There is a loneliness that comes from having no one who listens. There is another kind of loneliness born the moment one discovers that, despite there being someone who listens, there is in fact no one who accepts, embraces, and understands.

I want to speak to you about the second kind of loneliness, the one that burns more slowly, that subtly pushes people apart and creates division and distance.

That is how the current state of things began. When human beings became strangers to one another, the prevailing interaction was distrust, a repulsion towards what was different that fed threat and fear — the perfect breeding ground for the absence of affection and empathy.

And so the World was divided into good and evil, and later into countries, inhabited by Catholics, or Jews, or Muslims, black people, white people, yellow people — they did not mix. Wealth and poverty may well have started there too — within the labyrinth of countries, races, and religions.

The powerful learned to feed off the fragile and thus, from that strange difference, wars were born, while peace delayed itself like the waiting of a fearful child anxiously hoping for night to turn into day.

The inhabitants of the World, humans, slowly drifted apart like tectonic plates — and felt the need to create tools of communication capable of crossing the distance that separated them: smoke signals, letters, swift pigeons, fearless horsemen, radios, televisions, mobile phones, social media — and so the distance deepened, and with it grew the estrangement between human beings trapped in alienation.

What follows is the story of today’s radicalisms, of ignorance pompously renamed “disinformation”, of new forms of extremism, more powerful and more subtle — and thus the estrangement between human beings grows even further, full of virtual friends and loves, digging the trenches of the wars of today and tomorrow.

© Rolando Andrade, 2026

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Beyond the Therapy Room: Thoughts, Stories and Poems

A quiet space for fiction, poetry, and reflective writing shaped by psychology and the inner world.

By Rolando Andrade

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There is nothing wrong with your path — even if, for the last two years, it has looked nothing like what other people expected for you. Or even what you expected for yourself.

Sometimes the season you’re in is serving a purpose higher than anyone else can see. And part of your growth is learning to trust you…

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Photography: Untitled / Ruslan Zaplatin 🖤 on Unsplash /Unsplash License

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Photography: “AI Exploration”/ by Cash Macanaya on Unsplash/Unsplash License

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A note to my readers: A while ago, I published my first two attacks from hell: my brain concussion and my miscarriage. Neither of them was even slightly like what was to follow. The story I’m about to tell is one I wouldn’t have told if I hadn’t realized that the road to mental healing involves accepting yourself ful…

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I no longer match with black
I used to be so navy, so blue

Now there are lighter shades coming through
White
Beige
Pastels

Soft greens
Yellows
Nudes

How good it feels to be free
From those darker shades
Of me

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Hey friends and readers,

I got a great book recommendation by Aleff Amorim and Fabio Knauer, for those of you who know Portuguese.

check this out!

“Embarcar na jornada da imigração é um ato de coragem, mas também um caminho repleto de incertezas. O livro Somos Todos Imigrantes é o guia de apoio essencial para todos que se preparam pa…

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In my late twenties and early thirties, I went through three extremely difficult periods. Now I see they were all necessary because they led me to places — mentally and physically — that I otherwise wouldn’t have reached. Yet, at the time, all I could feel was the suffering.

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Update on “The Illuminated”. It’s my first book to reach 200+ reviews and it is still holding above 4.4 average. You can get your copy in the link below if you haven’t yet and check out the video!

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In my late twenties and early thirties, I went through three extremely difficult periods. Now I see they were all necessary because they led me to places — mentally and physically — that I otherwise wouldn’t have reached. Yet, at the time, all I could feel was the suffering.

Read more

My newest book, Sea Diary of Johnny Unknown, is officially out today!

It is a book that has earned the highest average rating out of any of my books with 20+ reviews, from early copies readers.

“Johnny finds himself fighting for survival on a zombie-infested 1800s passenger ship. After creating an illusory dream about the new wo…

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Photography: Priest Ordination/Scott Wagner/CC BY-SA 2.0

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“Where the Beetle Went for Lunch” by Sonja Ringo

Hey friends and readers,

I got a great recommendation for all of the poetry fans here! It is always a pleasure to see someone create beautiful words filled with soul and emotion. In this case it’s , who you can also follow here on Substack.

Where the Beetle Went for Lunch is Sonja Ringo’s first collection o…

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There are people who leave forever. They leave, yet remain without even knowing it.

They are memories etched deep within the brain or the heart—or photographs hanging on walls worn by time, or a voice spoken by those who recall their story.

They seem like ghosts, but they are real presences—not of flesh and blood, but presences with the scent of the sea breeze from the sea of the past—timeless, eternal, immortal.

Of the people who leave forever, there is a small percentage who depart for a place where only eternity exists, a place where no tangible matter can be seen. A place where only silence and the liquid texture of the soul remain.

The people who leave, and yet remain forever, are ubiquitous; they are present without being there, they communicate without speaking, they touch without touching, they wake us from our sleep even though we know they aren’t there.

These are the people we cannot let go of. Or perhaps it is they who do not want to leave and reach out their hand in the hope that someone will take it.

Just like my cousin. If she were alive, my cousin Andreia would be 49 years old. She would be, but she isn’t, because cancer cut her time short.

My cousin Andreia was flesh and blood. Now she isn’t. Yet she remains here, today, at this moment, in these words—not as a specter, but as something concrete, with a name, a face, a voice—inhabiting a space and a time that no longer belong to her, alive in the realm of memory.

Hello, cousin, thank you for visiting. I missed you. I’m glad we can travel through time. That’s how I visit you whenever I want to feel your presence.

And my father. He is with me every day, remaining as a voice dwelling within me. Hello, Dad, thank you for your daily visit to whisper warm and gentle words in my ear.

Are you here, Grandma? That’s wonderful. I can feel your laughter, your tender and sweet gaze. Thank you for appearing in these words, for peeking out at my readers, for waving to them as if to say, “Hello!” Thank you for giving wings to my childhood dreams.

And to my readers, now that you know my father, my cousin, and my grandmother, every now and then you’ll remember them, imagine them, and in this way, all those who have left your lives will return, to stay forever.

This is eternity: Being on multiple planes at the same time, having departed and yet remaining, smiling, blending with time and the universe.

© Rolando Andrade, 2026

If you like this article, subscribe to my Substack here:

Beyond the Therapy Room: Thoughts, Stories and Poems

A quiet space for fiction, poetry, and reflective writing shaped by psychology and the inner world.

By Rolando Andrade

Subscribe now

Share Lighthouse

On loving your reflection and “understanding”

If you are out there in the world and only care about those who look like you, speak like you, like things you like…then in fact you don’t actually care about anyone, you are constantly looking to love your own reflection, to fuel your ego.

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“There is Hope”

“A tragically beautiful world so complete and immersive that it feels sensual even as it’s breaking your heart.” - Ben W.

“Beautifully written and utterly believable, unfortunately.” - Terry F.

“Excellent! The writing feels careful and intentional. It’s a fascinating world.” - Peter C.

Hello dear friends and readers,

Today it is my great plea…

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The light flickers
So beautiful
Pristine

The duality
Mirroring
You
Me

In the darkness
I can see

I’m not afraid of the shadows
I cast behind me

What frightens me
Is the unseen

Bring it to the fore
No hiding goes unnoticed
For long

Like forcing a cork
Under water

It takes effort
Exhausting endeavour!

It will rise 
Sooner or later

Let it
Pop

Ther…

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”

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