Just released on Amazon.com (www.amazon.com/dp/0692920196/), my new book entitled: Questions That Matter From the back Cover: Would you be willing to share with me, why you want to live? This question, asked of people so bereft of joy and connection that they have considered ending their lives, has taught Roger Breisch much about life and …
It’s time again for resolutions, but in this moment, it is not New Year’s resolutions I seek. I am, instead, in a quandary about New Epoch’s resolutions. What might I resolve as we enter what many geologists are calling the Anthropocene Epoch? Anthropocene, much like Anthropology or anthropomorphic, takes its root from the Greek anthropos, …
Neil Postman once wrote, “Children are the living messages we send to a future we will not see.” When I ask elders if they believe they can change the course of human history, many believe they cannot. I believe they can. At a recent speaking engagement, an elderly gentleman—heavyset, gruff and wearing a baseball cap—pulled …
The dominant hues in the picture I painted of the young man on the phone were strength, perseverance, courage and determination. All he could see were dark pigments of failure, disappointment and weakness. Sam (not his real name) was negotiating his senior year in high school. In junior high, he found himself in an unspeakably …
Note: The following will appear in the May-June issue of Neighbors of Batavia magazine. Since leaving my last job, when asked about the next phase of life, I generally reply “I’m seeking my vocation.” As it turns out, my vocation has been in search of me, but I was deaf to its call. Vocations, I …
Dear David & Kathryn, Yesterday, on the suicide hotline, I spoke with a young man who is struggling greatly as he nears the end of his high school career. A number of years ago, life opened before him a horrific, hellacious valley. He fell in and was held captive for too many years. In the …
As a result of nearly 10 years on a suicide/crisis hotline and 7 years with a teen anti-drug, anti-alcohol program called Operation Snowball, I am aware there are too many websites extolling the virtues of self-injury, eating disorders and even suicide; and not nearly enough offering a place of refuge and hope. Based on an …
I have been reading Choosing Gratitude: Learning to Love the Life You Have, a wonderful new book by a favorite author, James Autry. He penned an essay entitled “To Serve & Protect” in which he speaks of the difficulties of the honorable profession of being a police officer. In my work related to suicide prevention …
Note: The following are remarks I made to members of the Latino community in Aurora, Illinois. I was asked to speak about teen suicide following another tragic death just before Christmas. Thank you for this opportunity to be with you today. I am here because a mother and father have lost a child …
Every once in a while I am arrogant enough to think that life has left me in charge. When I believe I am, life is quick to remind me of my arrogance. Just before Christmas, the Operation Snowball family lost another teen to suicide. This past Thursday, the teen directors decided to use the …