Solitude

I was unable to post this blog yesterday…so I share it now.

My mini-adventure will come to a close today, but not until the 1 o’clock check-out requirement.    I’m going to stay till the very last minute.  That will give me ample time to see if there is any thing larger in the fish pond than the five little bluegills caught and released yesterday.  The Park brochure says, “The pond has a healthy population of large mouth bass, bluegill, and channel catfish.”  Perhaps that is true—but only bluegills seemed interested in nibbling on my fish-line yesterday.

Solitude (“alone time”) is necessary for our growth.  It provides a “space,” within and without, for us to take measure of our journey.  For nearly forty-five years I found such solitude and  space for reflection by attending religious retreats.  These days I find solitude and needed “space” in my study at home, or sitting on my little deck in the back lawn, or puttering around in the flowerbeds.  But sometimes it is necessary to leave familiar surroundings in order to find a deeper solitude wherein one can more fully assess where things are within his or her life and thought.  This kind of reflection is what I mean when I say,  I’ve ‘Gone Fishin’.

Only by persistent inner attention can we determine our realities, our possibilities, and our next steps on the journey of life.  Only in solitude, or so it seems to me, can we cast our line into deeper portions of the pond.  There are probably more than bluegills there.