Whew. So true. Hard to look at sometimes. I find that I tend to call loneliness other things, like "I miss ______" – missing a person or an experience or a having of something I don't have. I love your association of loneliness with a desire for something true. When missing something, I get myself back to center my looking around at what I already truly have. Thanks for your thoughts, Erika.

I agree that loneliness begs us to be brave enough to dance without consensus. You always have great insight. I wonder how you would describe the differences between loneliness and fullness during a state of alone.

Thank you so much, Grace and Fenesha, for your thoughtful presence and comments. They are much appreciated, and feel like real companionship... an antidote to loneliness :-)

I was intentional in the choice and use of the word 'loneliness'... usually defined as solitary isolation. I used to avoid or euphemize the felt experience of it... I cast it off as a lesser emotion I'd rather not claim or name. So, in this post, I come to it with a surrender and acknowledgement of the empty, hollow 'thud' that -- in the weirdest way -- feels like a cleansing of some sort.