Being alone vs. Being alone

Last night I was writing in my journal and was thinking about the two sides of being alone. On one hand, there's solitude.

Solitude: A spiritual discipline, designed by God, and practiced by Jesus, created as a means of developing and growing an intimate relationship with the Creator.

I have enjoyed practicing solitude very much in my life. When I was in high school, living on the farm (a secluded 10 acres with the closest neighbour being 1/2 a mile away), I would often wander out into nature and enjoy just being. I would go out to places where I knew that nobody would be able to find me and I would spend hours there. I would forget about time and not tell anyone where I was going. Sometimes I would take my journal and sometimes I would just take myself. I would go out there and just be with God. If I felt like praying, I would pray. If I felt like singing, I would sing. If I would have been a dancer, I'm sure I would have danced. There's just something freeing about being somewhere when NOBODY on earth knows you're there and NOBODY on earth can see you. There's a sense of being able to be completely vulnerable that can't be experienced when someone is watching. That's something that I really struggle with some days here on the bald prairie. You see, even if I'm out in the middle of nowhere, there's a pretty good chance that someone, somewhere, even if they're a couple miles away, can look out their window or out of their car and see you across the fields. There's no way of being completely in solitude out here (at least not that I've found). No trees...too many people. *sigh* It's one of the things that I miss.

The other side of being alone is being without friends.

Lonliness: Being without a support system of people, who know you beyond just the surface.

Loneliness is the other side of being alone. The best I can figure is it's the feeling that is experienced when you don't have those people who know you beyond just the surface. It's when people think they know you but really haven't had the chance to. As opposed to solitude, which gives life and hope, it's a hopeless feeling...much less lively. It's being alone and, instead of feeling free and perfectly yourself, you feel clouded and much less yourself. It's an interesting thing to think about. Both sides of being alone can look exactly the same from the outside, but are complete opposites in definition. I believe both can be experienced at the same time, too... It's such a strange thing to think about.

Solitude vs. Lonliness

Being alone vs. Being alone

Hmm...