Loneliness

“If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre

Our Brief History

We think life is long. It's not. We're just a teeny blip on the timeline. A tiny gear in the machine of the Universe. So we need to grab all the joy and happiness we can and never, ever live with regret no matter what. Something in your life not what you want or not bringing you joy? Don't waste a single moment more on it. Dump it and don't look back. Do not come to the end of it all having regrets over missed opportunities. 

Someone said when Death comes and takes the first bite out of them, they want it to be the juiciest, most delicious bite Death has ever taken. Death will realize this was a person who lived a full life and squeezed every last drop out of it. 

I couldn't agree more. 

Storm reminders

Hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning of tonight's storm reminds me of a very simple notion: we don't own the planet. 

It's not ours. 

We belong to it, not the other way around. 

We need to respect our living spaces more. We need to treat the planet the way we would hope to be treated, with tender-loving kindness and respect.

My Fellow Rocks

My rock haul from my Provincetown vacation. Nice additions to my collection. I always write on the underside where and when I got them. For me it’s the best souvenir. Rocks have always held a fascination for me. How old are they? Where in the Earth did they form? How long have they been on this particular beach? We’re made of the same stuff. We are children of the Universe and cohabitants of the same planet. We are more connected than we realize.

Understanding Holes

As I get older (56 and proud here!) I find myself pulling away from certain people, places, and things I always thought were so important and an integral part of me. I've learned they're nothing of the sort. 

In doing so I find myself with a weird sense of loneliness sometime. A few days ago for instance, I was restless-lonely. I didn't want to be around anyone, but didn't want to be by myself. It’s a strange sensation that is neither melancholy nor regret. It’s lots of emotions sort of rolled into one. I've gotten frustrated trying to figure the feeling out and then on an evening dog walk it hit me. 

It wasn’t a sadness from jettisoning a person from my life or eliminating a place or thing. It was a hole, a vacant spot in my life where that thing used to be. It’s bumping up against the time spent with it. I was having a brief moment of not knowing what to do with that hole of vacant time. 

Realizing that, I can see it as a space for opportunity. I get to read more. I can spend more time cooking (moving more toward a vegan diet, but more about that in a later blog post), visiting that coffee house I've never been to, writing here, meditating, investigating that new hobby, or working out. The possibilities are endless. All it took was a good, reflective walk with Rufus. If we all took the time and courage to pivot our point of view just a bit, we'd discover how much time we waste on meaningless things and how much is out there just waiting for us.