4.4.23 - Psalm 22:11
What do you need to not feel alone these days? How might you offer that to someone else?
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is no one to help.
It sucks to feel lonely or experience isolation. To not know who to reach out to or who to trust. To know where to turn for help, for conversation, for consolation.
We are social creatures. We gather. We share. We care, cajole, and commiserate. We were meant to share our lives with other people and when we are alone, trouble appears.
It appears in the form of hyper-critical inner dialogue, in the form of poor physical and mental health, in the form of languishing or burnout.
We've entered a time when many of us feel alone. I know I've felt it from time to time, like the tides it comes and goes in my life.
And yet, there is a fear of being vulnerable. A fear of not knowing who I can turn to in those moments, of wanting to be real and honest, yet not wanting to burden someone.
But shouldn't that be part of what it means to be a community? An unstated contract that we can show up when trouble is near and know that others won't be far from us.
How can you hold space for someone else today? Or, alternatively, how can you ask someone to hold space for you today?
--Jason Whitehead
Want to make your commitment to doing things differently stick?
Share it with someone.