This We Believe

We want to speak of the need for human connections and about the loneliness that all of us seek to rise above:

We believe that all of us fight loneliness. It’s a part of the human condition that confronts and challenges each of us. Don’t we all need to form connections with someone else? Isn’t life about the relationships we create, the people we invite into our lives, the people who invite us into theirs?

We believe that life is a search for relevance. We all want to matter. We all need to know we are important, that we make a positive difference. What we all need to understand is that by our very existence, we matter. We are all people of significance simply because we are, because we are here.

We believe that purpose is embodied in our relationships with others, with everyone who is part of our lives. It is most meaningful in our closest relationships – that of our spouses or significant others, our parents, our children, our siblings, our most cherished friends.

People and a variety of relationships surround us all the time. Yet most of us are lonely. Most of our relationships have no significant depth, no intimacy. We are carried through life and while we connect with others in countless ways, most of those ways are superficial, barely piercing the surface, rarely opening up the real issues in our lives.

That often leaves us feeling empty, unsatisfied. So much of life, we believe, is the search for an antidote to our loneliness. We want to know that others care about us. We need to believe that others understand us. We crave connections that validate us, fulfill us and confirm within us our relevance. Yet … yet … how often do we find them? How often do we feel empty enough that we are forced to ask the question: Is that all there is?

Author Miles Franklin has written:

Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.

Ms. Franklin understood something profound. We are all created to share, to connect with others, emotionally, physically, spiritually. We all want and need to be heard, to know that others listen and care. We crave intimacy. We are in a constant search for validation and for our voices to find resonance with the lives of others.

We believe it is in this search that the loneliness we fear begins to lose its power. Then we are able to open ourselves up to others – to share with depth and intimacy who we are. Then we are able to share what is good – the joy, the hope. Then we are able to share what is not always so good – our fears, our frustrations, our pain. Then we are able to share our dreams and our vulnerability, unashamedly, with another. We believe this is our purpose in the world. We believe our life’s meaning is measured in this sharing, this connection, this antidote to loneliness.

Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash