We often spend our whole lives searching for connection. Connection to friends, connection to community, connection to a partner, connection to ourselves...
The connection we seek is not outside of us, the connection is already fundamental to who we are. In other words, we are already connected to everything! This, of course, is hard to comprehend.
What we are looking for is not something achieved through years of study, development, and practice. Yes, these explorations will clarify and hone our understanding of what we are searching for; but they will not lead us anywhere we do not already have the ability to access, today.
As we journey in life, we gain depth, understanding, and perspective. The error is to think there is something to obtain beyond what we already have within us.
Try spending time deep in remote nature and see if you don't feel connected to some degree. Life is life and we are all life. The animals, plants, the earth, the elements, everything.
When we begin to see everything around us as a reflection of ourselves, we begin to feel truly connected. This is not an egotistical or narcissistic attitude. It is simply an understanding that we are everything and everything is within us. With this perspective, we naturally begin to live each day with more empathy, more compassion, and more selfless offering to the world. We begin to understand that when we help another from the heart, we are helping ourselves.
We then begin to realize that the separation we've come to believe has been conditioned, programmed, and taught through advertising, society, and learned competition among our peers. We often forget that through the pain, anger, jealousy, greed, hate, and contention, every soul is simply looking for love and connection... and every life is equally deserving.
Live from the heart, be connected, and know that suffering is not a requirement for life.