Communication within privacy of four walls only to a mirror, journal or out loud to the air recipes, budget and plans for the day, wonderings about outside people and inside things is routinely comforting.
The public face communicates well over coffee with a friend,
trading money for bits of conversation at the checkout,
brief visits with family here and there.
Scripted small talk or shop talk is easy energy
with tight gaps of silence where no script has been learned.
Private aloneness is comfortable as an old sweater
slipped on at the end of a too public day.
Too easily comfortable with no reason to
pick up the phone
send an instant message
write an old fashioned note.
Left wondering about fitting in with others
if there had ever been a ‘fitting in’
tumbling the same ideas and opinions over and over
in the thought pools of your mind
until they become smooth, bland and uninteresting.
To emerge from deep isolation is necessary but frightening
Too bright. Too loud. Too demanding of time and energy
unsure of how to communicate without a script
unsure of what to communicate that is interesting.
Slowly, slowly becoming stronger and more at ease.
Putting the old sweater away in a back corner
Setting the script in the book shelf with all the other words
Daring to be inspired by others
Reconnecting with buds and shoots of family, friends and community
Opening doors and windows wide and welcoming others in.
“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His
heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if
he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.”
~ Pearl S. Buck
No comments:
Post a Comment