From time to time, we all feel lonely. But am I just lonely in the moment or actually “alone?” Am I lost? If so, will I ever find myself? What do I feel connected with?
I am an only child, and I moved to the US many years ago. After making the US my permanent home some years later, I lost my father. A short time later, after becoming a US citizen, I lost my mother as well, my last immediate family connection back to India.
Though I grew up in India, I have lived over half my life in Massachusetts. When one’s parents live half a world away, there is a constant sense of loneliness. That’s when the desire for connectedness grows stronger. Now, in the wake of a pandemic, nearly everyone understands to some degree what it means to feel lonely and isolated.
One of the definitions of connectedness is the sense of belonging to a community or some degree of interrelatedness with other people. But, to me, connections aren’t just with people but also with the land and places one inhabits.
As I take a walk in the lovely, quiet New England woods the sense of loneliness can be profound. Sometimes the solitude can feel meditative and sometimes melancholic. And yet when I think I am all alone, a stranger will pass by and smile. There are also those who walked the same trails before me. What were they thinking or feeling when they walked here? Is there a common thread in the same spectrum of emotions we all feel - joy, sadness, hope, disappointment, some loneliness? Just like these woods,
