A legal professional mental health series by Senior Fellow Don Blackwell of Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, LLC, in Miami, Florida
In the lyrics to her hauntingly beautiful and troublingly relatable hit, “What Was I Made For,” singer/songwriter Billie Eilish laments, “I think I forgot how to be happy. Something I’m not. Something I can be. Something I wait for. Something I’m made for.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve allowed myself to lose sight of JOY far too often in my life. It’s easy to do amidst the noise, when you’re preoccupied with adulting, when you are (or believe you’re) uber important, when you take yourself way too seriously – get mired in the “doing” rather than the living and the loving.
The thing is the more times you lose sight of JOY, the harder it gets to find it again. You forget where to look for it, what it feels like – how important it is. Some eventually stop looking, decide it’s just not worth the effort, that they “weren’t meant to be happy,” resign themselves to a life devoid of it. My dad did that.
Don’t be that person.
If you’re in a season where you’ve lost sight of JOY, take up the search. Try to remember where you found it the last time it went missing. Start there. And, if you’re still struggling to find it, consider looking where I most often do – in the heart of a little child, because JOY tends to go where it knows it’s always welcomed.
LCA Senior Fellow Don Blackwell is a Partner in the Florida offices of Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, LLC. Don is a former Adjunct Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University, St. Thomas University, and the University of Miami. He is an outspoken mental health advocate, and the author of numerous feature articles that have appeared in various local, state, and national legal publications. Don’s first book, "Dear Ashley ..." - A Father's Reflections and Letters to His Daughter on Life, Love and Hope, is a compilation of life lessons learned in the midst of his daughter's decade-long struggle with a life-threatening illness. Since its publication, Don has written and spoken extensively on issues relating to mental health, eating disorders, compassionate professionalism, and the need for greater civility in the legal profession, all of which has made Don a highly sought after guest on webinars and podcasts tackling those increasingly critical subjects. In 2020, Don organized and hosted the “Legacy of Hope Summit” - a first of its kind symposium attended by more than two dozen highly-respected experts in the eating disorder field aimed at arriving at a blueprint for the path forward in the care and treatment of those insidious illnesses. Don’s second book, Retune Your Heart, is scheduled for release in June of 2025.
