The Happiness I Find In Solitude

I love this video. Before you read this blog make sure that you watched that video. I believe it's slowly changing my life.

Here is why I love it:

It encourages me to be go out and do things alone. That is very simple. But I don't do it. I realized that being by myself in public - purposefully doing things alone makes me happy. Maybe it's the other half of me that claims I'm an introvert but I get some sort of resounding peace and confidence by being alone.

I feel lazy if I am home and alone with nothing to do. I don't know why I haven't thought of going out and doing something about it. I feel sluggish and end up on facebook for 2 hours and then I am so completely pissed that I wasted a perfectly good night on the internet. And I do the same thing the next night. It really does piss me off. I hate the internet sometimes (I'll have to blog about that latter).

I use to do so many things by myself, and I loved it. I had to ask myself, what changed? And I realized that it was the purchase of my car that forced me to ignore my longing for solitude. I drive from one place to next, always in some sort of hurry - even if hurrying is not necessary. I hate that. Why can't I stop and smell the roses? Instead, I speed and run yellow lights on a daily basis just to get where I'm going the fastest.

Before I bought my car, I use to ride public transportation. I really had a hate/love relationship with the bus system (It should be noted that I rode it for about 8 - 15 hours per week). I hated it because it's public transportation, but I kind of liked it too because it forced me to have so much solitude with strangers. I read a lot of books and listened to many songs while riding. Not only did I have wonderful experiences while riding, but waiting as well. Sometimes I would have half an hour to kill until the next bus would come and that would give me a perfect opportunity to go and explore. I was a photographer then so I took many pictures during that time too.

In conclusion, I am going to give it a whirl. I am going to purposefully spend some time alone doing what I want to do. I have already started. Today I read for an hour and a half in a park that overlooks a portion of downtown Grand Rapids. I loved it. I love the freeing feeling of solitude as I watched people walk around and ease dropped on construction workers conversations. I love adventures alone. It just makes me feel confident, happy, and at peace with the world when I take time for myself. I highly recommend it.

solitude.

yeah.