The Human Connection.

What is human connection-and why does it matter so much?

I've been thinking about that lately.

Maybe connection is simply the energy exchanged between two people who are genuinely paying attention to one another.

A conversation. A hug. Being heard. Being understood. Someone checking in. Someone sitting beside you when there really isn't anything that needs to be said.

For all the ways we're able to communicate now, sometimes I wonder if we've actually become less connected.

We text. We post. We scroll. We react. We send each other things all day long.

But are we really paying attention to one another?

I think there's something in us that needs more than communication. We need to feel seen. We need to feel that we belong somewhere. We need people with whom we can laugh, disagree, be ridiculous, be vulnerable, and simply be ourselves.

We spend so much of our lives chasing things we think will make us happy-success, money, beauty, recognition, possessions, the next accomplishment.

And yet beneath so much of it may be one incredibly simple desire:

To matter to someone.

To love.

To be loved.

To belong.

To connect.

Maybe human connection isn't something extra that makes life better.

Maybe it's one of the things that makes life feel like life at all.

- Dina Marie Courtney