"It scares us more than anything except death. Being alone. Our fear of aloneness is so ingrained that given the choice of being by ourselves or being with others we opt for safety in numbers, even at the expense of lingering in painful, boring, or totally unredeeming company."

These are Celebrating Time Alone's opening words, its central theme, and guiding premise. For being alone, whether by circumstance or choice, is far from tragic.

What is tragic, and so wasteful of the sanctity of life, is that we seek our happiness, our fulfillment, our answers, our very identity in others when first we must find it in ourselves.

We can only find it in ourselves.

Instead, we cling to others for solace, safety, nurturance, and comfort, believing we are nothing alone: insignificant, empty, lost, unfulfilled. We accept our solitude in the tiniest, most reluctant of slices, which is sad and utterly wasteful of the precious gift of life.

People who need people are threatened by people who don't. For them, the idea of seeking contentment alone is heretical. To them, society steadfastly decrees that their wholeness lies not in themselves but in others.

And so they accept that a life unshared is hardly worthwhile, that sunsets viewed singly aren't nearly as spectacular as those viewed with others, that time spent apart is fallow and pointless.

They grow old shunning the opportunities for self-discovery and personal growth that time alone could bring them.

The premise of this book is timeless and simple: There are gifts we can only give ourselves, lessons no one else can teach us, triumphs we must achieve alone.

Celebrating Time Alone affirms that it's all right to be alone, to want to be alone, to be alone and not lonely, even to be lonely at times because the rewards of solitude make the loneliness worthwhile.

This book sings the triumphs of those who have found amazing grace on their own. The people in the stories are real, what they tell of their lives is true.

Their messages of inspiration and hope are filled with the resilience, courage, strength, redemption, and hope of people who have dealt gracefully, even heroically, with their lives alone, with lives they may not have wanted but accepted with equanimity and gratitude.