Connection rather than Addiction

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." #John13v34

Jesus commanded us to be connected to one another - to love one another. He also made much effort to have a close knit friendship with a band of varying personalities and characters. These men were as important to his ministry as they were to his emotional and physical needs. How important then is our need for connectiveness?

I highlighted this section in the book I am reading "Growth Has No Boundaries: The Christian's Secret to a Deeper Spiritual Life" by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr John Townsend. #henrycloud #johntownsend

Connectiveness and Connections have me thinking a lot this week. With COVID19 one of the things we have lost and gained during our lockdown is different: "Connections". #connections

As we have lost the connections of seeing people regularly in our homes or out for meals. Our need to connect on social media and online have probably increased a lot in our lives.

Dr. Cloud & Dr. Townsend say that when we loose connection we try to fill our lives with other things that satisfy. We could add, addiction to our phones, TV, social media, gaming and work as a few others. The only way to end addiction is connection! Firstly with God and secondarily with others.

Being an introvert, spending more time in my own space, has been easy for me but not always good for me. I can get easily involved in my creative space, making and creating to my hearts content but seldom do I make the effort to connect with others.

I have always craved connectiveness. Again being an introvert, I love having deep meaningful conversations, and dislike the surface shallow interactions that are the basis of most casual friendships. So to find the "people like me" is like seeking a needle..." between cushions on my couch. ;) How do I find my tribe?

Amazon offered me a option on my feed today with Jennie Allen's new book:

"Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World" #JennieAllen

Only to find out that the book is a pre-release purchase and will only be able to find out her thoughts early next year. The pre-release caption says:

In a world that's both more connected and more isolating than ever before, we’re often tempted to do life alone, whether because we’re so busy or because relationships feel risky and hard. But science confirms that consistent, meaningful connection with others has a powerful impact on our well-being. We are meant to live known and loved. But so many are hiding behind emotional walls that we’re experiencing an epidemic of loneliness.

Those words confirm that our need for connectiveness is both spiritual and emotionally important. It also confirms that I'm not alone in my loneliness.

Following #textileartistorg and joining their #stitchclub has been my recent addiction, as I learn more about textile art and the different processes. The most recent tutorial that I followed was by #JeanDraper . She taught us how to make "Stitches in thin air".

As I was working on learning the coral stitch to be able to make these stitch sculptures, I focused on connecting one thread to another thread to another. So I called it "Connections"

The Cambridge Dictionary definition is:

the act of joining or being joined to something else, or the part or process that makes this possible.

Weaving the thread between another thread and binding it it to another was both an act and a process. It was allowing me the headspace to think about Connections and the time to process what it means to be connected. It made me more aware of the time it takes to make such a net and the fiddlyness of the knot. Just the same as the time and awkwardness that it takes to get to know another person.

To ensure that the threads were able to be joined tautly on to each other they had to have a frame structure holding them while the process of knotting was happening. Our friendships need a framework or something that holds us together. Whether it is common interests, sharing of faith or simply a similar outlook to life. This is always the strength behind the fragility of friendship.

Once the work of weaving and knotting is done, the threads need a bonding agent to strengthen the structure, make it firm, less fragile and capable of holding its shape. This is messy work and it takes time to dry but once it is done, you are left with a wonderful strong yet beautiful mesh of colour and texture. Once we go through the messiness of life and the time needed to really get to know someone, the ultimate goal in our connection with others is to be strong, beautiful and different to how we started out.