Loneliness

My latest post is on loneliness in relation to disease. I'm wondering how others feel about this?

http://jeromemorrow.wordpress.com/

For the first time in a long while I am feeling homesick. I miss my friends, I miss my family, I miss Ottawa, my city. It seems no matter how adventurous your spirit may feel, you’re always drawn back to the things you love. We’re social creatures, and no matter how much we try to fool ourselves we need those strong connections or else we cannot truly be happy.

It makes you think when you have a rare and exotic disease that alters your life significantly. Whether you have CIPO such as I do, Cystic Fibrosis or any other that I may not know of, you’re life is led upon a completely separate path from the healthy majority. When you have so much more to deal with in just living your every day life, you can start to feel like a completely different species in comparison to those around you. In my experience, this alien identity has made me feel very lonely. I’ve lain awake at night in a hospital bed listening to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” not because it is a particularly good song but because I feel like the main character in the song, at least during extreme periods. Loneliness has been the major factor in pushing depression into my life, a feeling of weight upon my soldiers, which only I can hold up.

Fortunately there are ways to break away from that feeling of loneliness. Art is one. Whether you find photography to be your passion, or poetry is your forte, art is a way of connecting to others without any preconceived notions of the way we live. It can give you a raw view into another human beings mind, and if you understand the medium you will find yourself connecting to others. Despite being an alien you may find that you share very similar thoughts, emotions, fears, and joys. That is the beauty of art, and in my opinion, the true meaning of art.

Of course if you are lucky you can get one step further away from loneliness. There are people out there who don’t care about your situation. These people don’t pity you, don’t fear you, and given the chance will judge you upon who you are, not the way you live. It is when meeting these people that we can feel truly human again, perhaps different, but human.

In the end, you have to make due with whatever your situation is, and find whatever way to get around the issues you have. It can be tough, but its important to force yourself to get back up no matter how many times you’re shoved to floor.