When I'd been writing for a relatively short time, one of my close friends said "But you can't be a writer. That's a lonely kind of thing to do. You're much too social for that."
She was right and she was wrong. I truly am a very social person. In the first half of my lifetime, I didn't like being alone. I wanted people around me. When my husband wanted to move out to a rural area, I literally shuddered. I told him I could not live without people nearby. Most likely, part of the reason was that I was raised in a family of six in a small apartment on the top floor of a very big building. I was never alone in the apartment nor when running up and down the stairs as I came and went. Someone was always outside. I had been conditioned to be around other people. It was all I knew.
I did come to savor my weekly walks to the public library all alone as a pre-teen and teen-ager. Down the next block, past the Garfield Conservatory where jungle plants thrived in a humid atmosphere, on past the park and across the railroad tracks. From there, I zipped along a cinder path that ran behind the elevated train platform. I used that time for thinking about a lot of what seemed important things at the time.
In my late forties, I started to enjoy time spent alone when my husband was at work and the children at school or moved away. I found solitude to be desirable for the first time in my life.
Once I began to write, I actually craved time alone when I could be creative without interruptions.
I must admit that after a certain amount of time all by myself, I did feel the need of other people. Easy enough to remedy by calling a friend to come over for coffee or go out to lunch. I learned to balance my 'with people' and 'alone' times.
I will agree with today's quote. Some of us do have to learn to be alone and to like it. It's then that we find that freedom and empowerment and realize that we do appreciate our own company.
How about you? How much alone time do you like? Lots or just a small bit?
No comments:
Post a Comment