Summary: <p>Today's piece is called sonder. It is inspired by John Koenig’s definition of the word sonder, who created this word for his Dictionary of obscure sorrows. I will be reading that definition before I begin the piece.</p> <p>Sonder: a noun. <em>the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.</em></p> <p>When you start to feel like you will never be enough, perhaps this moment is enough to breathe, to dream. And not only for yourself or your family, but also for strangers, imagining what good things they might do 10 minutes from now, 10 years from now, imagining the very best for them. Even if you never get a close look at their faces. Take a simple mindful moment for them. Even when you feel you will never be enough, keep your heart open to love. Let whatever is right, whatever is true, be enough to carry you through when you start to feel you will never be enough. H. Jackson Brown Jr. once said:</p> <p><em>Remember that everyone you meet, is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something.</em></p> <p>It is far too easy to draw conclusions based on how little we know of someone. We catch glimpses of someone's story and without even trying, we write their ending. Imagination is powerful, and can be a great force for good. What if we imagined the best possible scenario? It is so easy to think about what could go wrong or what we can't get right. But what if we continue to remember: everyone else's story is just as complex as our own. There are people all around the world, whom we have never even come in contact with that share in our grief, our joy, and all of the moments in between. Let it be a beautiful moment when we start to realize that someone else's suffering, or even their joy is not as far away from us as we may think.</p> <p>And may we always keep in mind that beautiful doesn't mean perfection, niceness, or easiness. Beautiful is about wholeness, groundedness, all of the joys and sufferings being held together. Us holding together. realizing we are not alone.</p> <p><strong>Journal:</strong> Think of the last person you saw. What is the kind of thing that you can say about them?</p> <p><strong>How to support this podcast:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Leave a review in the Apple Podcasts App!</li> <li>Download my app "Storyteller" for daily messages, wallpapers, and FREE push notifications: <a href="http://onelink.to/stapp">http://onelink.to/stapp</a> </li> <li>My shop: <a href="http://garden24.co/">http://garden24.co</a> </li> </ul> <p><strong>How to connect on social media:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Instagram <a href="http://instagram.com/morganharpernichols">Instagram.com/morganharpernichols</a> </li> <li>Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/morganhnichols">twitter.com/morganhnichols</a> </li> <li>Pinterest: <a href="http://pinterest.com/morganharpernichols">pinterest.com/morganharpernichols</a> </li> <li>YouTube: <a href="http://youtube.com/morganharpernichols">youtube.com/morganharpernichols</a> </li> <li>TikTok: <a href="http://tiktok.com/@morganharpernichols">tiktok.com/@morganharpernichols</a> </li> <li>Facebook: <a href="http://facebook.com/morganharpernichols">facebook.com/morganharpernichols</a> </li> </ul> --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/morganharpernichols/message
