- Others who have gone through what we are going through now.
- Others who are going through what we are going through now.
- Others who know, who understand, who would listen and help if only we would raise our voices above the whisper in our hearts and ask just once—brave and bold—for help.
- But we don't. We sit together in isolation, and we lament. To ourselves, to the blue screens of our laptops, to the dots blinking on our phones as we hope for the text that might just save us after all.
- Scary
- Thrilling
- Real
- Why do we run? Because real connection takes guts.
- Find your way to sonder.
- Bring your voice above a whisper.
- Reach out and connect.
- It might be the way we're going to get through this.
Sonder—noun: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries, and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you'll never know existed. (Via the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.) Everyone has a story. Everyone. We forget that. In a world full of rush-rush-rush and now-now-now, it's so easy to gulp our air and occupy ourselves solely with the constant struggle to stay afloat in our own ocean. Our story is the most important one anyhow, right? Me-me-me. Us-us-us. Yet we know this is not exactly true. We know a blinders-on existence settles into heartache and loneliness and a desperate life of ennui—often leading people to pills and drink and endless hours of Netflix flotsam, looking to plunge that video needle again and again for the trip to Check-Out Nation, keeping us dull and protected from the sharp pain of living. Because there's one thing we all know for certain: life hurts. But it's also the best thing going and—good news!—there are other people who can help.