A Part vs. Apart

In Sanskrit, very often an A in front of a word negates the meaning. I don’t often consider this when I am thinking in English, but this past weekend these two words were brought to the front of my mind for consideration. It just struck me. Seeing these two words together, next to each other in a sentence I was writing, JUST STRUCK ME.

How often I have felt APART and what I have done to feel A PART. 

I am writing this from my own perspective of course, but I have a feeling I am not alone in this, which is why I am writing it down. I feel like this apartness is very much a shared experience, and isn’t that an interesting thought all by itself?

That we are together in feeling apart?

I pulled tarot cards this morning and again this was emphasized to me. A picture of a happy family and next to it a battered person standing alone looking over at them. Ever feel this way? I have.

Now, we will all resonate with this differently at different times in our lives. Mostly, based on our external circumstances. When we are physically a part of a family, relationship, group, circle of friends, etc., we may genuinely feel the comfort, security and satisfaction that being in a pack provides. We are hard wired this way as humans. The buddy system. Safety in numbers. Pack=survival.

As we change and grow, which many of us are right now especially, often the individuation process brings us to the edge of a pack we may be in. So, what then? Decision time. Do we compromise our personal evolution to remain safe? Or, do we risk survival to stay true to the quiet voice that we are finally listening to.  There is always a chance the pack will follow, but we can’t know that as we begin to walk a new path.

So, the question is, how can we shift to a sense of feeling a part of something greater? 

When we travel deep inside of ourselves, we eventually get to that place that is connected to all. It’s there. When we spend too much time looking for it on the outside, we just forget. When you tap into this place the Universe begins speaking to you. And you know the first thing it says? You are not alone.

A wise person once said to me, we are alone when we think we are alone, we are not alone when we remember we are not. 

Apart. Alone. A part. A lone. I just looked up the definition of lone. 

Lone implies a chosen course. Unique. 

I think there might be more to say about feeling a part of your Self rather than apart from yourself. 

But I’ll leave it there for now.

Sending you love and connection,

Sri Devi Melissa