That's when I think life alone would be easier
When I moved to South Africa, and again a few years later when I moved to New Zealand, I convinced myself that I could survive without friends, that I'd be quite happy to live on my own, do my own thing, do what I want. But the more I go through life, the more I realise how much we need people.
When you’re not
surrounded by people, you are much less likely to get hurt. People will not be
able to leave you because they are not there in the first place. There will not
be anyone to get annoyed or angry with. There will not be anyone to break
promises and let you down. There will not be anyone to be jealous of or to have
to be patient with. Just you.
Sounds wonderful, right? Wonderful and terrible.
We are not designed
for being alone. We are built for love, accountability, laughter, giving and receiving
support, authenticity. We are designed for growth.
We start off rough around
the edges and much of the process of smoothing those edges out comes as the
result of relationships and the community we are made to be in. As we bump into each other, clash, hurt each other, bring out the worst in each other, our roughness becomes all smooth and shiny.
Without people, we
would never learn patience, never know love, never learn how to pick ourselves
up after we’ve been knocked down, smile less, laugh less, have fewer memories, less joy. We would be stagnant,
never changing, never developing. Maybe life would be easier without people. Easier, but so much darker.
People hurt us, but people also heal us. Turns out people are actually pretty cool.
And that's when I know I am blessed to have people around me
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