After the rain…

What a day….

The first day of Black History Month starts off with the death of an Icon in the black entertainment community!  News of Don Cornelius’ death was heartbreaking enough, but even more heartbreaking is the realization of the pain and sorrow a man must feel to take his own life.  How ironic that the man who lifted so many of our Saturdays with fun, music and lighthearted entertainment, ending every show with “We wish you love, peace and SSOOOOUUULLLL” would come to the end of his life in such sadness?

I don’t really want to discuss such a sad topic as suicide in my blog,  since my business is helping others reach their goals through POSITIVE publicity, highlighting the bright side, “never say never”, hope, you know, all those things opposite of the “s” word…

So I prefer to focus on the fact that “troubles don’t last always”.   When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, we count the casualties by those that immediately perished, but one of my mom’s best friends, by the use of her own hands, came to the end of her life years later.  Did Katrina do it or did she?   Most often we are our own worst enemy.  We tell ourselves, before anyone else can, some of the worst and most discouraging things, and quite often put ourselves in the worst situations.  We believe that no one else will understand, or has ever experienced our pain, but how can that be true?  Just as it started, won’t the rain stop…one day?

I’m not a mental health professional by any stretch of the imagination, but one thing is certain to me:  just like what goes up must come down, it had to go up in the first place, so look for the rise!  It’s not a philosophical quote that I “Googled”, it really is true.

And perhaps our perspective of  “up” needs to change…

I suppose it helps too that we look out for one another, not be so self-consumed that we forget to call, check up on our friends…you know, “a friend in need is a friend in deed”?

Those days when it seems like the sun will never, can’t ever shine again, is it possible to remember that it shined before?  Doesn’t sunshine usually come after the rain….

-Toni L. Rousell, Publicist & PR Professional