"I Vant to be Alone" - at least sometimes...

I grew up with huge swatches of time when I was, for the most part, alone. Parents out working on the farm, older brother away at school so I got used to quiet time with my books or my TV shows. Don't get me wrong - I wasn't abandoned! One of my parents was always around outside, a shout away, so it's not like Children's Aid needed to be called or anything but there were definitely hours that went by when I didn't need to speak to a living soul. And you know what? I really kinda liked it. Hence my Marlena Dietrich quote and picture on this post. Remember as well that alone is not lonely. Not by a long shot.

Now, with the life I lead as a working mom, alone doesn't happen so much. Maybe I'll get a half-hour in the car on the way to do the groceries if I'm lucky. But there's always that pesky cell phone that I feel guilty about turning off should somebody need to get hold of me. But that's not really alone. I can be alone in a room somewhere in the house but with other people yakking or squabbling with each other a wall away from me that's not so much being alone as 'hiding'.

What I crave is real alone time. I'm talking like an entire afternoon when no one is in the house, not even the dog. I don't have to be doing anything special. It could be an afternoon of laundry, I don't care. But that silence, that blessed quiet, when you know there isn't anything that will interrupt your thoughts or create stress, when you can revel in the peace that silence brings. Oh, my. That is gold to me, people.

What about you guys? Does being alone make you twitchy or does it rejuvenate your tired, over-stimulated soul?