And let’s be clear, here. I use “crawl” very loosely. I’m NOT going to tell you–“Hope + Persistence = No Depression!” because it’s not like that. It’s more like you’re in this pit, and you’re trying to rock-climb your way out, and if you HAVE any strength to grab onto the next rock, you usually don’t, because it might be a mirage and disappear as soon as you grab it, and then you’ll fall and skin your knees and grasp at air so you don’t fall back to the bottom.

Depression says, “There’s no rock that you can grab and get closer to light. Just give up.”

Your feet are grasping at your last hope, some rock you’ve been standing on for a while. If you could just grab that next rock and climb higher.

And sometimes they are mirages. Why else would you think it might be a mirage if it hadn’t been before?

“Just because one rock is fake doesn’t mean they all are.” Hope says.

The therapist puts your hand on the next rock you can grab onto . . .  week after week after week, until you finally grab onto it yourself. Then you have to move your foot from the rock that’s been grounding you for months, years, decades. The therapist moves your foot, but you have to find the right stone. There are so many to choose from. What if you don’t pick the right one?

“There are lots of options,” Hope says.

So, you trust that this stone will hold you, and you trust that this stone is going toward the light and not away from it, and you trust that there is a light somewhere up there at all.

And you scrape your way towards Hope.