When You Think You’re Alone, Here Is Why You’re Not
Click here to listen to this story read by Author Kay Walker
In case you’ve forgotten,
You belong to the world.
And your country.
And the community where you live.
You also probably belong to many other communities. Mothers. Fathers. Marketers. Writers. Football Watchers. Football Non-Watchers. Artists. Tech Enthusiasts. Stanford Engineers. People who can roll their tongues. People who eat cake with a spoon not a fork. What groups are you a member of? Probably more than you realize.
You belong to the mother and father that bore you. Whether they shaped you positively or not. Or gave you a great life or not. They did give you life and they contributed to your values today.
They may have also given you siblings. In which case, you belong to a larger familial clan too. Maybe it’s a big one. Or maybe it’s small. Maybe you think these people are annoying, or weird, or these people are too blunt sometimes. But you do belong to that family.
You belong to friends. Whether you know it or not. Whether it’s expressed often or not. There are people who love, respect, and enjoy your company dearly. You might have a big social group or a small intimate one. You might see friends weekly or more when you travel. You might even be friends with people who think of you as a friend whether you know that or not. You might have social media friends who love to read your posts. They may not always click “like” but when they scroll and see you they smile and they think “like”.
You’re littlest actions have touched lives in ways you’ll never know. There are strangers you’ve exchanged moments with who will never forget you. You had a chat with a waiter about the University you attended and you inspired him to go there. Or you made the lady at the driver’s license bureau laugh when you went to renew your license. Or your eyes sent shivers up the spine of a barista because you look like her dad and you reminded her to call him just before he died unexpectedly.
You probably have animal friends too. (Or maybe they are more like your family). They might be fur-babies you cherish or bugs you’ve saved. They are grateful to you, that giant human that snuggles them or who scoops them into a cup and leads them to freedom.
The trees you’ve walk by, the plants you’ve trimmed, the water you swim in during the summer months, you belong to a Universe too. It’s far greater than anyone can fathom.
Lastly, you belong to you. There’s a soul inside – call it your inner voice, or gut instinct, or intuition – whatever you think “it” is, it’s always there. It loves you. It guides you. It wants you to have fun, and laugh, and smile, and connect, and be as self-expressed as possible.
So NEVER believe you don’t belong. Because if you do think that, you are WRONG.
This also means you are never alone even if it feels like it sometimes.
You belong.
Am I being too poetic?
Well then, you may prefer this wisdom from the Dalai Lama. He puts it straight:
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with mosquito.”
(If you need to learn this on an experiential level to really get it, then try that.)
But the bottom line is,
In case you’ve forgotten,
You matter.
Far more than you can ever grasp.
