No Limits | Free Spirit
We Are All Orphans
Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com
“We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.” Orson Welles
“We are the universe pretending to be individuals.”
The other day I went into a restaurant to have a bowl of soup and as I was being seated a lady in the booth directly in front of me said “I knew you were bald (My head is shaved) because no one wears a hat as well as a bald man.”
I said thank you but the lady continued to talk to me. She was explaining that she recently had a gastric bypass and was therefore on a strict diet. I encouraged her and wished her the best. She then said a curious thing: “ My mother died recently and now I’m an orphan……”
The woman was in her late sixties so it struck me that she would consider herself an orphan at this age and I thought to myself “what did she really mean by that comment?”
I thought more about this and realized that really, we are all orphans. We are born alone, we live alone with our thoughts and we die alone. Some of us are more alone than others. Some are more fearful of being alone. Some are never alone.
This, I think, is a pervasive thought, “I am alone”.
But…. is it really true? Are we really alone? Or is it a desperate “human” feeling, a longing for a human connection? Or is it possibly the tribal need for togetherness and unity?
I believe that it is a human feeling, a blurring of our true vision. The truth is that we (and everything) are all connected.
The feeling of aloneness (or loneliness) is merely us forgetting who we really are.
I spend a lot of time alone. I travel the world alone, I camp alone. I love it but I haven't always been ok with being alone. I used feel lonely and felt I needed someone to travel with or camp with. I don't do everything alone, I camp with my family and grand kids and when they get older I'll take them with me on some of my travels. My wife used to travel with me all the time, she just got tired of spending days on end looking at ruins or staring at exhibits in museums all over the world. I have a "problem" in that I am endlessly fascinated by history and events and love to travel to all those places and stand where Alexander stood and my other heroes stood and visit the actual battle fields and new discoveries being made.
Travelling alone internationally is not everyone's cup of tea and I've definitely been to some places that most people would never go to, (e.g. Gobekli Tepe, the Hittite capital of Hattusa, Midas' tomb....)
I spend a lot of time alone. I travel the world alone, I camp alone. I love it but I haven't always been ok with being alone. I used feel lonely and felt I needed someone to travel with or camp with. I don't do everything alone, I camp with my family and grand kids and when they get older I'll take them with me on some of my travels. My wife used to travel with me all the time, she just got tired of spending days on end looking at ruins or staring at exhibits in museums all over the world. I have a "problem" in that I am endlessly fascinated by history and events and love to travel to all those places and stand where Alexander stood and my other heroes stood and visit the actual battle fields and new discoveries being made.
Travelling alone internationally is not everyone's cup of tea and I've definitely been to some places that most people would never go to, (e.g. Gobekli Tepe, the Hittite capital of Hattusa, Midas' tomb....)
We can never be separate from anything. We are all made of the same stuff and connected in an endless field of connectivity.
There is no space between anything. We swim in a sea of particles. Those particles create all matter and connect all matter.
Particles make Atoms which make Molecules which make Matter.
So next time you start feeling alone, try to remember that although we seem separate and it feels like we are separate.....
We aren’t.
You are not alone. You are part of everything.
If you can get that, you’ll be way ahead of the game.
Most humans never really get that until right before they close their eyes…..and breathe their last breath...... and realize..... they're going home.
