Note: I borrowed this title from two books: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and One True Thing by Anna Quindlen. Both examine of the complex nature of family bonds, specifically parent-child, in the midst of struggles, turmoil, heartaches, distance and pain.
And running through this labyrinth of emotions is a force, the one true thing that holds us all together.

I wondered why I hadn’t loved that day more, why I hadn’t savored every bit of it, why I hadn’t known how good it was to live normally, so everyday. But I must have known all along, because something was always there. Love was always there.
----Anna Quindlen

There is a force within all we know, between earth and spirit, between dark and light, between the finite and the infinite, that holds everything together, even us.
---Sarah Dessen

We were made to live out life's questions and to seek.
Early homo sapiens were hunter-gatherers and here we are, still hunting truths, still gathering ourselves together, still reaching for the stars.
In this finite world, between the zigs and the zags of everyday life, we drift into snippets of thoughts. Countless times each day as quick as the sharp reflexive twitch of a buck's ear, we are alerted to life's questions.
What if? What will I do? How will I go on?
With strands of memories running through all the what ifs, these reflective pauses hold more than the breath on which they ride. Our inner life, our great alone, can be a wilderness of unknowns, or it can be more.

The Infinite Mindset: A Shift in Thinking
Simon Sinek, American author and motivational speaker promotes the "Infinite Mindset". It easy to fall into finite thinking after all, here on Earth, our own existence is finite. We do see endpoints. We see walls instead of doors. But if we cease thinking limitations and adopt the infinite mindset, a larger picture, we will enjoy higher levels of trust and confidence. Instead of endings we would think in terms of beginnings.
Taking this concept further, instead of seeing our in-between pauses as depositories of the 100s of ways to be lost, of problems to fix, or a grief-space where hope is a sliver of slippery dreams, consider each pause in your story a chance to begin to reframe, reflect, and realign to a greater force.
Indeed, we are fishers of thoughts, hunters on the chase in some tacit agreements made since the beginning of time, to seek, to ask, to discover, to traverse and go beyond the wilderness of the unknowns to take the next quiet step toward the one true thing that grabs and knits everything together.
It has a voice.

I am here.

I am waiting.

I am the Sacred Heart that will hold your tears and lift you up.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8

I am the GREAT in your alone.

What is your one true thing?


See Also: Bundled in a Moment
Gloria, For sure most have experienced loneliness and perhaps depression. Spiritually one can often find strength and a way out of our current sad state of mind. Musically no one can bring out this loneliness better than Frank Sinatra in the album and album cover of “Only the Lonely” conducted by Nelson Riddle and music and lyrics by Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. They all knew how to capture a mood.
Frank,
Yes, for sure, music has a way of comforting us and lifting us up. It is the language of the soul. Love the Sinatra-Dean Martin era.
On a funny note, I organized the chess club in my middle school in California. I played Dean Martin tapes while they played. Being 7th grade boys, they would groan but eventually sang along, “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime!” Hoping no one walked in when they sang along to “Hey Brother, Pour the Wine”.
Thanks for the Anna Quindlen quote . I always think there were so many other things I should have, could have said in the last days I had with Jack. But he knew there was always love. Just not the words that were big enough to express that love. Thanks.
Hello Carol,
Every morning I walk by an empty bench that faces the pond near our house. I imagine myself sitting there talking to my parents, saying things I wished I had said, but knowing they ‘heard’ my love in different ways.