Good morning dear friends! Don't you just love Mondays?
Ok, I get not many do, but I love the fresh start to the week. Feeling like I can start fresh. Sometimes I need that. Just let go of all the chaos and start with something I can handle. Like a blog post.
Sometimes I worry about what to write about. I want to keep being consistent, because I always see the best results when I do that. Sometimes I just don't feel like I have much to say.
Today I do though. I just want to thank you for being here.
I've been thinking a lot about connection and how important people are. I feel like the world we live in is growing more and more isolated. Maybe it's just me.
But I watch people fighting over politics and not wanting to leave the house so they use grocery delivery or order takeout and shop online. We binge our favorite shows and avoid human contact except with a few chosen favorites that we somehow found over the years.
I've been pretty reclusive myself as of late. I've been so focused on getting work done. Work that excites me, and that I feel the need to get done sooner rather than later.
It's interesting to me to then see myself in social interactions, at church, running into someone at the grocery store, etc. and seeing how chatty I get. I need people.
In fact, human beings are social creatures and we are wired for social interaction. But it's tragic to me that people are willing to deal with the side effects of not having that sociality.
Connecting with others allows us to be more emotionally stable. Talking with others allows us to vent, to grieve, express joys.
Have you noticed an increase of anxiety in the world today? Maybe even in yourself? I wonder sometimes how much of that comes from not feeling like we can trust anyone.
The more people I connect with, despite (and sometimes even because of) our differences, the more I realize that there are a lot of good people in the world. We aren't perfect, but we are all trying our best. That gives me so much hope and helps quell a lot of my own anxiety that I feel on occasion.
I'm also someone who loves and needs a lot of hugs. I've noticed that having a husband and increasing the amount of hugs I get daily has helped me in so many ways.
Also, can we talk about dating for a second? It's hard to be alone. I was single for a very, very long time. Dating was incredibly difficult and frustrating and I hated it so much. But now that I'm with my husband, it was so worth every bad date and every heartache I felt.
Yesterday in church, my mind wandered a bit. Quite far from the lesson actually. I'm not even sure how I got there, but I thought of history and how we went through a phase where we thought "separate but equal" was a good idea. It's not, and luckily, we kind of learned that lesson. But did we really?
Back then, it was a forced separation based on race. Now, we willingly separate ourselves from others, resulting in a loss of communication and unity.
Spoiler alert: this isn't any better. To separate ourselves based on different opinions, thinking there is only one right answer and that we have it is not going to work. It's dangerous.
The only way we can really grow and learn is if we are stretching ourselves outside of our comfort zones, getting to know people and how they think, and figuring out how we can work together.
It's frustrating and hard and sometimes even painful, but it is necessary. Separating ourselves from others for any reason means we are going to miss out on that person's unique gifts, their knowledge and wisdom from their unique life experience.
We are cutting ourselves short.
We cannot be separate but equal. There is no equality in separation. It leads to a lopsided stagnation.
I, for one, don't want to live that way.
Over the weekend, as my husband was leaving to go to work, he saw a neighbor working on a vehicle. All Erich said was, "Well that doesn't look like fun."
They started discussing what was going on and the man complained of having to pay $1200 for new tires and how expensive things have gotten. Erich mentioned I had some tires from my vehicle that had been totaled in my last car accident. Really good all-weather tires that we were willing to sell for $300 just to get rid of them.
Mind you, I had been trying to sell those tires online for three months. Erich did it in 10 minutes with a conversation.
Turns out, this guy was simply visiting his son, Zac, who is our neighbor that we have seen, but never spoken to. Now my husband and Zac have hiking buddies and will stop hiking alone. He also happens to be a physical therapist and he showed me a couple of exercises I can do for my neck and shoulders.
It's been less than a week and I already feel a huge difference.
We needed this neighbor and we had no idea. He needed us and didn't know it. Zac's dad has been so worried about his son who always reports he hasn't really met anyone new.
My husband and I plan to invite him to dinner next week.
Do me a favor today, will you? Go out to get groceries, or dinner, or the post office, or something. Find an excuse to talk to someone new today. Say hi to a neighbor. There's plenty of people that work customer service. Strike up a conversation and say hello.
It's amazing what a simple conversation can lead to.
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