Some bipolar anecdotes - Poem: Requiem for Onyx

A bipolar friend and I are corresponding via email. Here's what I recently wrote:

Yes, so important not to let people know you have bipolar d/o. They won't hire you if they know.

Quick story.... I've got so many.

I applied for a job as a psychotherapist and mentioned I run ND.

And why, said the interviewer, who happened to be a Catholic nun, did you start the group?

Well, says I innocently, after all she's a nun, I have bipolar disorder.

I happened to know the woman who did get the job. She had far less experience than me and couldn't treat all patients populations as I was doing.

Prejudice !!!


When I was younger I didn't tell a soul. What if my kids' friends found out? "Your mom's crazy," they would taunt them.


At Dan's party thother day a few people sought me out for advice about bipolar, which I was grateful to answer. I certainly don't have all the answers but I can guide them. Plus sometimes there just aren't any answers.


At Symphony Manor this morning, the nursing home where I work, one woman said she was afraid of cats. I wanted to get to the bottom of it to find out if persuasion might help her.


Not a chance.


Told her how I never liked cats until my son Dan moved in with his two cats. That did it! How can you not like those cuddly critters. At Dan's house they've got three of them.


My writer friend Donna wrote our entire Writers' Group telling us her beloved cat Onyx had died. We did know he was old, but we didn't expect him to die.


Here's a poem I wrote for Onyx, while not really knowing her gendre.

REQUIEM FOR ONYX

Donna's cat

Her eyes. If only you
could have seen her eyes.
A million secrets
hidden inside.

Her fur. If only you
could have seen her
fur, plush, inviting
our hands to land
inside, there to
comfort ourselves
and receive the
love that knows
no boundaries.

She has left her
home, our laps,
the sliding glass
door where deer
and skunk and
woodchucks taunted
her outside.

What shall I do without
my Onyx?
What shall I do?

***

Whenever I work at S M, I arise early, make my omelet and pack a lunch, in today's case a salad.

When I was totally ready, I sat down to watch Netflix.... hmmm, what should I watch?

Criminal Minds. It's always ex-celle-lente!

But I had to leave with 7 minutes to go. So exciting!

I go a new way. All the way up Byberry, turning right at Pine or Buck and then landing onto County Line Road.

Don't you love expanding your mind by learning new things?