Alone-ness

There are other things happening in my life right now that didn't really fit into the previous post. I've been reminded again about the soul's need for silence, solitude, and stillness. I recently finished reading, "The Signature of Jesus" by Brennan Manning, and it sparked afresh my desire to know Jesus. Not know about him. Not possess some derivative, second-hand knowledge of him. To know and to experience him.

With that hope, I've taken new approaches to prayer. I've committed with my mentor to take a silence and solitude retreat in the fall. And then today I read this poem, and I loved it and thought I'd pass it on.

"When I'm alone--" the words tripped off his tongue
as though to be alone were nothing strange
"When I was young," he said; "When I was young..."

I thought of age, and loneliness, and change
I thought how strange we grow when we're alone,
and how unlike the selves that meet and talk,
and blow the candles out, and say goodnight.

Alone...the word is life endured and known,
It is the stillness where our spirits walk
and all but inmost faith is overthrown.

(Siegfried Sasson)