Lonely or Aloneness? What is the difference?

I was listening to Night Sounds with Bill Pierce a couple of nights ago where he talked about the difference between loneliness and aloneness. Reminded me of the song, Lonely Voices Crying in the City by Billie Banks, 1967

Lonely voices crying in the city,

Lonely voices sounding like a child.

Lonely voices come from busy people,

Too disturbed to stop a little while.

Lonely voices fill my dreams,

Lonely voices haunt my memory…

There are a lot of lonely people. In the last 20 years we have seen a lot of people drawn to the Internet who are lonely. The Internet being the new phenomena introduces us to ways in which lonely people seek connection in cyberspace.

Loneliness affects all age groups, but since now I am older I've been thinking about how loneliness finds its way in the lives of many senior citizens. I have shared with you how 25% of us by the age 63 are clinically depressed. The feeling of loneliness has to factor in. Loneliness has a painful, maybe even bitter feeling.

Aloneness is something quite a bit different. I remember watching a shop owner from Iowa move to Alaska and for 30 years enjoy living in an isolated life on a lake where he made his own log cabin to carve out for himself a way to survive the bitter cold and beautiful summers. Every day gave himself to the task of making his life better as he lived in the wilderness. He gave it up when he was in his 80s because you got tired of the cold weather and move back into a retirement home. (1960's PBS production)

Aloneness doesn't have to be this extreme. In might be sometime in the morning or late night where you have a quiet time or you're reading, listening to music, go for a walk. You may like Leroy Jethro Gibbs go down to the basement to build a boat with your own hands. These examples of aloneness move us away from that hustle and bustle of regular life that can be as enjoyable as drinking your favorite beverage or viewing a work of art or nature caught in the pleasure of your own thoughts. Prayer can be this. I think even writing can be part of this aloneness that can be enjoyable.  For most of us the short periods of aloneness can add tremendously to the quality of our life.

I'll leave you tonight with the thought of the differences between loneliness and aloneness. We want to cut down loneliness and find ways to enjoy our aloneness. Keep walking

Kid in poorer Heath time refocus,

The New York Times reported an article by Gretchen Reynolds, This is our Youth. It is a comparison study with kids 12 to 14 back in 2004 with today's youth have dropped 1% of aerobic fitness from that earlier group. Considering there at already

been a drop of youth health by 2004 this is shown a steady decline.
In the past few decades, there has been demonstrated that kids are more sedimentary. They are not gaining an hour of exercise a day. The article suggests that fitness peaks at the age of 10, and perhaps as early as two with a number of kids. Then that kid goes into so called decline. Imagine your toddler is his fit as he or she will ever be.n
Gordon Blackburn, the director of cardiac rehabilitation at the Cleveland clinic, shared "30 years ago, we would not have expected to see 12-year-olds with symptoms of cardiac disease "he said "now we have had to start a pediatric preventive cardiology clinic. "
Gretchen gave a couple possible starting points of getting activity back into life. And that's to be commended. But I believe that the sedimentary living that is happening and family life is a lot more complicated than that.
In order to see more significant change there would have to be more security for children to walk to school. Time to rethink busing? There would have to be a collective effort to bring physical fitness into gym classes and school life. And there would have to be stronger incentives for kids to interact with real life and not the growing virtual world which there part of. Moms and dads need to be primary movers in the family. Projected health numbers are in decline.
Read the article and get informed. Soccer, basketball, baseball and hockey can get some involved. Marshal arts, self defense, camping, hiking, fishing, hunting. Out door survival, running, swimming, treasure hunting. Physical fitness. At junior have clubs in these things. Photo safaris in whe wild parts of our country. Night time shy watches. Snorkeling fly marine life in ponds, rivers, lakes and ocean. Running courses in the city using the buildings design as part of the challenge. Keep walking
Got to loosen the electronics.

Before I forget...

Pictures of sunset of the sea of Galilee. Today has a feel of spring. A great day for the snow to melt hooray! I know there's snow in the forecast sometime next week, but I'm going to remain hopeful that spring will be here soon. This year it's going to take me a while to get into the walking. I've been kind of housebound a little too long. Next winter I think I'm in I am going to have to rethink how to deal with the snow and stuff.

I bought exercise mat a few weeks ago and I find it real easy on the knees. It's easy to go through a lot of floor exercises to add them to my other routines for full body workout. 

What do you do for mental work out. Scientists have suggested that when we get older our brains get too full of stuff. We have a way of always rerouting our thoughts and our memories to make new connections. It looks like we will be able to include in our blood work test about different types of dementia. That's good because we really don't have great insight if we're going to get it and it doesn't seem to be one of the things that were able to do is to be able to see it coming. If we can get a warning that it may be arriving, there's things that they can do to slow it down or prevent it for a while. Early detection seems to be a good idea.

Can we keep our brain healthier by walking, by eating healthy food, by doing the things are good for our heart. When we walk, we actually use our brain like if we were doing a crossword puzzle. Our brain gets a work out by moving and taking in the experience around us.

I have always wanted to learn Spanish, and get a better handle on my Greek studies so I'm going to devout part of my day during the week to learning these things. Learning new things, developing new connections in my brain why not.

I am reading the next Longmire book, Steamboat. There's also a couple of the books I've been reading and enjoying. It's fun to read at night.

No the thought of worry about our mental state that can't be a good idea. But there are a few things that we can do that can be good for us. I sure like listening to Pandora while I read. It helps create a nice atmosphere listening to different styles of easy music. Sometimes it's kind of fun sitting out enjoying the outside listening to whatever music I like to hear the time. It's just one more way that you can use the Internet and these things can be good for us. It's a good way to relax and unwind. One of the stations I created is 100 instrumental hymns, and Pandora plays a lot of music that I like to hear about the words and it's a way of helping me relax and think about good things while I read or just waiting to doze off to go to sleep.

Take time to count your blessings. Find something to laugh about, say positive things, smile look at things in a good way; all seem to be something very good for our brains. One thing I find funny to laugh at is all the things I forget. Keep walking