Thoughts on Solitude

"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!