As is true with dark matter/energy, we can’t see AND. But, from the perspective of developmental psychology, AND

is the “context” that is always actively influencing the “text” (bending the arc) of every life: child or adult.

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If AND is such a central player in all that we’re about, if AND is always present and negotiable when we’re secure, yet limited and not-so-negotiable when we’re insecure, maybe AND has something to do with the underlying structure of the universe we were born into.

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Our hardwired need for AND (simple, attuned presence with us) is definitely no sentimental pretense in an otherwise “real world” understanding of things.

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AND is never a secondary factor in our lives.

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When AND isn't present we always suffer. Can you think of a time when the loss of a genuine experience of AND felt good? Isn't the inability to experience AND at the heart of your deepest pain, either past or present?

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Finding ways to directly access AND becomes, from my vantage point, the central task of our lives.

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