All posts in category Loneliness

Come by anytime for a visit

It’s Five Minute Friday again. We write for 5 minutes, without aiming for perfection. Just write, link up with Lisa-Jo, and read/comment on someone else’s blog.

This week, the prompt is Visit:

I met up with a retiree during a Christmas holiday event. We reintroduced ourselves. It turns out we live in the same neighborhood. Just blocks apart.

Without hesitation she invited me over for coffee. “Come by anytime for a visit.”

I responded affirmatively, “Sounds lovely. I’ll have to do that.”

Did I mean it or was I just trying to sound friendly?

How often do I extend an open invitation for someone to drop by my house anytime? To not worry about interrupting my life or disrupting my plans?

Let’s try never. I worry about making a phone call to my sister because it might mess up dinner or a homeschooling lesson or laundry or something ridiculous.

Come by anytime for a visit.

I’d like that. I really would. I might be embarrassed at first, when I realize the state of my house or the amount of cat fur on that sunny spot on the sofa.

But deep down, I want to be known.

That includes my stacks of mail (has anyone really found a perfect solution for mail? I’d love to hear it, if you do.) or dirty dishes.

So, any local friends reading this? Take me up on it. Stop by anytime. Let’s get past the perfect facades and have a visit.

And that retired lady? I’m going to make plans to stop by her house soon.

— Read more “Visit” posts here.

Day 8: Rest right where you are

Last year, during the 31 Days challenge, I wrote a post on Rest. You’re welcome to read it, of course, but I’m going to share the meat of it here.

In that post, I talked about how some days of October 2012 were hard. There were days I didn’t have the emotional strength or energy to share anything else, especially a prayer for hurting people. And I realized that I, too, was hurting, much like the people I was trying to pray for.

It’s another blessing of community. We hurt together. We cry together. We sit in mourning together. We wrestle through the hard stuff together.

If you feel alone reading this, with no one else understanding your pain, please pause a moment. Take off the blinders that keep you from seeing the hurting people right next to you. If you don’t have anyone right next to you, if you have been isolated from the fellowship of community with believers who know and love God, go find them. We are not meant to live alone. We are not meant to hurt alone.

Thankfully, God is calling us to rest. To stop trying to overcome our hurts on our own strength. Rest in these things:

One: God is strength when we are weak.

Two: God has put us in community to help one another.

Three: God meets us where we are, in the middle of our hurting and pain.

The lyrics of this song give me such peace. God the Father whispers to your heart and mine:

Hush my child. Fall into My arms.
I’ll give you rest right where you are.
Yes, I know, you feel lost and alone.
Let me hold you. How I love you.

If you’re reading this in an email, click through to listen to and view the video of this song by Derri Daughtery and Ellie Bannister:

…

← Click to find links to each day in the series.

Want to join my Lonely Club?

Lonely.

I know lonely well. Lonely has been a constant companion when all others went away. Lonely accompanied me through some hard times. Lonely sat with me in the dark while I cried. Lonely walked beside me when I did not know where I was going.

Sometimes it feels like my whole life has been in the presence of lonely. Even in a crowd, when I felt invisible, lonely gave me a gentle nudge, reminding me he was with me. There to the end, lonely has been a true friend.

Some will read this and feel sorry for me. I can see it. And dare I even post it?

But I’m not lonely’s only friend. Lonely is companion to many people. How we all share him I do not know. But why can we not be friends, mutual acquaintances of lonely? Why do we end up isolated with only lonely nearby? We need a lonely club, where we can all be lonely together! Wouldn’t lonely just love that!?!

DSCF1483 (800x520) ———-

Not the post I thought I would write when I first learned today’s prompt was lonely.

Can I share two follow-up thoughts to lonely?

1) As I typed I was reminded of Shel Silverstein’s poem, Nobody.

Nobody loves me, Nobody cares,
Nobody picks me peaches and pears,
Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
Nobody listens and laughs at my jokes.

Nobody helps when i get in a fight,
Nobody does all my homework at night.
Nobody misses me, Nobody cries,
Nobody thinks I’m a wonderful guy.

So if you ask me who’s my best friend, in a whiz,
I’ll stand up and tell you that Nobody is.
But yesterday night I got quite a scare,
I woke up and Nobody just wasn’t there.

I called out and reached out for Nobody’s hand,
In the darkness where Nobody usually stands.
Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,
But I found somebody each place that I looked.

I searched till I’m tired, and now with the dawn,
There’s no doubt about it-
Nobody’s gone!

2) On Monday, Lisa-Jo posted, When you wonder why everyone else seems to have friends, some great thoughts on how so many of us are lonely and just need someone to reach out. The key is to be the one who reaches out. Doing so, you end up with friends by default. I challenged some of the women in my church that if each one of us reaches out to someone around us, then we’ll all find that we are connected. Great way to banish both lonely and nobody. 🙂

Thanks for reading my posts yet again. I’m honored by each visit and comment.

13 Comments

by claygirlsings on August 9, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Five Minute Friday, Loneliness

Tagged Friendship, God, Lonely

Posted by claygirlsings on August 9, 2013

https://claygirlsings.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/want-to-join-my-lonely-club/

Day 1: When You Need A Friend

I’m not friends with you anymore!

Ah, playground dynamics – where you find out who’s still friends with whom. I remember a day when someone I thought was a close friend decided she wasn’t friends with me anymore. Oh, how that cut to the heart!

If you’ve read my About Me page, you’ll see that I have moved a lot. The bulk of those moves were to new cities or states where I arrived knowing only my husband and dog. Aside from the gruesome job of unpacking, there were always a few items on my “to do” list:

learn my way around the neighborhood
figure out where to find the grocery store, bank, mall, library, etc.
apply for a new job
search for a new church
find a friend!

For anyone who has found themselves in want of a friend, there is a lot of loneliness involved. (more…)

7 Comments

by claygirlsings on October 1, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in 31 Days, Loneliness, Prayer

Tagged Christianity, Comforter, Friendship, Religion and Spirituality

Posted by claygirlsings on October 1, 2012

https://claygirlsings.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/day-1-when-you-need-a-friend/

Hi, I'm Janice. I'm part bookworm and part creative. I love both science and music (and the science of music). I'm stumbling around trying to grow closer to God. Click the photo to read more about me.
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All posts in category Loneliness

Come by anytime for a visit

Day 8: Rest right where you are

Want to join my Lonely Club?

Day 1: When You Need A Friend

I’m so glad you’re here!

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