Belden Lane writes. “The person I travel with there isn’t worried about his performance. He sheds the polished persona he tries so often to project to others. Scribbling in my journal under the shade of a pin oak atop Bell Mountain, I’m happy as a lark. I want to be the person that I am when I’m alone in wilderness.” ~ Brooks, David. The Second Mountain (p. 42). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Who are you when you’re alone?
For many (most?) oof us compulsive eaters
we used to eat when we were alone,
hungry or not. Do you use your alone time
to do what would embarrass you
if others saw? Who IS the person
you travel with in solitude?
Eight years ago I learned
a lot about me when for the first time
ever I lived alone, free to decide
what to read, what to hear,
whether the television needed to be on.
I loved it. I liked me.
I want always want to be the person
that I am when I’m alone.