joy, poignant though it may be for having missed each other, that that one experiences discovering, and relishing, and cataloging your work!

My Great Art Idea turns out not to be what the masses actually had in mind for the moment, but I just don't want to make what they want. I want to keep making what I delight in--and put it on a stack for a grand-child. Or great-. Or gg. Or the trash man with the artistic eye. Someone will delight in them. Someone will ask, "I wonder how many he actually made of these? I wonder how to go about looking for what happened to the rest of them."

If I am never to be praised, through all eternity, for any artistic quality of my works, still I am determined to make some later viewer of my output exclaim, "My! He certainly kept busy!" :^)

Thank you two for daring to let your friends know. (And thank you, friends, for daring to let others know you care.)

God bless us, all!

Dear Loved Wallace:

It takes great strength to personally acknowledge what is going on internally; it takes an even greater person to voice it. You are a great individual.

Depression and a sense of hopelessness is not a sign of weakness but the fight in you to keep going - you know you should. Easier said than done huh? Hang in there Wallace, PM, post, email whenever to whomever you feel comfortable with - we're all here for you.

I've had the following for a while - thought I'd post.

How about a virtual holiday?
TravelByDrone

Thanks for your sentiment Gramp.
I may create something in the next few days, but don't hold me to that.


I've always fancied myself as a survivor, but never thought surviving would be so tough.
Thanks Dalia


Thanks for the link Odin.
I went back to the city of my birth, New York and saw some old familiar places. Which brought back found memories of when I was a child. And also my last place of residence in this city, Queens NY that I grew to love so much and miss terribly. It nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Hey fellow New Yorker. I was born in what was then good 'ole Brooklyn - I have amazing childhood memories and horrible nostalgic moments. I'm sure, in my mind it was great for me I know for my parents it wasn't - wow what a job of rearing, protecting and pushing my brother and I forward.

Like you, my last "abode" was in Forest Hills, Queens. Loved it! Personal choices and life took me away from New York and boy how I wish I had never left.

Dear Wallace and The Warrior

We all live in a hostile and competitive world, although we weave illusions that the world is beautiful and wonderful. This helps us to deny such a harsh and adverse reality. All living organisms wage a daily struggle to survive. And continue living and reproducing, because life is this mysterious thing that drives us.
(Un)fortunately, we humans were endowed with a very keen sense of time. And although this perception has enabled us to do projects to better survive, it also makes us realize our finitude. That's why we were so sad when we age and our capacity is diminishing. I could not get over the illusion of youth that we are immortal and everything we can.
I tell you I have 66 years and am heading inexorably to an irreversible loss of vision. I knew it 3 years ago and I was very sad. But we are also endowed with a capacity to endure that over which we have no control. I am very sad to know that one day I can no longer admire the beauty of the work of all of you. I love to read and also saddens me the idea that sooner or later I'll have to live away from my beloved authors. But how well life is not only sadness and there are pleasant surprises, I found at WEB the entire work of Marcel Proust read by a girl voice clear and extremely affectionate. I'm sure I can be a little less miserable if you can enjoy these nice sounds and acquaintances when no more can exchange words and pictures with you here in Gimpchat.
I hope to have the dignity to go through without me consider a wretch, a miserable. I know that I share the finitude with all other living beings.
How to explain the Buddhists, our vast ego can not realize that all componentes that constitute us are immortal: atoms.
I don't have the consolation that my ego or my soul will have a post-mortem existence, but I try to have the decency to retire from the world to give way to those who are coming and will continue to do beautiful things here in Gimp and everywhere.
As you can see, we're all in the same boat, adrift. We can do several things to improve our living conditions, but we have to have the humility to accept that we can not control everything.
As a Brazilian writer (João Guimarães Rosa) says: "Life is very dangerous."
Remember that one day the earth will exist no more.
Believe me, we have the ability to make small adjustments in our brain to support our progressive impairments.

CD - You are a

---

profit I meant prophet sorry

Green peace have banned candles from my birthday cakes.

Ah, Carlos, us oldies are living the proof of this slow disintegration, but I am determined to enjoy and do what I can, while I can. Every day that I wake up breathing, is a day I can experience…something, anything, good or bad, it is still something.

2-ton, I think like you. I take each day as if it were a gift.
Thanks, SysTemX for beautifying my words. You are very kind.

I was born in Staten Island, and lived most of my adult life in Woodside Queens. I miss it so...


Thanks Carlos for these words of wisdom.


Thanks so much SysTemX...

You're welcome, Wallace. I learned several things with you. One of them was always be kind.

Thanks Carlos.
Many people have responded to this posting. Which was a pleasant surprise, as well as a shock to me. I haven't realized how much I've effected others in such positive ways. I have always managed to treat people as I myself would want to be treated, with respect and kindness. Even in the face of hostility, kindness and respect can prevail and be victorious. This has been how I've lived my life thus far and will continue with this practice indefinitely.
It pleases me greatly to know that I have enhanced yours and others experiences while here on Gimp Chat.
I adore this place and the wonderful people that reside here, and you my friend are included within this group.
My only regret is that I did not find this place sooner.
Thanks again Carlos.

Wallace: not to steal your thunder, just to show you can survive almost anything life throws at you.

These are the steps that have taken me from a very fit and healthy 47 year old to a terminally ill 53 year old.

1) Undiagnosed Diabetes
2) Massive deterioration of arteries and organs leading to extensive surgery (and death on the operating table).
3) Progressive organ failure.
4) Development last year of Parkinsons disease with a hint of Alzheimers.
5) As with Carlos, the prospect of loss of eyesight.

To have everything that your life consisted of taken away in basically a single heartbeat is difficult to deal with indeed.
I vowed to go down fighting and that is exactly what I am doing.
I am thankful that I still have mobility, my family (especially my 6yo and my 11 week old sons), the ability to use GIMP scripts and plug-ins as I have lost the ability to draw and paint.
GIMP CHAT has grown on me like... well!
My advice for what it's worth: Be thankful for what you have, be grateful for what you could have and above all appreciate the things that you do not have.

I rarely speak of this, but anonymity helps I guess.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

I hear ya.
"I cried when I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet"
Thanks for being that man SysTemX.