Thoughts to Build On

yourself'. But if you use work, sports, play, concentration
games, for the sheer fun of enjoying and expressing your-
self in happy activity, then, of course, you have found a
sure and exciting cure for loneliness.
Obviously, being with people you love, or like,
or in whom you can find some interest, prevents or allevi-
ates loneliness. I mention this situation last because some
people place so much dependence on just being with others
that they shrink from facing their own selves-alone-for
any appreciable length of time. Yet you and I and all of
us are going to spend the rest of our lives with our own
selves. And, as I have pointed out earlier, all others, no
matter how dear, how companionable, how interesting,
cannot be with you every minute or every hour or every
day-and, for various reasons, the time may come when
they will not be with you at all.
So, look first to yourself and like yourself. If
you cannot accept yourself, as you now are, then you're
going to have to change yourself into the kind of person
you can accept, like and get along with-alone. Because,
if you cannot get along with yourself-alone-then all the
escapism you can devise, will not prevent loneliness.
But, if you can enjoy being with you, you have
a life-time companion who will be with you always, to
seek out the unlimited miracles of a universe filled with
things to see and do, or just to read about, to meditate
upon, or to contemplate in the depths of your exploring
spirit.
When you like being with you-you'll never
be lonely.