Loneliness can encapsulate many things in this world, whether it is in the form of the thinkable idea or in the physical body of what it is to be lonely. Lonely is the single standing tree after a wildfire has scorched the earth and the rock and the brush and the other evergreens that were not as strong nor as lucky as the one that stayed. Lonely is the crab singled out in the one pot pulled after four hours from the ocean of loneliness it stayed in, away from the other pots it rode to the coast with and the crab from the other crabs. Lonely is the exiled child in the back of the classroom that does not speak up at any question or at the lunch table they eat alone at or in the dining room where looking at his pile of peas brings more joy than he can derive from eye contact with a parent. Lonely is the writer in front of his keyboard who has only interacted with his words the whole day. Lonely is the runt of the litter that is not able to fight off the rest of the pack from one of the mother's nipples and will most likely perish as a result. Lonely is the trumpeter with the one trumpet in the quartet that falls flat in the middle of the performance or when they must stand for their solo. Lonely stands the last rose on the bush, a symbol of pompous levity as it holds strong among the like, tall over fallen comrades. Dr. Heidegger saw the rose as a symbol of loss or as a symbol of longing for the past in Hawthorne's “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment”. In fact, the first thing he drops into the fountain of youth is a rose, old and disheveled, that blooms to full beauty again. But this rose rose back into a fruitful life alone.

The Merriam Webster definition of lonely includes statements such as “being without company”, “cut off from others”, “not frequented by human beings”, “sad from being alone”, and “producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation”. I don't fully agree with these definitions provided, though they are main social components of the idea of loneliness. Another Heidegger, the German Philosopher Martin Heidegger, quoted the priest Angelus Silesius' poem “Without Why” in his book Der Satz vom Grund: “The rose is without 'why'/it blossoms/because it blossoms.” From these lines of his poem, I see a definition of loneliness that fits my view of this world in a vastly superior way. For me, Oly, it is alright to be lonely in your life. There is nothing wrong with it but people will tell you different. How I see it, there can be comfort in being lonely. It's once you start feeling lonely while surrounded by people who are peers or friends or family in which loneliness is frightening. But allowing yourself to be lonely by yourself can be therapeutic for a person. I find my own comfort in being alone often. Like now, as I sit at my Parks job, I am alone at a table on an overcast day with only the whispers coming from the willow tree across the street as the wind lightly pushes through it every so often. I am among the call of the chickadee and the caw of the crow coming from opposite sides of the street. Are they talking to each other? Can they even understand what each other are saying? The crow came down in front of me where a plastic bulk bag from WinCo was flapping in the breeze, barely containing half a handful of granola crumbs. I watched the crow as it worked, poking a hole near the food and picking the bag up from the other end, pulling and dragging it so the crumbs made a neat line along the road. Then he would drop the bag and double back, making his way to the start of the line in order to feast on the entrails he splayed out on the ground as he made his way back to the prey. I have found comfort here with my finger holding my place in the book I was reading as I watch the world around me alone. This situation has blossomed because it blossomed. I allowed it to happen by being here, lonely but the natural world around me has granted me solace.