Missing Community in The Third Place

 

marchmeena29 Photographer

Lately, I have been craving going back into coffee houses, but even if I go in to get a coffee, you are not welcome to stay and chat. The tables are marked do not sit. The staff is nervous you came in. They fear being exposed to covid and you are ushered right back out the door. I miss hearing strangers talking. I miss the community that this third place once held for us. We are currently without community and it has been hurting my heart for a while. 

Is there a solution to us not meeting, to us not feeling safe to go out to eat. Some of us have been in the house for well over a year with outings to pick up the groceries with no contact with another person. You pop your trunk they place them in and you leave. Or you go through a drive-thru and your bag is waiting for you on the ledge or a tray and you do not see anyone else.

this life seems fragmented at best. We are parts of this or that. We are missing connections, community and family, and friends. I year to sit somewhere and listen to others bits of conversations and see whole faces and be friendly to others ago. I cannot tell you what any of our new employee's faces look like. I could not tell you what they look like because we are constantly wearing our masks. Life has pivoted so we are back in our office, but this is not a new normal, because this is not normal.

As we move forward into what we hope is a corner of unmasking and feeling safe with our vaccines, I pray we all come together soon. I miss you, I miss the world, I miss seeing smiles, and I miss listening to others tell stories. We do not gather as a writing group anymore, we do not see peoples expressions as they read our words, and I sit along in my writing office with my cat ignoring me, ( he always does ) and I pray you are safe, you are well, and you are loved.

Soon I will have my first grandbaby, soon I will start a marriage, soon this year will be over and we head into the unknown and I pray we all make it safely and we pivot back to a life where we all connect again.

How are you coping? In all honesty, I have battled depression. I know a lot of you have as well. There seem to be more mental health issues arising now or we have just been able to be still enough that we noticed them. I know I push through this life like a bull in that china shop, but I am trying to slow my life down. I am taking cues from my mental health and taking time to work through it, to listen to my heart, to learn to be at peace with myself without being the bull.

I am here if you need someone to listen. I am a good listener. Life has changed for so many of us and we do not know what is coming down the tracks, but we know we can pivot and deal with it once again. 

Take care of yourself, you have one life, treat yourself with kindness, compassion, all the things we have with our friends but not ourselves. Know you are enough as you are right now. Know you are not alone even though we feel that way right now. You are wonderful and may your life be filled with love and happiness. Know that no matter how the world changes you are perfect the way you are right now!

May you be at peace,

Debbie

xoxoxoxox