Repost of an amazing video story. If you’re feeling discouraged, worthless, depressed, self-conscious, or that others are better than you – watch this video! If you’re being/or have been bullied, teased, mocked, put down, belittled, verbally abused, slandered, verbally attacked, gossiped about, or given a difficult time — watch this!…but also seek help from a friendly and supportive source.
Shane Koyczan, the author of this video, was bullied a lot when he was a kid. So he took that pain and made this stunning video with the help of some amazingly talented people. It’s kind of breathtaking and powerful, just a warning. Also, it has a happy ending.
A beautiful song, “I Will Show You Love”, by Kendall Payne:
I will show you love like you’ve never loved before I will go the distance and back for more if you just say the word
You will come alive again and all the trying times you felt, the pain that you have suffered through, will never get the best of you You will hope in something real that won’t depend on how you feel When you call my name then I will answer, answer
I am on your side though the wind and waves beat against your faith You were on my mind when the world was made Trust in me my child, Trust in me my child
Walk out on the water where you have no control So scared to death of failure you sacrifice your soul, please let that go
You have climbed an uphill road, You have worn a heavy load You have cried through endless nights and nearly given up the fight Watched your dreams like falling stars the heartaches made you who you are Now looking back you see that I have always been there
Where you gonna hide? Where you gonna hide from Me? Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go that I can’t see?
I have heard you cry and it breaks my heart for I love you so I would never lie, this is not the end there is still a hope
Happypizza: Here is an amazing collection of quotes on the subject of loneliness and solitude. Definitely worth a read, with some positive ways to look at the experience–and sometimes pain–of loneliness.
All humans are frightened of their own solitude. But only in solitude can we learn to know ourselves, learn to handle our own eternal aloneness.–Han Suyin
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.–Thomas Browne
Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.–Alice Koller
Do not rely completely on any other human being, however dear. We meet all life’s greatest tests alone.–Agnes Macphail
Each of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. … When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. –John O’Donohue (Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong)
I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It’s the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself.–Peter Hoeg (Smilla’s Sense of Snow)
I learned…that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.–Brenda Ueland
I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.–Albert Einstein
I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.–Henry David Thoreau
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.–Pearl S. Buck
Isolation is aloneness that feels forced upon you, like a punishment. Solitude is aloneness you choose and embrace. I think great things can come out of solitude, out of going to a place where all is quiet except the beating of your heart.–Jeanne Marie Laskas
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking . . . in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.–Franz Kafka
It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.–Max Nordau
Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone, and the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.–Paul Johannes Tillich
Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.–Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.–Indra Devi
Man cannot survive without air, water and sleep. Next in importance comes food. And close on its heels, solitude.–Thomas Szasz
One must learn an inner solitude, where or with whomsoever he may be. He must learn to penetrate things and find God there, to get a strong impression of God firmly fixed on his mind.–Meister Eckhart
Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.–Hans Margolius
Only when one is connected to one’s own core is one connected to others I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.–Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Gift from the Sea)
The person who has not learned to be happy and content while completely alone for an hour a day, or a week has missed life’s greatest serenity.–H. Clay Tate (Building a Better Home Town)
Solitude can be frightening because it invites us to meet a stranger we think we may not want to know–ourselves.–Melvyn Kinder
Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.–Abraham Cowley
Solitude gives birth to the original in us.–Thomas Mann
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.–James Russell Lowell
…solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition…–Amelia Barr
“Consider our little friend here,” she began (referring to a blue jay that landed on the kitchen windowsill). “Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around.” She paused to let Mack think about her statement. “You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around.”
Mack nodded his head, not so much in full agreement, but more as a signal that at least he understood and was tracking. That seemed simple enough.
“Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly. Not something I want for you.”
There’s the rub. He didn’t feel particularly loved at the moment.
“Mack, pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly.” She waited a moment, allowing her words to settle. “And if it’s left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.”
(Conversation between God—“Elouisa”, and Mack)
(Excerpted from, “The Shack” –WM. Paul Young. Copyright William P. Young. Used without permission.)
…several years ago, Christmas didn’t bring the same good feelings for me. Maybe that was because I was a 20-year-old single girl who was craving a different kind of love that Christmas. I wanted someone to share it with, someone to love. That didn’t happen. Instead, I faced a string of personal problems and a lot of turmoil. I was spending Christmas near the equator, and my heart felt wintry cold.
…Then came Christmas Day. Kelly, one of my best, wackiest friends, phoned in tears. She had tried to reconcile with her boyfriend the night before, but was rejected—turned away on Christmas Eve. It was the saddest story I had heard in a long time. I tried to comfort her, but my own disappointed hopes were too strong, it seemed. What could I say? Together, we prayed over the phone, committing to God our hearts’ desires and expectations.
As I listened to Kelly thanking God despite her tears, I felt ashamed of my selfishness. Maybe true Christmas love was there all along, and I just hadn’t noticed. Had I missed it? I had been looking for happiness in a person—someone to fill my need for love. But instead, I had found so many also looking for something real—they were the lonely, the poor in spirit, the outcast, the forgotten, the dejected. It dawned on me: That’s what God’s love is really for, isn’t it? It loves the unlovely, enters a world of disappointment, and brings hope.
That December taught me that the spirit of Christmas is alive for everyone, and those who don’t see it are people like me who look in all the wrong places. Yet some folks look in the right places, with open hearts, and they do find that treasure.
Joseph and Mary were looking for a decent inn; they found an animal stable.
The Wise Men were looking for a king’s royal palace; they found a carpenter’s simple abode.
The angels were looking for people to spread the glad tidings of the newborn Savior; they found humble shepherds.
God was looking for someone to bring heaven’s love to, and He looked in the right place. He found you.
I hope that this time, we will also look in the right place and find those to bring His love to. I hope that each year we will all find Christmas.
Be Happy!...Be Encouraged! 