A lonely season is not a life sentence. It’s a waiting room with a window.

Loneliness lies about duration. While you are inside it, it presents itself as permanent and as a fact about you rather than about your circumstances, which are usually the actual cause. Circumstances change, sometimes slowly, and the people who are not in your life yet are genuinely out there.

Do one thing a week that puts you near other people regularly, even if it feels pointless at first. Keep the existing threads warm with short messages that expect nothing. And if it goes on long enough to be heavy, tell someone, because it is much harder to carry quietly.