Solitude is great but I must confess something-the downside. The worst part of solitude is being lonely and having no one to reach out to. I like my solitude well enough, but there are times when I'm gripped by a cold emptiness that I know I can't fill because there's no one around to fill it with. Let's face it, I've never been very good at social graces and have never made friends easily. There's also a paradox to this...Even in my loneliest times I know that if someone tries to help me out, I'll just push them away. I really don't know how to handle this.