Loneliness and Thanksgiving: Thoughts from a Catholic man

God is the Answer because without Him there is no Hope

By Larry Peterson

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted
is the most terrible poverty.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta

This will be the third Thanksgiving since my wife passed away, and when you become widowed, there is an inescapable loneliness factor that enters your life. But I have learned that loneliness has no boundaries. It reaches out for everyone and captures many of the unsuspecting, including those who are seemingly happy, contented, and successful, dragging them into a world of hidden misery and often depression.

However, many who have experienced loss manage to bounce back and find contentment, peace, and even love again. Others cannot—why is that? The common denominator seems to be that those people who have God in their lives were never alone at all. Those who do not—remain alone. The first consequence of rejecting God is the loss of Hope.  They have allowed Hope to be erased from their spirit.

The results of losing Hope are devastating. In fact, the loneliness factor in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Here are a few statistics that show how losing  Hope has affected our nation. Loss of Hope leads to despair, and the ones affected most by this loss are the Generation Z people, those who are in the 18 to 22-year-old range. I have grandchildren older than that. The entire concept of these young people, fresh out from adolescence and beginning adulthood, having lost Hope is so sad.  How can this be?

Cigna referenced a “Loneliness Index,” and it shows that loneliness has become rampant in the United States. This worldwide health service company used the UCLA Loneliness Scale  (yes, they have a loneliness scale), which is a 20 item questionnaire that was designed to determine a person’s social isolation and their subjective feelings. This evaluator is used frequently to track and measure loneliness. Some of the results were astonishing. This is from their report of May 1, 2018:

·                   47 percent of Americans sometimes or always feel alone

·                   27 percent of Americans feel no one understands them

·                   40 percent feel that their relationships have no meaning and feel isolated

·                   20 percent feel they feel close to no one and have no one to talk to

·                   AMAZINGLY---the Generation Z people (18 to 22) are the loneliest generation. How        heartbreaking is that?

·                   

           Social Media users have a 43.5 percent loneliness factor, which was comparable to the 41.7      percent for those who do not use social media. Isn’t it interesting that nowhere is the name of God mentioned in these findings? And nowhere is the importance of the traditional family considered. The numbers are mind-boggling. We are a nation of almost 330 million people. If 47% say they feel “alone” that is nearly half the country. We only have to go back 25 years to the early “90s to see the rapid decline in the absence of Hope.

Since then, there has been a 58% decline in club meetings, a 43% drop in family dinners, and children have their playtime regulated, depriving them of natural social development. People use their phones to message each other, apply for jobs, get interviewed, quit jobs, break up with their boyfriends or girlfriends, file divorce papers, and do all sorts of interactions without having to go face to face with a person, never saying one word.

Getting back to God and family would be akin to putting the lynchpin back into the hub of life. Then, people, kids included, might be taught that they can turn to Jesus and never be alone. They might be taught to think of His words from Matthew 28:20   And behold, I am with you always, until the end of this age.  

We must count our blessings on Thanksgiving, especially knowing that more than half of all Americans still believe in and honor God in their lives and that we have the freedom to do it. This Thanksgiving, millions upon millions of us will pray together thanking God for all we have. We should also pray for all those who do not have Hope in their lives. We know it can always be reignited and prayer can be the kindling used to fire up the Hope lying dormant in so many. God is just waiting to be asked to light the match.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Copyright©LarryPeterson 2019

"The Book is a Winner and has a Message for all Ages"

Review Redux:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Ten of 2012

By 

susan mahoney - 

This review is from: The Priest and the Peaches (Kindle Edition)

Is an amazing heart wrenching story about a family and their bond with each other, the unseen forces and the people in their lives. The family consists of a father and five children living together under one roof. They lost their mother to illness and their dad became lose in the world of alcohol and grief. He loves his family and does the best he can consider the circumstances.

When a tragedy hits the Peaches Family they have to fend for themselves and became a close knit family. More calamities occur and they are lost in a personal tumult storm and experience events that were detrimental yet they are courageous, miraculous and the trails transform them all. Their father was as I was seeing my own father when alive; a man who would give his own shirt off his back to help his neighbor and kept his deeds quiet. His mantra of L.Y.N. is such a powerful tonic of unconditional love and teaches others to share. The theme of paying forward had this reader reaching for the tissue box.

The hidden poetry of the story was so familiar to this reader's life I felt as I was reliving some of my childhood experiences and was being pulled into a whirling pool of emotions, from love, anger, hatred and finally forgiveness. The writer has the gift of a master in explaining the secret of how pride, anger and hatred blocks the wondrous gifts that were meant to be cherish, and are lost in the rush of daily life of all business and some strangers and loved ones unleashing their selfish ego attitudes it is not to be spiteful but to hide behind the defenses so they do not have to unveil their broken hearts and shame secrets. I think this author is trying to tell the readers to keep their priorities in order and live life as it was meant to be and let the petty things go.

Everyone in this story is like a family member and it is easy to connect with each one. It was like my uncle and aunt was whispering to me and sharing wisdom with this reader. It is filled with knowledge, love, hope and faith and mysteries we all ponder about.

This author broke down all those barriers by writing a touching soul wrenching story about trials in life and shows with faith anything is possible. The twists and life rituals of this wonderful family and their personal journey through heart ache to victory is very inspiration and has this reader thinking about returning back to her former faith and strive harder to release the human qualities of pride and ego; to connect more with a higher force which may be the answer to live on this planet and we should live as in Let It Be as in the Beatles song.

This book is a winner and has a message for all ages. I was joyfully taken hostage by the story and sad to be release. This reader definitely looks forward to read more enlightening stories from this writer. This choice will probably stay as my number one choice for 2012.