It is not physical solitude
that actually separates one
from other men,
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....
Only when one is connected
to one's own core
is one connected to others...
And, for me, the core,
the inner spring,
can best be refound through solitude.
(Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea, 1955)
