Living and Partly Living

Redstar on Aviary

A neighbour stopped to talk to me today when I was in the garden gouging out some difficult weeds. She and her husband lead active lives and so I was surprised when she said she was lonely.
'Oh, I see and talk to people all the time', she said, 'but I have an aching emptiness inside'.

A report says that the natural state of humans is to be asleep most of the time. We should only wake long enough to find some food to enable us to go back to sleep again.  (That should please those who would like extra 'duvet' days). 

Since we don't live our lives like this, we have to acknowledge that loneliness is a problem that affects all ages and thugh we have sophisticated means of communication, human contact is essential if we are to feel involved with what is going on around us.

Apparently, those who live within a fifty mile radius of where they were born have better mental health than people settling in a strange place. Being able to visit family  often makes for happiness.

I was born in a farming community and though I moved away, (fifty miles), I was not living in a totally different environment and I was with people who spoke Welsh and English. 

T.S.Eliot said,'Hell is oneself/ Hell is alone'; that is assuming one does not like being alone.
The retirement age, is moving towards the late sixties but this might not be a bad  thing. Some studies suggest that giving up work is not always a blessing because, for many, it  results in a diminishing social circle. Work is not just about money, it is about friendships, self-worth and image, too.

Years ago, when there were less labour-saving devices there was not the time to be introspective. Leisure a chance to rest, rather than a time of feeling lonely.

Perhaps, to solve this problem of loneliness,  we shall have to  redefine our lives and challenge ourselves in different ways to create meaning in what we do.