{"id":566,"date":"2026-06-03T07:50:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/?p=566"},"modified":"2026-06-03T07:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:50:34","slug":"alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"Alone&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-567\" style=\"width:298px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair.png 1024w, https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chair-958x958.png 958w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I am alone, so very alone. This is not anything new. I have been this way for a good portion of my life. No, the difference now is that I am lonely. I can do alone well, or at least I could. I didn\u2019t need conversations or constant companions to be content. I didn\u2019t need presence or visitations or phone calls. I am aware that you can be lonely in a crowd so it\u2019s not the aloneness that\u2019s the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along the way, I began to experience community and acceptance and belonging. I learned what it was to love and be loved, to be a part of. The numbness was replaced by emotions like joy and sadness, happiness and a range of others I had not felt in decades. Then community was ripped away and isolation, distancing, loss, and fear took its place. I didn\u2019t know how to begin again, to risk again. Everything changed and no one was to blame. The disruption was out of our control and devastating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here I am, experiencing loneliness. A new experience for me and not a welcome one. It hurts. I am confused, or is it surprised, by my need. When you\u2019ve gone from bland to flavour, it\u2019s disappointing to go back to bland. When you have experienced life in HD, going back to analog bleaches colour and clarity from everything. Life is mundane, hum drum, uninteresting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For years I planned and looked forward to retirement this year but have changed my mind as I could not bare the thought of zero human interactions for days on end. Yes, I am aware that I can choose to be amongst the madding crowd, but that choice is not so simple for me. It requires risks I am not sure I have the courage to take. My heart is battered and bruised, and I am not sure it can take another beating. Yet I am also unwilling to retreat into the numbness again so it\u2019s a dilemma, a catch 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am alone, so very alone. This is not anything new. I have been this way for a good portion of my life. No, the difference now is that I am lonely. I can do alone well, or at least&#8230;<br \/><a class=\"read-more-button\" href=\"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/?p=566\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solosurvior.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}