{"id":415,"date":"2007-08-15T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2007-08-15T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/mary-magdalene-manic-depressiv.html"},"modified":"2007-08-15T10:00:27","modified_gmt":"2007-08-15T10:00:27","slug":"mary-magdalene-manic-depressiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/mary-magdalene-manic-depressiv.html","title":{"rendered":"Mary Magdalene: Manic Depressive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Guardian Angel Ann<\/a> is a great guardian angel to my children, so, in grandparent style, she bought each of them a picture book and inscribed a message on them.
\nShe also bought Eric and me books. Mine was a book of poetry called “The Living Stones<\/a>.” And she marked it to a page 30, to the poem called “The Magdalene \u2026. Manic and Depressive.”
\n“Dick is going to read this at my funeral \u2026 without the part about a bad marriage,” she said.
\n“Are you planning to go soon?” I asked. And we howled (because each of us has been very suicidal during our depression; in fact, she talked to me daily through one of my most dangerous places).<\/p>\n


\nThe poem made me feel less guilty about some of my symptoms\u2014that they could, in fact, be perceived as blessings.
\nHere\u2019s the poem \u2026<\/p>\n

The Magdalene \u2026 Manic and Depressive
\nShe was a difficult woman.
\nNo one could deny that.
\nIt was her moods.
\nOne day she would shut herself away and speak to no one.
\nNext day she would be the life and soul of the party.
\nAnd expect everyone else to be the same.
\nI don\u2019t know which mood was the more difficult to live with.
\nWhen she was in her cut off mood,
\nShe would stare into space, her eyes distant, her face dull.
\nShe would curl up in a corner.
\nMiserable herself, she would make others miserable too.
\nI was sorry for her.
\nHer marriage had broken and she had no one to love her out of it.
\nBut she was her own worst enemy.
\nIn those moods, no one could help her.
\nSeveral had tried, but everything and everyone would be
\nWrong, Wrong, Wrong.
\nMind you, when she wasn\u2019t like that, it was worse!
\nThere would be a burst of activity,
\nAnd demands on us all to join in.
\nThere would be a hectic round of comings and goings
\nWith her voice above all others in a high pitch of excitement and laughter.
\nI knew the pattern.
\nThe flow of promises made, plans launched, ideas hatched.
\nThen the crash
\nand all the disappointments and dashed hopes
\nand everything and everyone
\neven more Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
\nLord, what can we do?
\nEveryone\u2019s tried to cure her.
\nChildren have laughed with her.
\nFamily have sat with her.
\nMen have loved her.
\nDoctors have treated her.
\nPriests have talked to her.
\nBut she doesn\u2019t change.
\nWhat can we do?
\nMy Son, when I walked the earth
\nI knew such a one.
\nShe saw the sorrows that surrounded her,
\nShe knew the pain of loneliness
\nShe felt the world was wrong, wrong, wrong.
\nShe washed my feet with her tears.
\nShe stood by my cross
\nShe brought spices to my grave,
\nAnd, my Son,
\nShe was the first to see me in the Garden.
\nSo tell her family
\nher lovers
\nher doctors,
\nher priests,
\nnot to cure her,
\nbut to learn from her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Guardian Angel Ann is a great guardian angel to my children, so, in grandparent style, she bought each of them a picture book and inscribed a message on them. She also bought Eric and me books. Mine was a book of poetry called “The Living Stones.” And she marked it to a page 30,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression","category-inspiration-and-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nMary Magdalene: Manic Depressive? - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/mary-magdalene-manic-depressiv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mary Magdalene: Manic Depressive? - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Guardian Angel Ann is a great guardian angel to my children, so, in grandparent style, she bought each of them a picture book and inscribed a message on them. 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