Your first solo train ride feels huge because it is. You found out you can get yourself somewhere.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Doing something alone for the first time changes what you know about yourself, not only what you can do. A solo trip is tiny in practical terms and large as evidence: you read the board, you got off at the right stop, you handled the few minutes when you were not sure. Proof like that is hard to get any other way, and it does not wear off.
Find one errand this week you would normally do with company and do it by yourself. Work out the route rather than being driven to it. Then keep the fact that you managed it.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Where was the first place you got yourself to alone?
MORE IN SOLITUDE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE
- Catch yourself performing. The voice you use, the laugh you fake. Then ask who it’s for.
- Sit on an empty swing set at dusk sometime. Twelve-year-old you would have a lot to say about where you ended up.
- Go back to your old bedroom after a year away and notice which stuff still feels like you. That’s progress you can see.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.