Connected

[Cochonette]

Right now I feel very connected with the people here. Because all the things you have achieved, learned, created: you bring them here and share them and I learn so much from you. I bounce my own ideas off of others' here and we have a conversation between our thoughts and souls. And I come back around and start using the same concepts as other people here, and I see others using the concepts I have come up with here - I see our minds weaving in and out, our stories crossing paths. That's when you begin to wonder where each of us ends and the next begins.

I am reminded again of this intensely beautiful story a man tells of his relationship with his wife: over the years he has come to know her so well that he can tell her what she's feeling before she even realizes it, and with each passing year he knows her more and more deeply. Do you know how deeply a martial arts master must know his art? Like this he knows his wife. And it's this sense of connectedness, of being able to form more and more profound connections about your art, or your relationship, how they touch something deep within you... which heightens your sense of closeness, your sense of understanding and trust, your sense of joy and beauty... and love.

Similarly we come to know ourselves, how the different facets of us are interconnected: the sadness to the joy, the anxiety to the calm, the mistakes to the achievements, the self-hatred to the self-confidence. The playful to the serious, and so on. Feeling connected to ourselves, feeling that our various selves flow together more and more into a coherent experience.

Bonded. That's the word.

I feel bonded to the people here.

There are pieces of each of us that flow out of us into others in ways we may never come to see, and there are more pieces of others that flow into us than we'll ever realize. But I like that borderland between knowing and not knowing how we are threaded together.

Chimpanzees form groups and mate with every other adult of other sex within the group... the idea is that the males will stay bonded to each other and be very protective of every child in the group because of the mystery of fatherhood.

[Angela]

I feel like we're part of each other, too, with lots of love.

[AlmostGodess]

It is a great feeling indeed. On many occasions I feel connected to everyone and everything in my world and I have to say the bond with an object is a very interesting thing.

[sandy]

I yet experienced deep connection with "people fr internet" But I truly believe "they are still real human beings behind the screen" =) So I guess I will try harder to feel the same as you guys

[Andrew Gubb]

<3.

[pyrogen]

Aww, I feel the same way about you and my other friends here, very connected!

[hiddenmaverick]

Oh I feel so bonded with this community. Big time. Both here and on my facebook. Where else will I find those who totally get and understand the language of my mind and heart?