The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
A Home on the Horizon
It is just that, as it now suddenly occurs to me, this is the first time in my life that I have been really alone at night. My childhood home, theatrical digs in the provinces, London flats, hotels, rented apartments in capital cities: I have always lived in hives, surrounded by human presences behind walls.
This is the first house which I have owned and the first genuine solitude which I have inhabited.
Is this not what I wanted?
–The Sea, The Sea. Iris Murdoch.
A sweet, lonely house in Iceland.
Iceland as well.
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
I would last about 2 hours there. LOL
🙂 There might be internet…
I could stay there forever ……. as long as donuts could be airlifted in………..
Haha, I like that plan. I have a feeling it might be hard to get some of my favorite foods as well. They have a wonderful yogurt there. Perhaps that could replace peanut butter or hot sauce… 🙂
Paige
It’s what I want some day, yet at the same time I wonder how much I’ll miss all the craziness and bustle that surrounds me now.
I think that so often. Sylvia Plath has a passage in “The Bell Jar” about wanting to live in both the city and the country. I know that feeling myself. Upsides for both, downsides for both. I guess I’ll just keep eating Ramen and save up for two places. 🙂
Paige
Alone… being in solitude. The envy of so many. Good on you! 🙂
Eric,
I first read “The Sea, The Sea” when I was on a three month stay in Croatia. It was beautiful, but it was pretty isolating with my language-anxiety. 🙂 Nonetheless, lovely views can be healthy. I’m loving re-reading it now.
Paige
I need people around me. As a child I found living on a ranch in southern Alberta too isolated and moved to the city as soon as I could. It does look peaceful though.
Hi Darlene,
I’m from a big family, so I think I crave solitude as a result. Yet, I think I prefer it in short doses. I always want to be able to get home again! I hope you’re happy as a city mouse!
Paige
I love the excerpt from Iris Murdoch. Don’t we all dream (maybe women more than men) of perfect solitude? It hasn’t yet happened to me, although with my children growing up and my youngest on his way to college soon, the walls won’t resonate from much noise anymore. But my husband is still with me, and it’s good, so the alone at night is still unknown to me. I have to return to my first year in college to remember of this feeling of being alone and sometimes excited to be and sometimes a little bit frightened by this solitude.
The photos are lovely, Paige. As always.