…how is it that we even stand apart then to observe this?
“When we try to pick out
anything by itself
we find that it is bound fast
by a thousand invisible cords
that cannot be broken,
to everything in the universe.”
John Muir
It isn’t that this is not true…it is that in the middle of this truth, we at times find ourselves utterly isolated and alone, even while connected.
Why is that?
Discuss
Charissa's Grace Notes 
Okay, so this is a lot for me to discuss this early. I think we get so wrapped up in ourselves that we isolate ourselves without knowing it. Whether it’s because we don’t want to burden our loved ones, don’t want to hear what they might say, or feel that our own problems are trivial compared to what others face, we draw back and then when we are looking for that friendly face or kind word, we look around to find ourselves feeling quite alone. Just yesterday I texted Diane and told her that I just couldn’t talk about what is troubling me, that it was just too much. Even as I sent the text and she responded, I knew deep down that wasn’t the truth. I am toying with the idea of canceling my lunch date with Steph. Why? I need my friends right now and only 1 of my 3 is on the line lately but I know the other 2 would be if I just said the word. What is holding me back? I wish I knew why.
I wish I knew why people feel so unconnected and alone when they really aren’t. Maybe it’s something deep inside them that’s telling them they need to go it on their own for just a bit? Maybe it’s to make a person realize that there are connections to other people and life and fully appreciate it when they discover it there. I don’t know.
🙂
Sorry- that’s what you get for asking for discussion before my caffeine has kicked in. 🙂
Kat it is exactly what I am asking for…how about everyone else? Do you wrestle with this weird dynamic of how we are so connected to everything and yet also so isolated? Or are you connected always, flowing always?
I don’t think there is any “right” answer, in the sense of 2+2+4…just authentic ones.
I just had a conversation with Steph about this exact thing. Her daughter is in college, struggling a bit with depression maybe and all her roommates seem to be having the same problem so all the girls sit in their solitary rooms miserable and alone when they are all just a door away from each other.
I liken connectedness to a spider web, which is oftentimes invisible until run into or seen post-rain against the backdrop of sunshine. It was there all along, of course, yet somehow we missed it. Perhaps we were not paying attention or perhaps (a greater perhaps) we didn’t “intention to see”.
I find certain pressures and expectations in and through connectedness. When I am struggling the first thing I do is to distance myself from That noise. I stop going to the gym and church. I push back from friends and confidants. And I stew in whatever it is that is paining/troubling me (not saying this is right, btw). Sometimes the sheer knowledge of connectedness is like subwoofers, magnifying the Music of others, instead of my own. Distance allows me to turn up the bass on the subwoofers of My heart, so my voice and Truth are manifest and blown into being.
Yet…
whether we are distanced or dangling from the web of connectedness, we are still part of a much greater whole.
At times it doesn’t feel like it.
At times we may not want to be.
But we are.