An
Opening
“Pay
attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God
is up to in your life.”
Henri
Nouwen
During
the pandemic isolation, I’ve attended a fairytale study group on Zoom once a
week. There were twelve participants, including Melissa Werner, the Jungian
Analyst leading the study. I knew most of the people in the group, but some I
had never met because they live in other cities or states. One woman, Marie,
lives in Australia. It was unexpected to have an Aussie in this group of
familiars, and I listened extra closely to anything she had to say. She, and
others in the group, sparked my curiosity—I found myself wanting to ask them
questions, not about the fairytales, but about their lives. Conversation is a
conduit for human understanding and bonding.
The
isolation of this pandemic has made me pay closer attention to the people who come
into my path. Meaningful conversation at any time in our lives is tonic for our
souls. Not all conversation is equal, of course, but just telling our stories
and listening to other people tell theirs, helps to keep body and soul
together, now more than ever. If you think about it, even in the womb, we
listened to our mother’s voice and oriented to her speech. Just like the birds,
we learn our song from listening to others sing theirs. In conversation, we
learn as much about what we are thinking and feeling as we do about what others
are. For human beings, conversation is a need as well as a want.
During
this time of isolation, God hasn’t stopped putting people in our path. One of
the benefits of feeling socially constrained is that we’re tuning-in more acutely.
We’re paying attention now in a way that we weren’t before. Perhaps, whether we’re
conscious of it or not, this pandemic has reinforced our awareness of our need
for human companionship and connection. It has opened us. And that’s a good
thing.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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