From The President’s Desk
I was looking at a high school website and came across this link.
Virtual Calming Room (scusd.edu)
“This Virtual Calming Room is a place for students, families, and staff to find tools and strategies for managing emotions and feelings and building our resilience during this pandemic.”
It has an amazingly wide range of activities, including sound music, meditation, coloring and drawing, yoga, live animal cams, puzzles and games, and a lot more. And most importantly, it has information for when people need to reach out to get help when things are just too much.
What can family, friends, neighbors, and co-religionists do when people need additional support or professional help, either for emotional or mental issues? We can love, care and support them with compassion and empathy. What no one deserves is to be shamed or guilted for how they feel or what they can’t control. Of course, if we wanted to be happy, we would be. But many times, we are overwhelmed with life and need some support and guidance.
A good friend of mine, still filled with rage and dealing with emotional issues from a childhood of abuse, continues to get help from a therapist many years later. Judging or shaming her or telling her just to ‘get over it, won’t help her, it will only hurt her more. What she needs from me is my support in her continued therapy, belief that she’s doing the best she can with what she is dealing with, that she can get better, and provide a loving and supportive friendship.
Let us individually be less judgmental about people needing help and more loving and supportive to everyone around us. We have all needed help in the past, and hopefully, help is what we received. Let us provide that same help to the people around us, with God’s love above all.
Serene Erby
President, Interfaith Council