Am I the only one that has times of feeling alone living on a planet of a billion people?
A better word might be disconnect.
Disconnected is different from being alone. I have felt disconnected in a room full of people and I have felt connected while totally alone.
When I am connected I feel part of a larger whole. This state seems to be intricately tied to my mental health and well-being, and it was how I first understood the word “God”.
God started for me, and still is, the whole thing. The bigger thing to which I belong. I am a part, and I am connected to all the other parts. Or as yogis like to say, “Namaste”.
When my youngest child was learning violin the teacher explained to him that when he played the E note on his violin using other strings, my son’s E string would start to vibrate. Something in the space between the strings was connecting them. It is called resonance.
When I’m feeling disconnected, it is that space in-between that I need to tune into. I am seeking resonance.
How each of us does this is quite individual, but it always takes a form of bridge making, that you feel more often than see.
Nature is often a bridge from the larger whole to each of us. There is a practice of going outside and looking up at the sky when someone feels lost. The posture is so universal that you can visualize it immediately. When we look at the sky, or a beautiful tree, body of water, or large vista we are automatically connecting with what is larger than ourselves. Try it. Go on outside, take a deep breath, and look up. Feel it? Resonance. We are outside of our little self-in the space between-if only for a moment.
Artists often connect by creating. Their art is a bridge made from them to you. Our souls resonate through time while looking at what has been created. Writers do this too by building mental bridges of shared humanity that can be powerful.Speech and vision setting are other forms of connecting art. I notice this particular lack from leaders in the world today. I crave hearing a vision of our shared space with a sort of pleading desperation letter that I can’t figure out where to send.
Too often I get task oriented, but when wise people advise to listen, not just hear, or to be present, not just solve, I believe they are speaking of the sacredness of this space. Truly seeing another person, or hearing their soul is rare today. Caring for the divine in that space between is where I see God.
The greatest truth I know is that we are all connected to each other. For good or bad, neglected or nourished, this truth will remain.
And in a world that sometimes get transactional with broken bridges everywhere, I remain convinced that this bridge building, creating resonance, tending the space between, will be the most important work we do for our health.
We are built to build it, feel it, and respond to it, as surely as the violinist’s E-string.
