My day starts every day at around 4.30 am. I spend about an hour and a half in meditation and yoga exercises. This is followed by a hot mug of tea which I have sitting in our verandah facing our garden communing with nature for about half an hour.
These two and a half hours sets the tone for the rest of the day. The peace and quiet that this time brings about in my being is like nothing that any other form of activity can.
This quiet time in solitude leads to another hour and a half of newspaper reading, breakfast and prayer time. Till about 9 am, I would not have met or talked to anyone other than our dogs and the visiting cat.
Then the day slowly starts to bring other people into my day like my son, daughter in love, gardener, maids and phone calls.
These too are just peripheral to my existence and I enjoy being on my own and follow my routine for the rest of the day, of solving crossword puzzles, reading, responding to and / or contributing to WhatsApp, Facebook and email messages besides the few phone calls.
None of these activities takes away my sense of being comfortable with myself and this feeling is now the predominant feature of my existence.
I call it a life of solitude. Not to be mistaken for loneliness. I am not lonely. There are plenty of people in my life but, if they are not there, I am not disturbed and am perfectly happy being left alone.
Coming to the illustration on top, I do not wish to be left alone by people or not to deal with people. It is simply that, I am comfortable without them or with them and enjoy both situations.
What about you?
This is my contribution to this week’s Friday 8 On 1 blog post topic. The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Maria. Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman , Srinivas and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by me. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.
You’ve drawn a beautiful, serene image quite appealing. I find your personal path to represent you nicely. I am glad you have found it.
Serene, that’s the word I’ve been fumbling for!
Thank you. My best wishes that you find yours too soon.
This is lovely. I am happy for you that you have such peace.
Thank you Kaitlin. I am happy too!
That sounds like a very congenial existence. My life is different in that Jenny is around most of the time, but like you I’m equally comfortable whether she’s here or not here. I agree that solitude doesn’t have to mean loneliness. If you have plenty of interesting things to do, and you have an active imagination, solitude is absolutely fine.
I somehow had sensed that you too would have a similar approach to life and I am glad that I was right.
what a lovely post Sean.
I feel the same with my life. it was active and different when my Bob was alive. I was so happy. and it was an adjustment when I lost him.
but in the many years since… I have found my true self.
and possibly it’s more myself than I ever knew. I’m very happy!
” I call it a life of solitude. Not to be mistaken for loneliness. I am not lonely.”
there is a true difference. xoxo
I am glad that you too have found a comfortable life of solitude. I could not wish you any thing better.
I like solitude too. I don’t know if it’s something that develops with age. I love time spent with my family, I would feel lonely if they weren’t close by. I have lots of hobbies that keep me busy, and some days I just sit on the sofa and read.
Yes, it does develop with age. I was very much like you when I was much younger. My present lifestyle evolved over a couple of decades.
This is the life super senior citizen particularly after one partner departs.
The most enjoyable part is you adjust it to your life style.Dont worry I am a partner to your part of daily routine.
I hope my lifestyle matches well even though I didn’t do a good shade matching to meet your expectations.Learn to enjoy with what is available
Yes, it is and you should know. Don’t undersell yourself KNS. I can’t remember even one instance of you not coming up to my shade matching expectation.
A great post Ramana, so many equate loneliness with solitude, they are not linked whatsoever. I would like to learn your yoga practice, being mobility challenged like you. Maybe you can email me.
But I do so enjoy my solicitudes 95% of the time, but when I am in pain, I feel lonely. Pain has been far too much of a companion lately.
We soldier on.
XO
WWW
As I write this, I have already emailed you my exercise routine. I hope that you find it useful.
I live a solitary life as well, and some days the only communication is with “nobody” – the neighbouring cats – a bird chirping on the front step or bashing a snail into a snack – or I’m talking to this here screen – or what shall I find to eat in fridge. Of course, no one is here to comment on those chats which is just fine with me.
M- F when B from U/2 leaves for work, I whisper to his disappearing car “have a nice day, B….”
Occasionally I might feel lonely, and that means “the first nice fine day, go bus hopping” – that’s not happened much in the last month! But that’s because of totally other reason… so I have to look at what is available here on the computer, I follow a lot of uTuber/s who either travel or make art or do something else that’s entertaining…
But I’ve found that also I don’t have the same schedule as you Ramana, I still fill in my days that suits me…and I’m grateful that I can do that.
What matters is that we are comfortable in whatever situation we find ourselves in and can maintain our equanimity. You do it very well indeed.