Connection. What is it about connection that feels so vital? I'm not talking about "belonging". That, to me, is something else. Connecting is finding that center in oneself with the presence or help of another person. Connecting has a very powerful impact on a person. It is suggested that it is this vital need for connecting that is not being met that supports the undermining craving for addictions and addictive behaviors in human beings. For whatever reason, a person realigns themselves under the influence of the human or animal being that is in our lives. Anything that brings a person into a better alignment with the best in themselves is a blessing and connecting with a being as an ally in one's life is important. So is being rejected by someone who one is drawn to meet this vital need.
I don't brood about it but I have personally been really shitty to many people especially when I was younger. Woe to anyone who approached me assuming I knew anything about connecting! I didn't know any better and I've forgiven myself for those brutal misunderstandings. One cannot know what one has never experienced or been taught. As a consequence of this spiral of abuse and self recrimination, I was late to the party about connection and the importance of it. So this poem is a bit of a salve and a reminder to me on how far I've come. Being a decent human being is hard especially when one has not received the best tools and information.
Hafiz talks here about our need to be loved in such a way as to feel connected to others. He suggests the vulnerability of always wanting to be loved. He then asks the provocative question of why do we not make this a priority in our lives as it brings such satisfaction and room to grow. Readily recognizing and respecting the love people desire would, indeed, be a mad skill to have.
Thank you for listening.
Music: I thought of the 10cc song I'm Not In Love while I was writing this post and that led me down a rabbit hole on YouTube. I landed on the Pretenders' version of the song. I then found the video made by Alphonso Jimenez which, I think, captures that kind of disenfranchised, disconnected feeling one can find in life when the connections are few and far between. Still, we cannot forgo the striving to connect. It is an essential part of being a human being. I can feel that in this video.
Respective nod to The Herd Films video of the Martin Garrix video that was the source for the images in this video.
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz (including an addendum regarding the authenticity of these poems) can be found here. Also, my thoughts on this series a year into these poems, HERE.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.
My book can be purchased HERE. E-book HERE. The Season Two blogcasts with audio excerpts from my book begin HERE: in Behind The Lines. This reading of the book excerpts in a mixed media format is Season Two of this blog. These recorded excerpts are outside the chronological order in which the book was written. Podcasts with audio only beginning with episode 22 can be found HERE.
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