I have known loneliness forever,
There have been times in my life that I haven't know what to call it but is was still loneliness.

The experience that I have tells me that I know how to overcome loneliness,
But it doesn't change it or make the loneliness go away.

There are times that I feel like a cloud that passes by in the new moon.
I feel nobody knows me and times that I feel that I don't know myself.
No one sees a cloud in the new moon.

Some days are filled with love and happiness and some that are filled with accomplishment and joy.
And, more that are filled with loneliness in the crowd.

The people I see and don't see are everywhere around me and none are with me.
I can get lost in the surroundings for a while but, when I find myself
I am alone.

I sometimes feel that if I could expose my mind to the open space of the minds of others I could let them know me and they would help me know myself

The loneliness is more than being alone it is more than being without company. It's not knowing oneself. How can someone else know us if we do not possess self knowledge?

No one really sees them self in the mirror.

Written the spring of 1976, 30 years ago. I am no longer lonely for I have found myself.

Just a part of the day was spoiled by rain
A part of the day was spent inside again

The day was forcast to be cloudy is all
Instead of spring 'twas more like fall

A few rays of sunlight through a cloudy sky
While showers came and went and passed on by

We were trying for some gardening time today
But the rain, from the garden chased us away

When the nightfall came the rain stayed on
When all the daylight had come and gone

The rain still falling on the roof I hear
Softly softly falling like an angel's tear

The night is young and we're still together
Enjoying the firelight while in stormy weather

While we're in our sleep the storm will pass
When in the morn' the dew be on the grass

Raven

What effect can one person have or maybe even two. What has the history been of the effect of only one person on the lives of others. Ask yourself, "Just one person" One person named Andrew Carnegie. A man who started at the U.S. Steel Company pushing a broom and cleaning toilets. A man who worked his way up the corporate ladder and ended up owning the company. A man who was not well educated but thought that the country should have reading material available for the masses. One man who's legacy was to build hundreds of community libraries, so that we would not have to buy a book in order to be able to read it. He used his millions to the benefit of others. Just one man with a vision. One man who was not trying for fame. He just wanted America to read.

One more man. Adolf Hitler. Need I say more.

What an effect just one man or one person can have on the history of the world. I am sure that you have your own personal favorites. Positive or Negative, those with a passion for doing what they want to do can change the lives of all of us.

Raven

"Ya man I can go with you" "Who cares, my parents don't care" "Are you kidding, man, my parents don't know what I'm doing and they don't care either" "My parents let me do what ever I want, they always have." "You have to be home early; not me brother I do what ever I want. My parents don't tell me what to do"

These are some of the things teenagers say to each other. Do the parents really not care? Or has their attitude over time been one of hope that their children will do the right thing. It is the perception that the child has of the parent that counts not the reality.

I know this from experience. I thought my parents didn't care. They never checked up on me or watched out for me when it came to choosing friends. Maybe that is why I was arrested 11 times before I was 17 years old. If my parents would have shown an interest in me and what I was doing, I would have been a better kid. Luckily, I lived through it and straightened out my life before I got killed or went to prison.

Make sure you know your children. I mean really know them.

This morning in our local paper there was an article about a young 17 year old High School senior, who was a very good student, a pretty girl, a hard worker and a special friend to all who knew her. She was shot in a neighborhood more than ten miles from her home; a very gang infested neighborhood. The shooting took place at a little after 11:00 pm on a Tuesday night. Aren't here parents going to question themselves for the rest of their lives as to why they didn't have a set time for her to be home on a school night. Aren't they going to be on a lifelong guilt trip for allowing their daughter to have too much freedom. Limits keep children safer than non limits. Here I go again, blaming the parents for not saying no. NO means I love you.

Raven