Fashion Stories & Dirty Laundry

Most of us have Time right now. A lot of it.

Since most of us are ‘commanded’ to stay home and ‘have more time’. So what should we do with this time?

Reflect. Self-reflect. Re-access. Do a lot of it. And yes, there are the closets to organize and papers to shred.

I’ve been reading. I’ve been cooking. I’ve been organizing, walking and binging on Netflix. I watch the news once per day which does not mean all day long.  Our cat is getting so much attention that I’m sure she’s sick of us. I’ve been tending to other matters as able.

I’ve also perused social media sites time to time. I haven’t that posted much.

Here are my Sunday’s reflections;

We, the societal We, are terrified of being alone. We are terrified of silence. We fear a lack of noise and buzz of busyness and the scary echo that occurs when we are less busy.

We dread the lull of boredom. We run from it as if it’s our enemy. When it’s actually the catalyst to creativity.

Why?

Why are most of us so unsettled in silence and non-activity?

Social media proves this. While most mean well by posting fun stuff, dance moves or even themselves calling others, I think this may reveal that we cannot stand being alone, or quiet or ‘not busy’.  Why?

Personally I have called family and friends, texted most, and I’m touch with those I know and love. But I have no desire to constantly post selfies of myself during this time. I have food, shelter, many nice things and more comfort than most, but less than ‘some and the very few’. The ‘some or the very few’ that we know mean to be helpful but I’m not sure they are. I do not think posting selfies from fabulous homes and excessive luxury actually HELPS but emotionally harms most in America right now. (Note: some are doing it more tastefully than others)

Case in point: I walk to CVS and get a few items, I ask the check-out young man how he ‘was truly doing’. He told me he just lost his second job. There you go. Why would someone like that want to see selfies from huge homes from people that don’t work paycheck to paycheck? It seems cruel although it’s seemingly harmless in the moment while on social media.

Right now, there are 1000s of students in Los Angeles that are homeless and in foster care and they have lost the safety of going to school. To me, it would seem demoralizing for them to see young ones in bikinis in their backyard pool without a care in the world.

Why aren’t we more self-aware?

Why?

Why can’t we turn it all off: the noise, the posts, the selfies, the pictures, the constant ‘look at me thing’ we have going on today?

Why can’t going on a walk, cooking, spending time with family and pets be enough for one day? Why the constant reaching out?

Because we feel lonely when we are at home.

Maybe I write this because I’m not famous or I don’t have a need to keep up with millions of my Followers who are actually interested in my life — although I don’t think anyone is that interesting to constantly over-share. Perhaps at 50, I am not longer relevant or trendy and thankfully, I am not an Influencer — whatever that means. But I don’t think I’m irrelevant in totality. I think I’m on to something.

Alone is not lonely. Being alone doesn’t have to be terrifying and silence should be peaceful not scary.

If social media and other forms of communication were striped away temporarily, could people function? Could we really sit in silence and think and pray and reflect in peace. Could we eat a meal without posting it first? God I’d like to think so.

All great spiritual leaders expressed this in varying forms. The more we focus obsessively on Self, the less we will hear from Above and move farther away from what’s actually important. That sounds about right for today.

I’m not saying we can’t share or connect. But I am hoping this time at home helps us carve out and trim the unnecessary parts of our life. Silence and stillness are important. Our ability to handle them reveal so much about ourselves.

C. S Lewis said it best: “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” 

Be well. Be healthy and be okay in silence, be at peace. – C. Nor