Some time back a friend asked me to consider, as an exercise, thrashing out the differences between loneliness and solitude. It has been a beneficial effort for me.
When lonely, a person is in a state of wanting of somebody; feels left out or without, and there is some inherent sense of sadness. The lonely person wants company but cant seem to get one because of the very nature of that state. It is a state of emotional deprivation and lends itself to depression. Being lonely is not something one asks for, either for oneself or for one's enemies. It feels like a curse.
Solitude is a state of joy, and in that state the person feels in communion with oneself, happy with being in his or her own company. A person could crave or pray for solitude and in that craving there could be a sense of want or sadness, but once in that state, there is a sense of completeness and joy. It is that state of bliss where one is wakeful, aware, and yet very much conscious of oneself in a very pleasant sense. It feels like being Graced.
Any comments or insights on this are most welcome.
A little interesting side-line: an experience and reflecting about it are not the same. Consider meditation, for example.
