Last month we spoke about being open hearted, and about how we interact with others, in an open hearted manner. It’s a subject that really concerns me. Because as I look around, and I observe things in the world, I don’t see people opening up now that the world is opening up, I see people being cautious, being more detached than they used to be. Perhaps you have not experienced the same thing.

It concerns me because I think over two years of being isolated, in our own little worlds, we’ve perhaps forgotten how easy it was for most of us to interact socially, to make connections easily. Some of us never did. Some of us always struggled with social interaction. And so, no matter how much they might feel about their family and friends, they found it difficult to share, to let that be known. Because they didn’t know how to do so easily, they didn’t bother. And those of us who were able to be socially interactive, because of the pandemic and not having the verbal and physical connection, perhaps allowed our skills to go a little bit rusty.

Perhaps we felt that Zoom calls weren’t as good as being there in person, which of course they’re not, because when you’re in person, you feel the energy of the person that you’re talking to much more easily. And it’s easier to give somebody a hug. Or just to share a smile of commiseration.

How do you find being open hearted, since everything opened up. Has it actually opened up? Is the world rebuilding a sense of community and connection with each other? I see some groups striving to recreate what they had and it’s not going to happen. Not because they don’t want to. Because all of us have changed as a consequence of the experience we’ve gone through. We all felt our mortality. We all felt, in one way or another, a sense of helplessness. We lost control of the direction of our lives. And we had to put our trust and faith in other people, to believe that they would do the best thing for us.

So now we have to rebuild. We have to rebuild trust in ourselves and trust in our interactions with others. And it’s easy if you know how to make a commitment, first of all to yourself and then to others. If you’ve forgotten how or you never knew, then it’s not easy. It requires time. It requires care. And it requires patience.

Above all, it requires a willingness from all of us to rebuild and reconnect. And as we’re in the slow run up to the holiday season, to Christmas, that’s going to demonstrate itself in ways perhaps that we didn’t expect. So what are your levels of trust, of acceptance, and a sense of social openness? Have they come back? Are you still considering it?