I like to have open house dinners for friends on Mondays, I like to cook for whoever turns up at the place I like to call my creative hovel, you may not get a matching plate and sometimes we might run out of forks, sometimes we have wine, sometimes we may visit "youth club" afterwards, what we always have though is a lot of noise and chatter and laughter and we never stand on ceremony. At Christmas this year once again it will be open house and yes, it may be that I end up with just me and the kids but the point is that no one should be alone at Christmas, or ever in fact.
Sometimes you have to take a stand against something and so i'm taking a stance against loneliness. There's something I feel you need to know about me (just in case you don't already), I love people, I can meet someone and within hours I accept them as if I have known them for years, you can be sure that a couple of weeks later (when I've made sure they're not serial killers) I'll invite them into my creative hovel for Monday nights "Friends for Dinner". If you haven't received an invite and you're wondering why, it's probably just because I've been meaning to send a group message for ages and never quite get around to it but send me a message, come along, and bring your pets/kids/partners/friends if you want to.
It wasn't always this way, for seven long years no one came to my house at all, crippled with the fear that I wasn't good enough and neither was my house I just didn't invite anyone or if someone turned up unexpectedly I would go straight out with them or make them sit in the garden and you know what? I think they may have been the loneliest years of my life.
Over the last decade of my life even in the company of others I've suffered from bouts of crippling loneliness and not necessarily because I was lonely in the literal sense, you see the thing is that loneliness isn't just about proximity, sometimes it's about what goes on in your heart, sometimes you can be in a room full of people and still feel abject loneliness, I've thought about this for a while and I have to admit to one or two leaky tears escaping their way down my cheeks while writing this, but I have a big heart and like to make others feel loved and enveloped by friendship, not in a crazy stalker way although it might seem strange at first if you're used to having to cautiously build up bonds over time, yeah, standoffish and aloof, it's just not me and I can't change that, nor would I ever want to.
I guess that it's my aim to fight against loneliness, not just for me but for others, we all lead increasingly busy lives, we all seem permanently affixed to our phones and tablets, well worry no more, we have a ton of chargers and superfast internet at my house, can't make a Monday? Well why not come on another day of the week, my house is far from perfect but it's full of love and cosy blankets, some would say too many cosy blankets!!
You can sit on a sofa, enjoy wine around the table, you can even sit on the bounciest most wonderful mattress in the world in my bedroom if you want to (thanks Eve). You can read a book, you can listen to music, you can do whatever you want but come, don't be lonely or worry you'll not really be welcome because to put it quite simply, life is too short to be lonely.
This year, lets be more lovely, less lonely, more Hygge, more cosy, more twinkly and whole lot more sparkly together.
Lets just radiate love and smiles from our faces and hearts and see what comes back in return, I'm guessing there's bound to be one or two cuddles in there.
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