<\/p>\n
It started with frenzy
\nparanoia
\nendless noise
\nand then the world sat still in silence
\n\u2063
\nWe stopped
\nWe listened
\nMore together in our loneliness\u2063
\nthan we\u2019d ever been in our togetherness
\n\u2063
\nAnd when the world stopped screaming\u2063
\nthe world stopped listening\u2063
\n\u2063
\nAnd now I\u2019m sitting here\u2063
\nhair a little bit longer, nails a little bit shorter, belly a little bit softer,
\nthinking of a time when\u2063 I tuned in and out of the cacophony of
\nlife and living and people and voices and footsteps and<\/p>\n
the shock of stillness
\nin its moments\u2063
\nwithin a world of constant movement\u2063
\nof constant listening
\n\u2063
\nAnd if I felt alone then\u2063
\nI never was. Not really.\u2063
\nThere was always the option not to be.\u2063
\nThere was always other people.\u2063
\nThere was always the opportunity for connection\u2063,
\nthat I took for granted.\u2063
\n\u2063
\nAnd even when I wanted to be alone, without knowing, I took comfort just in being a human in a world with other humans.\u2063
\nIf I wanted, I could sit at the cafe down the street with my headphones on\u2063
\nand read my book someone else wrote\u2063
\nand blast my music someone else played\u2063
\nand sip my coffee someone else made\u2063
\nfrom beans someone else picked\u2063
\nfrom a tree someone else planted.\u2063
\nAnd just the mere knowledge that someone else had made my drink for me \u2013 even if it was their job \u2013 was enough.\u2063
\nWithout knowing, I wrapped myself in the warmth of other people \u2013 \u2063
\nin the intimate awareness, deep within ourselves, of the interconnectedness of human lives\u2063
\n(an awareness I could not put words to until I felt the deep pang of its absence in my core)\u2063
\n\u2063
\nI\u2019m thinking of days when I encountered the unexpected, the unfamiliar\u2063
\nwhen I constantly saw new faces, heard new voices, met new people \u2063
\nin that cafe,
\nin the streets\u2063
\nin public transit\u2063
\nin moments of connection\u2063
\nwithin a world of constant changing
\nof constant learning
\n\u2063
\nI was learning about the world around me,\u2063
\nthe world I am now slowly losing,\u2063
\nand reluctantly mourning\u2063
\nthe self\u2063
\nthat died alongside it\u2063
\n\u2063
\nWho are we without the connections, both old and new, past and present and future, that make us who we are?\u2063
\n\u2063
\nWe are not the selves constructed by relationships,\u2063
\nin an interconnected web of human experience,\u2063
\nWhen that web is forced apart\u2063
\nHeaved into uncertainty\u2063
\nSucked up by a vacuum cleaner held in the unwashed hands\u2063
\nthat took it for granted too\u2063
\n\u2063
\nAnd now I\u2019m in a new world where all I have left is\u2063
\nthe one thing I need to learn the most about\u2063,
\nthe one thing I should know best\u2063
\nand love the most intimately\u2063
\nyet understand the least<\/p>\n
myself
\n\u2063
\nI keep feeling like I\u2018m in a dream,\u2063
\nlike my life is on hold and soon I\u2018ll wake up\u2063
\nmyself again.\u2063
\n\u2063
\nI\u2019ve been feeling like I\u2019m not myself\u2063
\n\u2018Cause who am I when I\u2019m not my mother\u2019s child\u2063
\nMy father\u2019s daughter\u2063
\nMy sister\u2019s sister\u2063
\nMy friend\u2019s friend\u2063
\nMy arts\u2019 creator\u2063
\nMy dreams\u2019 followers\u2063
\nMy world\u2019s inhabitant
\n\u2063
\nWHO AM I WITHOUT THE WORLD THAT MADE ME
\nWHO I AM
\n\u2063
\nI feel that we are losing ourselves.\u2063
\nAt first I thought it was just me\u2063
\n(It\u2019s easy to be selfish when you\u2019re alone in your dorm room with third day hair, on your third game our third game of Evil Apples and your third glass of cab)\u2063
\nBut then I reminded myself\u2063
\nof the web of all ourselves\u2063
\ntangled up in the threads\u2063
\nof the world we lived in\u2063
\n\u2063
\n(And on my fourth glass\u2063
\nI could stop lying to myself\u2063
\nAnd face the truth)\u2063
\n\u2063
\nWe will never be our selves again\u2063
\n\u2063
\nWe will never be the selves constructed by human relationships\u2063
\nin the interconnected web of human experience\u2063
\nthat we all took for granted\u2063
\n\u2063
\nIt\u2019s easy to evolve\u2063
\nin a world of constant movement\u2063
\nBut for now, the world stands still \u2063
\nwaiting\u2063
\nfor an answer:<\/p>\n
Can there be growth
\nin isolation? \u2063
\nWill the world stop turning
\nif we all stand still forever?\u2063
\n\u2063
\nI wonder who we will be\u2063
\nif\/when this is all over\u2063
\nI wonder if we will remember
\nhow to be humans again\u2063
\n\u2063
\nI hope\u2063
\nwe can weave a new web together\u2063
\nas new selves\u2063
\n\u2063
\nBut this time\u2063
\nMaybe\u2063
\nWe will understand our selves\u2063
\nAnd our web\u2063
\nin all the ways\u2063 we used to take for granted\u2063
\nand in so many more\u2063
\nwe have yet to learn”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Poem by Gabrielle Manna…<\/p>\n