Longing and Belonging

I'm glad I belong in this universe, solar system, planet, nation, region, state, county, city, neighborhood, home, family. I'm grateful that I've got a place on this couch, typing on this laptop, adding yet another entry to this blog.

And I'm thankful for you. Yes, you! You're reading this and that's amazing because I most likely don't know you, but I know that you read. You think.

You have your own ways of longing and belonging. You may be nearby or far away. But as your eyes scan, your brain decodes, your personality reacts, we have somehow connected. Thoughts that started in my mind and became fingers moving on a keyboard, have somehow become ones and zeros and then transformed into light and dark, shapes forming letters, letters giving way to words, words becoming thoughts. We are, if only for a few dozen words, a few fleeting thoughts, connected.

We both belong. Yet we both long. It's both belonging and longing. I long for a whole alphabet of acceptance, brotherhood, cheer, dusk, fun, growth, health, inspiration, justice, kindness, love, music, nature, openness, purpose, questions, responses, stability, truth, unity, vitality, examination, worth, youth, zeal. And you? What would you add or subtract from a list of longing?

I'm glad you stopped by. It's true, I wrote this for me. But I also wrote it for you. Perhaps someday we'll meet. Maybe we already have. Isn't it amazing when you meet someone you know you don't know, yet you know there is some longstanding connection nonetheless?