Life alone is a difficult thing.

I know this from personal experience to some degree. It is something I have witnessed in the lives of a few of my close friends, though, with a couple of them to an even more isolated state than I have ever experienced... I still have my family even though I lived quite far away from them for a time. The holiday season is a time of year that we who connect to those who lack those other meaningful connections need to be more conscious and hopefully more willing to reach toward them. It is the time of the year that is physically darker due to shortened days but often feels emotionally darker as well. And, despite my general enjoyment of the season, this might be one of the reasons I am so annoyed by the increasingly early capitalization of the Christmas season(Halloween just ended people!)