> the soul’s best friend

after many years, it still amazes me how people can still be puzzled, suspicious and critical of how comfortable i am with solitude.
does solitude convey negative visions of loneliness and isolation....?

that’s so understandable.....we are social beings and we derive a large portion of our happiness from our connections to and relationships with others. our lives is spent in search of forming, and then nurturing linkages.....girlfriend+boyfriend, husband+wife, perhaps wife+lover vice-versa....
and being alone is generally viewed with derision or pity and typically equated with loneliness......... yes?

but strangely..., when i was dating someone decades ago, i was often lonelier than now...trust me when i said that being alone is better than a doubtful relationship!

many times have i been told, ' you shouldn't be alone ! '
once any of these linkages, or couplings, ends for whatever reason, the pressure is substantial to be ' with ' some-one or several some-ones.

' you mean you went to a movie and dinner by yourself, pity... ? ' this is asked as though it were against the rules to behave in this manner as though it was odd to enjoy these things by myself, ...well...not that i don't have friends..i am fortunate enough to have many good friends, some close ones with fantastic character...love to see them,to talk to them, to ' do stuff ' with them....

it just that...sometimes, i love to just be alone. It's not a garbo-esque kind of thing. it's not melo-dramatic.... it's just….well....., easier........ i don’t have to have a meeting to decide when to go somewhere - 10 points!... or where i want to go....i just go - another 10 points!. ...do ' stuff ' i like from am to am - 50 points!...living and dreaming my own dreams - lots of points!..sometimes i can just sit and watch the world go by... yes... it can be idleness but it can also be ultimately very fulfilling.....

solitude can be every bit as exhilarating as companionship sometimes.......but of course.....i had to find companionship before i figured that out