Friday, October 25, 2013

together

joining here on Fridays. 
one word. five minutes. unedited writing. share.

i work with the under 5 group 
and our days are filled with
"stay with the group." "keep together"
"don't wander off alone"
"work together please"

and of course all of those are important and good phrases.
children are safe. adults are safe. everyone is safe.
and together.

there is often one, or two that just don't want to 
"stay together" or "work together"
they beat to their own rhythm 
and hear the whispers that we,
 the together with other people most all the time,
often don't hear.

i gravitate to those little ones.
i celebrate and honour and make space for their 
aloneness
or perhaps we could rephrase it and call it 
their togetherness
with themselves. with the earth. with their art. with their storybooks.
with their emotions and thoughts and ways of seeing their world.

 i try to imagine what it must be like
to want to be alone, yet always having to be together.
our systems are set up for connection, for togetherness, for mutual support and 
this is not a mistake.
we are created for relationship
but oh how i wish we could honour our relationship with ourself first.
to be comfortable with our personal togetherness 
to detach enough from others to meet ourselves.
this. 
this inner togetherness could  lead to our community togetherness
 being stronger, more authentic,
yes?

 



13 comments:

  1. What a beautiful perspective through the eyes of a child. I especially love the lines beginning with, "i try to imagine what it must be like to want to be alone, yet always having to be together..." Yes.

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  2. When I was in school and actually to this day, I feel the aloneness. The "aloneners" sometimes do not see or just miss that bridge over to the "togetherness' group. How many times have I missed it! Pretty used to my alone time now; still trying to get over to that bridge.

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  3. What a beautiful take on together. I love that you see in children (and reminded me about everyone) that marching to ones own beat doesn't negate together...it's just a different together.
    Those kids are luck to have you see that!
    Glad I stopped by from fmf!

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  4. yes you did it! I'm so glad you joined and linked up too. what a wonder you can produce in 5 minutes! wow.
    "to be comfortable with our personal togetherness "
    love that line.

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  5. yes, yes, definitely yes! I really needed to read this today. You have just managed to put into words some conflict I had in my head today. So true, good to be able to follow our beat. Heather x

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  6. Ooo, a linky-list! This is the kind of thing that makes me regret having to blog privately... Maybe just us five in the Blogging Sisters Coterie could arrange a weekly-theme thing of our own? I've been thinking about it for a while, but haven't brought it up with any of the others. Would you be interested? Maybe we could take turns choosing a theme or parameters or whatever. I think it could be tons of fun.

    This idea of five-minutes-off-the-cuff would be a challenge for me...and you would all be stunned at my pathetically low word-count! I enjoyed reading yours. Like Andria above, the phrase "i try to imagine what it must be like to want to be alone, yet always having to be together..." jumped out at me. I thought at first: Hey, you're trying to imagine my life! That's the reality when a solitude-loving introvert goes and has six kids - and then homeschools! I love my children's company - obviously - and name each of my babies "Mommy's Delight", but life is a constant search for balance between the precious togetherness to which I'm giving my life, and the solitude I need to survive.

    Well! Looks like I just participated in a Five Minute Friday after all... Heh. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Er, I count like a little kid - always skipping myself! Obviously, that should read "us six - plus Mom & Dad if we can persuade them to start a blog, too". (Do you find that hanging around with littles all the time causes any of their traits to rub off on you? I wish I could blame my whininess on my children, but I'm afraid it predates them by a couple decades.)

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    2. Let's see what happens. Start an email thread:)

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