Never before in my life has the power of human connection seemed more real.

I don’t know what to chalk this feeling up to. It’s as though all the chaos and pain I have experienced in prior relationships hasn’t deterred me in the slightest. In fact, it has only further empowered my drive to understand and connect with other people.

I think Marianne Williamson was right when she said there is nothing more powerful in the world than an agreement between two human beings. We put our chaos aside to understand each other—whether it be for a moment, a day, or a lifetime.

This, in itself, is a holy act.

More and more, I realize how human interaction should be at the forefront of our endeavors. The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our relationships. This means that if we wish to attain some sense of fulfillment, we must work on ourselves in relationship.

The beauty of human relationships is, in part, due to the fact that we will never fully understand each other. Human beings are far too complicated to be wholly understood. That is the essence of being an individual—no one will ever know the full depths of who we are and how we feel inside. There is simply too much to us to ever garner this kind of knowledge.

Getting to know someone is an endless mystery.

This is why the effort to understand someone is so admirable and courageous: We take a leap of faith, knowing there is no possible way to know someone completely. We attempt to do so in spite of the insurmountable nature of the task—regardless of whatever darkness is dwelling within the other person.

“I want to know everything about you,” I told someone special recently. I know full well that this is an impossible undertaking, but I meant it with the entirety of my being.

Isn’t all of life, in some way, an endurance of the impossible by facing the inevitable?

Love is the same way. We take on the impossible task of understanding another human being, because there is no more fulfilling way to be. This is an inevitable truth.

Otherwise, why the hell would we go through the trouble? Why would we even bother if there wasn’t something profoundly meaningful beneath it all?

It is such a mess to truly get to know someone, yet we continually embark upon this messiness. This speaks to the nature of human consciousness and the existential necessity to connect with each other—to see and be seen by another living, breathing person.

I have never felt more alive than I do when I am truly connecting with another human being—having an understanding of where they come from while, at once, feeling understood.

Relationships are a continuous ebb and flow, a ceaseless give and take. They are the dance between understanding and being understood—seeing and being seen—which makes the dynamic flux of human relationship into a beautiful work of art to be endlessly cultivated.

Let’s embrace the whole mess of it. Let’s dive into the chaotic flux of human connection.

I’ve been wondering why I write so much about matters of the heart, and I think I have come to some conclusion about it:

Love is a metaphor for all human existence.

If two people can put aside their differences and truly see and understand each other, then perhaps the same can be done with the whole of our species. If we can trek through the chaos involved in human interaction and bring about some sense of peace and unity in relationship, then perhaps we can do the same as a society.

In essence, love rests at the very core of human life, and is worth paying some attention to.
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Author: Samuel Kronen
Image: Pixabay
Editor: Danielle Beutell
Copy Editor: Callie Rushton
Social Editor: Lieselle Davidson