Saturday had us setting up cake stalls and BBQs, looking out at the less than fabulous weather and wondering if we would be lucky and have the sun come out. We were focused on our kids and their sport and our little community of rowing endeavour. Someone mentioned there had been an attack in #Paris, but I was so completely engrossed in our activities that I failed to fully comprehend the loss of life until I returned home and watched the news.
I feel pain and sadness for the people dealing with the #Paris attack and am grappling to get my head around the random, executions and incomprehension of war forcing itself into the suburbs and daily life. I have started trying to understand better what ISIS are and what they do and what they want (warning, it’s a long read). For me this is a step for better deeper information to try at least understand what drives the purpose.
Why is what drives us
Why is what drives us says Simon Senak. Last week, I started to reconsider and review the WHY in my own life, having had a recent trip and some time out from the everyday, it was an appropriate time to reframe purpose and create new focus for 2016. Simon Senak has a clear passion for finding why, and I think to try and deal with what’s going on here we need to get to our own WHY but also to make some attempt to understand the driving WHY for others.
Why connect?
This article by Margot Anderson on connection talks about a compelling reason to connect and having purpose in those connections. Finding positive purpose in life and at work is the WHY that I am interested in creating for my kids and for those around me. I think that one of the most important things we can do for young people is to give them a sense of being connected to communities around them. I feel in my heart that it is alienation that leads to the horrific events that were unfolding in Paris as we blissfully fretted about the wet weather hand we had been dealt on Saturday.
People are amazing in both extremes and it’s often in times of difficulty that the incredible spirit of humans shines through, just like those who sang on their way out of the sports stadium artist Jean Jullien found it in himself to create an image that has connected people around the world.
“I can just say that in all this horror there’s something positive that people are coming together in a sense of unity and peace.”
It didn’t take long before on Facebook we could see our friends in Paris and surrounds had marked themselves as ‘safe’ – it’s this #connection that gives some positive reassurance in the face of attack. For all the parent caution about appropriate use of social media that I have grappled with over the past however many years, this was a moment where I was glad that we were connected online. And glad that I knew our friends were safe. There are of course so many people for whom this is not the case and our thoughts and prayers are with them.
We need to model what connecting looks like for our kids, to create authentic relationships that are supported or enhanced by social media platforms. Reach out, ask the question and look for the human connection.
What to connect? Send a message on this post.