"Hey, how are you doing?"

This week I feel like I really learned a valuable lesson in human connection. A friend reached out to me just to ask how I was doing. And I proceeded to send her back a 500 word essay on how I was feeling on that particular day. But then after I finished word-vomiting all over my phone screen, I realized how much better I felt. And I realized how truly good it felt to have someone ask me directly how I was doing in all this mess.

Her kindness inspired me to reach out to 3 other people directly to specifically ask them how they were doing. And I hope this connection chain continued on beyond each of those 3 people.

"Hey, how are you doing?" used to be a standard greeting we said to one another when you ran into someone you knew. Maybe you were at a party or the store or just out for a jog. But in the span of 3+ weeks that has all changed. We aren't running into people or going places and "hey, how are you doing?" is no longer an empty thing we say to each other. When someone says that now, it really means something to me.

Because I am anxious and struggling a bit with the state of the world, I have a tendency to get stuck inside my own head and I forget to reach out to others. When I get like this, I tend to turn inward to try to "solve" the problem. I am trying my best to change that. This is not a problem I can solve in isolation. The best way to deal with all of this craziness is to keep reaching out.

Let's not stop reaching out to one another. 💛