How much loneliness have you felt this past year?
How much have you found yourself facing what you wanted to avoid?
How have you cared for yourself?

What promises have you made to yourself?
What promises have you broken?
Broken promises sometimes
lead to better promises.

How have you been brave?
When have you been scared?
It’s ok, bravery and fear
go hand-in-hand.

How have you shown up for your self?
How have you shown up for others?
Sometimes, showing up for self goes
hand-in-hand with showing up for others.

We are inextricably connected to “self and other” or as Martin Buber called it “I and Thou”. Who we are and how we are known is shaped in the interactions of the “in-between” or mutual spaces between us and other people. If there is anything that has become clear to me is our need for that engagement with others. I don’t mean it is always about talking, sometimes it is just in being or working together. We learn and grow together. We grow in how we understand ourselves and how we understand others. We learn to live in the warp and woof of our lives.

So, be gentle with yourself and others. How you care for your self, does matter to others. How you care for others does matter to your self. In individualism, we lose or ignore this dynamic and then lose our footing. But when we realize we are interconnected, we find a pattern for context, meaning, and texture in our lives. Embrace the self-other dynamic.

—Dianne