On Solitude, Books as Inspiration, and the Best Gift We Can Give to Others

1. The Best Gift We Can Give to Others

“The only thing we have to bring to community is ourselves, so the contemplative process of recovering our true selves in solitude is never selfish. It is ultimately the best gift we can give to others.”

– Parker Palmer

Nothing to add to that one...

2. The Cure for Loneliness

“One of the great surprises at this point is that you find that the cure for your loneliness is actually solitude! Who would have imagined that to be the case?”

— Richard Rohr, Falling Upward

Rohr is describing how, as we age, we tend to seek going inward more than outward. As he puts it, time alone is “necessary to unpack all that life has given us and taken from us.”

So, if you’re feeling lonely, perhaps the answer isn’t more company. Maybe a little solitude is exactly what you need.

3. The Paradox of Solitude and Love

“Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love.”

— Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

What a perfect paradox: once you’re comfortable being alone, you no longer need anyone else to find happiness. Then, you can simply love another person freely for who they are, with no other conditions attached.

4. Books as Inspiration, not Instruction

“Thus does the book, born out of experience, refer to that experience. Books are not to teach us how to live (that is the sad task of lesson-givers), but to make us want to live, to live differently: to find in ourselves the possibility of life, its principle.”

— Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking

And perhaps the best use of solitude is reading. But as this passage reminds us, “Books are not to teach us how to live, but make us want to live.”

“These hours of solitude and meditation are the only time of the day when I am completely myself.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In good breath,

Nick

P.S. all roads lead here

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