U- Undercover

U- Undercover

I'm writing this sat, quite literally, under a cover. But what I wanted to talk about is constantly feeling like you are constantly undercover, and hiding away. I suppose being #mentalhealthawarenessmonth it's pretty appropriate, but let's be honest, it's just because I'm feeling down.

You see the thing is, everything and everyone is a lie. 

But you've got to hear me out about that.

I recently had a (very brief) chat with a friend about how strange it is that everybody has a life as in-depth as your own. And, to be quite honest, that's crazy. Most people had a different dinner last night. Most people have a different favourite song. Most people's family situations are different. Their pets, bedrooms, natural hair colour, are all different to your own. Their opinions on politics, food, medical ethics, music are all slightly different to yours. They have friends you don't know about, attend groups you don't know about, spend their free time in ways you don't know. And that's just your friends. People you spend hours talking to every day, in what feels like a continuous stream of conversation. Hey, do you even know where they are when they're texting you? (I just told you I'm sat under a cover. By which I meant under my duvet, on the floor, staring at washing that needs to go away, and school books that have fallen over. Having just eaten my dinner etc - and you don't know that.) That doesn't even start on strangers lives! And the thing is, sometimes we don't even care.

Because we are all so involved in our own lives. As we all well know, life is hard! It has it's ups, and it blooming well has it's downs. We can feel like we don't want to share our up's because, well, they're infrequent and we want to enjoy them! We don't want to make others jealous, we don't have the time to share them, or others might not think they are as good as we see them being. And we don't want to share our down's, because, well, we feel down. Who needs to see that?

Our lives are all so in depth, and it can't be so, so, so, so, soooooooooooooooooooo easy to become involved in just seeing that. I'm not blaming you. I'm 100% the same.

But actually, we need to take a step back and see the bigger picture.

I recently attended my christian union group, and we were each given a small map of the world. It was so that when we pray, we can be reminded not just to pray for ourselves, friends, and family, but for the world. For people we know, for people we don't. So that we can pray for the bigger picture.

This has taken a bit of different turn, but I'm happy with it. I hope you are too.

Your challenge this time - look at the bigger picture. Ask somebody something about them, pray for someone you wouldn't usually, and take a moment to realise you are a small (and significant) part of something so much bigger.

That's been U. - An Alphabet of Thoughts.