**warning for discussion of religion and suicide**

For a writing class, we were asked to reflect on the following short poem. My response was heavily colored by my experience with the church at large (or at least the evangelical subculture), particularly regarding the treatment of mental illness. Since this is the first creative writing I’ve finished in years, I decided I should share my response.

Write down how many things you want.
Meditate on how many things you need.
When you write them down
You will see
That you want millions of things.
When you meditate
You will notice
That you need only one thing
And that is God the Compassion,
God the eternal Compassion.

- Sri Chinmoy