"The world today does not understand the need to be alone. How inexplicable it seems. Anything else will be accepted as a better excuse. If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hairdresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says: 'I cannot come because that is my hour(s) to be alone,' one is considered rude, egotistical or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect, when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it--like a secret vice!
Actually, these are among the most important times in one's life--when one is alone. Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. The artist knows he must be alone to create, the writer to work out his /her thoughts; the musician, to compose, the saint, to pray. We need solitude in order find again the true essence of ourselves."
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gift From the Sea (1955)
** Special thanks to Angie, designer/owner of Angelica Grace Designs, for recommending this book to her blog readers (including me!). I LOVED every page of it and have been recommending it to others endlessly!
