Solitude is the soul’s water. It is as vital to one’s spirit as nature’s purest drink is to the parched body. It is precious. It is a basic fundamental need. It is regenerative. Solitude enables everything else in your life to work better. It allows your brain time to breath and process. It allows your psyche room to recharge, regroup, and reassemble! It allows your body – your whole body – to exhale, release, and relax. And it allows the whole you to listen to all of your parts and pay attention to what needs attending! To heal what needs healing. To feed what needs feeding – whether it’s your stomach, or your serenity. Solitude allows you the luxury, the indulgence, the peace, the chore, the choice and the chance to pay attention to and take care of *yourself*!
Okay – this yin may have its yang. Would you want to be alone with you? Are you good company? Are you a good listener? Are you attentive? Do you take responsibility for your well being? Do you make the effort to assess your needs, or do you take for granted that these needs will somehow be met by mere chance and serendipity? Is the sound of your own voice in your head the source of more angst than insight? Do you squander the opportunity to rekindle your spirit and, hell, even give your 5 senses some sensory “chill time”? This is the gift of solitude. It is your whole being’s “deep breath”.
Now, like water – solitude alone does not a serene and fulfilling life make! In fact, if you were to survive on water alone (ignoring the fact that it is lacking any of the basic *building* materials and metabolic food – which means that without more “stuff” – your body would shut down), it would also be a real life example of the futility and meaningless of life. Why be here if only to consume a liquid that is two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen? What is so important or symbiotic about that? Surely our physical existance must have more meaning to it than the metabolizing of water.
Of course it does. We are part of many intertwining and interactive cycles and circles. It can be argued whether or not we are allegedly the “top of the food chain” – and I think both sides have plenty of material for a long and contentious debate. But, it is not important to explore that here – as I mention it only to point out that whatever place in the cycle of the whole biodiversity of life we have – we indeed do have a place. We PLAY a part. We don’t just take up space. We *DO* something.
This is likewise true for the philosophical, psychological, intellectual, “abstract”, and “deep” stuff that almost all of us ponder at one time in our lives. Yes, we of course must be mindful of maintaining a spiritual and emotional balance. No overdoing of the aloneness is healthful. That is a widely understood and accepted dictum. It would be meaningless and unfulfilling and… …and an unhappy thing! – to be born merely to be alone. No, we of course need and thrive and grow by being social creatures. We have intuited that into our very instinctive make-up. We seek interaction. We NEED it.
The very fact that we exist proves that. I mean, I was not an immaculate conception!
But it is a balance that we need. Just as we need to interact and play and work together, there are likewise times that in order to get things done, or even just to enjoy life, we have to do some of it alone!
Just as we have a need to sleep (oooh! ahhh!) together, we likewise need a good chunk of time everyday to sleep (zzzzzzz!) alone.
By paying attention to, AND heeding all of our needs, including the need for solitude, we are the healthier and happier for it. We enhance and respect the maintenance and meaning of life all around – and can enjoy (and be more enjoyable!) when it is time to be social creatures – by recognizing that we also have the need to “get away” for a bit.
It’s only human!
