Alone together

alone-together

Alone together.

Isn’t the order of words fascinating?

Together alone, conveys such a different sense.

I suspect that currently we probably feel both, at different times.

And that’s OK. Polar emotions are normal in this new environment.

Alone together

In our vulnerability perhaps we are more open.

Even across the airwaves the kind of conversations and exchange we are having are more real. In our isolation there is more connection.

Have you noticed it too?

I wonder if in part it’s because the current situation is a leveller.

No one is exempt from the base needs and emotions that we all feel. We don’t have to explain, because the others already know.

Perhaps the bigger challenge is reaching out and making connections when we feel we don’t have anything to give. Even to ourselves.

When it is hard to emerge as a real person from under the covers.

Even here we are alone together – if we want to be – because the likelihood is that others feel that too. If not right now, then yesterday or tomorrow.

So we don’t have to pretend or put on a metaphorical mask. But we do need to show up.

Because especially in these times, we are not complete without each other. Even if we are alone.

Change

Earlier in the week our friends Andy Hunter and Chris Matthews released a short video as part of the Presence Project. It simply captures a poem that Chris has written for this time of change.

Change

There are moments
When change arrives
Unseen,
Startling in its reach,
Unsettling
In the questioning of certainties,
Old ground, once trusted,
Shifts,
The familiar in free-fall.

Hold me
Through the unsettled,
The unresolved,
The letting go of yesterday.

Give me courage
To be at peace
In this not-yet place.
Allow my heart to still.

Let time shape my becoming
Unhindered by a need to know,
The unfolding of tomorrow
Free of the ghosts of regret.

Ground me in an emerging landscape
Of discovery and renewal;
Grow me
In this fertile soil of disruption

Of truth waiting to be known.

Chris Matthews, March 2020

Be kind to yourself with the kindness that you would show others…

Thanks for reading and being here,

Sue

This week

Has been a different kind of rhythm. Unpredictable, yet constrained. And perhaps in this space, we can grow.