All the financial issues are cleared up. You get the job you wanted. The relationship issues are quiet and the kids are happy. Now what? Do we finally, at this point, begin to recognize that the outer dramas were only there to keep the inner life at bay? Inner callings and the re-membering of distant urges and longings need solitude as a foundation. The mystics, the wise ones, the desert fathers all knew that solitude was the basis for hearing the whispers of the divine and being in communication with our own depths. I don't mean the few minutes of quiet time you steal on a lunch break or even your sitting practice in the early, dawn hours - though both of those practices are essential to my day. I mean vacations on one's own, weekends away in retreat, long days of writing, reflecting and service to the interior being. The first half of life, school and career, child raising and "future building" doesn't allow much for this kind of activity. At any age it is often viewed as withdraw, indulgence in melancholy, and somehow unnatural. In fact, in can be a time of great awakening, especially if you are without the stimuli of television, cell phones and internet. If you are in the position for such choices, I hope you are packing your bags now!The greatest gift we can give ourselves is time to reacquaint oursleves with our own depths. Without experiencing aloneness we cannot discover what it is that always accompanies us. |
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