By Heather Gibson

A Message from Ann Ferguson:

My brother committed suicide when I was a senior in high school.
It was one of the darkest times of my life.
I can’t fully describe it with words—except to say the sun was kicked out of my life.

Everything felt dark and numb.

Time passed, and with it came lessons I could have never anticipated.
Watching my brother battle his mental health struggles gave me a front-row seat to the toll mental illness takes on a family.

I witnessed how even the brightest medical minds and the most loving hearts couldn’t lift him out of his illness. I learned about the intense pain he carried, the terrifying delusions that plagued him, and the countless interventions—counseling, medication, hospitalization—that were tried.

These experiences have educated me in ways that have made me a better mom, foster mom, friend, advocate, and human being.

So... was my brother’s suicide a bad thing or a good thing?

The truth is, both good and bad have come from it.

Of course, if I could, I would trade every ounce of knowledge to have him here with me again.
But I believe with all my heart that I will see him again—and that this painful separation is only temporary.

And with that belief, him leaving early is just a very painful, temporary inconvenience.

If there is good that can come from something as devastating as suicide...
then what else might you be able to find good in?

When I open myself to looking for the silver lining, there is always one.
Sometimes it takes extreme faith and mental effort.
Other times, it almost feels comical that I even worried about something when I compare it to my brother’s passing.

That’s the Law of Relativity.
Nothing is inherently good or bad—until we assign meaning to it.
And we often assign that meaning by comparing it to something or someone else in our lives.

Here’s one of my lighter examples of the Law of Relativity:

Several years ago, my family and I went to Disneyland. I had spent a lot of time planning the trip and wished we had the funds to stay at one of the resort hotels right next to the park.
Not understanding the Laws yet, I spent way too much time lamenting the fact that my siblings had enough money to do things like that, and we didn’t.

Then, I spoke with a California resident who couldn’t afford to go to Disneyland at all.
She lived just a few miles away—and still couldn't swing it financially.

In that moment, my entire perspective shifted.
I realized how blessed we were just to be able to travel from out of state and have four-day hopper passes into both sides of the park.

My lamenting turned into deep gratitude.

The practice of being grateful for the good in every situation is what puts us into vibration with the good.
(Remember when we talked about that in the Law of Vibration?)

Now, I’m not saying we should sweep grief and pain under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist.
We have to lean into the pain. We have to experience it to move through it.

Have you heard about how cows and buffalo deal with storms?

When cows feel a storm coming, they instinctively run away from it. But the storm eventually catches up—and then they end up running with it, staying stuck in the storm much longer than they need to.

Buffalo, on the other hand, charge into the storm.
They run straight through it—and spend far less time in the chaos.

Both the cow and the buffalo face the storm.
But the buffalo moves through it faster—because they choose to face it.

Be a buffalo.

Facing the storm and finding ways to notice the good will help you heal faster and bring more good into your life.
Everything is relative.

How will you choose to see your life?

P.S. If you missed the Law of Vibration explanation, you can find it here:

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