We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness. Albert Schweitzer
Loneliness is the first thing which Gods eye named, not good. John Milton

The first gift of spirit that you may have left undiscovered is the gift of connection. The ability to connect is an ability that you, as an intelligent entity, have always possessed. In our current culture, it is often dismissed and left unopened, unexercised, and under utilized.

Today we spend most of our time away from other people and living experiences. We may work all day without actually physically interacting with another person or seeing another living thing. Even when we are among the living, we pass one another like ghosts trapped inside ourselves barely recognizing anything around us. Life is not meant to be lived this way. Marlin K. Jensen remarked that "Friendship is a fundamental need of our world. In all of us there is a profound longing for friendship, a deep yearning for the satisfaction and security that close and lasting relationships can give." Ignoring the gift of connection has a disabling effect on us and weakens all our endeavors. We have been taught, against our natural tendencies, to be independent and separate of one another to such a degree that it has become unhealthy. No one succeeds alone. Mohandas Gandhi reminded us that, It is man's social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation. If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.

You have heard of synergy or that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Connection allows us to tap into that power. The physical world both enhances and challenges this ability by introducing new ways of connecting and new barriers. There are traps and false connections lurking as well. We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. (Herman Melville)

We deserve to practice connecting with other intelligences, with spirit, and with truth. Doing so will bring greater joy into our lives and deliver our dreams into reality. Being cut off or separated from that which surrounds us is the equivalent of death. Too many people die before they are ever in the grave. What we built before this mortal existence is available to us here. What we build now will continue with us as we progress. Connection is the key.