Creative in connection
At the beginning of this new year I have determined to get creative in the way that I connect with others. Yes there are my familiar others. Family, friends, those at the school gate and work colleagues. However, I want to meet people that I wouldn’t naturally meet. Those who are very different to me. I have considered my interests and my skills and realise there are courses and groups out there for these purposes. However, I’m wondering more about connecting with others from different walks of life and maybe even from different parts of the world. I want to reach out and discover another way of looking , another perspective.
As some of you may know I have experience of living in South America. Living so closely alongside those from a different culture changed me, for the better, especially once I got back home. Back home I found myself questioning why I did what I did culturally. I had a period of time rethinking my values and repositioning myself….This reorientation to living actually has an official title. Reverse culture shock. It was indeed a shock. It really shook me up coming back home. Much more than moving out to South America to live. It was tough going coming back home but like I say life changing.
I feel like that time has come again but I don’t necessarily need to move. With the internet I can be connected immediately to someone on the other side of the world. I’ve been wondering a lot about how to reach out and be reached internationally.
I believe we do sometimes need to get creative in order to engage in the richness of connection we so deeply desire. It isn’t necessarily just there under our noses. Sometimes we have to go off on a search. It may be for you that just connecting with someone from a different town or different part of the UK is sufficient for this purpose. It may be like me that connecting much further afield will be necessary. I just wonder whether in this year of 2025 we could all extend ourselves in some way? Does connection need to look the same this year? What could we all do in order to reach out and be reached? Let’s be dreamers of the day.
January 2025