Hi There, Just wanted to say HI, hope you are doing OK. I read you post in the Pet Bereavement group and wanted to say I am sorry for your loss. I recently had to put my furry friend to sleep after 13 years of her being a faithful companion. Each day gets a little better, it is good you still have other furry friends at home to fill that void.

thanks for the response,,, I had a dog for about 14yrs and the loss took a few months to get over ,,,, death is always a difficult thing for anyone to deal with,,, Dante (the cat) was relatively young but had a lot of physical issues along the way,, I think he was about 3 or 4 years old,, I got him about 4 months ago,,

It is always hard even if they were only with us for a short period of time. Each day gets easier, but of course I started my grieving process months ago when I had to make the choice of what was best for her, because she was sick. I know she is in a better place, but I still find myself wondering how she is, or expect to have her come running up to me when I get home talking away as she always did.

Let us approach this problem again to see what is actually taking place, to see what you do when you feel lonely. Have you ever tried to be alone? When you do try, you will feel how extraordinarily difficult it is and how extraordinarily intelligent we must be to be alone, because the mind will not let us be alone. The mind becomes restless, it busy itself with escapes, so what are we doing? We are trying to fill this extraordinary void with the known. We discover how to be active, how to be social; we know how to study, how to turn on the radio. We are filling that thing which we do not know with the things we know. We try to fill that emptiness with various kinds of knowledge, relationship or things. Is that not so? That is our process, that is our existence. Now when you realize what you are doing, do you still think you can fill that void? You have tried every means of filling this void of loneliness. Have you succeeded in filling it? You have tried cinemas and you did not succeed and therefore you go after your gurus and your books or you become very active socially. Have you succeeded in filling it or have you merely covered it up? If you have merely covered it up, it is still there; therefore it will come back. If you are able to escape altogether then you are locked up in an asylum or you become very, very dull. That is what is happening in the world.

Can this emptiness, this void, be filled? If not, can we run away from it, escape from it? If we have experienced and found one escape to be of no value, are not all other escapes therefore of no value? It does not matter whether you fill the emptiness with this or with that. So-called meditation is also an escape. It does.........CONTINUE............http://www.seekersdiary.com/why-i-feel-lonely/

Hello mycroftt, how are you doing? In a world like ours we should not be lonely, but with more and more technology we loosing our human connections, everybody just busy doing stuff, don't have time to talk, thats how I feel a lot of times. You are not alone, but I do understand the feeling of being alone; even in a group of people I can feel alone. Hope you are having a good friday. Enjoy the little things in life and keep on going. Peace and Love.

I am sorry for the loss of your pet. That's always hard. We have pets too and I know they will die before we do and I'll get another cat after that because that's the pattern we've come to that works for us. It makes me sad to lose them, though.

Yes, I am 66 and have become invisible, too. I love it now but didn't at first. Then I discovered the wisdom of this age: No one expects anything from me, and I can live my own life without outside pulls. Let the young people be the "movers and shakers" ; they certainly have the energy for it.

Whereas, I am on-line having a good time meeting people from all over the DS world. My day is quiet just right. And noisy just right with my daughter and her family living nearby. And my husband is in and out the door all day long, for he volunteers and has much fun working without the responsibility of overseeing. I read, read, read and feel free to live my best life while I still have the health (which is fleeting even as we talk).

I was diagnosed at age 62 with OCD/PTSD so am medicated just right. Life is the best it has ever been for me "now that I am old."

Older people are not the only ones suffering from loneliness. Thanks to advanced technology even teenagers are suffering from it.

I think with older people we become more isolated because we are less sociable, less involved in activities, charities, clubs etc. As teens & young adults they still have youth programs, school & after school clubs which keep them interacting with a lot more ppl than older folks. However, this has changed a great deal for the young because of the internet which leads to wide range of problems such as obesity.

I guess the solution for us is to become more involved in 'stuff' like we were when we were younger. My mother is very active for a 64 year old & she has lots of friends. Kinda makes me jealous but I think that has a great deal to do with her being independent most of her life.

I agree with you mycroftt; it's very hard these days with so much social media and everyday life; people don't try to even meet their neighbors. So many people are (like me) shut in just watching TV alone. I have tried to get involved within the community but I can't find any groups that are in my neighborhood that I'm interested in.
So many people are involved with their own life; I guess mine is not that great; wish I had daughter-in-laws that I got along with. Unfortunately they are not people I would care to socialize with :(

We live at a time when we are inundated with people everywhere. Think back 100 years, 200 years ago; how many people did each person actually see in a day? The "smallness of the world" didn't overstimulate the brain's social circuits; however, there were other complications of basic physical hardship and survival going on.

I have grown accustomed to this day and age because I can take it "down" to whatever size I am comfortable with. Gads, the problems in the world are overwhelming; but the feral cat in the yard needing food is one I can take care of. I have reworked my budget a bit and take on all three ferals. And now I want to volunteer at the animal shelter doing laundry, petting and cleaning litter boxes all because of those once-struggling ferals that have taught me so much about compassion. They are now healthy, neutered and happy outdoor cats in an insulated home with cushy beds.

A just-right-fit for me at age 66.