Belonging to yourself... whatever that means!

"Here is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.  "
Ruth Stout

Right now our life is so up in the air,  I have no idea what "belonging to yourself" could possibly  mean. Hopefully if all goes well, in the coming weeks, I might have a better idea!