Dearheart,
Yet again, the events of the world have me reeling. I know I'm not the only one. In the past week, I have heard more than one person say that they feel alone. I feel that, too. It's not just a sense, it's a full-blown sensation. Heaviness that makes each day a challenge. A deep, deep sadness that doesn't feel completely my own.
At first, I blamed Mercury for entering yet another period of retrograde. In the last few days, though, I have come to realize the undertones of loneliness in those physical sensations. Not loneliness in the sense of "I need to go out and socialize," but loneliness as in feeling disconnected from the greater collective.
Are you feeling it, too?
Do you wonder how it's possible that one human could drive through a crowd of other humans? How any person can inflict pain - purposely - on another? To add insult to injury, there is the background noise, a buzzing chorus singing "they deserved it." Heartbreaking.
If yours is a heart that wishes for greater peace, love, and understanding, maybe you're feeling those pangs of separateness. It's a pretty shitty feeling, to be perfectly honest. It can feel hopeless.
The thing is, as long as we live from ego, that sense of "I," we will always have issues in our relationships, both on a personal level and a national (and global) level. And seeing that ego is naturally present in every human (and few learn to master it), there's little chance of a complete annihilation of hatred.
So what can we do? In the midst of the internal emotional weight I picked up recently, an answer came, loud and clear.
On a quick errand, I left Richard, my husband, alone for a hot minute. As per his usual M.O., he struck up a conversation with a gentleman standing at the checkout. By the time I arrived to pick up our bags, he and his new acquaintance were exchanging phone numbers. I'm going to admit, this scene usually causes annoyance on my part. Today, though, it was so clear that Richard, in his extroverted nature, has it right.
The way that we resolve the issue of separateness between humans is to remember the truth: there is no separateness at all. We are all waves in the sea of humanity. Not individual waves, never bumping up to others, leaving ripples in our wake. We touch. We touch through our words. We touch through a smile, by standing up to injustice and calling it what it really is, by seeing other humans as no different than ourselves.
I'd like to end with a beautiful reminder I received today. If you feel alone in your desire to make a difference in this world, stop. Right now. Take a breath. A deep one! Know that there are others just like you, whose primary message is one of love. It doesn't take a lot to notice them. They are the people volunteering at schools, at hospice centers; the people planting urban gardens and feeding their neighbors. They are the people you see on the street who smile at everyone they pass.
We're with you. There are many of us. And together, focusing on the little things in our personal lives,we can create ripples of hope and love throughout humankind.
"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." - Mother Teresa
BE LIKE WATER
