Solitude

“In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office.You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters proud of his extensive correspondence has not heard from himself this long while.” Henry David Thoreau

On this Christian Sabbath as many prepare to spend the day quietly and restfully, it seems appropriate to take time to reflect on the value of solitude.

“To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.” (Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out, p. 34)

Aloneness – Loneliness = Solitude and that leads to the equation’s better end; agape`.

Thomas Merton says this:

“It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am, the more affection I have for them. It is pure affection and filled with reverence for the solitude of others.”

Our relationships become places of freedom and acceptance rather than places of need and anxious expectation.

“When we feel lonely we have such a need to be liked and loved that we are hypersensitive to the many signals in our environment and easily become hostile toward anyone who we perceive as rejecting us. But once we have found the centre of our life [who is Christ] in our own heart and have accepted our aloneness, not as a fate but as a vocation. We are able to offer freedom to others.”(H. Nouwen, Reaching Out, pp. 102-103)

On this Sabbath day, may you know the richness of solitude and may it prepare you for sweet times with the precious people in your life.

Shalom