Everyone wants to be seen, heard, valued, and connect. Sometimes, though, the boundaries between where this kind of connecting is appropriate, and where it isn’t, I feel, are getting blurred.
I like to keep things really private and personal, if they are private and personal. I don’t want to overshare and I don’t want people to overshare with me, without invitation. Such conversations can only happen, for me, when all the right things are in place.
Real conversation, real connection, authentic relating: these things don’t come in an instant. An acquaintance told me sometimes I can just ‘talk to a stranger about anything and get it all out’, that I can ‘just say whatever and feel better afterwards.’ I said, ‘No. I don’t do that.’ Such personal sharing is reserved, for me.
Might explain why I do not use social media, or have a smartphone: I guard my time. Especially because of the pandemic, when I was ‘stuck’ in Viet Nam for 20 months. [deleted] Lands on the moon, et al. I have a few true friends: this is lovely. [deleted]
Despite all the laying low and not-sharing, still, and all, there comes a time to open up. Again. Too.
Coming out of the other side of a tunnel may be a time to jump-start new things. I’m introducing myself again to a few, going out into the world, ‘greeting the world,’ et al, as we talked about on the podcast episode “Certainty.”
So refreshing to do this. Also: I’m seeing that this helps for a lot of other things, too. Efficiency, the best use of one’s time. I am reappropriating and reallocating where I give my best attention, and time, and energy, so that the things that matter will get done incrementally. Now that I have decided what those things, exactly, are.
It’s good. A good moment.
I can talk about how I got to this spot of letting go of the things that weren’t really going to work, and landing. Landing on the moon.
Sometimes you reach for the stars, but you land on the moon.
Let’s talk about it, where we are. As and how and whenever we feel ready to connect, and interconnect. Sometimes it’s nice to just talk. I have these virtual forums and also sometimes, very occasionally, calls. To connect us and give us all space to listen to each other. What’s working, for example, quite well. I have a soft spot for appreciative inquiry.
Also, it’s neat to just give people a chance to talk, together. Sometimes without any idea of who each other is. It’s not work and it’s not personal life, so there’s a kind of release you get to have when you’re hanging out together in a semi-public space. Like a Third Space. Or a pub, or a library, or anywhere that’s where you can go and just be around other people who are also there to be around other people: ambiently, and agendalessly. I used to do this in real life with conversation salons, but things changed with 2020. I changed, too.
To be a part of conversations in S P A C E, the first thing to do is let me know you’re there. Reading, curious, and interested.
Here is a link.