These last few years I have really started to understand how connected we all are. The worst idea to capture humanity is the idea that we are individuals, the notion that their can be individual joy that ignores the collective. It’s not possible to exist in a vacuum, nor is it desirable. It is the shallowness of ego, the delusion that you, I, or we alone matter.

I see now the reality of connectivity, that I exists solely in my relation to others. Whether that be in the immediate effect, with friends, loved ones and family, or in the more abstract sense of the child who knits my socks. It’s not to say that we cannot be different, but it’s to say that our joy is universal and our pain is ordinary. The hopes, dreams and desires that you hold are held in many hearts just like yours. Just like mine.

In ways, we are like one life. For nothing exists on its own, yet we choose to live in ignorance of one another, we choose to see our struggle as a recluse, instead of the rallying cry for justice in our shared experience. But choices are ours to make, so choices are ours to change.

Asya Valentine, Busy In Wonder