This Close To Okay

by Leesa Cross-Smith

She was only a bit surprised no one else stopped, no one else pulled to the side and said hey. Everyone always thought everyone else would take care of things.

Morning and night, the ritualistic three or five or ten steps she could control when she couldn’t control anything else.

Had he confused exhaustion for hopelessness? Maybe they felt exactly the same in the cold rain, darkness creeping.

Depression was a vacuum that sucked out everything—leaving nothing behind except the burdening weight of nothingness.

People like to say time makes it easier, but that’s true only for some people.

Even people without a history of mental illness had to go to great lengths to protect their mental health.

Lionel said he didn’t care what his name was; he was his buddy for life after saving him.

After love, forgiveness is the strongest glue holding every family together.