Solitude has its own special work: a deepening awareness that the world needs. A struggle against alienation. True solitude is deeply aware of the world’s needs. It does not hold the world at arm’s length.

Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

I consider myself a man of solitude, even more-so over the past few years. Some of that is due to a practice of prayer, silence, meditation, photography, a need for connection to nature and maturity through life experiences. One grandson calls me a hermit but mostly because I have a simple life, less attachment to things than he does.

My solitude does not alienate me from some of the brokenness within the world. There are ways to keep abreast of world situations without sitting in front of a television or having our face glued to the news feed on our phones. Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of all the above. I’m finding ways to stay actively connected to the world, find solitude and not be alienated from the world.

We are a part of all creation, not apart from. Wayne Teasdale says to experience solitude as a mystic or monk in the world and not be alienated from it is to be “… engaged in the world and with others but not attached to the world’s greed, indifference, insensitivity, noise, confusion, pettiness, unease, tension and irreverence.” I may be more aware of the worlds needs than I have ever been and always a part of it.