In the loving memory of Edith

Hello Edith,

November 03 2011…

08 years already.

We always think of you, but lesser in suffering as when you left us.

We regularly think of you, soothing, rewarding.

Your departure remains a source of inspiration to accept the difference, the being one of a kind.

To be different does not seem easy in a world where one attempts unconsciously to make everything fit into well-defined, pre-established, well-circumscribed frames. The frames of our certainties.

Where anything that goes beyond or out of these frames cannot be "normal".

Edith, one of your messages remains in my mind. A major one. The one on listening.

Listening to the loneliness of the person in pain: "I suffer, I love life but I suffer, to the point of wanting to end it, not the life, but this suffering, is it so difficult to understand, my own feeling, is my suffering so difficult to accept? »

This message, as well as that of many other people in great psychic sufferings, is a call to be listened to.

So that the suffering, incomprehensible for the others, is recognized, validated.

This message is also that of acceptance, acceptance of difference, acceptance of others, of their testimonies, without prejudices.

Do not try to understand the other but accept it.

Yes, Edith, the difference is more and more accepted, slowly, gradually.

More and more people are incorporating this essential equation ... they dare to listen without cutting the floor because they think they know better ... dare to listen without criticizing but trying to accept ... dare to listen without giving assassins advices (style: ... it will happen to you ... make an effort ... shake yourself ...tomorrow is another day) but try to hear carefully what is actually said, the point of view of the suffering person ... dare to approach the suffering with the one who suffers, front, face to face, in a tone of conversation, without a priori ... dare to be proactive, the proactivity which incites to express oneself, even on the subject of desires for death, of suicidal thoughts, of projects of suicides ... dare to give to persons in great psychic sufferings the feeling of being liberated, empowered… dare to give them the opportunity of, finally, being / feeling able to express their sufferings… way to help them place words on it… way for them to better understand their sufferings… dare to recognize, validate the expressed suffering…

Act in a way the person you are talking to feels …deep inside him… finally I am believed ... my suffering is recognized, validated…

This is an effective way of appeasement, redemption...

Edith, you made us understand that psychic suffering is multifaceted.

Which goes far beyond the medical and therapeutic framework.

That suffering is present in our everyday lives.

At the levels of the individual, the couple, the children, the parents, the cell family, the kin family, friends and acquaintances, the professional milieu, the society ...

Such listening, which gives all its place to the testimony of the other, will greatly ease our lives in society...

Rest in peace Edith,

Your message, your messages, continue to inspire us again and again...

Pierrot, Your dad