On My Mind Monday

“No man is an island,” said John Donne. I feel we are all islands – in a common sea.

Gift From The Sea

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I find myself thinking of this Donne sentiment often, yet I don't think I wholeheartedly believe it. There have been so many times in my life that I have been detached, remote, isolated or removed. That feeling of being alone and disconnected...it doesn't exactly conjure up images of the island paradise we often dream longingly of. Why is it that when people are asked to list three things they can bring with them if banished to an island existence, other people...loved ones...almost always make the cut? Then I read this recently and the 150 watt lightbulb went on in my head.

We're islands in that we desire to be understood, heard, seen. Often we don't get the validation we seek and need. In togetherness, we can still feel so solitary. I'm confident we have all experienced that uncomfortable sensation of being utterly alone in a crowd...even a crowd of people we know and love.

The common sea...it's these life sustaining predilections that drive us...feed us. It is the needs and wants we all yearn to fulfill.

We're so much the same in all of our differences. Is that what makes us recoil, retract, recede when we are on the verge of truly connecting and understanding?
I wonder what we would be capable of if we would just look to the horizon where the sea meets the sky instead of fixating on our own shores.