The writer Eudora Welty said that
understanding one place helps us understand all places. She gave this
advice to fiction writers, urging them to set stories in places that
were real to them. Readers would be able to recognize authenticity
even if the place were unknown to them.
Do her words apply to inner spaces,
too? If we come to know our interior neighborhood, can we carry that
knowledge with us into our everyday lives, where it will serve us no
matter how far we travel?
Mystics of various religious beliefs,
and those without religion but a hunger to explore their souls, tell
us that finding time apart is essential to discovering the inner
self. Being alone with Nature offers a magnificent opportunity, but
so can sitting in a quiet room with no electronics intruding.
It's a queer idea, and getting queerer
all the time, to plan time alone divorced from email, radio, TV,
ipads and phones. Our previously busy lives have somehow become more
frantic. It's a challenge to eat even one meal mindfully. We feel
uneasy turning down social opportunities so we can have time alone,
and even we who are natural introverts feel sheepish about our need
for personal space.
Yet, if the urge to be alone with God,
Nature, and our thoughts calls us, we'd be wise to answer “yes.”
The quality of our regular lives may depend on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment