When You Are Not Plugged In

Recently, just before I went to bed, I placed my watch on its charger and turned in for the night. When I woke up, I picked up my watch ready for my morning exercise, and realised it was ‘dead’. There was no power at all and I immediately muttered, ‘Ehnn’? This was my way of asking, ‘what happened?’

I looked at the wall and realised that the socket was switched off so placing my watch on a charger that’s disconnected from the main power source was futile.

I smiled at what was a rookie mistake, one that I rarely make, but was now likely to make as I recently made a decision to leave all my sockets in the off position unless it was being actively used.

I’m glad to say that I now double check the power source and I wait for signs of my devices charging before walking away with any confidence.

This got me thinking about other ways that we can appear connected but in reality, we are as good as disconnected. In this pandemic season that the whole world had been through, there have been many ways for people to feel disconnected.

Faith communities couldn’t function as they did, families couldn’t connect in person with many new additions not seen or held by grandparents, our children missed their friends and school mates.

It’s no wonder that people’s mental health suffered, with increase in suicide rates, changing family dynamics, lots of frustrations and fears, anxieties about job security, income loss and the future.

As we emerge from this season, many people are still feeling disconnected from everything they once knew, trusted, wanted or even desired. We are more disconnected from others and we have to proactively work to get back to where we left off and start the process of rebuilding our lives.

Here are some actions that we can take

What is your source?

Someone asked me recently where I get my energy from as we chatted early in the morning. I must have showed a much higher energy level than I felt or should feel at that time. But, we were talking about work which is something that I’m quite passionate about so I didn’t have to feign interest or psych myself to fully participate.

What is your source of strength, hope, joy, energy, passion, drive, purpose, life and peace? Who or what do you look up to? Do you look internally or outwardly?

Some sources are transient and others are dependable. What we’ve seen through this season is how easily the things that we placed a lot of trust and hope in can be taken away.

Do you need to change your source?

Once you’ve determined what or who your source is, you need to check whether it is the right ‘source’ for you.

The past 18 months have given each of us an opportunity to re-assess our lives and choices. There’s no doubts that things have happened that have helped reveal the flaws and strengths in our sources or in how we have related to our sources. It’s time to take stock and make changes.

Are you still connected?

We need to ask if we are still connected in the right way to our sources. We can appear connected to the outside world, but are we truly connected?

This is a question that only you and your source know the answer to; everything else can be a mirage and smokescreen.

Take action

On the back of these three questions, we need to take action. Figure out your source, make sure it is the right one and is dependable. Then get connected, check your existing connection or stay connected.

Everything we do and how we cope with what life throws at us starts with us having a good foundation of trust and dependability, hope and love so make sure your source guarantees that.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to share the post with others. Have a great week.