Allein sein: Lebensform – Herausforderung – Chance

One can have 1,000 friends on Facebook and still feel very alone. Loneliness is becoming a reality for more and more people. The contact restrictions during the Corona pandemic have significantly exacerbated this trend—especially among those living alone, in small families, single parents, and in nursing homes. Maria Anna Leenen consciously chose to be alone more than 27 years ago. Since then, she has lived as a hermit and has experienced many facets of solitude. Here, she shares her experiences. In a diary-like manner, she shares reflections, meditations, and anecdotes from the course of an entire year. She describes how she deals constructively and creatively with being alone, the value she places on silence, how she organizes her time, how she navigates closeness and distance, how she experiences joy, how she finds meaning in life, and what carries her through crises. Maria Anna Leenen is convinced: there is no human existence without loneliness. Yet, this loneliness ultimately points people to the deepest, existential reason for all life.