The Importance of Connection Right Now

At the beginning of the shutdown two months ago, a close friend/colleague and I started doing something wild and out of character.

 Calling each other. On the phone.

 We didn’t schedule time. There was no text warning. There wasn’t even a set topic in mind.

 I wanted to hear her voice. And she wanted to hear mine.

 We covered everything from where our businesses were headed in the pandemic, to swapping NYC quarantine safety tips, to confessions about how many times we had watched Stella jump into piles of leaves, to the raw, “I’m scared and I don’t know how to do this.”

 Then we hit on a variation of all these themes the following day.

 Intuitively, we knew we needed this level of connection to refuel, to ground ourselves in the familiar, and to spark new creativity. We built our own safety in an unsafe world.

 While we’re not talking as often now, that go-to approach in the early days has become a guiding principle for how I’m moving through this moment which is extending to an indefinite length of time.

 Here’s what I’m doing to make sure I get the connection I need:

1. Virtually circling up with different communities of colleagues at least once a week.

2. Joining online classes with other business owners so I can tie in learning with a personal interaction.

3. Scheduling zoom coffees (or wine!) with close friends, former clients, and future collaborators.

4. Being the realest of real me’s with my high school friends on a hilariously snarky group text thread.

5. Eating dinner as a family almost every night for the first time in our lives together. Sharing what we’re grateful for at this meal which ranges from mac and cheese, to our teachers, to each other.

With all of this connection, I am mindful that I also need the time to rest, to be alone, to read (slowly), and to process even a fraction of what is happening in the world right now. I do my best to fit in this quiet time, but I know for this extroverted woman, being with my people even at a distance has been the oxygen I’ve needed to continue to feel alive.