The Garden of Solitude
Strangely, many of us know the feeling of loneliness all too well. We all have parts of ourselves that no one will truly understand. In my interview with Dr. Kelly Flanagan (author of True Companions), he explained: “Loneliness is one of the most misunderstood words in the English language, and it is one of the most misunderstood experiences in the human condition.”
The theologian and psychologist Henri Nouwen put it this way,
To live a spiritual life, we must first find the courage to enter the desert of our loneliness and change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. However, the movement from loneliness to solitude is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search…
In a previous episode, titled How to Be Alone, we discussed that learning to be alone is a path to peace and connection (one of life’s many paradoxes). As Thomas Merton describes in No Man is an Island, “The one who fears being alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much they surround themselves with people.”
Paradoxically, we can find peace and connection by learning to be in solitude. But this is much easier said than done […]
—
Thank you for listing; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
JW
Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Website
The Garden of Solitude