Member-only story
Coping, Healing, and Living Alone in Quarantine
“What are you doing to cope?” This question was asked today in a small group, and since I spend pretty much every day reflecting on every day, I had a ready answer.
A couple weeks before the start of quarantine, my relationship ended. What would have been our anniversary passed in a weekend, and the summer move-in we anticipated won’t happen. I only mention my break up for additional context. It throws a little extra grief into my emotional landscape and yet another layer of disruption onto what had been my normal routine of significant engagement with another person.
Since the start of March, I’ve been very single and very alone. But I also have what I need, which means I’ve had the privilege of using all the time, the space, and the quiet to go deep with myself. It has become my time, my space, and my quiet. Has there ever been a stranger or more complicated time to live so comfortably by oneself? To feel so removed from others and yet fully present with one’s own grief, worry, pleasure, and joy?
Before optimistic projections of two weeks of self-isolation became months of shelter-in-place measures and a national lock down, I consciously decided to embrace this experience for what it could reveal to me rather than distract myself or attempt to escape from it. (Fortunately, I am of the constitution that enjoys…