Stay Together

Stay Together

Our streets are less trafficked these days. Places of business have fewer customers. Many are closed. These are strange times in which we’re living. Most countries have policies in place for the protection of citizens from COVID-19, the coronavirus that is making its way through our populations. Unfortunately, these policies separate us from one another. We may avoid the disease of COVID-19 only to suffer from isolation and, in some cases, loneliness.

I’m reminded of a funny story about a tour group whose bus let them off across the street from a famous basilica surrounded by several lanes of relentless traffic. They spread out along the curb to try to cross the street when there was a break in the traffic. Some were darting out when they spotted their opportunity.

“Stay together!” the frantic tour guide shouted. “Stay together! "You cross one by one, they hit you one by one. But if you cross together, they think you will hurt the car!"

I think that is good advice in these unusual times. The best thing we can do is to stay together. It means helping out somebody who is out of work. It means sharing with someone who needs what you have - food, supplies or even some of your time. Stay together. 

We work so hard to keep ourselves safe. Staying away from others. Washing our hands. It’s easy to forget that the most important thing we humans can ever do is to reach out to each other. Just a phone call that says, “I’m thinking about you. How can I help?” Stay together.

I love bouquets of roses. But the reality is that they won’t last long without roots. Cut flowers die. And when I’m cut off from others, I die a little on the inside every day. So we need to stay connected.. Especially at this time - stay together.

Who needs you today?

-- Steve Goodier

Image: flickr.com/Brian Evans

There’s Power in Together

The poet Rupert Brooke set out to travel by boat from England to America. Everyone on deck had someone there to see him or her off – everyone except him. Rupert Brooke felt lonely, terribly lonely. Watching the hugging and kissing and good-byes, he wished he had someone to miss him.

The poet saw a youngster and asked his name. “William,” the boy answered.

“William,” he asked, “would you like to earn a few shillings?”

“Sure I would! What do I have to do?”

“Just wave to me as I leave,” the lonely man instructed.

It is said that money can’t buy love, but for six shillings young William waved to Rupert Brooke as the boat pulled out. The poet writes, “Some people smiled and some cried, some waved white handkerchiefs and some waved straw hats. And I? I had William, who waved at me with his red bandana for six shillings and kept me from feeling completely alone.”

We are all lonely at times. But here was a man who was strong enough to admit his loneliness. One psychotherapist says that a necessary first step toward coping with loneliness is for people to feel free simply admitting they are lonely. For once we recognize it, then we can do something about it.

What can we do? Reach out to friends and family. Too many people are lonely because they have been building walls instead of bridges.

We can also find others who may be lonely and help fill their emptiness. The world is full of them. Mother Teresa used to describe loneliness as “the biggest disease” of our time. And the loneliest do not all reside in nursing homes, nor do they all live by themselves.

Finally, we can recognize that, spiritually, we are not alone. This is a time for us to dig deep into our spiritual being.

Lily Tomlin quipped, “We’re all in this alone.” But, of course, that isn’t true. And great joy comes from discovering the power in the word “together.”

--Steve Goodier

Image: flickr.com/ClaraDon

Be Still

I have noticed that the best way for me to get a few minutes of solitude at the end of the day is to start washing the dishes! And a few minutes of solitude is something I need frequently. A time to be alone. A time to reflect.

I think there is a difference between aloneness and loneliness. Aloneness is necessary for the soul to thrive - even to come alive. Not loneliness.

German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and eventually hanged for opposing Adolf Hitler. While in prison, he wrote letters to his fiancée. The last letter she received was dated Christmas 1944. Speaking of the war that separated them, Bonhoeffer wrote this:

"These will be quiet days in our homes, but I have had the experience over and over again that the quieter it is around me, the clearer do I feel a connection to you. It is as though in solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday life. Therefore I have not felt lonely or abandoned for one moment."

I can be alone without being lonely. In fact, those times of solitude are a necessary respite for a beleaguered soul, set upon by the pressures of life. I need to take whatever moments I can to just be still.

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted," says Hans Margolius. "Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." So I'll find time to ... be still.

-- Steve Goodier 

Image: freeimage.com/danijela