solitude

Although I seem to have become much more social and gregarious since my stroke, oddly I seem to appreciate and require my alone time much more than before. It is challenging at times as I am unable to drive, and one of my favorite things to do was to go out to a park and just sit and think. (Okay truth be told probably a lot more sitting than thinking.)

sol·i·tude noun \ˈsä-lə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\

1: the quality or state of being alone or remote from society : seclusion

2: lonely place (as a desert) 

Middle English, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, from Latin solitudin-, solitudo, from solus

First Known Use: 14th century

Synonyms

aloneness, insulation, privacy, secludedness, seclusion, segregation, separateness, sequestration, solitariness, isolation

I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. - Henry David Thoreau 

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. - Albert Einstein

He's the unforeseen danger
The keeper of
the key to the locks.
Know when you see him,
Nothing can free him.
Step aside, open wide,
It's the loner. 

 - Neil Young