Staying in Connection

I’m using my weekday hunt for rainbow images as an excuse to delete old picture files in my computer. Today’s search took a while! But I feel lighter.

The image above is actually an emoji, although not one I’d ever used or seen. It’s labeled “Connection.” I liked it because real connection includes everyone.

Sure, you may only know that particular cashier at the grocery store from high school, but that cashier connects you to people you don’t know, may never meet, but still connects you. We don’t often think of the real web of connection that, well, connects all of us.

It’s one of the reasons researchers into the past are always claiming that the latest fossil is Woman #1 or Man #2. The idea is that we share a family tree. At one level, certainly, molecularly, and DNA-wise, we do. Those are impersonal connections, ones we are dimly aware are there, but aren’t really personal.

Then there are the personal connections — with the people you actually know.

I think that’s why my version of the chakra system has, if you will, two hearts. Oh, not really, although I’ve seen some people call the 8th chakra The Higher Heart. I divide them slightly differently.

Your fourth chakra, which is emerald green and in front of your biological heart, is the seat of personal love (also, personal hurt or trauma).

Your eighth chakra, which is rosy pink and in front of your thymus gland in the center of your sternum, is the seat of impersonal love.

Personally, I’ve found that we need both kinds to stay in connection.