What is that feeling, that gnawing at the heart, the sense of fear that envelops the mind when we think that this could last forever? To me, it sometimes feels like building a puzzle and thinking you have lost a piece unable to find any that fits the hole you are trying to fill. This feeling I’m trying to describe and better understand so that I may befriend it is loneliness.

A dear friend asked me a very interesting question, "What does it mean to be alone when at any given time you are infinitely connected to all that exists?".

I was a bit surprised when they asked because this is the exact same question I have been pondering for years now. I actually think she worded this experience even better than I could have. This question is exactly how I feel at times while on the journey I have chosen, to be honest when she asked I had a sense of relief that I wasn’t the only one wondering about this feeling.

I can say wholeheartedly that we are all connected infinitely to all that exist, once we all understand that and I mean truly understand it, a new world will have dawned. The awareness of our connectedness is a gift, a sight that can never be unseen, but like alchemy, it’s science being called magic only because we have yet to embrace it fully.

Many forces are working together to allow us all to exist, making it very difficult to be alone, to be truly alone is not impossible, it is a choice as is loneliness. In any relationships we have in life, the potential for a deficit is a conscious one. To be lonely from the psychological standpoint is described as a distressing feeling that accompanies the perception that one's social needs are not being met by the quantity or especially the quality of one's social relationships. A relationship must be cultivated, tended to, and given the space to grow and grace to allow mistakes. There is no workaround to putting in the work, especially with relationships.

While you may or may not have found your “village” yet, people are cheering for you, praying for you, and watching you, even when you don't know it. The age of social media has brought us closer together yet farther apart, while it created this paradox it also strengthened the awareness that we exist all over the world. There is no doubt that there are billions of us on this planet, and I would be hard-pressed to believe that there is not a soul that exists who wouldn't want to have a relationship with you, there are many out there yearning for a relationship of sorts.

To be clear this relationship I speak of does not have to be defined by limiters, where there is a reciprocal exchange of energies, and an openness to the connection from both ends a relationship is born.

So now I have a question for you, what does loneliness mean to you? What are we choosing when we chose to be "alone", how does that feel? It took me going through some challenging situations to realize the levels of connectedness, and I still don't fully understand yet, I can sense it though. This sense is so strong now that even when I'm halfway across the world I can feel the connection to my village and humanity as a whole.

I see it in the long eye contact with a stranger, I smell it when I walk through the streets of a new city, and I taste it as I dine on unique cuisines in cities worlds apart, finding distinct similarities among the countless differences. There is no greater joy to me than to be loved, love is the opposite of being alone, and while allowing that love in can be difficult, I believe we are all infinitely connected to love.

I wish you the will to pursue the desires of your heart, thanks for reading - The Black Waldo