A woman sits thoughtfully on her battered chair, remembering the old days. She recalls all that has been...and igone...and fears what is yet to come. Her life has, for the most part, been a long and happy one. The bad times were many, but her friends' guidance helped smooth over the rough spots. Now, for the first time, the woman is alone. Many of her loved ones have passed on before her and she is left lacking their support. Small and vulnerable, she sits waiting...helplessly waiting.

A A A A

A woman falls into her new, and only partially paid for chair, exhausted both emotionally and physically. It's not that today was a particularly exhausting one; she is drained more from her difficult way of life. A moment to herself. She closes her eyes and listens to the silence to which she is so unaccustomed. Without the screaming of children and bickering with her husband, she almost doesn't know what to do. She has no life of her own anymore. She lives to please wild toddlers and a demanding husband. She misses having someone to talk to until all hours of the night and being adventurous. Instead of long walks at sunset on a deserted beach and spur of the moment trips to foreign countries, she changes diapers and drives to nursery school. The woman sits on her chair feeling dejected, depressed, andvery alone.

A A A A

A young woman slams her door and plops on her bed. She stops to ponder her life for a moment. Fighting with her parents who want her to be more than she is, striving to be what they want, arguing with her boyfriend, fighting social pressures and being designated listener to all her friends' problems have become routine. Sometimes she wonders if she keeps a hectic social calendar as an attempt to cover the obvious void she constantly feels in the pit of her stomach. Lying in bed, she desperately thinks of ways to end her loneliness. Somehow, even being surrounded by familiar, caring faces can't combat her feeling of being alone with no one to talk to.

A A A A

Loneliness is not mere coincidence, but a part of all our lives. Like a kaleidoscope in which the images are conistantly changing, the underlying shapes and colors remain forever the same. n