Encouragement to Seek Solitude

Do you ever feel over-whelmed and over-stressed by people's constant demands? Did you ever wish you never had to see another person ever again?

Now I love the human species, but quite honestly, there are days when I prefer to be left completely alone. Alone is not lonely. Choosing to be alone is good for the soul and spirit. Anne Lindbergh had similar thoughts, speaks them perfectly and sends me inspiration through her words.

“Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. The artist knows he must be alone to create; the writer, to work out his thoughts; the musician to compose; the saint to pray. But women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves. The problem is not entirely in finding the room of one’s own, the time alone, difficult and necessary as this is. The problem is more how to still the soul in the midst of its activities. In fact the problem is how to feed the soul.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh encourages me to do whatever is necessary to find that space inside that challenges us to seek solitude.

"It is a difficult lesson to learn today—to leave one’s friends and family and deliberately practice the art of solitude for an hour or a day or a week. And yet, once it is done, I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.”

It is a discipline that is lacking in our out-of-conrol world. But I find I reap rewards that energize, surprise and sustain me for many days to come. It nurtures and nourishes my soul.