Today's Thought - November

[bluidkiti]

November 23

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

~Paul Tillich

It may be said the road that runs between loneliness and solitude is the highway of recovery. Before recovery, most of us fear and flee loneliness. We may be terrified of being alone because we don't think of ourselves as good company. Once the walk down the road of recovery has begun, however, we discover in that same aloneness a most marvelous person - ourselves.

Our task is to resist the old, infernal messages that would make us shy away from ourselves. Our task is to rise above that horrid noise and acknowledge that we have marvelous thoughts if we would only give ourselves credit for them. We need to accept that many people love us, and their lives would be less if we were not part of them. We love and are loved. That makes us very special. It is not the stillness that matters, for that is the same in both loneliness and solitude. The difference is in the attitude we have toward ourselves.

As my recovery grows, so does my ability to be comfortable in my own company.

Today's reading is from the book Days of Healing, Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children*