Solitude

I just got done going to a church service today.

The theme was spiritual solitude, where one required decompressing and being alone from the noise.

Noise is harmful to our collective health and like many, I become more agitated and stressed by noise, even ambient white noise that we all too readily tune out, thinking we are in a quiet place. As I have gotten older, I come to realize I don’t need that noise in my life anymore.

I’m a natural introvert, always was since I was born and being the first born. My younger sisters weren’t like me. They required something or someone to interact with. Me? I was perfectly happy playing in my room, by myself.

After I learned to read, I read books or stories in my room. I was content, and after I was tasked as a young boy take our dogs for their daily walks, I took great pleasure being out with nature hearing the sounds nature created, inhaling the air, smelling the odors, and seeing all the sights God blessed me to see. I often sat and wondered, trying to hear His voice. Maybe, through a breeze or a sparrow’s or lark’s whistle it was Him speaking to me.

In Kings 19:8-9, Solitude is about being face to face with God. Solitude is where we all must be to get away from the distractions that make our lives complicated. In Luke 5:16, “Jesus often went away to other places to be alone so that he could pray.”

When I’m writing or reading, I have nothing that distracts me from what I want to do. I can concentrate better when I’m in a cloistered environment and away from people who unknowingly cause distractions. I turn off the devices that takes away my concentration and I focus on the task before me. It is very amazing how I can do this without effort, quietly ruminate and seek solace with myself and my God, listening intently to what He is telling me.

Yoga is a form of solitude that emphasizes that “thinking becomes clear, intellect becomes purified…the mind becomes even more harmonious.” Though yoga is often done among a group of people it is most desired when alone with just you, your body, and your mind, breathing deeply and focusing on your spirituality.

The reverend told us her own self isolation and solitude. She knows of a small mountain stream fed by a glacier, its waters aqua-marine and clear and iced cold. She told us that she and family often go there as a place for reflection and meditation. I too had gone to certain places where I could lose myself in the quiet, solitude and reflect upon me, what do I want, what does God want of me and where do I go from here.