On Solitude

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal,

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel,

What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal. – Lord Byron

Solitude is bliss.

Yet it is too often misconstrued for loneliness. No, surely being alone is extricable from being lonely and it takes experience of both to fully comprehend the distinction.

It is through solitude, that you are able to free your mind from the trivialities and pleasantries of living in society. Albeit necessary evils, it is these aspects of living in society that often contribute to the mundanity and confusion of life; political correctness, conversational facades, and social anxiety.

Clarity and calmness cannot be attained within the swirl and chaos of clouded thought. Solitude allows you to realise your true vulnerability, shaking you to the core.

The vulnerability arises in that the clarity allows you to gain consciousness of all your faults and unforgivings. It gives you the time and space to deconstruct and reconstruct yourself, for better or sometimes for worse.

It would be naive to say that with solitude there are no fleeting moments of loneliness, but that is what they are, fleeting. It is those quiet intimate self-shared moments that invigorate us to reconnect with society in appreciation and with a new vitality.

Above all, solitude surrounded by nature is healing fortification for the soul; the black sanded beaches touched by looming cliffs, the golden magenta sunsets over crystal turquoise waters, the evergreen valleys through which furious rapids flow, and the snow capped mountains that climb to the heavens.

These worldly gifts, experienced in solitude and free from societal constraints, allow our mind and matter to be set free; open to the feeling of sheer insignificance to that which has existed for hundreds of thousands of years before us. It is the earthly grounding that we need.

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