This has been very much a recurring theme and acknowledgment for me over the past year. Connection. My One Word for 2019, in fact. I see both the human need for connection, and the blessing of making and having good connections, in different cultures and locations all around the world. I do acknowledge that for some people, this takes effort to get past fears and out of your comfort zone, and for others of us, it’s as normal as breathing, something you actually seek out at every opportunity.
When we think about connections is it just the people that we know? Or is it the people who know us? How do we get to know them, to truly connect with them and know what is important to them? By asking questions and then listening. Truly listening. People tell me that I have a lot of connections. I do, but not in the sense that I have strings that I can pull to take advantage somehow. I cherish my connections with people who have trusted me enough to share something important, like the source of their wisdom, or concerns they have about serious things. Heartfelt losses, health scares, tragic events that happened to them or childhoods best left as a distant memory.
Nelson Mandela used the word “ubuntu“. Ubuntu is a Zulu word that means “I am, because of you.” People are people because of people. We need each other. We make each other what we are. We are connected to people because we were meant to be. Some as a result of our families; other connections are from encounters which we have had the privilege to experience. We call some of them “lucky” and others are the result of years of planning and preparation. I recently told a good friend that “I think that I’m a collector of stories”. He gently corrected me by observing that I was “a collector of experiences which have become stories”. I appreciate them all.
I appreciate every connection as a Moment of Grace.