I have been in a prayer group for a few years now. I enjoy praying and discussing all the ins and outs of the Bible. However, even though spiritually it's enriching, the people are a bit 'meh' - they are a bit of a letdown.
"During the early days of the group, there was another mom who often wasn't included. I'd picked up on hints of a weird dynamic, but at the time, I didn't dwell on it too much. I was just so happy to have found these incredible, smart, funny women. Now it seemed that this group had a pattern of leaving someone out. And that someone had become me," she claimed.
Everybody knows that parties are for fun and celebration. Winter holiday parties are definitely different than everyday festivities. More often than not, even with detailed plans and extra help, these holiday celebrations can be stressful and exhausting. Almost all celebrations start by making a list and then inviting your chosen guests who will be asked to respond yes or no to your invitation.
Even now, just the word "loneliness" can trigger the emotion-part melancholy and part loss-of those days. It was only after I had been doing spiritual practice for quite some time that I began to see that the emotion of loneliness is not just personal. Like anger and fear, loneliness is one of those universal, primal emotions, a groove in humanity's subconscious.
Far from serving as a figurative and literal vehicle for freedom and independence, cars exclude vast numbers of people from full enfranchisement in society -children, older people who have lost the ability to drive, people with disabilities that prevent them from driving, people who can't afford to buy or operate a car. Automobiles have produced far more collective damage to the world, in terms of death, illness, and environmental destruction, than nearly any other invention in human history.
