Loneliness does not come from having no people around you. But from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you.
-Carl Jung
I like being alone. I like meeting new people. I like traveling and meeting different types of people. Listening and learning also means that I meet a fair share of duds. As someone that struggles with small talk and generally acceptable pleasanteries, duds can feel like a waste of my finite time. So earphones in, music up (or not, the illusion is all you really need), and put up those walls; solitude is indeed golden. Or easier.
But then you meet the ones that sharing your basic narrative just isn’t enough. The happy souls that you want to experience, maybe even wake up for. You genuinely care about what they ate for lunch or what annoying thing their left pinkie toe started doing yesterday after they went for a walk. And this isn’t to say most people are shit (b/c I definitely used to say that [and still do occasionally]), but most people simply can’t connect with your person. Aside from the time needed to meet the seven billion people on this planet (and the literal linguistic skills needed), you don’t speak the same language of life. And that is okay! Diversity is delightful, important and necessary in this every expanding and shrinking global space, but for this ramble I’m focusing on the ease and comfort of living when speaking your mutual dialect of life with another human.
It feels good to be seen. To be heard. To feel a part of something bigger than just you.
roadside yogi 