Happily Single

My name is Anita and I am happily single.

No. It is not a myth. I am single. And I'm happy. 

Do you know what it means to be happily single? 

The other day at lunch, I was having this conversation with a newly single recently divorced male friend of mine. Like most recently single people, this person experiences a lot of loneliness. It's to be expected. One day you're in a house filled with little children, warm hugs, love, laughter, toys on the floor. And the next, it's just your miserable 'ole self, with a phone you're begging to ring. Admittedly, it can be a little daunting, almost as if the silence is deafening, threatening you with its stillness. Reminds me of the empty hours that occur when you first break up with someone with whom you spent a lot of time. All this free time is now yours, what do you do with it? It gets rather lonely. 

This friend didn't share this much with me but I put the pieces together using clues, particularly as I often catch him urging his phone to ring (LOL).

To stir a level of comfort, I remarked: 

You have to embrace being single and before you know it you will love it.

He responded coldly: What is that? 'Love' being single? Isn't that something single people tell themselves in pretense. What's to love about being single? Being single is rather miserable. I believe in companionship and friendship and love, unconditional love. Saying your happy single means you don't want any of that and that is just fooling yourself because every one wants somebody to love.

True. So true? Are we just fooling ourselves by proclaiming that we are happily single? Do we honestly love the friendship we share with our single selves.

What type of single person would I be if I couldn't find some way to help this struggling newly single person. 

In response I said: Loving it is our way of dealing with the hand that we've been dealt. Rather than crumbling up in a corner and sulking our way through our loneliness. We live it. Breathe it. Embrace it. To learn to love it. Otherwise, it would defeat us. Otherwise, that deafening silence would drown us in strokes of pity. We love it to live through it. 

That's my story. That's my strength in being single.

How about you? Do you think all happily single people are just fooling themselves?