The lie of depression as illness is right there in the language. “I’ve got a cold,” we say, or “I’ve got hepatitis.” But we do not say—at any rate, not yet—“I’ve got a depression.” Acknowledging it as a state of being, we say, “I am depressed.”
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Creation, after all, is based on emptiness, on the initial existence of nothingness.
One creates from emptiness and returns to it afterward in order to find the space for the next creation to grow. Depression becomes the nothingness in which “something” begins.
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Both happiness and depression are fueled by the same source: the capacity to feel, to allow ourselves emotion, and to experience the full range of life. This is vitality. Far from being a waste of time, as so many people still insist, depression is as integral a part of human experience as is happiness.
