Solitude – The Cure for Lonliness

Today’s daily meditation by Richard Rohr really spoke to me. It made me think of the “episodes” that I’ve had in the past where modern society seems so surreal (and unreal) and I’ve wondered if we are living the way we are supposed to be living for our physical, mental and spiritual health.

As I read Rohr’s words I pictured myself standing in a field, barefoot, under a huge sky, surrounded by grasses and trees, with the sun shining down on me. There were no noises other than the wind and birdsong. No planes. No cars. No power lines. No people. Just me and Presence.

Here is the Daily Meditation:

Do you know what the answer for deep loneliness is? Solitude! No one would have ever imagined it, but I promise you it is true.

In solitude, we are able to let Reality/God define us from the inside out. We stop looking outside of ourselves for diversions, entertainment, or real satisfaction. It is the birth of the soul. When we keep looking outside of ourselves, we always and forever need another and then another diversion.

In solitude we slowly learn to live face to face with a Presence that asks nothing of us but presence in return (see I Corinthians 13:12 (JB)). It is too good to be true. This is the birth of the soul.

If we’ve never lived in the realm of pure presence without any need for achieving and performing, we don’t know how to breathe there at first. It is like living on a different planet. But eventually, we allow ourselves to be defined by relationship itself instead of by the good or bad—or even the holy—things we’ve done. And now it is relationship with everything, the rocks at our feet, the air that we breathe consciously, the little animals and birds, the God who is now obvious and praiseworthy in all things. Solitude, ironically and surprisingly, can connect us to everything else. Who would have thought?