Cultivate Connection

I’m promising myself I’ll write more. It is on every single new years resolution list, vision board, goal list and life bucket list I ever make. Write more. Be a writer. But I never get anywhere with it. I get in my own way. Thinking I don’t have time or a topic or worse, I convince myself that I don’t have anything impactful to say. I worry for a flash second each time I hit the publish button that my words won’t be read. Actually, that’s not the worry. The worry is that they won’t resonate with anyone. But they almost always do.

The fear of putting yourself out there is real when it comes to writing your truth. Opening yourself up to criticism. Opening yourself to judgement. Baring your soul. But if you don’t take that risk you can’t get to the reward: connection. For me that’s what writing comes down to. It’s an avenue to connect with other people. Those I know and those I don’t. If someone walks away from reading something I’ve written feeling moved in some way, then it is always worth it. The ultimate goal is for one person to read my words and think to themselves, “I’m not alone.”

Because we’re not alone. Whatever trials and tribulations you walk through, someone else has too. Maybe not the exact same scenario. Maybe not the same hurt. Maybe not the same story. But the emotions we feel are universal. Happiness. Anger. Fear. Disgust. Sadness. Surprise. And every other emotion in between and extending from.

When I am in the throws of a panic attack, I feel alone and fearful. I feel angry that I have to walk that path. Maybe you’ve never in your life felt the drum beat, heart racing of a panic attack. Maybe the room has never felt like it’s closing in on you. Maybe you’ve never rocked in your bed shaking uncontrollably while you beg aloud to God to make it stop. Maybe you’ve never had to leave an event to hide in a bathroom and cry as you will yourself to breathe in and out. But I bet you’ve felt alone at one point. I bet you’ve felt fear. And I don’t know anyone who has not known anger to rise over something.

Our stories are different. But we have so much that is the same.

I’m clinging to the commonalities right now when it feels like the world (and especially the United States) is so divisive. If we could drop the labels and drop the politics, could we see each other as the humans each of us are? Could we find one thing we have in common and grow from there?

So that’s why I’m here. To hopefully reach the one person who needs to hear whatever it is that flows from my fingers on any particular day. I know most of the time my words aren’t extremely powerful, profound or new. But hopefully I am relatable. And hopefully I say something that will ring true for you one day. That will be the thing that makes you feel seen, heard and/or loved.

This is why I write. Knowing that I’ve created something that might touch another person.

Knowing that my words have the power to connect.

When we connect, we spread light and love.

The world needs your light and your love. Never, ever forget that.