Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast, Monday and Morning Moments with John O'Leary.

I'll record these so that you and I can begin our days and our weeks in awe and on fire with a burst of inspiration.

And I believe where we are right now in the world as summer begins to fade and fall begins to

approach, we need a little bit of that inspiration.

Because when fires ignite or cancers attack or tragedies strike, we lean into our community for support, for prayers, and for love.

But often, when the invisible challenges of depression or bipolar disorder or mental illness,

when they arise, we feel like we quietly need to shoulder all of that weight alone.

September, it turns out, is suicide prevention awareness month.

And because my family and the families of my coworkers and the families of innumerable friends

have been directly impacted by both mental health challenges and suicide, we wanted to

bring to light what too often remains

castigated to the darkness. My friend Dennis Gillen, a gentleman we've had before on our podcast,

understands both that darkness and the profound need for light. Dennis and his four siblings

were raised in an idyllic community just outside of New York City.

When he was growing up, the streets were packed with other kids playing.

Summers were spent playing ball outside, and they only went home when their mom called their names for dinner.

They were days that were filled with laughter and play and life and life. And yet, Dennis's family struggled quietly

with depression. During his first year in college, Dennis received a phone call that his older

brother, Mark, had been in a car accident. The brother that taught him how to ride a bike, the brother that taught him how to throw a baseball. The brother that taught him how to ride a bike, the brother that

taught him how to throw up baseball, the brother that taught him how to climb a tree and had passed

away in his vehicle accident. Upon returning home, though, Dennis learned that even more painfully

the truth regarding the circumstances of his brother's death. His brother car, it did not hit

...