August Blog – 4th installment of my Mental Health Journey
****Continued from July 2021 Blog****
The past is prologue…my July blog focussed on my personal and family/friends’ struggles with suicide and/or mental illness. And if you line up July’s blog with my February 2021 blog: My Hope Journey, you might notice that at each critical tipping point, I reached out for help – either physically, from another human being or healing resource; mental/emotionally by educating myself or elevating my mood through music or writing; or spiritually by prayer/meditation; or by some combination of the above.
So, this month, I want to look at HOPE through another lens – that being HELP. (Notice that hope and help are only 1 letter off from each other). I don’t believe we can acquire hope in a vacuum. Hope can only be created or instilled when we reach outside ourselves for connection, or when something, someone or some force collides with us and makes us realize that we are “not alone”. I am calling that connection “help”.
Also, I’d like to re-post here from April 2, 2021 blog post: In my “Visual Meditation on HOPE”.
I illustrated the inter-connectedness between all the synonyms for HOPE that I could find, and by doing so, my intention was to create or instill in the reader a feeling of connectedness – injecting HOPE into the reader through visual representation. I found this to be true for me…each time I felt hopeless, I reached outside myself (connecting) for help (even if only through prayer), or I was open to receive help from outside myself (even if only through meditation), and by doing so I got a “hope shot”, a “sliver of hope”, which was enough to help me take the next right step in my life towards the next hope shot, until I was pulled out or able to pull myself out of the dark pit of despair and hopelessness.
Now, for me, the trick is maintaining HOPE. Notice I didn’t say: remaining HOPEFUL. For me, “HOPEFUL” or being full of hope is unrealistic and possibly even a trick or a trap that could pull me back down into despair for believing I failed or life failed me. Instead, I am content to strive for maintaining hope in my own self, my own life and outlook for my own future AND I am sharing this with you right here on this blog, on my website, on my invited podcast interviews and stages, and in my books and writings, with the intention of helping you catch a sliver of hope, helping you to grow your sliver of hope into a shot of hope, and helping you to maintain hope in your life.
Here are some HOPE references and associations that I can relate to:
My favorite HOPE quotes:
H.O.P.E.: Help Other People Evolve – A grief support group for those who lost a spouse, partner
Hero of Planet Earth – David Hopkins
Helping Our Planet Evolve – David Hopkins
Helping Other People Everywhere – David Hopkins
Hang on, pain ends – unknown credit
HOPE is the physician of each misery – Irish Proverb (I am 25% Irish ancestry)
*The next one (below) has a meaningful association for me because I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, which is famous for the Pennsylvania Dutch culture. Furthermore, I lived the first 21 years of my life on a street called Tulip Circle, where the climate was good for growing tulips. They were aesthetically pleasing to me because of their consistent shape; beautiful, shiny, multi-colored flowers; and their thick, bright green stalks and vertical growth arrangement gave them a regal air of strength. Therefore, I seemed to always love tulips:
The Pennsylvania Dutch Tulip symbol means: Faith, Hope and Charity
**The next one (below) means a great deal to me because: I love SuperHeroes! And I believe it’s because they give us hope – that no matter how bad things can get, they can and will always be saved.
“Once you choose hope, anything is possible” – Christopher Reeve (played Superman in the 1978-1987 movie series, and author of the book: Nothing is Impossible)
My first love was Batman from the TV show (Adam West and Burt Ward) and all the movie series. Next, I added Spiderman during the Tobey Maguire movie series. But ultimately, after the Dark Knight series and “Civil War”, Batman went down a few steps, in my esteem because of his dark side, and Superman emerged as my favorite.
I always watched Superman – from the George Reeves TV show, through all the movie series. S0, I wasn’t surprised to have been reminded recently, that the Superman logo represents hope. And also, I learned about a connection with Native Americans, which again came full circle for me because when I was a child and well into my teens, I always felt some connection with Native Americans: I used to wear my long, dark brown hair braided down both sides (pig tails). I actually made a long-sleeve, fringed leather tunic by cutting my outline and sewing two pieces of animal hides together with leather strips that I also cut from the leather pieces. I fringed the bottom edge with hand-cut strips as well. And I bought plain moccosins, which I still have and wear to this day, 40 yrs later.
The Superman shield, also known as the Superman logo, is the iconic emblem for Superman.
Initially, the S-shield had one meaning: S for Superman. One of the first alternative meanings was presented in Superman: The Movie, in which it was a diamond-shaped Coat of arms of the House of El, the family of Superman, enclosing within and at the center, a Kryptonian symbol
that resembles the Earth letter “S”.
This House of El family crest became the insignia of the El family bloodline – a noble, Kryptonian family associated with the Thinker Guild on Krypton. For the most part, members of El were the planet’s greatest scientists, such as Jor-El, Superman’s Dad, who served to advance their civilization for years to come with his inventions. The only known surviving member of this family is Kal-El, known to the people of Earth as Superman. (The Thinker and Scientist connection also resonates with me).
It became a symbol for Clark Kent, representing hope and protection of his adoptive planet, Earth. It is also this very symbol that gives him his heroic dual identity in the name “Superman”, by Lois Lane.
“That’s what this symbol means. The symbol of the House of El means ‘hope’; embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good.“
―Jor-El to Kal-El
“It’s not an “S”. On my world, it means hope.” -Superman to Lois Lane
After the Superman reboot story The Man of Steel, the symbol’s story was that it was designed by Jonathan Kent and was derived from an ancient Native American symbol. The symbol was featured on a medicine blanket given to an ancestor of the Kent family by a Native American tribe after he helped to cure them of a plague and was supposed to represent a snake, an animal held to possess healing powers by the tribe (implying that, by wearing this symbol, Superman was a metaphorical healer) – the Healer is another connection for me: I always wanted to be a doctor/healer and went down several different routes including Music Therapy and Nutrition, until I finally settled on Clinical Chemistry.
In Marv Wolfman‘s novelization of the film Superman Returns, the symbol belongs to the House of El, who brought peace to the planet after a civil uprising, a serpent coiled inside a shield, a warning not to return to the ways of violence and deception (e.g. TRANSFORMATION!).
To certain Native American tribes, the snake represents healing and the curved symbol represents a river (water = healing). This reference to a river was also made in 2017, when the storyline described the emblem shape was based on a river, in the film Justice League.
An inverted “S” symbol, first seen in the comic book series 52, means “resurrection” in Kryptonian – Superman was resurrected with the Mother Box in Justice League. (The Justice League was formed by Batman after Superman’s death, to combat the villains who had become emboldened by Superman’s death.)
To Eastern Indian, Sanskrit – snakes associated with Water: purity, cleansing, emotion, love, motion, nurturing, benevolent, wise.
To Hindu – all snakes protect water = treasure.
**Water continues to be an important healing resource in my life, as I describe in my book and the Free Healing Resources Booklet I encourage you to download from this website.
More Snake symbolism, general: cycles, rebirth, patience, primordial life force,
Fertility Eternity Balance Cunning
Intuition Awareness Healing Intellect
Protection Solemnity Duality Rejuvenation
Occult (hidden) Knowledge Transformation*
(*Meaning also shared with the *Celts, along with rebirth and renewal, i.e. water, shedding; and I am 90% Celtic, so yet another connection with my identity/soul-spirit!)
Finally, in Supergirl (TV series, 2015) Season 1, episode 2 Kara states that the Kryptonian symbol stands for her family’s motto, “Stronger together“, which is my who mission by sharing my story with you!
My person message and commitment to you:
Since writing and publishing my book – Life Launch! Book One, I have committed to helping others work through their life’s traumas, by sharing my experience, strength and hope of how I launched my life out of mine – by speaking on podcasts & stages; through my website, this blog/vlog, and on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.
I also committed to donate 15% of the royalties from my Life Launch series of books, and 15% of the proceeds from the sales of related educational and healing resources available for you at my Arise! Mind, Body, Spirit Healing Institute.
Since my late husband’s suicide in 2005, up through today, I have had a charitable fund in his name to help others who need financial help caring for their mental health: The Benjamin J. Dubrow Rainbow of Hope Fund. This fund is serving the local community in Florida where we used to live through (mostly) my contributions, since 2005, and (more recently) yours, through a portion (15%) of the royalties from sales of my book. And FINALLY, this month, I established a 501c3 charitable organization that I hope will have a global reach: “The Benjamin J. Dubrow Rainbow of Hope Foundation for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention”.
I welcome you to join me in supporting mental health care and making inroads towards lowering the rate of suicide completion, by supporting my work and this Foundation.
More will be revealed,
Dr. Liz
