You Are Not Depressed; You Are Distracted
by Facundo Cabral
[Listen to Audio!]
 You are not depressed; you are distracted. You believe that you have lost something, which is impossible, because everything that you have was given to you. You did not make a single hair of your head so you can not own anything. In addition, life does not subtract things, it liberates you from them. It makes you lighter so that you can fly higher and reach the fullness. From cradle to grave, it is a school, and that is why those predicaments that you call problems are lessons, indeed.
You lost nobody; the one who died is just going ahead, because we all are going there. Besides this, the best of him/her, his/her love, is still in your heart. Who could say that Jesus is dead? There is not death, but only movement. And on the other side there are some wonderful people waiting for you: Gandhi, Michelangelo Whitman, St. Augustine, Mother Teresa, your grandmother and my mother, who believed that poverty is actually closer to what we call Love, because money distracts us with too many things, and makes us apprehensive and doubtful.
Do only what you love and you will be happy; the one who can do what he/she loves, is blessed and destined to have success, which will definitively come, because what must come, will come, but will come naturally. Do not do anything for obligation or commitment, but for love. Only then there will be fullness in your life, and with fullness everything is possible; and possible without any effort because what will move you will be the natural force of life, the same that raised me when the plane crashed with my wife and my daughter, the same which kept me alive when my doctors predicted that I would have only 3 or 4 more months of life.
Liberate yourself from the tremendous burden of guilt, responsibility, and vanity, and be ready to live each moment deeply, as it should be.
You are not depressed, you just need to be busy. Help the child who needs you, and that child will be your child’s partner. Help old people, and young people will help you when you be old. In addition, service to others is an absolutely guaranteed happiness, as certain as enjoying and taking care of nature for those who will come tomorrow. Give without measure and you will receive without measure.
About the Author: Gautemalean poet — excerpted from here.
Latest Community Insights  |
You Are Not Depressed; You Are Distracted
How do you relate to the notion that losing something is impossible? Can you share a personal story of a time you did something for love instead of obligation? What helps you stay aware that distraction is at the root of depression? |
| Kristin Pedemonti wrote: This one hit very close to home. As someone challenged with episodes of depression which is very real and part of my brain chemistry, I must say that though I agree with much of the thoughts presente… |
| rahul wrote: Another way of re-stating this is that life is offering sufficiency at every turn for the task at hand. Our distractions keeps us unaware of the underlying ebb and flow, and never quite clear e… |
| david doane wrote: I think of losing something as losing track of something, not knowing where it is, being deprived of something by my own doing or someone else’s doing. Something may still be mine although I’ve… |
| Bradley A Stoll wrote: When I first read this, I immediately recalled a Prince Ea video that I recently watched, which can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykvC3QXJb18 It seems that much of what is writt… |
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