"All by myself..."

My most recent struggle has had to do with loneliness. For a while now I go through periods of time where I feel lonely. So what did I do? I sought after the wisdom of those above me and I asked them how I could remedy this. And they provided me with insight. They both said the same thing without (as far as I know) consulting each other, which means it can't be wrong. They told me that loneliness is a result of thinking too much about myself. And it got me thinking about being self conscious. To be self-conscious is to feel an undue awareness of oneself, or one's appearance. My loneliness is a result of constantly thinking about the friends that I don't have. So the solution they offered to me was to intentionally encourage other people. If I"m focusing on others then I don't have time to think about myself.

That would be so nice

Changes

I don't like all change. Some changes are good. The changes I've experienced in the past few weeks have been very painful. People that I thought I was good friends with, I realize that I'm not. And all for different reasons. One person just moved on to another group of friends. We still talk and hang out a little bit but, we aren't close like I wanted us to be. It almost feels like rejection. It's not that we don't see each other and we don't ever have time. She just chose a different set of friends. And my other friendship has just withered down to nothing. I'm so sad about it.

Why do things like this happen. Why do some friendships fade and some stay strong? I wish things were different.