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For day 27 the topic is:

Where do you go when you need solitude?

Growing up as an introverted only child and quite often happy in my own company, I found that as I became older I still needed the solitude as an adult that I’d had as a child. However, I did enjoy going out to discos with friends as a teenager, and although I’m happier not to be constantly surrounded by people, I did (and still do) have a small circle of friends that I meet up with from time to time for lunches, dinners, and the odd birthday party.

My anti-social traits were frowned upon by my mother, who needed to talk all the time. If she wasn’t talking she would have the radio on full blast to hear somebody else prattling away. I take after my father and also his mother too, and so Mum was sadly in the minority in our house. I came to hate the radio, especially Radio 4, where somebody’s voice droned on and on. I’m a thinker, and I craved the silence to be able to think my own thoughts in peace.

By the time I had married and had 2 lively boys, there was never any silence. When it was possible I’d leave the boys with Sam and go for long walks, or when Sam took them on train rides to London or to the swimming pool for instance, I would be able to have the house to myself. When the boys left home it took me about a year to get used to the silence again, but I found I enjoyed it. Now they both come and visit with their families and the house is in chaos, but then they go home and peace reigns again.

I find even in my sixties I still cannot bear the radio or the TV on all the time, because I definitely prefer silence. I do listen to music, but only when I want to or when I’m driving. At noisy parties sometimes I cannot wait to get home. There is something about silence and solitude that is most delightful – it would be difficult for me to live without it!