If a tree falls in a forest...

Mar 04, 2008

I was reading today about feeling alone. I always find it a bit confusing when people feel "alone." I am reminded of the old adage about a tree in the woods: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" If people are there for you and around you when you feel alone, are you really alone?

I've been there for and with many friends through relationships, breaks and break ups. Most of them claim to feel so alone. It always makes me think, what are those of us that are here for you? You're not alone when you've got so many people willing to help you. Instead, I believe people are missing. Missing the pieces of themselves that may be lost from that person and missing the person themself and how they make them feel emotionally and physically.

You are truly alone when you are in a room, by yourself, with no one else and no one is there for you. That is alone. That is when you one can say they're alone.

I feel compelled to compare. You are truly alone when you are by yourself, yet no one knows you are alone because you are, in fact, alone. On the other hand, you are not alone when you are around other people because they are there and you are, in fact, not alone. So why do we use the term alone so loosely?

I guess that's the difference between how I feel about the people in my life and how others may feel. I don't feel alone because I know have people around me that care about what happens to me. Sometimes I may feel like something is missing from my life, but I am still not alone...I am simply missing.