Loneliness at this time of year

 The existentialist philosopher Paul Tillich, said, “Our 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 enjoy solitude, not every day but for a few hours or sometimes for a few days. Periods of solitude help me focus and clear my mind. I know some people who get lonely, and when they do they become sad. This is a special time of the year for those who enjoy people. But it is also a lonely time of the year for those who feel cut off from friends and family. Many people my age have lost friends and family over the years. I know that people can feel just as lonely in a crowd as they can on their own and loneliness can be a terrible burden at this time of year. If you are lonely, do not be ashamed. The key, perhaps, is to not let that feeling take control: Loneliness doesn’t have to last forever, and nor should it.

The following quotes help present a different perspective on loneliness. So, for anyone feeling lonely, read on, and realize that loneliness doesn’t have to last too long.

Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. — Bruce Lee

Many people need desperately to receive this message: “I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.” — Kurt Vonnegut

I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being. — Hafiz, Persian poet

Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star. — Charlotte Brontë

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.― Maya Angelou

When I get lonely these days, I think: So be lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. — Elizabeth Gilbert, author

I tell you loneliness is the thing to master. Courage and fear, love, and death are only parts of it and can easily be ruled afterwards. If I make myself master of my own loneliness there will be peace or safety: and perhaps these are the same. — Martha Gellhorn, writer

Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. — Janet Fitch, author

Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better. — Henry Rollins

When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone. — Tennessee Williams

Accept your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And then accept the times when the gap is filled in when they come. But they’ve got to come. You can’t force them. — D. H. Lawrence

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. — Dorothy Day, journalist and social activist

That little-discussed subject — loneliness. That is a great taboo, isn't it? No one really wants to admit they are lonely, and it is never really addressed very much between friends and family. But I have felt lonely many times in my life. — Bill Murray

You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.  — A.A. Milne, “Winnie-the-Pooh”