Life ain’t always beautiful, sometimes its just plain hard, life can knock you down, it can break your heart. Life ain’t always beautiful, you think your on your way, but its just a dead end road at the end of the day. But the struggles make you stronger, and the changes make you wise. And happiness has its own way of taking it’s sweet time. Life ain’t’ always beautiful, tears will fall sometimes, life ain’t always beautiful but it’s a beautiful ride.
Life ain’t always beautiful, some days I miss your smile, I get tired of walking all these lonely miles. And I wish for just one minute, I could see your pretty face. Yes, I can dream but life don’t work that way. But the struggles make me stronger, and the changes make me wise. And happiness has its own way of taking its sweet time. No life ain’t always beautiful, but I know I’ll be fine, hey life ain’t always beautiful but it’s a beautiful ride.
Above are the words to Gary Allen’s Song “Life Ain’t Always Beautiful”. It is one of my favorites. It speaks of sadness at how life can knock us around and yet reminds us that life is beautiful – no matter what happens. I like that.
Yesterday we had a call – it was not my call but that of a pod buddy. A woman was calling in to say she had been on the phone with her brother and he had told her how depressed he was. She said he was a “cutter” and she was afraid he was cutting again. Because it involves someone doing personal harm to themselves, we code these calls a suicide attempt even if the person calling doesn’t think it is one. She was on her way to his house but wanted us to be there with an ambulance just in case.
She arrived first. She found her brother unconscious with some blood around him but she heard the ambulance as well so ran out to get them. What she didn’t see, or if she did it failed to register, was the gun lying beside him or the hole in his head. From what rescuers said, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
These kinds of calls still get to me. I suppose they always will. It makes me incredibly sad that anyone would feel that death was the only option they had left. It makes me sad that they don’t realize that, while they are feeling knocked around now, life is beautiful and it will be alright if they just have faith. Even now I feel like crying for this young man – how alone he must have felt that he would kill himself.
I complain about the stupid callers – the ones who really shouldn’t be calling 911 for their stupid little reasons. What I wish, every time we have one of the above calls, is that the person had reached out to us. I implore every person out there to please pick up the phone and dial 911. We are there for you and I promise that you will talk to someone who understands how you feel and will take those feelings seriously.
I understand him reaching out to a loved one and that he probably didn’t think he wanted help. But reaching out of any kind is a call for help – if there wasn’t some part of them who didn’t want help, they’d leave a suicide note and kill themselves rather then picking up the phone.
We are there if you even think about thoughts of suicide. We will talk to you about what is happening in your life and help you get the help you need to feel better about life. We are not just law enforcement people – we are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Please people, let us help. And for all those people who call 911 for frivolous things – think about the line you are tying up that could be needed for someone who is in crisis. Use the non-emergency lines – that is what they are there for. Be safe out there.
Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of the wisdom of a moustache. –G. K. Chesterton
