Originally posted 10/26/2020
Welcome to another Mental Health Monday. This week my thoughts are on the supporters who help us when things are tough and celebrate with us when things are great. These are the folks we turn to when we need encouragement, motivation, and sometimes a brutally honest kick in the pants. Sometimes they are family, and sometimes they are friends who are as close as (or closer than) family. They are the ones we will call in the middle of the night—whether it’s to celebrate, cry, or ask for bail money 😊 They are our village—the community who helps us raise kids, encourages us to be healthy, and gets mad right along with us when we need a good vent session.
In our age of social media, it has often been said that we have access to more people, more relationships, more “supports” than we have ever had, and yet we are lonelier and more isolated than ever. We have so many conversations in 160 characters or less; social sound bites and cliché phrases rather than true support. We long for depth, mentorship, and belonging; but how do we get there? It is particularly difficult in our current climate of social distancing. Get togethers take even more intentionality than they did a few months ago—and, let’s be honest, we need them more now than ever!
So, who is in your village? Is it family, friends, neighbors, co-workers? Does it change over time or has it been the same people for as long as you can remember? Did they become a part of the village through genetics, common experiences, geography? What stories do you have to tell of what drew you together?
Over the past few weeks this has hit home even more to me as I have been walking through the loss of my sweet grandmother. I have had so much support from my dear friends, through cards, social media posts, gifts, and socially distant time around the fire pit. That support has given me the ability to be a support to my mom. Though the pandemic kept my mom and me apart for longer than we would have preferred (both before and after my grandmother’s passing), and my time with her last week looked different than it typically would—I cherish the time we had to share stories and process the emotions when we were able to spend time together in person. We had talked on the phone, shared countless texts, and even chatted some on social media—but nothing came close to the time we had in the same room. We needed it.
Whether it is with friends or family, connection to the ones who are dear to me feels more urgent. We need people. We need those we can trust to vent to, cry with, cheer with, and love on in all circumstances and seasons of our lives—folks we can just do life with. Those relationships are worth the time, energy and effort they take to build and maintain for the benefit of support, memories, and common ground we can share.
I challenge you this week to take some time and reach out to those in your village. You’ll be glad you did!
Thanks for reading! 😊 EW