Shared Spaces

I've been thinking a lot recently about our shared spaces.

Whether its in chatting with friends, in my work as a coach or in considering future possible developments for Fika Friday, I'm drawn toward this theme as a key one for us to gather around - especially in this post Covid-19 world. I know, I know, many of us have tried desperately to move on from those memories, but I wonder how much we consider what we grapple with now as a result of the pandemic.

One of the losses was shared spaces.

Numerous studies have shown that loneliness and a feeling of disconnection and separation negatively impact our wellbeing. We lost those casual connections—the people we encounter, have brief conversations with, gather with regularly around a common interest or purpose but might not naturally pursue friendships with, and those we can help and support. However, for some, the pandemic served as a wake-up call, prompting them to embrace solitude, slow down, and reassess priorities, taking the opportunity to create change.

With over 5 years passing since that first lockdown hit, we have been slowly re-emerging.

Some have carefully chosen and reconsidered what shared spaces they would like to enter into, others felt like the treadmill paused for a short while and then quickly restarted as is...while others found that time has just passed them by and there's new feelings of disconnected fear about the spaces they once considered homely and safe.

Lately, I've been reflecting on a personal sense of loss—friends who no longer occupy the spaces we once shared, as well as the spaces I've decided to withdraw from. The challenges arise when I review my calendar and attempt to figure out how to sustain friendships that once thrived in shared environments. In this reflection, I contemplate my personal reasons for not re-engaging and find myself actively reconsidering or reaffirming my decisions—evaluating both the losses and the gains from those choices.

I've also been really considering some of the spaces I am part of and how they can change to become wide open spaces. Spaces of flourishing, deepening, championing, freeing. How I might contribute as a participator in that story.

Life certainly has its ups and downs, but for me, the pandemic emphasised a period of change, not due to moving to a new place, but because of a shift in perspective.

There's something about us reconsidering the importance of shared spaces in our lives.

Isolation can only be combatted by connection. But when we're isolated, connection is the last thing we want to choose to consider. It becomes a bit of a viscious cycle that I fear is exascerbated by a world that seems to push narratives of fear, so much information our heads might pop, and continued drive toward the global and away from the local. Pushing toward more, rather than satisfaction with less. An increasing dependence on our own wisdom, without acknowledging that true wisdom is only discovered when shared with others.

I wonder how we might lean into shared spaces in a new way. How we might contribute to enhance their culture, create new expressions, wide open spaces and group together in fresh ways that help us combat isolation through being seen, heard and known.