Dare to connect

We often strive to minimize our need for love, and this keeps us separated from each other.

by Rochelle Sparrow — 

The recent opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics started with a bang of cascading fireworks, shining light into the night for all nations to witness. It was a testimony to our ability to come together. On television we saw faces of different colors and nations with strong, centuries-old political differences now setting aside their axes (to grind) to celebrate their likenesses rather than their differences.

It’s easy to forget the things that unite us in our humanity. Instead, we often strive to minimize our need for love, and this keeps us separated from each other.

So perhaps it is our problems that eventually unite us — the imperfect things we can acknowledge and share with other people that bring us together, rather than push us apart. Amid the world’s strife we can now appreciate that there is a better way, not because we have suddenly become perfect beings, but because we are flawed. This is when we need to connect the most.

My daughter is growing up. She recently made the huge transition to middle school. She loves the Jonas Brothers and has her own sense of style. She wears her father’s ties around her neck with a vest. However, in spite of her self-designed attire, she has many friends and sees herself as the same, even as she makes efforts to be unique. One day she said to me, “Mommy, we all have problems. Joe has a hard time spelling, Shannon has problems with her sister and Kerry talks too much. We all have something we have to learn about.” She is 10 years old.

I see a Jungian analyst, whom I have told things I kept hidden away from people for most of my 42 years. In the telling, the potency of my embarrassment and shame has been lifted away, and I have become human again. I share my childhood stories with other people now. But most importantly, through my sharing, people feel free to expose their stories. Their stories are freed within the light of acceptance, within the light of love. We forget about the sharing and  the necessity of having a witness present to share love and pain, and to see our truth. We forget that in our unity of being human, there really is no difference at all.

Rochelle Sparrow holds a master’s degree in social work and offers empowerment sessions and workshops on psychic development. She is a psychic trance channel, author and is on shirleymaclaine.com. www.rochellesparrow.com or 602-430-6447.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 27, Number 6, December 2008/January 2009.