Daily Obstruction: Retreat & Return

Retreat and Return

 

In this day and age – to a far greater extent than ever in human history – we must actively seek to cultivate the virtues of solitude, slowness, and contemplation as counter balances to distraction, speed, and inauthenticity.  Humanity’s crowning achievement – the virtual removal of boundaries in space and time, allowing for instantaneous communication and virtual as well as physical being-with-others and being-present-for-others – is now our greatest obstacle.  We cannot truly be with another or be present for another if we don’t know how to be alone or to be present without diversions.  Solitude is not the same as loneliness or feeling isolated or alienated.  Solitude is the salve for alienation from the self.  Only when you have repaired the rupture from yourself are you ready to return.