Pound! Pound! Pound! Her heart beat echoing throughout her body; she’s running to meet amends. Her arms sway quickly beside her knocking the leaves from the trees on the side of the path, they fall briefly from the tree, up into the air and onto the earth’s ground behind her as she frantically runs past, I wonder if they feel free at last?
She’s gasping and puffing, she’s quickly becoming out of breath, it’s a hard battle to run against the burdens of your own mind. There are many people out there who stroll, you know? They stroll at peace, never running from anything, she envies them.
Sweating, panting, one step at a time, but her legs are quickly becoming like jelly and her breath is becoming shorter and shorter. All of a sudden she collapses, in the middle of the bush, alone, afraid, with dismay she sighs and hollowing breath. She knows she’s going to get caught.
She lays, filled with emptiness on the dirt ground, and all but to her sadness she hears the roar of the manic lion. She quickly picks herself up off of the hard rocky ground and hides behind a large boulder, loud footsteps echo throughout the bush, the manic lion is coming for her! She sits in fear, her heart continues to pound, she’s afraid of what will happen next, if he finds her he will eat her whole, he’s done it before and he will do it again.
She looks to the sky for guidance, but instead sees the dark clouds above, the rain drops of depression are back, she knows for sure that if those rain drops fall heavily upon her she will be poisoned with emptiness and grief. The anxiety and fear become stronger, she cannot run anywhere, the manic lion and rain drops of depression will find her wherever she goes.
She sits quietly, almost in acceptance that she will be running away for the rest of her life. But then, she stands, she thinks of the leaves that fly off the trees that she ran past, she thought to herself that she’s only but a leaf on the tree branch of bipolar, and she CAN become free.
So she stands, still as a statue, she feels the energy from the ground rise up through her body, and with that power from Mother Nature she shouts! She shouts loud and proud; “COME GET ME! DO YOUR WORST!” and in the brisk of the moment, everything is silent, everything is quiet. See, they were scared of her strength, her power, her energy, they were scared to infect her, they were scared to eat her, they were scared because they knew she was a light filled soul who could shine her way through the darkness of depression and destruction of mania. She wasn’t afraid anymore, she was finally free.
She could enjoy the sunset once again and the way the clouds make funny pictures in the sky, she wasn’t afraid to sing her strength out so that the whole world could hear it. Because she was, in all glory, bipolar and proud!
– Kiki Hope
