november brings thanksgiving.
people do not understand.
thanksgiving is not for everyone.
not for those who are alone.
completely and utterly alone.

novembers by Joan Evans

“I think, dear child, the trouble and the long loneliness you hear me speak of is not far from me, which whensoever it is, happy success will follow…The pain is great, but very endurable, because He who lays on the burden also carries it.”

— Mary Ward, English Nun (1585-1645)

I admit I tend to hold unreal expectations over others. I’ve always gotten bored of people, and I hate it. Never-ending is my quest to find those souls who never yawn, or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous Roman candles.

And when I am inevitably let down by what I find, I retreat — back into my comfortable cave of isolation.

It is here that I wither and allow the loneliness to fester, until it is all I have left.
I guess what I’m trying to remind myself is that loneliness is a self-inflicted wound.

A Portrait of Loneliness

Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow.

Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment.

The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.

—Janet Fitch

All people feel alone at some time or another, even when they’re with other people, until they become free of the things of this world. At that point, God comes and comforts them.

—Elder Tadej Vitovničk

“Enduring loneliness is almost invariably better than suffering the compromises of false community. Loneliness is simply a price we may have to pay for holding on to a sincere, ambitious view of what companionship must and could be.”

Why We’re Fated to Be Lonely (But That’s OK)

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“Once we accept loneliness, we can get creative: we can start to send out messages in a bottle: we can sing, write poetry, produce books and blogs, activities stemming from the realisation that people around us won’t ever fully get us but that others – separated across time and space – might just.”

Why We’re Fated to Be Lonely (But That’s OK)

“Most people look forward to the weekend, but for me, it’s the other way around – I look forward to Monday so I can speak to people at work. I feel really down on Fridays, because I start thinking about how I’m going to spend another weekend alone.”

— Mario*, 27, from Italy, Works for an Architecture Company, What It’s Like to Be Young and Extremely Lonely in a Big City

“A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”

—John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men