You may want to read my recent post on loneliness HERE before reading this one.
Life ebbs and flows. Like the various textures of a river, we experience a variety of currents, speeds, eddies and swirls. I’m currently in the stream of loneliness or alone-ness. I’m not sure why. I’m not depressed (except for the fact that none of my NFL teams are in the post-season). But, as has been the case in other times of my life, I’m feeling a pull to alone-ness (which is not necessarily just about being alone, but rather a type of experience of the “self” in the “midst of”). Wouldn’t you know that’s right when I would find a book on Lonlieness in my hand.
I’m still too early in Clark Moustakas’ book on loneliness to rave. I will say, however, that Moustakas is rapidly becoming a mentor in the river current of alone-ness. I can’t find if he’s still alive. It appears he was born in 1923. That would make him 86 or so. I would love to spend an hour or five talking to him.
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Here’s a quote from Chapter 2, The Experience of Being Lonely.
Being lonely involves a certain pathway, requires a total submersion of self, a letting be of all that is and belongs, a staying or remaining with the situation, until a natural realization or completion is reached; when a lonely existence completes itself, the individual becomes, grows from it, reaches out for others in a deeper, more vital sense (p. 8).
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I’ll let you meditate on his quote for now without my sub text. Read it again, slower–from the lonely place in you.