What a radical concept.
The theme of aloneness has been resurfacing in my life in the last few days. I've been thinking about what being alone means and working to reframe my perception on the matter so that realizing we're each experiencing life in a separate body from everyone else can comfort me rather than stir up a big ole pot of fear+loneliness.
So what does being alone mean?
It entails the idea that no other being will know every aspect, dimension, thought, experience or emotion of yours. They'll see certain parts of you but no one's got the whole story quite the way you've lived the whole story.
How does that make you feel? Does it scare you? Bring up feelings of isolation or insecurity or anxiety or dread?
I know it did all of the above and MORE for yours truly.
And then something rather awesome happened last night.
I had a very sudden shift in perception.
It occurred to me that yes, we are all One...from the same source and all made of the same matter and dust.
But we're also alone in this human experience as much as we are in this together as a collective whole. It's an odd paradox but most of life is filled with paradoxes.
To be connected and One with others and to build deep, rooted relations with others, we must accept and embrace that we are each experiencing life from a perspective that is just ours.
This makes us 'alone' but not lonely.
This means we are able to grow in ways that we cannot grow when we tie ourselves to places and peoples with too much attachment and insecurity. If we forget to love how whole we are, just the way we are, we risk losing out on fully and deeply experiencing the magical whoas and ohs of this lifetime.
Beyond feeling alone, can you accept that being alone is a part of this human experience? That is comes along with the joy+growth+sadness+strangeness of life. Can you own the idea that it is possible to be alone but fulfilled and deeply connected to nature, all animals (including humans), the Universe, the stars, the sunshine, the mountains, bodies of water and everything in between.
I feel so safe and joyful in this realization. I am alone but I don't need to resist the idea or try to manipulate this truth because it doesn't fit society's idea of a positive ideal or emotion.
I am alone. I am connected. I am whole.
How bout you?