This week’s article is an excerpt from my latest book: Fighting Monsters. Enjoy!
When all is still and cold, like death.
The dead who live only at night,
Crawl out of graves, hunting with tools
Of terror and torment, on a mission
To wreck. They invade a lone target,
Tottering in the middle of nowhere,
With no one, no help, and no defense.
Target has been roving all day, hiding
Behind friends and families, exploiting
Duties and dreams, which retire and expire
At the end of the day, leaving him, alone.
He has attempted to elaborately eat and drink
And sex and sniff his fears away but they lurk,
They crawl out and return when escapes resign.
Despite promised thrills bequeathed or denied,
Every engagement comes with conditions
And consequences that deepen the hole he seeks
To escape, each bearing expiration date.
When all the dramas and disguises are past
He is eventually stripped, finally condemned
To what he dreads the most, with the only
One he’d rather not be left, alone: himself.
We live in a world of such activities that if you are not actively engaged, there is a tendency that you will be looked down upon, like you are no good, with nothing meaningful to do. To evade that, we are always on the move, always engaged in one thing or the other. Another aspect that feeds our countless and endless activities is the fear of being alone. A lot of the people don’t want to be alone. They have to have people around to thrive. Without that, their world seemingly spins out of control or comes to an abrupt end. To avoid that, they go to every length to get involved in all sorts of activities. To them, loneliness is a curse.
There is another group of people tagged as loners. They can’t stand having people around. They love to be by themselves. They have to be by themselves otherwise they don’t feel free to be themselves. Which of the two groups is a better one you might be wondering? None. Always craving for people and for attention is as much a sign of trouble as is loathing being around people. Life is about balance. As Solomon said, there is time for everything; time to hang out and have fun with friends, and time to be by yourself and do what I call “Self-alignment.”
Part of the reason that some of us dread being by ourselves is because that is the time monsters crawl out and launch their attacks. Having people around reduces the battle period and makes life easier it seems. Loneliness is a gift that can deliver outstanding as well as disastrous results depending on what we have learned to do with it. We need to learn to turn the table around and exploit times alone instead of avoiding or wasting them.
There are some things that you can only learn on your own. Aloneness is an asset not a liability. If we don’t find valuable things to build ourselves up in such times, the enemy will throw in an idea or two. A mighty fall starts with a small idea. Be sure that if you accept one, it becomes a slippery slope. Our lives are made or destroyed by the things we have learned to pour our passions on when we are alone. Getting hooked on the wrong things can be disastrous because they become idols that won’t leave. Idols we worship in our private altars. In fact, it costs more to regain freedom than it takes to initiate and sustain bondage. That is why we have to do all we can to avoid it.
No matter how surrounded we are, we cannot totally avoid being alone. The state of our hearts is very critical to our progress in life. A heart that is not occupied by the right things will not be left alone, at least not for long. Something is bound to move in, someone is going to take over. Monsters are not in the outer spaces. They are here, everywhere, going to and fro, seeking whom to devour. What therefore we do with our aloneness is critical. You cannot avoid being alone. But what you do with your aloneness counts in the battles of your life.
Want to know how to manage these inescapable moments of our lives to evade the prowling monsters seeking to pounce and wreck? Order your copy of Fighting Monsters now! You can also buy as gifts for friends: only E-Copies available for now. Go to http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Monsters-Inside-Depression-Learn-ebook/dp/B00YLGOYSS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1433152221&sr=1-1&keywords=fighting+monsters
Blessings on your week.
Glory!