Solitude

“And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’  Mark 6:31

Reading today from Henri Nouwen on solitude, he thankfully prefaces his comments on the benefits by noting the challenges, the difficulties that exist in solitude.

“Entering a private room and shutting the door, therefore, does not mean that we immediately shut out all our inner doubts, anxieties, fears, bad memories, unresolved conflicts, angry feelings, and impulsive desires.  On the contrary, when we have removed our outer distractions, we often find that our inner distractions manifest themselves to us in full force.  We often use the outer distractions to shield ourselves from the interior noises.”

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.  Yet it does not (or should not) create a valid excuse for me to avoid solitude.  Rather, it speaks to the importance of doing so.  Turning off the TV, putting down the phone, and removing myself from the people and the noise is half the journey.  The rest of the journey to the core, my core, lies in setting aside those fears and concerns, those inner distractions, the “you should have…,” the “why didn’t you…,” the “okay, what if you…,” the “what about…” (among a plethora of other inner distractions knocking at the door) and creating a quiet space to listen and learn.