WE ARE NOT ALONE

Just a quick follow up to the last post about depression.  I'm better.  Way better.  Back to "normal", whatever that is.  It was a month-long slip-slide into darkness, and now it's light.  Sometimes it seems to happen overnight.  Sometimes I can feel the light getting in through the cracks more gradually.  Anyway, I am grateful to return to feeling like I'm an OK person and maybe, just maybe, people like me (a little) and I'm not a scourge upon the earth, wrong and ignorant in every way.  Sheesh.  

When I hit "publish" on the last post, it was because I was convinced that someone needed to hear they were not alone.  And guess what?  I got comments on the blog; I got emails; I got comments on my Facebook page;  I got one private message; and I got two texts all from people who could relate, who also are challenged by bouts of depression at various times, some currently.  That made risking my own vulnerable sharing worth it.  That is what we need to do for each other.  Be honest, be real, be there.  We are not alone.

I've been reading how we are all so isolated from each other, especially with the rise of social media, the horror of the pandemic years, and the polarized world we live in.  All true.  But I know, even with all those things, it only takes reaching out and telling the truth about our lives to make all of us feel less alone. 

Community can be formed in many ways.  I try to form community here on the blog.  I try to form community on my Inner Journey Yoga Facebook page, even on my personal Facebook page, although so many people these days have bailed on FB that it's rare to get personal sharing there.  But I persevere.  I also do it with the occasional email to my geographically closest neighbors and on the Messenger app group for my family.  Also, every Monday morning I Zoom with a group of smart, funny women friends who have met together now for several years.  I do a phone chat with a BFF weekly.  None of these are in person, none IRL (In Real Life), but they are all also forms of community.  I would miss them if they were gone.  I would be much more alone.

Of course I see family and friends in real life too, but far less often than I did pre-Covid.  I actually sort of like the less frantic social running around.  So it's OK, but I ask myself sometimes, "Do I actually have any friends?" when it feels like I can go days not seeing anyone outside my home, compared to the busy, calendar-full of events and activities I used to keep up with.  I can see why some of us suddenly feel lonely for a former fuller life.

But to completely feel alone, not a part of something, not important to anyone is not OK.  And depression tells us that lie.  That we are not worth being with and we are alone.  So, I'm grateful that my blog post found those who needed to hear that is not true, that we have worth and value and that the darkness will pass.  I'm grateful for the communities that exist in whatever form that keep us connected.  I am grateful for you.

At least, that's the view from here...©

:Photo Credit: www.pixabay.com