MY MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
Thursday Nov. 15, 2018
Are you getting enough?
Solitude and privacy, essential as sleep, if we get enough.
Solitude is like good sleep – if we haven’t had enough we get numbed, become dismissive of its value because we are ‘getting along just fine’. And we get cranky, don’t do our best work and aren’t nearly as creative.
Yet we consistently recognize we aren’t getting enough …
I’ve not completely ‘fixed anything’, but managing better. Seven hours, eight hours many nights ~ delicious. Used to be four or five.
Busy lives and commitments exert pressure on our need for and use of private time. Sometimes I just need my phone to not ring so I can finish a project. Sometimes I need to just sit staring out my window while my thoughts perform gymnastics.
Most people understand this need.
We also need/want to avoid telling anyone we need it; it is so much better when nobody knows we are taking private time, because if they don’t know they won’t ask and if they don’t ask we don’t have to tell, nor need to avoid telling – because then it isn’t privacy and solitude because we’ve allowed someone to invade it. Sure, it’s all innocent after the fact, but not as respectful as not asking in the first place.
My message to the world from this little bit of thinking: if someone is taking some time away from you or dealing with something they need to think through – allow them their silence, allow them their solitude, don’t interrupt them, don’t question them.
If they wanted you to know, then you would be in the discussion.
Are you getting enough?
