Solitude

Being alone is a very precious thing – space to stretch out, to breathe, to see; time simply to be, without pressure to perform or deadlines to meet; silence in which to think and meditate.
Alone-ness is, I find, hard to achieve very often. Perhaps, when out at the park, I might steal quarter of an hour while my wife takes my son for a walk, to lie on my back and watch clouds scud above me. Or, when on holiday, I might find half an hour simply to sit in the quiet of a hillside and feel the breeze as it rustles through the grass. Time and space to think my own thoughts, to catch up with myself, to unravel the tangled skein of my mind and be at peace.
Solitude helps us to break down the illusions of our life, to encounter reality unsullied by external forces, to see through the distortions of our individual reality, other people’s reality, social reality. Growth cannot occur without stripping away illusions, and the individual (like the community as a whole) can save herself from deceit and confusion only with solitude – the opportunity to cut away those things that distract us from the truth, the ultimate reality.
But company puts that reality into context. Facing truth all alone is not something for which human beings are made. We need others to support us, to encourage us, to reign us in when we stray too far. Allowing each other our own time and space so that we can search for truth ourselves, this is the heart of community.
Solitude and community are different sides of the same coin, and we have to toss that coin occasionally.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 10:32am on 14 September 2004
Category: Dreaming, General