"No Man is an Island" is a phrase that suggests that human beings should not live in isolation. We are all interconnected to one another. No one stands alone like an island that is surrounded only by the sea. We need one another to survive in life. It is a famous line of quote made by John Donne in 1624 as he wrote a series of reflections when he was in the grips of illness and while he was recovering a serious illness. It is in a single verse of 7 lines. It has no rhyme scheme. It's simply written in a meditative mood.

He compares mankind to a continent. He sees each person as part of the continent and not as an island. He maintains that when a clod (a lump of earth or clay) breaks off from any continent, such a continent becomes lesser than as it is initially. By this assertion, Donne is referring to the effect of death. When someone dies, mankind which he sees as a continent becomes shortened by that death of the individual.

John Donne essentially argues that people need each other and are better together than they are in isolation, because every

“We must withdraw ourselves, to some extent, from the effects that are beyond our control and be content with the goodwill and the work that are the quiet expression of our inner life.”

 individual is one piece of the greater whole that is humanity itself. The phrase expresses the idea that human beings, when isolated from others do badly need to be part of a community in order to thrive. He was a Christian but this concept is shared by other religions, principally Buddhism.

John Donne, a sixtieth century English poet who was well acquainted with grief, suffering, and resilience; penned this famous phrase suggesting that while there is a strong human tendency to isolate when we are in pain, the healthy spiritual and emotional response to trauma is to draw closer to God, family and friends. The resilience or the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; is referred to by some people as “911 Friends”, people who hug us physically or virtually after we have a “body slam”.

THESE ARE NOT FACEBOOK FRIENDS, BUT RATHER THE SMALL CIRCLE OF RELATIVES AND FRIENDS WHOM WE TRUST WITH EVERY ISSUE AND CONFIDENCE OF LIFE... ULTIMATELY THOSE WHO WILL BE IN THE FRONT ROW AT OUR FUNERAL, OR SERVE AS OUR PALLBEARERS. WE DON'T DEVELOP "911 FRIENDS" OVERNIGHT. iT TAKES TIME TO DEVELOP THESE DEEP RELATIONSHIPS OF TRUST, CONFIDENCE, AND COMFORT; BUT IT IS ESSENTIAL TO RESILIENT LIVING. 

I have learned that a life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair. It is only when we have to face despair that we are really convinced that we need mercy and that those who do not want mercy never seek it. I have also learned that it is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness.