The exists a majority of people who are ambivalent about solitude, both loving and fearing it, depending on how they experience aloneness at specific points in their life. However, in relevance to the individual, solitude is simply the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a constructive way to engage one’s own being and replenish self-esteem…a way to enjoy the quiet of our inner self. In fact, Mother Nature deems solitude so essential to survival that she forces it upon us in the form of sleep.
Solitude and loneliness by definition and in meaning are complete opposites. Both are characterized by solitariness and a sense of isolation, so it is understandable how easily they can be confused. Loneliness is a form of discontent, an estrangement of self that feeds on negativity, whereas solitude is more a positive contractor and cultivates inner peace through self-knowledge.
It was during my mid-teens, while seeking to escape the “ever-present” hum of life that confused the man maturing in me, when I first discovered that particular pleasure one gets from being alone. As it happened, my refuge turned out to be the nearby woods, in a unique place made familiar by the frequency of my visits. Here the sounds of nothing in particular were heard; here the noise of the living was silenced by the wind as it moved from tree to tree, here the quiet beckoned and enticed my imagination. I would close my eyes hoping to enhance my sense of hearing, for the quiet is perhaps the purist of sounds and therefore most difficult to recognize. In the spirit of self-knowledge it grabs hold the mind and speaks in a voice that utters not words but bolsters dynamic images of what one dares dream.
There I would sit, listening, letting my thoughts zing trying not to feel the chill of the air or the discomfort of the ground. I ignored the view of darkness caused from closed eyelids and focused on those images that the quiet was so willing to share. My body as much as my mind seemed to disappear into them and soon I felt nothing at all-I was in another world. A world no longer silent or dark but a world made bright and clairvoyant through imagination, vision, and delusion.
The quiet became more pronounced with each thought as it took hold of me. Then, one by one, as they came and went, my physical being faded deeper into the shadows left behind, freeing my mind from the race of humans escalating it to the ranks of the immortal. There were no secrets here, nothing was hidden or meant to confuse and everything seemingly had purpose, each in accord, and each just as meaningful and necessary as the other. With out any one…none would exist.
