Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Warm and windy today. My wife is out of town for a few days so I get to hang out by myself until she gets back. Well, me & Gizmo, of course. I love being alone. I think if I don’t get enough “alone” time, it puts me on edge. I take time to myself almost every day for reflection. But being alone is also kind of freedom as well. Make your own agenda, do what you want when you want, etc. It’s calming for me. I need all the “calming” I can get, too. I know I have friends who don’t like being alone at all. Maybe it has to do with what your childhood was like? I was an only child, and spent a lot of time by myself when I was young. I got used to using my imagination, playing both sides of a game (my side and the “losing” side), listening to music, shooting buckets, doing puzzles, riding my bike… basically a lot of normal things kids do – but doing them alone. So that’s my comfort zone. We didn’t do too many huge family gatherings at all, and it wasn’t a large family at all when we did get together. I would think if you were brought up in a family with siblings, and frequent large family gatherings, maybe that becomes your comfort zone and being alone might not be your favorite thing. But as much as I love being alone, one thing I proved to myself when I was writing Feed Your Angel was I still need daily human contact as well. I had envisioned locking myself up for three weeks and just writing as much as possible, but after only a couple days I realized I needed to get out every day and do something that interacted with other people. Every day. Otherwise I would go stir crazy. So… no alone time will put me on edge, but no human contact does as well. We need both. Time to step back and reflect, to be one with our thoughts, to just play music or dance, paint, write, workout, run, whatever it is… by ourselves. And we need to also interact with others, too. To laugh and cry and share moments with each other. Because great moments in life aren’t that great if you don’t have anyone to share them with. I’m really grateful today that Laurie realizes how quirky I am about having time to myself. She’s having a great time with her friends, and I’m loving the time here by myself. After this, it’s time to feed and walk Gizmo. Then it’s brunch with a friend today (my human interaction for the day), then home to do whatever I want whenever I want. Play music, lift weights, mow the lawn, surf the internet, so many possibilities… I’m letting the day come to me today at it’s own pace. And grateful once again to be where I am in this instant 🙂
2 Comments
I can relate to this. We just had a trip to the dells this weekend with friends and I was peopled out by the end of the weekend. I need human interaction as well, but also need to recharge after human interaction. Unfortunately, my family doesn’t always understand that and wants to suffocate me so I get real cranky. I feel this in so many ways. I like to be alone but on my own terms and when its needed for me. BUT I wont go to the movies alone or out to eat alone lol 🙂
I never could handle being alone but due to circumstances, including CoVid, I have spent a lot of time alone for quite awhile now. I have a hard time being around people. I have had the best of both worlds in my life and am now searching fir that happy medium.