If the last few years (or our entire life on Earth) have taught us anything, it is that loneliness will either break you or make you stronger. I write about loneliness quite a bit in my books and have read clients of all ages, wealth and social status who struggle with feeling alone.
I don’t have a quick and easy answer — yet when I stopped fighting loneliness, that’s when my life improved.
It helps that I really enjoy my company and can spend lots of time alone. It’s the writer in me, yes — but also being forged by a lonely childhood. Nature, books and animals befriended me then and I literally talk to birds and bees even now. I used to hide how much I loved Nature — as if being a tree hugger was a shameful thing — but it doesn’t matter. The last thing I’ll feel in this body is Nature against my cheek.
I make sure to imagine my perfect death, long before I reach it.
No matter who will love and be at the “end of Raven”, I will die alone, so I might as well learn to love myself as much as possible, cause that’s who’s coming with me on the road — and she better bring snacks!
Not everyone is built like the solitary creature I am — but no one escapes loneliness. It’s part of the deal on Earth and a strong reminder — especially in the midst of this Great Shift — that our constant task is to nourish a connection to ourselves and to Spirit/God/Wherever we come from, rather than waste time comparing ourselves to glam (often fake) images on social media of happy people with loads of money.
Greed, idolatry, fear, heartbreak = loneliness.
Yet we still have ourselves.
That’s who will remain when our money is gone, our partner dies, commits suicide or leaves us for someone else, we move to a new town, we long to be with someone after years of celibacy, when our children leave or hate us, our government fractures, we struggle with fear and worry, a physical decline, a beloved pet dies, we lose our faith.