Blog 3057 – 03.14.2024

I Don’t Want To Be Lonely Tonight

I confess that I have spent most of my life believing the “myth of separation” when I should have made the most of my “alone time” in self discovery. Over the past nine years I have enjoyed the time I have spent putting my thought on the page in this daily blog. My thoughts are not always profound, inspiring, entertaining, or encouraging but a line from my daily mantra comes to mind, a plagiarized Psalm (slightly modified): “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in (my) sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

My dad’s response to his two noisy boys in the small rental spaces that we called home was to thunder, “I can’t hear myself think.” Later when I was going through a particularly uncertain and stressful time in my life dad advised me that I needed to find my resting place. I think I have found it here, sharing a few thoughts pondered over quietly. There is I believe a still small voice that is most often best heard in the quiet alone times.

We all hear the loud voices shouting out their demands like my dad thundering out his request for quiet from two rowdy little boys who were only quiet when they were fast asleep and always stayed up as late as they could and were always awake before the sun came up. My dad had to hunt and fish to find his resting place, his quiet place, where he could hear himself think.

My wife has for two years now been hearing voices that I cannot hear. They make constant demands on her time. She often thinks that I am saying these things or that I can hear them too. She sleeps less and less and has no rest from these loud and relentless voices. I hope she finds her resting place as I do everyone reading this. In 1970 during my long hot summer in Vietnam the nineteen year old version of myself had a lot of alone time to reflect on life. I so missed hearing the familiar voices of friends and loved ones. They used to show recently released movies in the NCO club and I recall seeing that year’s version of Romeo and Juliet. I recall the haunting theme song from the movie: “There’s a place for us, a world of shining hope for you and me.”

My advice like my dad’s before me is, “Find a quiet place where you can hear yourself think and listen to that still small voice that always rings true with shining hope for you and me.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HdgloO7uqoIhuTxQo5LaZ0nvxRVPMAVA/view?usp=drivesdk

I Don’t Want To Be Lonely Tonight