brunderhof on the wilderness of solitude

It is not physical solitude that actually separates one from others; not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the people you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others. How often in a large city, shaking hands with my friends, I have felt the wilderness stretching between us. Both of us were wandering in arid wastes, having lost the springs that nourished us - or having found them dry. Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.

Comments

MH said…
Interesting idea.

I would argue that a physical distance from friends can make you feel isolated and lonely.

Especially if they all go out of town for several weeks at once. The sudden lack of anything to do is going to get to me, for sure.
5:20 PM
Anonymous said…
It is strange how being alone and being lonely can be so different. Lonliness is a mere feeling that ,if acted on intentionally, can be cured. To be alone is more of a physicality that does not always include lonliness.
The number of people around a person does not necessarily dictate the degree of lonliness to which a person can feel.
You determine your lonliness.
5:54 PM
David said…
nice place you got here.

http://theway.blog.com
4:40 AM
Heath said…
maybe, as suggested by HARDY, man is innately lonely and THAT is why having relationships and community is so vital and important, because we are merely desperate.
6:26 AM
Anonymous said…
I've found out that you are touring with antiskeptic in Australia and are coming to Perth.

STEPHEN! Why must you go to Perth when I will not be there?! Why do you toy with me so?

Now, I must convince my father to let me fly back to Australia to see you lads doing your thang.

THANKS A LOT, STEPHEN X(
10:43 PM
Anonymous said…
There is a song that I think of when comparing being alone mentally and physically. It is a Bright Eyes song and I think the line goes:

and in the middle of drinks
maybe the fifth or the sixth
im completely alone at a table of friends

I see that as mental lonliness. Which can be just as hurtful as all of your friends stabbing you in the back and the physical lonliness you feel when they are gone. I guess that is from my experience and may not make sense. Is it necessarily a bad thing to separate your self physically or spiritually..and what if the separation happens and is not in your hands??

Shannon
l4g_00@yahoo.com
12:01 AM
Anonymous said…
you can be alone even in a crowd of friends, family and loved ones. you don't necessarily have to be among strangers or with no one around.
-K
12:44 AM
Anonymous said…
To go back to your post about Blue Like Jazz...if you haven't already read Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller, I would suggest it...good book...

Take care...

- Derek
3:43 AM
Anonymous said…
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Romans 14:7-8
12:03 AM
Story of a Girl said…
Very true. We have to find ourselves before we could be ourselves. awkward phrase, but i believe it is so.
6:48 PM
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