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Poetry Symposium's avatar

"my connection to writing is a chosen one, not passed down through generations of love and history"

Oh! this resonated with full vibration -- L.Z.

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Peter Tremain's avatar

After retiring from a career immersed in community (parish pastor), after the death of my wife of 45 years after a couple of years of full time care, I began living alone for the first time in my life (at 67). I realized quickly that there is a huge chasm between being alone and experiencing solitude. For a time I ceased longing for solitude, something I had cherished whenever it was available to me during my career and marriage. I have come to be okay with spending time alone without feeling lonely, but I have also discovered that for me the Solitude I cherish needs some level of intentionality - a place, a set of circumstances, a specific time set aside for it. Oddly, as I am writing this I am realizing that some of the moments of Solitude have not always been times of silence. When seated between strangers at a Symphony, maybe Mahler, and captured completely by the music, I have found solitude, sweet and healing moments that nurture my Spirit. It has come in natural settings filled with the sounds of wildlife. I travel by myself with only a backpack mostly outside of the USA. While enjoying the community of hostels, Airbnbs, and Digital Nomad co-living spaces, I savor times by myself immersed in views, whether in towns or spacious landscapes, so beautiful that they quiet the cacophony of voices streaming in my head.

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