The Little Things

In times like the one I am in right now, of oppressive, suffocating loneliness, it's good for me to try to be present to and appreciate those little things that make me smile. God is so in the little things, you know? Like today, this brief interaction between one of my students and I, when she first walked in the room this morning. I must have looked like hell or something, after crying on my way to work and just feeling like crap.

Shonshana: Hi Bethany
Me: Good morning, Shonshana
Shonshana: Are you okay?
Me: No
Shonshana: Oh, you're in trouble?
Me: {grinning}

Maybe you have to know her to appreciate this, since she's always getting in trouble for one thing or another. There was just something so endearing about that exchange. I loved that her first response was to assume I had gotten into trouble. It was just so sincere, and sweet, and funny. Thank God for those moments of light.

Public Service Announcement: Isolation

Drawing from my conversations with people, it seems clear to me that pretty much everyone struggles with some strong feelings of isolation. I really have lately (I'm also an only child who had a tumultuous family life...kind of lends itself to feelings of deep aloneness that I am constantly having to battle). Our culture also lends itself to that, and I really think it's a profound evil that is running amok in our culture. So this is just a public service announcement to all of us to say: Enough already! Call someone! Initiate! Take a risk!

If almost everyone is feeling isolated, and most everyone struggles with initiating because there's a risk of being hurt and rejected, then no one is ever going to hang out with anyone, and no new relationships and communities are going to be formed. And while I'm not saying that I am the queen of initiating, I do try to reach out to people and to ask people to do things and to try to get to know people. But I often feel like people don't initiate with me as much as I initiate with other people. And it's not that they don't want to hang out with me; because when I suggest it they are all over it. But there are those people who are never initiating, and always just waiting to be approached...and to you people I say: stop slacking and just do it already.

Take this as a potential message straight from our God to you. If you are feeling lonely, don't stare at the phone (or your email inbox or your IM window or your myspace account) waiting for someone to come and rescue you from your isolation. You are not the only one who feels isolated. Pick up the phone and call someone else, who might also be feeling isolated. If you always leave it to someone else to do all the work, that's just not fair. Get off your figurative and literal butt and go love someone already!

End of public service announcement.