“No life is a waste,” the Blue Man said. “The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we’re alone.”
― Mitch Albom
One of the most interesting paradoxes of life in the twenty-first century for me is that thanks to the internet we are all so connected and yet many of us feel more alone than ever. It is all too easy to feel misunderstood and alienated. We can reach out to so many and yet actually feel so few. We feel cut off but in reality we are so busy trying to commune with the heart of another that we miss an inner connection to our own hearts.
If we are truly inwardly connected then it is unlikely that we will feel lonely. It makes it so much easier to have authentic connection to others as well. Yet more and more we wall ourselves off afraid to face the shadows that block us from ourselves. We search externally for someone to fill this internal gap. Indeed we quite often find the person who reflects most our own brokenness. This can either result in greater self-understanding or a cycle of attraction-repulsion-dismissal-lonliness and then attraction to another broken reflection of ourselves convince that now we have found the one who will free us and fill that void.
I long ago told myself that I wouldn’t find the person who was right for me until I was right for myself. I finally got to know myself well enough that that became possible and the better I come to know myself and fill my own gaps the better the relationship becomes. When we are truly with ourselves than we can never be lonely.
Blessings, G
“If a man does not keep pace with his
companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let
him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple-tree or
an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer?”
― Henry David Thoreau
What amazes me is not so much how out of step I seem to be with the world around me but how many others there are who at one time or another match my steps. Oh not totally and we each perform them in our own pace and style yet it makes me wonder at times who does keep pace. Is there a mainstream anymore or is there just an illusion of one that so many got to procrustean lengths to either match it or avoid doing so at any costs? I long ago gave up trying to fit any form of mainstream society but also to not fight against it. I will be myself and walk my path and give thanks for the companions I meet along the way.
As much as possible I have given up even trying to describe myself in terms of demographics either belief wise, politically, nationally or sexually because no box quite fits who i am. I believe this to be true of many of us and yet we keep trying to make things fit that just won’t…
That’s ok tho… If my path is my own at least I’ve been working at making the company good and at one time or another it turns out that for steps or miles almost everyone becomes a companion.
Blessings, G
Walking Away by G A Rosenberg 
Off Kilter by G A Rosenberg 
