Embracing Loneliness


Embracing Loneliness

It’s good to occasionally be trapped in one’s own head. This happened to me today. One of the side pieces on my glasses broke so I have been trying not to read. I get a little seasick if I do. Monday. I will get them replaced, but until then….

There is nothing I want to watch on TV, either. It’s too cold to stay outside and you can only take one nap a day—at least I can’t.

I have eaten more food than I should have and done my Tai Chi. Not only that I have watched things online and done some serious inner work. For me this means one thing, the Jesus Prayer.

Ultimately there is no one in my head but me. It is time for another powerful mantra, “This above all, to thine own self be true….”

I had rather be alone in my head than in the company of people that don’t vibrate on the same string that I do.

I am sometimes a lousy musician in that respect, but at least there is just one jarring note.

I started this note by saying that it’s a good thing to be trapped in one’s own head. Because when you are, there is nowhere else to go but here.

It all starts and ends with me, myself and I. Jesus knew that; He just said it better.

I didn’t know how to end this, so I exited my writing file. Suddenly I find myself listening to Leonard Cohen in an old video saying that “you find your self-respect in your work.” Ah, that’s it. That’s it. No matter how much I may fight myself and my aloneness, I find my self-respect in my work, this work I share with all of you.

Rest in peace, dear Leonard. You live in all of our hearts. You said what all of us feel. It gets very alone but it doesn’t have to be lonely.

I wrote this note last night and today on my favorite Leonard Cohen site, www.cohencentric.com I read this:

“I was never working to master my loneliness…I wanted to liberate it, to ravage the land. Now I can embrace everything with my loneliness.” Leonard Cohen

There are many tracks left in the solitude, some of them worthy of following….

Vicki Woodyard

One Comment

  1. “Now I can embrace everything with my loneliness.” That’s freedom. I have found myself fighting what I feel, sometimes, too. Thank you for the reminder.

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