Loneliness is the one thing that stays with me even at 3 years. I stay busy during the day (busyness=passing time) but at night or on the weekends I'm so accutely aware of being alone. No one to discuss the events of the day. What happened in Boston yesterday.....no one to discuss it with, no one to hear their views on it.

The only strategy I've learned is to not let those mostly lonely times come upon me without a plan. If I have nothing at all planned for the weekend, I MAKE a plan. It will be maybe a ride in the country, going to a movie, calling a long lost friend or someone sick (from church family). The times that are most painful for me and the ones during which I have no plans. Some plans are better than no plans. At least for me. During the especially lonely times, I try to treat myself to something a bit special, like dinner at a better restaurant than fast food. Or shopping and buying a new pair of earrings. I cannot go blindly into a weekend without some kind of a plan. However, nights come every 24 hours and it is exhausting trying to figure out how to keep from going crazy. I think it helps to think about someone who is in worse shape than I am.......a homeless person, someone in a nursing home, someone with total loss of mobility, etc. Reciting out loud the things I have to be thankful for help me a lot. Today I am thankful especially for the knee surgery I just had last week and I am doing very well and walking on it already. I just keep telling myself that it could be a lot worse! Sometimes that is all that helps me stay "afloat".

Some of these past posts are so much what people are asking today that I wanted to bring them back for the new people. Hope this is helpful to our newest members.
hugs...
-Diana

(there are also some older posts from Martha and Marsha and Sharon that were like building blocks to me along my path earlier on. I wish there was some way I could go back and find them...but they seem to have disappeared). Is there an archive somewhere?

Thanks for this post this morning, and thanks to Diana for the encouraging words. I awoke this morning with such a lonely feeling and my husband on my mind. It seems everytime you feel your moving forward, bang another setback.

I love the replies but I feel now at 2 years and 8 months later I have found the ME over the WE in life. And being alone is different than being lonely. Accepting when its time you are now just you in life at your home makes the loneliness less gut wrenching.

Loneliness at times happens even when out in a crowd of friends, I do truly not like that word AND AT TIMES ITS HARDER.

Hugs