Loneliness often speaks to our need to be with and know ourselves. It reveals our need for solitude. We learn through solitude that we need to stop activities in order to give ourselves a chance to hear our hearts and listen to what they are saying, sometimes waiting to get clarity. We do this through stopping, listening, waiting, resting, planting, and trusting.
We need to rest for the heart to regain strength, replenish hope, and prepare for the next step. We need to plant, tending to the seeds of desires, needs, longings, and hope within us. And we need to trust that we are emotional and spiritual creatures who need time out from the world’s incessant urban clanging.
Valuing our loneliness through solitude does not necessarily lead to serenity. Sometimes we learn in loneliness to put our sword and shield down and cry our guts out about the battles we’ve waged and lost — dreams and hopes not fulfilled, friends missed, intimacies not honored, opportunities not taken, and struggles with God not seen through. But by struggling in solitude, we eventually rekindle the passion that led us into battle in the first place.
Chip Dodd/The Voice of the Heart
Reflections From My Porch Swing 