Originally posted on Tribe.net on 10/17/08:
Snow leopards are solitary, elusive creatures. A snow leopard roams the realm of the Himalayas remaining alone except to mate.
1) She symbolizes self-reliance as learned thru abandonment and rejection - an experience I know only too well - I was always the geek, the freak or the one drummer who wasn't marching to the beat of others.
2) She symbolizes balance as learned thru living in the precarious realm of the mountain heights. Her paws are wide and well insulated to walk upon the snow. In my life I have tried to learn how to straddle the world of the, "normal" and the vivid world that swirls within my own mind.
3) She understands the power of silence and mystery: gliding silently thru the snow, seeing all but being seen by none. Such is the path of one who has Bipolar Disorder - always flying under the radar, deliberately vague in order to avoid being discovered. The consummate actress: always showing a mask of happiness but often hiding the deepest of despair.
4) She learns to understand the power of the shadow within. Her coat is creamy white but is covered with black rosettes and rings that represent the perfect balance of black and white; dark and light; good and evil.
To suffer with Bipolar Disorder is to face the darkest part of one's self: the destroyer. But to be destroyed is to begin again and again and again. The challenge of this illness is to look into the face of darkness not as enemy but as the balance necessary for integration. There is no light without darkness. The gift of Bipolar illness is the ability to embrace the darkness in order to understand the light.
Snow leopards are solitary, elusive creatures. A snow leopard roams the realm of the Himalayas remaining alone except to mate.
1) She symbolizes self-reliance as learned thru abandonment and rejection - an experience I know only too well - I was always the geek, the freak or the one drummer who wasn't marching to the beat of others.
2) She symbolizes balance as learned thru living in the precarious realm of the mountain heights. Her paws are wide and well insulated to walk upon the snow. In my life I have tried to learn how to straddle the world of the, "normal" and the vivid world that swirls within my own mind.
3) She understands the power of silence and mystery: gliding silently thru the snow, seeing all but being seen by none. Such is the path of one who has Bipolar Disorder - always flying under the radar, deliberately vague in order to avoid being discovered. The consummate actress: always showing a mask of happiness but often hiding the deepest of despair.
4) She learns to understand the power of the shadow within. Her coat is creamy white but is covered with black rosettes and rings that represent the perfect balance of black and white; dark and light; good and evil.
To suffer with Bipolar Disorder is to face the darkest part of one's self: the destroyer. But to be destroyed is to begin again and again and again. The challenge of this illness is to look into the face of darkness not as enemy but as the balance necessary for integration. There is no light without darkness. The gift of Bipolar illness is the ability to embrace the darkness in order to understand the light.
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