Charlotte Donlon: The Privilege of Shared Loneliness Part 2 [Eps 30]
What if your loneliness was space meant for God? Charlotte Donlon and I continue the conversation about sharing the universal burden of loneliness in Part 2. She also reads a chapter from her book: The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.
Other things we talk about include:
Grief, loss, and Advent.
The joys of having books and family around.
Practical ways we can share loneliness with God and others.
Inviting God into our creative spaces.
How the arts help us to really see.
Charlotte’s musings on Advent:
But as I wait for Christmas and as I wait for the second coming, I notice what is wrong with the world around me but I hope in what is coming. And I hope in what I know is the truth and what I know is real even amid all of the loss and all of the brokenness.
On moving through loneliness with God:
I do think it’s important for us to move deeper into our loneliness in ways that help us connect with God. I do think that’s possible and I do think God that meets us in that. Not to say, “Oh, you won’t be lonely anymore if you would just be spiritual enough.” That’s not what I’m saying. I’m talking about the very real process of seeking God and asking, “What are you up to in the midst of this loneliness that I feel?”
On God knowing our inner creative space:
…there is just a space in our creative lives that only belongs only to God. And I think accepting that, accepting that no person will ever fully understand this creative thing inside of me, and my curiosity, and all of the stuff that’s in there that is too much for me to tell anyone. There’s just so much there sometimes. But God knows it, like God knows all of that it better than I do, and I think that just kind of accepting that helps. I mean it helps me to feel connected to myself and to God. It takes away that pressure to feel like I need someone to understand me as a person and as a writer.
Links:
Charlotte’s book: The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.
Find her at charlottedonlon.com and on Twitter and Instagram.
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