Mim asked her, “How are you?” But instead of sharing how she was, she issued Mim with a quote from a famous author somewhere in a small town in the UK.
Mim asked him, “How do you feel about that?” But instead of sharing his feelings on the matter, he gave her a revelation some famous preacher had received five years ago in America during an old-school revival.
Mim asked them, “What lights you all up?” But instead of sharing from a space of inner joy, they told her all about the talents of a guru they didn’t know but had been following on social media.
For Mim, although she loved people endlessly, the interactions for her today had been shallow. Information-based. Void of heart. Third or fourth-hand experiences revamped for her ears, but never inspired from within the hearts of the ones who stood beside her.
Mim sat herself down on a rock beside a river, mourning the moments of heart connection she no longer had with some. The shallow world of knowledge, AI, social media, religiosity and behavioural modification were robbing people of intimacy and heart, and they seemed unable to see it. Mim felt the disconnections deeply.
“Whatchya doin’?” came a little voice.
Mim turned to see a small child, barefoot, messy hair, not a care in the world, studying her face. “Just thinking,” she said.
“You don’t look like you’re thinking…” it was as though the child was peering into her soul. “You look like you’re feeling.”
Mim swallowed through the lump of sadness sitting in her throat. Never had she felt so alone.
“I see you,” said the child. “Ask me a question, any question.”
“How do you feel about this place?”
“I just LOVE being here!” The child spun in circles, arms out, head up, carefree. “I love that we are unchained and we can just ‘be’…”
A smile flickered across Mim’s face. This was the realest interaction she’d had all day and it came from a little one who had no clue about the complexities of the universe, of spirituality, or of what the latest offences society was issuing.
To this child, life was simple and could still be encountered from the space of her ‘heart’—the place where life existed in abundance.
