It’s Okay to Be Alone

Is it? Are you okay being alone?

I am not good at being alone. I don’t do “a-l-o-n-e”. (see, I don’t even like to say it).

And by alone I don’t just mean being ok with sitting at Timmies sipping your coffee/tea while you play with your cell phone or crackberry secretly hoping that no one is watching, wondering why you are sitting there solo. I don’t mean alone to mean without a partner, either. I just mean: being okay with being with you.

A video poem by Tanya Davis, that I stumbled upon this week, is kind of helping me out (see the link at the end of the post).

Because, in case you didn’t know, I spend a lot of time by myself out here! For example: I live alone, I grocery shop alone, I exercise alone, I cook alone, I eat alone, I read alone, I listen to music alone, I go to farmers markets alone, I sing alone, annd I scare pigeons off my balcony...alone (well not really, my friendly elderly neighbours help with that, too).

It is important to be okay with being with you. As the poem says, ‘you could be in an instant / surrounded if you needed it’. However, I am starting to enjoy (ish) my solitude. I would not turn down company if it knocked on my door, but ‘you’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it’.

A friend of mine once said, “There is no one I would rather hang out with other than myself”. I don’t think I could ever make it that far, in fact I still enjoy company to being alone. BUT this brand new experience for me has overall made me less anxious about being alone, because (guess what) it’s totally okay!

That being said, it is 2 months minus 2 days until Christopher arrives. Haha!

Here is the video- please watch it! It is a great work of art.

How To Be Alone- Tanya Davis

Xo

A.