** Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and perhaps share advice. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. :-)
I spend a lot of time by myself in my apartment, and though generally I do well with that, it can get lonely sometimes. I'd been struggling a bit with it lately... it's painful, though I'd been musing that there's some benefit in being reminded that I'm not entirely self-sufficient in my (relative) solitude, that I do need other people, and not just on the internet! Well, yesterday I made a new friend, a woman about my age (28) whom I'd known slightly for a while but was happy to get to know more personally. We had lunch together and I learned that for a couple years she was a Missionary of Charity, a member of Mother Teresa's religious order--which I thought was really cool. She is a very gentle, humble and generous person as you might expect. I find people like that very refreshing to be around.
After that she needed to help an elderly, disabled friend of hers, a very sweet man, move some of his belongings to a new living space she'd located for him after he became homeless recently. I came along to help carry stuff. We had a great time. And, I noticed I didn't feel lonely--I concluded that being able to help somebody is a great tonic for loneliness... so, I thought I'd recommend it to you, if you are feeling like an "island." :-)
I haven't read, but accept the premise of, that book that made a splash a few years back, Bowling Alone. It described modern Americans as increasingly isolated, not involving themselves in community and civic life, or even social and extended family life. We're social creatures, and we all do need each other, so it is stressful to feel cut off or alienated, even for those who, like me, are relatively shy and solitary by nature.
The Internet can be a start for many of us to feel less alone, to feel that there are others out there who experience the same thing and who care. There are a number of websites specifically on this topic, for instance:
http://www.stoploneliness.com/
http://www.webofloneliness.com/
And of course, there's WYFP, where we gather to share our troubles and care about each other and I really hope to be a little less lonely for a while!
But I would encourage everyone who is lonely to realize your need to be with people in real life, and go where there are other people. Be yourself. Care about others, and they will care about you. Relax and don't worry. There are a whole lot of other lonely people in the world who would be grateful if you would hang out with them for a while. :-)
So, how are you tonight? Feeling lonely? Or maybe you have some advice on how you dealt with loneliness in the past? What other effing problems are gnawing at you?
