This morning I had a little time to read.  I read the article about Mitchell Wilson, from Pickering Ontario, where his father felt that bullying assisted in his suicide.  I hate reading these stories because it’s yet another person who has been brought down by another person through bullying.

“Mitchell was never the same after the mugging, he lost the spark in his eye,” his father explains.

It’s amazing how such a small word like “Spark” can make such a huge difference in someone’s will to cope and survive.  While, losing one’s spark can be detrimental to most.

I remember my daughter who was always full of spark as a youngster.  It was a gradual depletion.  At first she’d come home and say “Why does everyone hate me?”, then “Why is life so unfair?”,  and then ….well we all know what bullying caused her to try last year.

Since then, she has transformed into this tough, hateful teenager with nothing to give but negativity inside. We’re working on it, but she can’t seem to get a break anywhere.  It’s very tough to see someone, who once was a ray of sunshine, defeated by the wrath of someone else’s insecurities.

My daughter knows one thing though.  That if anyone tries to take her down again, I will be there.  She may not want me to say anything but she knows I’m there for her.  I also pointed out to her that since she wants to handle things on her own, if I see her in a casket in the next few months, well those people who caused it will pay a very high price.   We all want to stand up for our kids.

Bullying is one thing that drives me crazy.  There are so many people who allow bullying to happen and turn a blind eye to it in order to belong.  We see it in our youth, and even in our workplace.  We see it on Twitter, and we see it even in our church groups.

It appears that whoever has the klout, within a certain group, has the free reign to say what they feel, even if it is a negative towards another person.  So while it’s great to have an opinion of a person, sometimes your opinion is best unsaid.

Why can’t we let people just live the way they want and keep the spark that they have created for themselves?  Why bring them down?

End bullying today:

  • Put at end to all of the hateful words and comments about others shared within the home
  • Do not tolerate even the silliest comment your child may say about another.
  • Never talk about disabilities being a failure in a person but an attribute that they can thrive on with perseverance.
  • If you have been notified that you child has committed an unruly action (no matter what the age) towards another, don’t put your back up and deny it.   If it was said, nip it in the bud early.  You don’t need someone’s death on your child’s hands because you failed to see the obvious.

We are not on this earth to be spirit thieves, we are on this earth to celebrate each other’s spirits.

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