Connection is hard, y’all

In Danish, which despite the occasional odd word-choice still is my native language, we use the same word for learning and teaching: to lære, which would be closest to learning in its root-form. It used to confuse me in English, just like it now confuses me in Danish that we have no word for please (but that’s a story for another day).

I was thinking about the conflation and separation of these concepts this morning. It is not dissimilar to the process of relearning to be in the world that I imagine many of us are experiencing right now. Social interaction, even in small doses and with folks I really enjoy, feels draining and energizing at the same time. As if I have retreated so far into myself during the pandemic that walking back out takes significant effort. Or maybe more like I no longer know exactly where the border between my private and public selves is, and the toggling between them that used to feel natural now is confusing and hard.

But I am starting to see that, just like with “learning” and “teaching,” the border between various versions of self is meant to be blurry and in many cases better dissolved. If I can’t be myself, whatever human connection I am attempting - social, professional, yoga-related or not - is neither durable nor real.

Next up: virtual vinyasa flow today Saturday April 23, 13:00 UTC (9am EDT).