Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.
i was thinking about creating my own topic by calling it: Being Alone. But i saw that you started the topic Elfun by calling it solitude instead of loneliness. i immediately recognized that you had an understanding of what all of us who are single should recognize. This position we find ourselves in should be understood as a time that God is giving us to gain inner wisdom and strength thru our own efforts instead of being with someone else. i have noticed that there are some people who were in my life that really made a difference and others that came to use me for a time. One of the ways we can recognize this is if we find that we were much happier alone than in the relationship that we left. Sometimes relationships leave us with the recognition that other people did not really care about us but were there for a ride; just a stop along the way.
One thing i have noticed is that some people go thru one relationship after another with hardly any pause. There is usually a
dependency when you see this. Many people will except less than what they are meant to have because they do not have the strength to go it alone until the right mate comes along or they choose the path of least resistance instead of spiritual fervor.
i am finding out a lot about friendship and group dynamics at this time. i am very grateful to recognize that people who came
in my life in the past had much more relevancy than i had thought at the time. i think we are rediscovering each other thru
this process. Like two brothers or sisters who come together and reinforce each others highest aspirations. People are very lonely who are in relationships and people that are alone are happier and visa versa.
Sometimes you see people who have lovers but do not have many satisfying friendships or have many friends but are lonely for a lover. There are many kinds of loneliness. If you consider this subject carefully you may look back on your life and see that you were much happier 'alone' because of what you experienced in a relationship.Although you may also look back and see that some people really did care about you and loved you and those memories are very special. Wouldn't you like to be that kind of person that people look back at and say; that person really loved me. They really tried to help me. i would like others to think that about me. i really want to work on that. That is becoming more and more important as i grow older and less important to satisfy
a craving for a relationship.
Just some thoughts. Hope you can take something from this as i have from Efun's thread.
Steve Hydonus